So I’ve been getting some of my supplies from supplementwarehouse.com lately and they have a promo for a free shaker cup with purchase. It does add to the shipping cost if you have a small order but the difference has been negligible on the orders I’m doing. If you want more than the free one you can also order them outright for $0.75 – once again there’s shipping. 4 of them is $3 with $14 shipping from Wisconsin to Utah where I live. So how do they compare to the $7 blender bottles you can get from Amazon?
Overall: Pretty favorably.
- They aren’t as rigid – the plastic is somewhat thinner and has more flex in it.
- It’s has a smoother finish. The bottom of the bottle says it’s Polypropylene and further states it’s BPA and DEHP free. Blender bottles have the same recycle codes and are probably also Polypropylene.
- Because it’s smoother, the powder doesn’t cling to the bottom as much as a BlenderBottle so it’s significantly easier to mix up. This really surprised me a lot.
- A little hard to keep hold of if it’s wet.
- It’s the same height, diameter and overall size as the “28 ounce” blender bottle; even though it’s listed as being 25 ounces. The lids would even be interchangeable if the thread spacing and angle were the same (but they’re not).
- Whereas the lid sealing the spout of a blender bottle has 3 states (wide open, closed enough for you to think it’s sealed but will pop open and dump soylent on you when you shake it, and closed), this one has just 2: open and sealed. It’s a little awkward to open and close it, you bend the lid a little near the hinge when you do it. The result is I don’t accidentally think it’s closed when it isn’t since it’s decidedly obvious what state it’s in though opening it one-handed is harder.
- The “fan blades” mixer works well enough. Probably wouldn’t mix in peanut butter like you can do with a blender bottle but it also won’t inexplicably wrap its self around another blender ball or the dishwasher rack. Nor will it make an annoying springy noise when you have an empty bottle in your bag.
So there you have it. If you’re just getting into (s)oylent and need mixing bottles the free ones are great and even if you do pay (shipping) for them, they’re actually pretty good. Full disclosure: I’m writing this up on my own – the only thing supplementwarehouse has given me is a decent price on Cal/Mag/D3 and my last order was delayed 2 days for no reason (not that I’m still bitter about that, my other orders were OK).
Pics (or it didn’t happen): click to enbiggen.
I have a ninja blender. I thought I was going to outsmart everyone who said their people chow didn’t dissolve in blender bottles. Mind you, filling the ninja with ice and pulsing for a very literal 2 seconds yields half a cup of soft powedery snow. I found that it made absolutely no difference whatsoever with people chow, even when I went for much longer than I ever have for any smoothie. People chow mixes exactly the same in the blender bottle, the blender bottle knock-offs and the expensive blenders. So the moral of the story is: just go cheap, people. All you are doing is suspending the powder in the medium of water so it’s easier to swallow and digest. I’m convinced there is no way to mix it any better than shaking it in a cup with a lid and letting it sit for a few minutes.
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