Nutribullet Flip review: Only for the smoothie addicts

Does the Nutribullet Flip have what it takes to be one of the best blenders? For starters, it’s a portable blender — which is a really cool idea in theory. You mean I can blend my smoothies on-the-go? I don’t need to plug my Nutribullet into the wall? Sign me up!

The Nutribullet Flip is battery powered, so you’ll need to charge your blender before using it. Nutribullet claims the Flip has double the battery life of other 2-cell 7.4V blenders (the Flip is 11.1V), but I found it lasted only about ten blending cycles before needing another charge.

As much as I think the Flip is a great idea, some ideas look cool on paper and don’t necessarily translate to practical day-to-day life. While I can see a portable blender — and in turn, the Nutribullet Flip — being useful for some, for the vast majority I think it’s technological overkill. I’ll explain my thoughts fully in this Nutribullet Flip review.

Nutribullet Flip blender review: Cheat sheet

• What is it? A portable blender from Nutribullet
• Who is it for? Smoothie evangelists on-the-go
• What does it cost? $99 at Amazon — $15 more than the fantastic Nutribullet Pro 900W
• What do we like? It’s easy to use and looks good
• What don’t we like? It’s not as versatile as other Nutribullets — for the same price

Nutribullet Flip blender review: Specs

Nutribullet Flip blender review: Price & availability

The Nutribullet Flip is a portable blender. It’s available for $99 at Amazon U.S. and £99 at Amazon U.K. This $99 is $15 more expensive than the $84 Nutribullet Pro 900W, which is the blender I personally own, use, and adore. The $119 Nutribullet Pro 1200W is one of the most powerful personal blenders available today, which I’d recommend if you want a super-powerful blender not restricted to just smoothies. Ninja’s cheapest blender offering is the $59 portable Ninja Blast, which has 7.4V power, much less than the Nutribullet Flip’s 11.1V power.

Nutribullet Flip blender review: Design & controls

Its looks are perhaps what I like most about the Flip. The tumbler is sleek and attractive and I would look so cool turning up to my yoga class with this in hand. I also love the flip lid, as the sip cover clips into the lid so you don’t have to hold it when you drink. There’s also a wrist strap for those moments when you’ve got too much to juggle. It’s completely leak-proof so I’d be comfortable putting this in my bag, too.

The insulated tumbler is supposed to keep smoothies cold for 24 hours, so I put this to the test. I filled my tumbler with a frozen smoothie at 1pm on Thursday — on Friday at 9am, it was still cold-ish, but not frozen. So after 20 hours it had warmed only a little, which is good but doesn’t quite meet the 24 hour claim.

The blender feels weighty and well-made, and the stainless steel embellishments on the tumbler itself are a nice touch. The embossed ‘nutribullet’ typeface down the side of the tumbler is worthy of showing off by way of carrying this cup around the city. I would be happy to display this in my kitchen or be seen sipping from the oozing-with-cool cup. However, looks aren’t everything, as we’ll discuss later.

Nutribullet Flip blender review: Blending performance

First, I tested the Flip with a green smoothie mix. I filled the blending tumbler ¾ full with a green smoothie mix made from frozen spinach, mango, kale, avocado, and ginger. Then I topped it off to the ‘max’ line with ice cold water and got blending. However, after four blending cycles, the smoothie mix had simply frozen into a chunk at the other end of the tumbler. So I emptied out the liquid and put in room temperature water. With the new water, the smoothie blended mostly smooth in two blending cycles.

With this practice run out of the way, I upped the ante with my favorite smoothie of all time. It’s not a particularly sophisticated smoothie, but what can I say? If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Using a frozen strawberry and banana mix, I filled the tumbler halfway with frozen fruit and topped it to the ‘max’ line with oat milk. I blended three times, which left me with a few bigger pieces of fruit at the end of the smoothie, but was overall more drinkable than the first test.

Determined to get a 10/10 smoothie from the Flip, I made another strawberry and banana smoothie, this time with ⅖ fruit and ⅗ milk. After just one blend cycle, the Flip provided me with an evenly-blended smoothie. This was the best smoothie I made by far, so don’t underestimate just how much liquid you need to put in.

I’m going to preface this by saying that Nutribullet claims the Flip is only intended for frozen fruit, ice, and protein drinks. But I wanted to put it through its paces, so I tried making hummus. It was a little bit of a marathon. Firstly, it took four blending cycles and about ½ a cup of ice water to get something even remotely paste-like. After the four cycles I decanted the hummus into a bowl, where I found a few tablespoons of whole chickpeas. While I wouldn’t brand the hummus-making a disaster, I think the Flip is best suited to at least 60% liquid recipes.

Given Nutribullet’s usage criteria (fruit, ice, protein drinks) for the Flip, I wouldn’t recommend using the Flip for anything other than drinks. Even though technically you can make decent hummus with the Flip, I’m not sure how it would work out long-term.

Nutribullet Flip blender review: Storage & maintenance

Nutribullet suggests cleaning the blender by blending it with a drop of dish soap and warm water. This is how I clean my personal Nutribullet, but when the blending cup is also the cup you drink out of, this proves a little complicated. I have to wait until I’ve finished drinking my smoothie to clean the blades — and if I take the tumbler to work with me, then the blades might not get cleaned for hours. There’s also a deep notch inside the blending attachment where fruit (and chickpeas) gets stuck: I had to use chopsticks to get pieces of strawberry and chickpea out of this strange hole. When I blended warm water and dish soap in the Flip, this didn’t clean the notch.

In the end I just cleaned gently under the tap, but I was very concerned about getting water in the USB-C input and then the battery.

Should you buy the Nutribullet Flip blender?

All in all, it boils down to this: Is the Flip a good blender? Yes. Is the Flip worth $99? …No.

While, yes, the Flip makes smoothies well, it doesn’t really do anything else. My trusty Nutribullet 900W is more suited to a kitchen environment and can instantly make sauces, dips, soups, emulsifications, and on-the-go smoothies (with the sippy lid). The Flip can make these things, but only if you have a lot of patience with regards to blending and cleaning. The insulated-tumbler-blending-lid design is both the piece de resistance and the Achilles heel of the Flip: on the one hand, it’s gorgeous and makes your life easier. On the other hand, it makes it harder to know when blending is finished, it’s not as powerful as the $69 Nutribullet 600W, harder to clean, and it can’t be a reliable kitchen assistant.

While having a blender and a tumbler in one is a great idea, for now, I’ll stick with my 900W.