Maybe you should think about a soy milk and tofutti milkshake next time... farm animals are a huge source of greenhouse gasses (20-50% depending on who you ask).

I'm surprised you didn't use organic ice cream or milk products. Also, I definitely would have washed the equipment out first before using it. It was covered in plastic wrap!

Despite these concerns with your own quick office test, I am very happy to know that this is a good product; I'll likely get one for myself soon as my current electric blender has a very short power cord and it's difficult to find a spot close to the outlet to plug it in. This hand cranked blender would be so versatile and mobile. I love the idea of taking it on picnics! Thanks for trying it out!

Agreed. Much better than *yuck* ice cream: 14 oz soy milk, two frozen bananas, 1 t peanut butter. That's it! Yum. I would consider replacing my 'lectric blender with this product. Doesn't seem that outrageous. And it's power-outage friendly.

I saw the blender mounted on the back of a bike and it was used by pedaling the bike. The article was about a very green family living in Oakland, CA. I am surprised you did not wash the blender before you used it.

I found that by doing a quick google search for "farm animals and greenhouse gasses". The second article that came up was from the UK Telegraph, but it's not a hard statistic... "such animals are believed to be responsible for more than half of the country's greenhouse gasses"... but after visiting a working dairy farm earlier this year, I can tell you first hand that the methane output from even a small farm is astonishing.

here's a link to an article with some hard stats...
http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Farm_Animals_More_Damaging_To_Climate_Than_Cars_999.html

Hi Tom,
The 50% stat is something that I've heard numerous times from environmental people, but like most things people tell each other it's not something I really trust. I like to say "70% of all spoken statistics are made up on the spot"

Anyway, enjoy your milkshakes... I just wanted to suggest a more environmental (and healthier) alternative.

I guess this is a good idea, but come on now, how much power does a blender really consume? Let's look at a run of the mill blender with a 450W motor That means that if the blender is used for 1 hour (making about 60 shakes), it would use 0.45kWh of electricity. That is equivalent to 387 calories (actually kilocalories), which is what you burn to power this thing. You have to look at how much oil/coal/whatever is used to generate 0.45kWh for the blender vs. how much oil/coal/whatever is used to generate the food that supplies you with 387 calories. My guess is that it's about a wash.

Those figures don't take into account the amount of energy required to produce this blender in the first place. It certainly doesn't make sense to throw away your old electricity-powered blender and buy this one.

Hi Tom ~

LOVE the video! A couple of questions - first, do you think the blender would grind up ice cubes? I'm thinking of replacing our electric blender, and that would be a must.

Second, who chose the music for the video? Great choices there.

Thanks!

Terrapass is responsible for setting a good example when it comes to products that they promote and personally consume.

Should i BUY more when i am not in need? Isn't it better to teach people how to consume less?

and then when it comes to the milk, ice cream, and cookies.... of course you know that local and organic is better, which is what your preach, but where's the practice???? was it really such short notice that you couldn't have planned out the best examples for all of us?

the video leaves me with a bad taste of terrapss in my mouth.

Tom, no your food consumption is not going to increase because you cranked a blender, but neither is your electrical consumption. Using a 450W blender for 1 minute (probably longer than you need to) consumes a paltry 0.0075kWh. That's not a big incentive.

I guess if you can't live without a blender, the hand cranked one would be a better alternative to an electrical or gas powered one, but I agree with lotti that we have to start thinking about our over-consumption. It still takes a lot of oil to produce the plastics in this thing, manufacture it, and transport it from China. Factor in all the energy required to keep your dairy products refrigerated, and it doesn't make a lot of environmental sense.

This blender is also sold by REI (has been for some time....the difference? At REI it's $80, on terrapass it's $60. And thought REI doesn't charge you shipping if you pick it up at an REI store (assuming there is an REI store near you) at a shipping cost of $6 from terrapass you still save money. More bucks for ice cream.

As my earlier comment got spammed, I thought I'd point out that the jug made of Lexan is something that will prevent me from buying this product. Lexan contains Bisphenyl-A (BPA) an endocrine disruptor that is currently under scrutiny:
http://pubs.acs.org/cgi-bin/sample.cgi/esthag/asap/html/es801811y.html

Jeese, you try to write a little fluff piece about a hand-crank blender and look what happens! What a lot of wet blankets we are.

Fabulous review - was actually in the market for one of these to take camping as we are HUGE smoothie fanatics and if we can find ice are good to go. And why not use it at home too or outside for a Bar-B-Q. And you can lose weight while cranking, make room for more smoothies and shakes. And as far as the cow/methane thing, why don't we stop driving SUVs and gas guzzlers and/or live in smaller homes so we don't have to worry about GHG from cows - COME ON PEOPLE, should shoot all the cows now for fear they are killing our environment - doesn't sound very environmental to me. Absurd, let's worry about real problems that we caused that we can change!!!

Hannah, if you'd have bothered to read the article I linked above, it says that according to the UN, farm animals produce MORE greenhouse gases than cars. Agriculture IS one of the REAL problems, and until people realize this, it's going to be tough to do anything about global warming.

Haha, completely agree with Ken. You guys should chill out. This is like the big hoohaa around the car Al Gore drives. OK, lead by example, but at the end of the day, it's a pretty small/negligent issue when compared with increasing awareness.

I was thinking more about this article and the accompanying comments... Comment #17 is spot on.

Why is it seemingly impossible to be a progressive in this country without running smack into a bunch of ideologues who take their vision of the world to the extreme? Some environmentalists behave like religious zealots. Tom was attacked for not using organic and locally produced ingredients! Do people even realize that if everyone suddenly starting demanding locally produced food, there wouldn't be enough food to go around?

Several years ago, I went to an exhibit at the National Geographic Society in Washington, DC. I seem to remember that cows, alone, produce 14% of the greenhouse gases in the United States. It would be awesome if we could collect methane to use for energy. I keep having this vison of cows with baloons on their butts. It's not pretty.

It would be great if our energy could come from that, but I would imagine that to collect all the methane would be very difficult and potentially cruel to the animals. If you really care about the environment, try making little changes like switching to soy, rice, or (my favorite) almond milk. Reduce demand and you reduce the environmental impact of the dairy industry.

I assiduously avoid purchasing goods manufactured in China. My considerations embrace the environmental impact of Chinese production, human rights issues and the new Chinese colonial posture in much of the third world. I'm troubled by the idea of supporting such an entity.

Well done! The tequila you used may not have been organic, but it was 100% agave, so authentic nonetheless! Tell Tim I will gladly come on over on any given Friday and give him some pointers on Margaritas or any other such frozen concoctions!

Thanks for the follow through!

Best,
Deirdre

it would seem from the comments above that judgmentalism is the end result of any -ism one alligns their self image with.

you are essentially declaring, "I don't really know who I am, I just know I am not like THEM !"

now that the anonimity of the net has removed the proverbial glass house the rock slingers abound.
yeah for a better, healthier, peaceloving world full of this hypocritical ilk !

ah, well, you gave it a try, Tom. Might I suggest you do future testing only among friends whilst having fun ? this bunch doesn't deserve you.

This is interesting.

I have a VERY unusual name, and it appears that someone else is using it to comment on this site... Please be advised that this is not my political/environmental views that are being displayed here.

Thank you.