Usually my smoothies have a scoop of protein powder, frozen fruit, maybe spinach, nuts, chia seeds, or nut butter. I use frozen fruit, whatever else I want, and a tiny bit of water to get things started. It usually comes out fairly thick with a good consistency. I have a variable speed model. I start it on low to get it going, ramp it up to about 7 for a few seconds, and then let it go on 10 for maybe 30 seconds or until it seems like a good texture. I rarely put it on the highest setting for a basic smoothie. I'd say I blend it for a total of a minute or less.

I have had less luck when trying to make green smoothies. You do have to blend it for longer to liquefy all the greens. When I make green smoothies it usually ends up more like a juice so I put it in the freezer or fridge and let it chill before I drink it. Maybe you could make the green smoothie with a little bit of water and then add in ice at the end to get it to chill it and get a thicker consistency.

Sorry to Hijack the thread with another question but- I promised myself an upgrade to my juicer if I could stick with juicing until June and have been thinking I"d go Vitamix. Do you get a really smooth consistency or does it all come out more chunky/pulpy? Do you peel apples and stuff first or does it all go in? Chunky/Pulpy tends to trigger my gag with drinks so I need to know!

Sorry to Hijack the thread with another question but- I promised myself an upgrade to my juicer if I could stick with juicing until June and have been thinking I"d go Vitamix. Do you get a really smooth consistency or does it all come out more chunky/pulpy? Do you peel apples and stuff first or does it all go in? Chunky/Pulpy tends to trigger my gag with drinks so I need to know!

I agree w/mmzeta that a Vitamix can get anything smooth; we've actually used it to make own own nut butters and they come out as smooth as anything you'd buy in the store. The only fruits we peel before putting them in are the ones with peels you wouldn't ordinarily eat (citrus, bananas, stuff like that). Apples I just cut in half and toss in the hopper.

For the record, we got ours as a reconditioned used one off the Vitamix Web site and it still works as good as new (after almost daily use for about 5 years).

I have an old 3600 and have trouble getting them perfectly smooth without heating up, but I am getting there now. I rip up my kale, spinach & chop up the fruit, add some juice/water, and ice at the top. I find I have best results starting low & using the tamper, then moving to high without the tamper, and then I do a few pulses at the end. I'm pretty happy with the results now and end up with very little if any chunks at the end, and I use *a lot* of kale in mine.