Why Use a Blender?
The top performers in our review are Cuisinart Hurricane, Nutri Ninja Blender Duo and Dash Chef. Here's more on choosing a system to meet your needs, along with detail on how we arrived at our ranking of 10 blenders.
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Why Use a Premium Blender?
The blender first appeared in the 1920s and has been making its way to more and more kitchen countertops ever since. This small appliance is able to do a range of tasks by coaxing solids toward a set of spinning blades at the bottom of a sturdy container, helping home cooks and the pros alike make blended drinks, soups, smoothies, salsa and many other dishes.
The right blender can help you bypass a lot of chopping to make a quick salsa or skip a delicate and sometimes long stovetop procedure to arrive at warm homemade soup. You could carefully try to soften and thicken at just the right moments to make the creamy soups you remember Grandma making, or you could throw cold ingredients into a good blender and have them emulsified and heated in one step. Quality blenders can also grind wheat and flaxseed, knead dough, and make ice cream. The countertop blenders we reviewed can make a decent juice, though it will contain a lot of pulp. If you want to blend large amounts of juices, though, a traditional juicer may be more what you are looking for.
Frozen drinks are another common use of high-quality blenders. There are enough smoothie recipes to last you a lifetime by now on the internet. The count goes much closer to two lifetimes when you factor in variations on recipes for margaritas, piña coladas, daiquiris and any number of blended drinks. If you've ever tried to make any of them with a cheap blender, you know how irritating it can be. Large chunks of ice get mixed in with the portions that were perfectly shredded, or the blender gets stuck completely and you never get past the initial pulse. The best blenders on the market do not even hesitate on ice. The Ninja Professional is one excellent example of a champion on ice. It shredded ice perfectly and quickly, doing a better job than more expensive competitors.
Blender Families
We kept our focus somewhat narrow for our blender comparison, looking at higher-quality countertop units from a range of manufacturers. Immersion blenders have their place, though, and that place is at the top of many wish lists. One reason is that the immersion blender erases limits on quantity. You do not have to rotate blender pitchers full of mashed potatoes or soup or anything else to arrive at a large final bowl for a family dinner. You can blend it all at the same time in the blender's large stovetop pot or anywhere else that is convenient. Immersion blenders can also help with smoothies, salad dressings, whipped cream and pesto. They are not powerful enough to really compete with or replace a countertop blender, though, so we did not include them in our comparison. Our reviews and articles about blending discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the best blenders.
Blenders: How We Tested, What We Found
First and foremost, in our blender reviews we focused on finding an appliance that is powerful. A number of design elements go into making a blender that can handle hard ingredients, reducing them to whatever you want, whether that is nut butter, oat flour or baby food. We prefer the units that can multitask and perform well in a range of situations, helping you puree, blend, whip or chop. The top blenders have strong enough motors to make a hearty soup and heat it up, but they have less intense settings for easier tasks like salsa.
We valued the blenders that are easy to set up and use. Things like flat-panel controls impact whether it takes a reasonable amount of time to keep things clean or whether you have to get out a toothpick to go around the buttons when things get messy.
Blenders have to make some noise as they crush ingredients, but we like the ones that are designed with some consideration for preservation of your hearing. We measured each for its sound levels and gave credit to the ones that produce less noise. We considered design factors like height, too. If you plan to keep your blender in easy reach, it is nice if it can fit under upper cabinets at least. The taller units are nice in terms of capacity, but they can be awkward for storage.
Blenders: Our Verdict & Recommendations
Individual needs vary slightly, but most people want a blender that is strong, versatile and easy to maintain. With those qualities in mind, we were impressed with several models, especially the Nutri Ninja Blender Duo, Cuisinart Hurricane and Dash Chef. Each of these powerful blenders represents a good value for their respective prices.
The Cuisinart Hurricane was victorious once we had put these machines through all of our tests. This unit was perfection at making soup; it heats and blends ingredients in one step, getting soup hotter than any product in our blender reviews. It also quickly reduced frozen fruit to a very smooth smoothie.
The Nutri Ninja Blender Duo is another great option. It comes with one powerful base that you can use to blend foods in a pitcher or in an individual cup, both of which are included. This blender quickly made great smoothies and soup. It was also good at shredding ice into equally sized pieces that are perfect for a daiquiri or margarita.
The Dash Chef rounds out the top three in our blenders comparison with its convenient preset buttons, powerful motor and impressive lifetime motor warranty.
You generally do get what you pay for when it comes to blenders. The investment goes into food-crushing motors that power through anything. But we found several machines in the middle price range that had perfect performances on our tests. They are well worth the investment if you are in the market for a new blender. Even if a blender does not end up revolutionizing your life the way most manufacturers claim, it will definitely make your life easier – when you are making soup, salsa, mashed potatoes or really anything else.