Whenever I start something new, I first research “things i wish I knew before I started x”, found that at some point on some lifehacker advice thing, and it always turns up something useful.
So here is me logging some things from my experience with Plennyshake, and some I learned the hard way, in hopes others find it useful.
- When combining plennyshakes with powdered drinks, the shaker thingy is entirely sufficient to dissolve typical cocoa drink powder in cool water or milk, but if it’s anything less eager to dissolve (say, koawach cocoa powder, or matcha tea powder), it’ll just give you sad clumps.
Good rule of thumb: If the packaging of your flavoring agent advises you to first turn it into a paste with a bit of liquid before adding the rest of the liquid, you need stronger measures than just the shaker.
(Since I resort to the shakes when I don’t have the energy for a process with more steps, I usually take out the immersion blender at this point, so I’ve never tried if the “make a tiny bit of paste first before adding more liquid”-method works. If any of you have, do share!)
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Syrups (homemade, monin, even maple) will mix in well enough with the shaker, liquid honey is likely to need some extra help. (read: blender, or heating it in a small amount of liquid)
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if you put the shakers in the dishwasher, the hinge of the lid of the lid (not the sieve bit, the actual opening and closure of the drinking opening) can accumulate gross mock, but can simply be plopped out before the washing and back in afterward.
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While adding pureed banana to a plennyshake is very tasty and lovely, there is something about that combination that quickly turns into what my spouse lovingly calls “cement” - it’s a complete pain to clean as soon as it’s set, and soaking it in hot soapy water alone is NOT enough to undo that kind of thing once it’s crusted on say, the immersion blender you used for this. If you combine a banana with any plennyshake, clean or at least thoroughly rinse your utensils immediately
Please feel free to share your own experience!