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7 best blenders, tried and tested for super-quick smoothies, sauces and nut butters

Our experts review the best handheld, vacuum and jug style blenders for all your kitchen duties

Zoe Phillimore
Tuesday 16 May 2023 17:31 BST
<p>Whisk fluffy batters, whip up mashed potato and even make crushed ice for frozen cocktails </p>

Whisk fluffy batters, whip up mashed potato and even make crushed ice for frozen cocktails

Our Top Picks

  • Ninja foodi power blender 3-in-1
    Ninja foodi power blender 3-in-1
    Best overall

    Designed to offer flexibility, this blender comes with three different attachments. One 2.1l jug that, well, has more capacity. It will chop, blend and mix, as well as knead doughs with the attachment’s included. The cup attachment is also designed for smoothies and has the capacity to make a single drink and can then be taken on the go with you. The “power nutri bowl” is for making smoothie bowls and thick desserts, such as frozen yoghurt as well as nut butters. Best of all, every cup and blade is dishwasher safe – hurrah!

    Cuisinart expert prep pro
    Cuisinart expert prep pro
    Best for versatility

    Clear out some cupboard space, this bad boy comes with a lot of “gubbins”. But highly useful gubbins, we should add. The expert prep pro blended anything we threw at it with ease, including a very smooth nut butter that was absolutely delicious, thank you very much. The 550W motor seemed to be unphased by thick and claggy mixtures, and it was relatively quiet too.

  • Judge glass blender
    Judge glass blender
    Best budget buy

    Simple, but gets the job done, this glass blender is pretty straight up. It won’t take up loads of space in your cupboard, but will blend smoothies and soups to smooth perfection. True, it’s quite loud when it’s on, but it made short work of everything we threw at it. The slightly tapered style of the glass jug meant ingredients slid towards the blades without us having to stop and scrape down every so often. The lid also allows you to add ingredients as you go – good for hollandaise and other sauces in particular. However, the blender will operate without the lid on so beware...

    Gastroback vital mixer pro
    Gastroback vital mixer pro
    Best mid-range blender

    We liked the flexibility of this blender. Sure, all it does is blend, but we are here for the best blenders and so we can’t complain. There’s an LED dial where you can ramp up or down the blending power by hand, then you just hit start/stop and blend away hands free. Or you can select from three programme buttons along the bottom: ice crushing, smoothies or interval.

  • Cuisinart 3 in 1 cordless hand blender
    Cuisinart 3 in 1 cordless hand blender
    Best stick blender

    We’ve met a lot of stick blenders in our time, and this one is by far the best. It’s cordless, so it’s easy to use over a hot hob when blending a pan of soup, without worrying you’re going to melt the power cable. It comes with a charge stand, so you can leave it charging until you need to grab it. And because of all the genuinely useful attachments, you’ll find yourself reaching for it often.

    Bosch vacuum blender
    Bosch vacuum blender
    Best vacuum blender

    If you want to get the max amount of vitamins from your smoothies, this Bosch vacuum blender is the way to go. Load up the generous 1.5l jug, pull down the arm and then press go. The blender sucks all the air out of the jug as it blends, so there’s no bubbly like texture in your smoothies, and it stops the veggies and fruit from oxidising. There’s an ice crushing mode, vacuum blending and pulse options, so most textures are possible.

  • KitchenAid artisan blender
    KitchenAid artisan blender
    Best high-end blender

    Oh this blender just looks good on a kitchen work surface, doesn’t it? But looks aside, it’s also very capable. It’s been designed to take on nuts, seeds and any fruit or veg you want to throw at it. Our smoothies came out, well, smooth – and the blender didn’t seem to break a sweat. KitchenAid has installed an intelligent motor in it, so it senses what’s in the jug to make sure it’s whizzing at just the right speed.

When it comes to kitchen appliances you’ll get some serious use out of, blenders are up there with the best of them. Not only do they have a (relatively) small footprint for smaller kitchens, they also take the elbow grease out of myriad types of meal prep – from sauces and dips to smoothies and nut butters, blenders are there to deliver at the press of a button.

As we came to discover, the term blender encompasses a fair few things. First of all, there are stick blenders, which are handy for sticking into a jug or pan to blitz soups and smoothies. Then there are jug blenders which you might equate with smoothies and milkshakes. Some blenders also cover ground as food processors, offering up grating, slicing and spiralising attachments.

But be not afraid, if you’re unaccustomed. When choosing the best blenders, you want to consider how much space in the kitchen you have. Real estate in our kitchen is a finely balanced thing, and some of these bad boys should be paying half the mortgage with the amount of stuff that comes with them.

You’ll also want to think about ease of use, and what you’re really going to be using it for. There’s something about pouring soup from a pan into a jug blender that just makes us want to give up on a recipe. Also, ponder whether you really need the whizzy extras – will you really make mashed potato with your blender? Only you can answer that.

And then give some thought to functionality. Some blenders come with programmes such as ice crushing and chopping as well as good, old-fashioned blending. Ice crushing is useful for making cocktails, if that’s your vibe. If you never make frozen cocktails then you can let this pass you by.

How we tested

We were looking for blenders that powered through whatever we threw at them. Blenders that could handle thick and hard foods without slowing down or getting clogged were order of the day. We were also very keen on the blenders that were easy to clean. So, to whittle down the contenders we made a lot of smoothies, as well as nut butters, and we also blended root veg to see how smooth they could go. These were the best blenders that blitzed the competition.

The best blenders for 2023 are:

  • Best overall – Ninja foodi power blender 3-in-1: £149.99, Ninjakitchen.co.uk
  • Best budget buy – Judge glass blender: £67, Judge.co.uk
  • Best stick blender – Cuisinart 3 in 1 cordless hand blender: £150, Cuisinart.co.uk
  • Best high-end blender – KitchenAid artisan blender: £329, Kitchenaid.co.uk

Ninja foodi power blender 3-in-1

  • Best: Overall
  • Wattage: 1200W
  • This blender can: Chop, blend and mix, and kneed doughs
  • Size : 2.1l
  • Speed settings: 10
  • Weight: 3.7kg
  • Dimensions: 37cm x 21.4cm x 20.8 cm
  • Dishwasher safe jug?: Yes

Designed to offer flexibility, this blender comes with three different attachments. One 2.1l jug that, well, has more capacity. It will chop, blend and mix, as well as knead doughs with the attachment’s included. The cup attachment is also designed for smoothies and has the capacity to make a single drink and can then be taken on the go with you. The “power nutri bowl” is for making smoothie bowls and thick desserts, such as frozen yoghurt as well as nut butters. Best of all, every cup and blade is dishwasher safe – hurrah!

The easy-to-operate dial will let you choose from the programmes including blend, mix, crush and chop. The base will know which cup or bowl you have attached and offer you the right programmes for that attachment. Seriously clever. We were thoroughly impressed by this very smart blender. It did more than we ever knew we wanted a blender to do.

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Cuisinart expert prep pro

  • Best: For versatility
  • Wattage: 550W
  • This blender can: Chop, blend, purée, mix, slice, grates, dices and spiralize
  • Size: 3l
  • Speed settings: High and low
  • Weight: ‎10.2 kg
  • Dimensions: 20cm x 25cm x 41.5cm
  • Dishwasher safe jug?: Yes

Clear out some cupboard space, this bad boy comes with a lot of “gubbins”. But highly useful gubbins, we should add. The expert prep pro blended anything we threw at it with ease, including a very smooth nut butter that was absolutely delicious, thank you very much. The 550W motor seemed to be unphased by thick and claggy mixtures, and it was relatively quiet too.

As well as blending, the expert prep pro can grate, dice, slice, spiralise and mix. It has two different sized bowls, and various-sized feed tubes to minimise this. Gloriously, the accessories come in a lockable display box, so when you open that cupboard you have cleared out for it, everything doesn’t fall on top of you.

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Judge glass blender

  • Best: Budget buy
  • Wattage: 500W
  • This blender can: Blend and pulse
  • Size: 1.5l
  • Speed settings: Two
  • Weight: 3.65KG
  • Dimensions: 39cm, 17.0, 21cm
  • Dishwasher safe jug?: Not specified

Simple, but gets the job done, this glass blender is pretty straight up. It won’t take up loads of space in your cupboard, but will blend smoothies and soups to smooth perfection. True, it’s quite loud when it’s on, but it made short work of everything we threw at it. The slightly tapered style of the glass jug meant ingredients slid towards the blades without us having to stop and scrape down every so often. The lid also allows you to add ingredients as you go – good for hollandaise and other sauces in particular. However, the blender will operate without the lid on so beware...

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Gastroback vital mixer pro

  • Best: Mid-range blender
  • Wattage: 1.000W
  • This blender can: Blend, crush ice and pulse
  • Size: 1.75l
  • Speed settings: 12
  • Weight: 4.1 kg
  • Dimensions: 23cm x 18cm x 43cm
  • Dishwasher safe jug?: Yes

We liked the flexibility of this blender. Sure, all it does is blend, but we are here for the best blenders and so we can’t complain. There’s an LED dial where you can ramp up or down the blending power by hand, then you just hit start/stop and blend away hands free. Or you can select from three programme buttons along the bottom: ice crushing, smoothies or interval.

The ice crushing did the job – we ended up with ice fit for a daiquiri. The smoothie option turned out a silky smooth drink in a matter of seconds. Just know that the lid on the Gastroback is one of those you can take off and the blender will still work, so blitz with caution. But it does have a refill opening so you can add ingredients as you go along.

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Cuisinart 3 in 1 cordless hand blender

  • Best: Stick blender
  • Wattage: Not specified
  • This blender can: Blend, mash, whisk, froth milk, purée hot liquid
  • Size: N/A
  • Speed settings: Five
  • Weight: ‎2.06 kg
  • Dimensions: 10.5cm x 22.1cm x 28cm
  • Dishwasher safe jug?: N/a

We’ve met a lot of stick blenders in our time, and this one is by far the best. It’s cordless, so it’s easy to use over a hot hob when blending a pan of soup, without worrying you’re going to melt the power cable. It comes with a charge stand, so you can leave it charging until you need to grab it. And because of all the genuinely useful attachments, you’ll find yourself reaching for it often.

It has a whisk attachment for making smooth, silky sauces and fluffy-as-you-like pancake batter. And the masher attachment is genius. This attachment is also made completely of plastic so you don’t have to worry about scratching up for your pan. The downside of this is that it is on the heavy side. However, as it’s so powerful it should make pretty short work of whatever you’re whipping up.

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Bosch vacuum blender

  • Best: Vacuum blender
  • Wattage: 1000W
  • This blender can: Blend and crush ice with pulse options
  • Size: 1.5l
  • Speed settings: Four
  • Weight: 6.1 kg
  • Dimensions: 43.8cm x 19.1cm x 19.5cm
  • Dishwasher safe jug?: Yes

If you want to get the max amount of vitamins from your smoothies, this Bosch vacuum blender is the way to go. Load up the generous 1.5l jug, pull down the arm and then press go. The blender sucks all the air out of the jug as it blends, so there’s no bubbly like texture in your smoothies, and it stops the veggies and fruit from oxidising. There’s an ice crushing mode, vacuum blending and pulse options, so most textures are possible.

If you want to store whatever you’ve made, the Bosch comes with two different-sized vacuum bowls and one vacuum bottle. This means you can store your smoothies, sauces and soups for longer and lock in more nutrients.

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KitchenAid artisan blender

  • Best: High-end blender
  • Wattage: 1200
  • This blender can: Blend and crush ice
  • Size: 1.4l
  • Speed settings: Five
  • Weight: 7.48kg
  • Dimensions: 40.1cm x 22.6cm x 43.2cm
  • Dishwasher safe parts: Yes

Oh this blender just looks good on a kitchen work surface, doesn’t it? But looks aside, it’s also very capable. It’s been designed to take on nuts, seeds and any fruit or veg you want to throw at it. Our smoothies came out, well, smooth – and the blender didn’t seem to break a sweat. KitchenAid has installed an intelligent motor in it, so it senses what’s in the jug to make sure it’s whizzing at just the right speed.

There are also three food settings: crushed ice, icy drinks and smoothies and – praise be – a self-cleaning function. Is there anything worse than washing up a blender? We think not. Anyway, the jug and lid are also dishwasher safe so that’s an extra tick from us.

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The verdict: Blenders

The Ninja foodi comes in top spot. It’s super versatile, with easy-to-use features and different attachments depending on what you’re making. We thought this was a great option with loads of features without it being OTT, and it’s very fairly priced too.

If you’re looking for something a bit simpler, then Judge has made a very useful little blender that offers plenty of whizz for your buck. Or, if you have the space for a blender on your countertop, the KitchenAid is very nice to look at indeed.

Looking for more useful kitchen gadgets? Whip up a storm with our pick of the best electric hand mixers

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