I use to make soy milk using a stone grinder back in China. Now, I'm fatter & lazier, got this machine to make life easier and hopefully better soy milk! Unfortunately, there's some things about this machine that just doesn't work right.
1. The accessories are extremely poor. For an almost $200 machine, didn't expect to find a $0.99 brush, strainer, measure cup & a plastic jug with the handles detached.
2. Because the strainer is so bad, you get bits of beans that's not fully grinded in the soy milk.
3. The grinder motor isn't powerful enough so the blades are ultra sharp, and still doesn't grind the beans all the way. Which makes the cleaning a bit harder.
4. The cleaning is reasonable, but by all means not easy. It's heated in high temp, so the soy does stick to the metal, and requires some scrubbing to clean.
If this machine is the 1st one I've used or have nothing to compare it to, I would give is 4 stars. Still have to deduct 1 star for the terrible accessories. But when compared to a Blendtec, this one has to be returned.
Suggest using this:
Blendtec blender - grind the beans. ( yes, this blender is very expensive $400, but seriously one of the best investments I've ever made. I've got dozens of kitchen gadgets, this is the only gadget that stays on the counter all the time. ultra useful) 1 small rice cup beans dried to 16oz of water. Add more or less beans based on taste preference.
Use a Rice Bag or cloth to drain it, then the soy milk is really smooth. There is a really Chinese method, use pantyhose. Don't laugh now, try it and you'll see just how crappy the strainer is compared to this.
Bring the soy milk to a full boil for 3 minutes or so using medium / small heat. ( this is the really boring hard part, takes a while)
Cleaning the blendtec is beyond easy. Run water thru it and it's done. Clearing Cloth - run water thru it and it's fine.
Cleaning the pot - requires a bit of scrubbing, but at least there is no sharp blade to scrub down.
