Cuisinart Blenders
Cuisinart’s Smart Stick Two-Speed Immersion Blender is a helpful addition to the kitchen. It is a remarkably well-designed, handheld kitchen appliance that can save you time and effort while cooking. This is a great option for those with limited storage space, who enjoy creamy soups and smoothies. The Cuisinart Smart Stick has a slow and fast setting, and you choose the option that best suits the task at hand.
Initially, it was a little hard to figure out how to operate the Smart Stick because two buttons, the unlock button and the on button, have to be held down at once to get it started. While this is an effective safety feature, we had limited use of one arm, due to a medical procedure, which made it difficult to turn the blender on. Other than that one, potentially aggravating feature, the Smart Stick is very easy to use. The Nutribullet Pro 1000 ($80) is highly powered; it’s name comes from the 1000 watts it’s packing.
It features simple controls with an on/off switch, a high/variable switch, and a dial for varying the power level yourself. It has no extra buttons or specialized settings—but we didn’t miss them. This is just a straightforward, extremely efficient, high-performance blender packing a ton of power. The motor isn’t powerful enough to handle heavy blending, and the carving knife is too long and bulky to be useful or easy to store. The 500-watt motor isn’t very powerful and may burn out quickly, and the blending capacity is small, so you won’t be able to efficiently blend large quantities.
Whip up delicious drinks, smoothies, purees, and soups with the touch of a button. Make crushed-ice, ground spices, and nut-butters in a jiffy with the right blender on hand. Blenders save time and take up very little space in your kitchen. Target has a wide range of blenders in varying designs and functions.
It’s not worth the high price when you could get the very best blender, a Vitamix, for a similar or lower cost. The brand’s high-performance model, the Hamilton Beach Professional ($180) produced even grains of ice and a smooth-textured smoothie. However, we found the smoothie to be thick and slightly warm, suggesting that the motor was overworked. The Blendtec Classic Blender ($250) is another high-performance blender.
The package includes a BPA-free 16-ounce plastic blending container and a very effective whisk attachment. This 10.15-pound model has a clunky silver plastic base that feels somewhat cheap. We liked the large 56-ounce Tritan pitcher and the strong one-horsepower motor. The six-button interface is functional but unappealing and cuisinart pots and pans set offers two speeds plus smoothie and ice crush presets. The plastic base, sold in gunmetal or white, feels very solid, and the included 60-ounce pitcher is made of BPA-free Tritan with a comfortable plastic handle. The 2.25-horsepower motor is powerful though somewhat loud, and we liked the effective lid and sturdy metal gears.
We looked for blenders that were designed to be easy to clean, without too many nooks and crannies where bits of old smoothie or pesto could hide. We also considered whether or not the blender had a self-cleaning function. Standard blenders aren’t equipped to handle the same heavy-duty blending as high-performance models—especially if you want them to last. But if you’re not doing anything too out of the ordinary with your appliance and are just looking for a simple smoothie from time to time, this less expensive category is right for you.
Cuisinart’s Smart Stick Two-Speed Immersion Blender is a slender handheld device with a somewhat elegant style that boasts an ergonomically designed grip. It is powered by a 300-watt motor, which is advertised as both powerful and quiet. The Smart Stick features a two-speed slide cuisinart pots and pans set control with an 8-inch stainless steel shaft that can reach deep into everything from soup pots to cocktail pitchers. The Magic Bullet ($30) is the classic name in the personal blender space, but it’s long been eclipsed by better-designed and higher-powered alternatives.
Personal blenders are smaller machines designed to take up much less space in your kitchen and make one-off, rather than larger batched, recipes. Most are set up to take your blended smoothie immediately on the go straight from the motor with the addition of a sippable lid. For the personal blenders, we first used each machine to make a simple pesto—a cuisinart soup maker popular use case for a small but highly-powered machine. We washed each blender by hand, and then made a smoothie in each, ensuring that we wouldn’t taste residual garlic and basil in our fruity drinks. We made each smoothie with two larges leaves of kale , a handful of frozen mango, another of frozen blueberries, and a splash of almond milk.