The Magic Bullet Blender is a single-speed personal blender with a 15-ounce jar and a 12-ounce jar you can use for single-serves, plus a very small, four-ounce jar better suited for making dressing or dips. There's a to-go lid included so you can take your drink with you on the go, along with cup rings and storage lids. The jars, lids, and cup rings are all dishwasher-safe, but the blades should be hand-washed.
Our Verdict
The Magic Bullet Blender is inadequate for multi-purpose use. It's a personal blender, so it's best suited for making personal-sized smoothies or protein shakes. It can make a smooth puree of fibrous ingredients like kale, but it's not intended for crushing ice, and you shouldn't use it for hot blending. That said, it does an excellent job of making nut butter.
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Fantastic for processing fibrous ingredients.
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Dishwasher-safe jars and lids.
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Can't hot blend.
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Can't crush ice.
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Small capacity.
The Magic Bullet Blender is good for single-serving smoothies. It comes with a couple of personal jars meant for single-serves and makes a very well-blended smoothie, even if your recipe includes fibrous ingredients like kale. There's a to-go lid included for one of the jars, so you can easily bring a smoothie or shake to work or the gym. However, some blenders can make an equally well-blended smoothie faster.
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Fantastic for processing fibrous ingredients.
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To-go lid and lip rings included.
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Dishwasher-safe jars and lids.
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Can't crush ice.
The Magic Bullet Blender's small jars can only fit enough ingredients for a single-serving smoothie, so it's not ideal for making multiple servings. It's not the fastest blender, so it's not ideal for making several batches in a row, but it makes a very smooth blend with fibrous ingredients in its personal jars.
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Fantastic for processing fibrous ingredients.
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Dishwasher-safe jars and lids.
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Small capacity.
According to the manufacturer, you shouldn't use the Magic Bullet Blender to crush ice without adding liquid to the jar.
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Can't crush ice.
This blender isn't really suitable for making soup. You can't safely use it for hot blending, so you need to let your ingredients cool down first. The jars are too small to fit most recipes in one batch, so it's not convenient to use to make more than a single serving of soup. It does a good job of processing fibrous ingredients, meaning it can produce a smooth soup or sauce with vegetables like leafy greens.
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Fantastic for processing fibrous ingredients.
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Can't hot blend.
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Small capacity.
The Magic Bullet Blender is bad for professional use. Its design is best suited for single-serve drinks like smoothies, and it's not very versatile since it has a small capacity, can't crush ice, and can't be used for hot blending. It's not very well-built, which isn't ideal if you rely on your blender daily.
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Fantastic for processing fibrous ingredients.
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Dishwasher-safe jars and lids.
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Can't hot blend.
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Can't crush ice.
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Small capacity.
- 5.6 Multi-Purpose
- 7.4 Smoothies (Single Serving)
- 5.9 Smoothies (Multiple Servings)
- 1.0 Ice Crushing
- 2.8 Soups
- 4.8 Professional Use
- Updated Sep 24, 2024: We've updated the results to more accurately reflect the blender's performance. The score for Fibrous Ingredients (Small Batches) and for Fibrous Ingredients (Full Capacity) processing changed from 9.0 to 7.0 because of the blending time.
- Updated Feb 14, 2024: Updated the name of the blender from Magic Bullet Blender MBR-1101 to Magic Bullet Blender for clarity and added the Magic Bullet Essential to the variants section.
- Updated Nov 20, 2023: Added information about a 7-piece set variant with model number MBR-0701AKP.
- Updated Sep 29, 2022: Revised text due to Test Bench 1.0.
- Updated Aug 25, 2022: Compared this blender's jars to the Magic Bullet Essential's.
- Updated Aug 17, 2022: Converted to Test Bench 1.0.
- Updated Mar 05, 2021: Review published.
- Updated Mar 03, 2021: Early access published.
- Updated Feb 26, 2021: Our testers have started testing this product.
- Updated Feb 25, 2021: The product has arrived in our lab, and our testers will start evaluating it soon.
- Updated Feb 20, 2021: We've purchased the product and are waiting for it to arrive in our lab.
- Updated Feb 15, 2021: The product has won our suggestion poll, so we'll buy and test it soon.
Differences Between Sizes And Variants
This blender comes in one variant: Silver. We tested the 11-piece set, and you can see the label for the unit we tested here. It's sometimes sold as a 13-piece set, which comes with additional jars.
It's sometimes sold as the 'Magic Bullet Essential,' which only comes with one 15oz jar. There's also a 7-piece set that comes with one 18oz jar, one 4oz short cup, a lip ring, and resealable lids (model MBR-0701AKP). These variants all come with the same motor base, but our performance results are only valid for the 15oz jar.
There are other Magic Bullet models that we've tested separately: the Magic Bullet Mini and the Magic Bullet Kitchen Express. If you come across another variant or yours is different, please let us know in the discussions, and we'll update our review.
Compared To Other Blenders
The Magic Bullet Blender (also called the Magic Bullet Original or Essential) is a small personal blender. It comes with a 15-ounce jar, a 12-ounce jar, and a small four-ounce jar you can use for dips and dressings. Its jars have a slightly bigger capacity than the Magic Bullet Mini's, but this blender performs similarly for recipes like fruit smoothies. It's also much better for demanding tasks like making nut butter. It performs similarly to the Magic Bullet Kitchen Express but lacks a food processing bowl. Like other Magic Bullet blenders we've tested, it's not intended for use for crushing ice or hot blending.
If you want more options, check out our lists of the best personal blenders, the best bullet blenders, and the best blenders for smoothies.
The NutriBullet Pro 900 is better than the Magic Bullet Blender. The Pro 900 can make a smoother blend with ingredients like greens or fruit and comes with to-go lids for two of its jars instead of just one. It's also sturdier.
The Magic Bullet Blender is better for single-serve smoothies than the Oster MyBlend. The Magic Bullet comes with a couple of jars for personal-sized smoothies and makes a silkier blend with fibrous ingredients like kale. It's better for making nut butter and easier to clean by hand. On the other hand, the Oster has a better build quality. You can crush ice without adding liquid to the jar, although it doesn't make snow-like crushed ice.
The Ninja Nutri Ninja Pro is a little better than the Magic Bullet Blender. The Ninja comes with to-go lids for all of its jars, and it's more versatile since you can use it to crush ice without adding liquid to the jar. It's also sturdier and easier to clean by hand. All its components are dishwasher-safe, while the Magic Bullet's blade assembly needs to be cleaned by hand.
The Magic Bullet Blender and the BlendJet 2 have different strengths, and you may prefer either, depending on your needs. The BlendJet is a portable, battery-powered blender. It's smaller and quieter, and its lid has a built-in carrying strap. On the other hand, the Magic Bullet is a conventional personal blender that comes with a greater number of jars. Unless you're looking for a portable blender, it's better for most uses.
The Magic Bullet Blender is better than the Magic Bullet Mini for most purposes. The full-size model's jars have slightly bigger capacities. A resealable lid is included, so you can take your smoothie to go. It's also much easier to use to process hard ingredients like nuts. The Mini performs similarly for smoothies; you might prefer it if you want a small blender.
The Magic Bullet Kitchen Express and the Magic Bullet Blender perform similarly but come with different jars and accessories. The Kitchen Express includes a food processing bowl and personal jars for single-serve smoothies. On the other hand, the Magic Bullet Blender doesn't come with any food processing accessories, but it includes a four-ounce cup for blending small amounts of ingredients, along with a pair of personal jars for smoothies.
The Ninja Foodi Power Nutri DUO is better than the Magic Bullet Blender. The Ninja has a better build quality and overall performance. It makes a smoother blend with ingredients like kale and is much easier to use for tough tasks like making nut butter. You can also use it to crush ice. It's easier to clean by hand, and all its parts are dishwasher-safe.
The nutribullet Pro 1000 is better for single-serve smoothies than the Magic Bullet Blender. The nutribullet has a better build quality and comes with resealable lids for both of its jars. It's also quieter and easier to clean by hand. On the other hand, the Magic Bullet is easier to use to make nut butter. It's also very well-suited for single-serve smoothies, and you may prefer it for its smaller, lighter design.
The Magic Bullet Blender is better than the Beautiful Personal Blender. They're both small and come with some of the same accessories, including a jar with a handle as well as cup rings that make drinking from the jars at home more comfortable. Neither can crush ice on its own. The Magic Bullet has a better blending performance, so it can blend smoothies more quickly and produce a smoother result. The Beautiful comes with a grinding blade, so it can double as a spice and coffee grinder.
Test Results
It's a compact personal blender. It's a bit taller than the Magic Bullet Mini, but not by much, and its footprint is somewhat bigger, so it requires a bit more room on your counter. You'll have no problem storing it in a cupboard, though.
It has a mediocre build quality that's very similar to the Magic Bullet Mini. It's almost entirely made of generic plastic, including its round motor base, transmission gear, jars, and lids. It sits on four small rubber feet, which will help prevent it from sliding around while in use.
There's a 15-ounce and a 12-ounce jar included. Also included are two storage lids, two cup rings to make it more comfortable to drink from the jar, and one resealable to-go lid. The Magic Bullet Essential is a more basic variant with only a 15-ounce jar.
The plastic jars are dishwasher-safe, along with the lids and cup rings.
The blade assembly has four sharp blades. Two bend downward, and the other two are angled upwards. They aren't dishwasher-safe and should be hand-washed.
In addition to the screw-on blade assembly, it comes with a to-go lid for the main jar with a covered drinking spout. There are also screw-on storage lids for each of the bigger jars, so you can easily store whatever you make, as well as lip rings so you can drink from the jar directly.
This blender has a power cord that'll be long enough to reach a power outlet near your kitchen counter, but it doesn't have anywhere to stow the cable when it's not in use.
- Motor base
- 15oz jar
- 13oz jar
- 4oz short cup
- 2x resealable lid
- 2x lip ring
- 1x to-go lid
- Cross blade assembly
- Manual and recipe guide
It's fantastic for processing small batches of fibrous ingredients. It makes a smooth puree with leafy greens and fruit, with just a few small unprocessed bits left over. Some blenders process the ingredients faster, and you need to stop and shake the jar for the best results, but it's quite an easy process overall.
The jar can only hold a small batch, so it performs identically at full capacity.
This blender isn't intended for crushing ice, according to the manual.
It's excellent for nut butter. It's not the easiest blender to use for thick mixtures like this since it takes a while, and you need to stop and shake the jar. That said, it's a lot less tedious than with some personal blenders, and the result is superb nut butter with very few unprocessed pieces.
It's not particularly loud for a personal blender, so you won't find it overly loud when you're blending a smoothie for a few minutes. That said, models like the Magic Bullet Kitchen Express and the Magic Bullet Mini make less noise at maximum speed.
This model has one speed setting, like most personal blenders, so you can't fine-tune the speed to suit different recipes.
You turn the blender on by pushing down on the jar and twisting it into place. There's no power button or other controls, but you can easily press and release to simulate pulse mode.
It's decently easy to clean by hand. After running it with soap and water in the jar, you still need to use a sponge to clean the inside of the jar and the ridges around the rim. The blade assembly also requires extra scrubbing to remove residue caught around the blades. Since they're sharp, you need to use a brush with a handle for that part of the process.