Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

We first tried the smaller $50.00 Yonana machine at a friend's house. Amazing results, but noisy. Decided to buy the red larger unit. For some unexplained reason, it costs $10.00 more if you buy the black one. That seems crazy. The larger Elite unit is much quieter and works flawlessly. The larger motor powers through the frozen fruits better and will probably last a lot longer, especially with heavy use. And there WILL be heavy use. There is a 3 yr factory warranty. Why buy the 2 year warranty that is sometimes suggested by Amazon? That seems like a waste. One reviewer said he returned it because some product stayed in the grinder head. Well, it takes all of ten seconds to rotate off the grinder head, scrape out the bits left behind and add them to the rest of the mix. That is NOT a reason not to buy it. You have to do this anyway to clean it out. Washing it out takes only another minute or so with hot water and detergent. Then you can put it back together (another ten seconds) and store it. -or make another batch of a different flavor (my preference). In fact, using only one banana or 1/2 banana and some frozen Greek yogurt cubes makes a generous single serving by the time you scoop out the bit in the grinder head. Sometimes that's all we want. You can use frozen yogurt cubes to replace part of the bananas. We keep a freezer bag with up to a quart of frozen Greek yogurt cubes ready to go. There is a recipe book that is enclosed that has about 70 pages of recipes, 2/page. Don't bother with the $17.95 pamphlet that's available. The recipe book is a great starting point. But there's no end to what you can do. We tend to add more ingredients besides bananas to the mix than are suggested in the recipes in order to get a flavor balance we prefer. Maybe our bananas are larger. Basically it's mix to taste. We've had several groups over to experiment with different flavors. Everyone has been happily surprised. And everyone has a favorite. We expect to find them in many of our guests' homes soon. Dole, the manufacturer, was brilliant. They looked at the problem of how do you market your packaged frozen fruits to more people than the limited group who are already buying them. They came up with creating a whole new food product that acts more like a juicer than a blender and keeps the antioxidants alive while letting you make your own flavors of a healthy version of ice cream and takes two minutes to make. (Our freezer stays stocked with frozen bananas and fruits.) As a result, Dole obviously hopes to sell more frozen fruits to folks who wouldn't have otherwise bought their products and who don't want to grow or buy fresh and then freeze their ingredients other than the bananas. We hope they succeed on all counts. It's all about what works for you. Be creative. Enjoy. This will be a gift that will find its way to many friends' homes for the holidays and birthdays where they are certain to be appreciated.