Beverage

In cameras, it’s megapixels. In stereo speakers, it’s size. There are persistent myths in nearly every product category, and among buyers of high-performance commercial blenders the top myth equates horsepower and performance.

Myth #1: Horsepower = Performance

Smoothies seem like a recent trend, but they were invented in the 1930s — right along with the blender. Now they're ubiquitous, and consumer demand shows no sign of slowing. Why are smoothies so popular? They represent the convergence of several trends: health-conscious eating, portability and personalization. As we round the corner into the New Year, here's a closer look at six trends that will shape the smoothie market in 2016.

 The Frozen Mudslide, a blend of ice cream, Kahlua, Bailey's and vodka, has been called the adult milkshake. The Frozen Mudslide got its start in the 1950s at The Wreck Bar and Grill on the north coast of Grand Cayman Island, where the bar still stands. It was a bartender known as Old Judd who is credited with creating the mudslide, and it is still the island's signature drink. Locals who enjoyed the mudslide first spread the word about the drink and visitors took the recipe back to homes located throughout the world. Strangely enough, the drink didn't become popular in the US until the 1980s.

Legend has it that American mining engineer Jennings Cox first mixed rum with crushed ice, lime juice and a spoonful of sugar to create what he called the Daiquiri, named after a small town near Santiago, Cuba. But because limes, sugar cane and rum are three things the island produces in abundance, it's also likely that the drink was already being served in Cuba before Cox arrived. 

Every café, restaurant, bar and resort professional knows that although no two customers are alike, there are certain types of customers who seem to walk through the door on any given day. Why not create customized smoothies for these characters? 

Customers at Waterman’s Surfside Grille in Virginia Beach, Virginia, know the best way to quench a thirst is to order the beachside bar’s famous Orange Crush. This signature frozen drink is made with fresh-squeezed orange juice, orange vodka, triple sec, and a splash of Sprite.

According to Waterman’s owner Mike Standing, the drink was created 20 years ago, but took off in 2002 when a friend suggested Standing make the Orange Crush with fresh-squeezed juice. Today Waterman’s is one of most popular places on the boardwalk, and Standing said that the bar and restaurant have had an increase in revenue every year.

For dieting or diabetic customers, or simply for the growing number of Americans concerned about their sugar intake, sugar-free virgin drinks offer a sweet indulgence. The key to making a mocktail taste good lies in the primary ingredients, particularly the sugar-free syrups used to make the drink taste like the real thing.

Is the strawberry a fruit or a vegetable?  While many speculate that it is a fruit because it has seeds, others say that the seeds of the strawberry are fruits and the body is a vegetable. Actually the strawberry is a hybrid species known as an aggregate accessory fruit, and it's loaded with Vitamin C, folate and fiber. In North America, strawberries are plentiful—they're grown in every US state and also in Canada.

How long does it take a pineapple to reach maturity? A typical pineapple takes approximately 18 months to mature.Most of the world’s pineapples don’t come from Hawaii but rather from Thailand and the Phillipines.

The difference between a perfect cocktail and a mediocre one often comes down to ice, which, once melted, can account for half of a drink’s volume. With so much riding on frozen water, it’s not surprising that there’s more than a little ice mythology in the mixology world. Add a blender into the equation and it becomes necessary to call on science to make sense of it all.

The Tempest is finally receiving the attention it deserves. No, not Shakespeare’s incomparable play, which has been justly heralded for centuries, but the hard-working Hamilton Beach Commercial® blender by the same name. The Tempest® Blender is modestly priced for a commercial blender—so much so that it was a top pick on Consumer Reports’ 2013 list of best blenders. 

But its modest price may camouflage its true value as a commercial blender. As blogger Stana Peele points out, the Tempest “cannot be compared to other blenders due to its specially designed features.” Here are just a few of those drool-worthy attributes: a 2-speed jump cycle that provides precise and thorough blending every time, a timer with automatic shutoff that lets the user step away and tend to other tasks, patented quad-angle stainless steel cutting and mixing blades, and a temperature gauge that alerts the operator if the blender is starting to overheat.