Yahoo Finance 9 best bullet blenders for speedy smoothies and chilled cocktails
For smoothies, juices, cocktails and even curry pastes, a bullet-style blender is one of the hardest-working appliances in the kitchen. From houmous to Harvey Wallbangers, they are a gadget that provides endless versatility, allowing you to be adventurous well beyond breakfast time.
When choosing a blender, you’ll want to start by thinking about what you are likely to be making. A drink made from soft fruits and a little ice is not going to foil the blades on any model, but you’ll want to up the wattage if you could be adding tougher ingredients such as vegetable stalks, linseed, flax or nuts. A pulse function will also help shift things around for smoother results.
You’ll also want to consider the footprint of your bullet blender – some of the more powerful models have wider bases for extra stability.
The majority of the models we looked at have jugs and bottles that can be placed straight into the dishwasher, but we’d always advocate cleaning the blade units by hand. You may find it’s easier to blitz warm water with a dash of washing up liquid to loosen things up a bit first.
We tested a range of blenders with smoothie-loving families, couples and singles, encouraging them to follow the manufacturers’ recommendations for further recipe ideas beyond breakfast.
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You can trust our independent reviews. We may earn commission from some of the retailers, but we never allow this to influence selections, which are formed from real-world testing and expert advice. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.
The best bullet blenders for 2021 are:
âBest overall – Tefal freshboost: £119.99, Tefal.co.uk
Best value bullet blender – Lakeland personal blender and smoothie maker: £39.99, Lakeland.co.uk
Best for basics – Breville blend-active: £29, Ao.com
Best for nut butters – Ninja foodi power nutri blender 2-in-1: £79.99, Ninjakitchen.co.uk
Best for beginners – Dunelm blend and go blender: £15, Dunelm.com
Best for tough-to-blend ingredients – Salter nutripro blender: £58.99, Amazon.com
Best quiet bullet blender – VonHaus vonshef ultra blend smoothie maker: £53.99, Vonhaus.com
Best for big families – NutriBullet blender combo: £149.99, Highstreettv.com
Best for style – Cuisinart cordless on the go blender: £100, Cuisinart.co.uk
Tefal freshboost
Best: Overall
Guarantee: 2 years
Power: 800W
Dimensions: 19cm x 15cm x 36cm
Accessories: 2 x 600ml cups, 2 x spout lids, vacuum cup, recipe book
It may not have the max-power wattage of some of the other blenders we tested, but this model has a trick up its sleeve that the others don’t. A clever vacuum system removes the air around the contents of the bullet before it blends and this results in a less aerated and altogether, well, smoother smoothie that the brand claims retains more of your ingredients’ nutritional value. Our tester found smoothies didn’t separate as they had done with her previous choice and also thought this looked great left out on the worktop. For a powerful model, it also didn’t take up too much room.
Buy now £119.99, Tefal.co.uk
Lakeland personal blender and smoothie maker
Best: Value bullet blender
Guarantee: 3 years
Power: 350W
Dimensions: 15.5cm x 12cm x 32.5cm
Accessories: 600ml blending jug, 600ml cup, sipper lid
With its separate toughened glass blender jug, this Lakeland choice feels more robust than some of the other models we looked at. There are no bells and whistles, as there are only two controls: blend and pulse. But it feels very solidly weighted, and the caps on both the jug and the accompanying bottle are in good-quality materials, so there are no splashes on the worktop or spills in your gym bag. Good value for money.
Buy now £39.99, Lakeland.co.uk
Breville blend-active
Best: For the basics
Guarantee: 1 year
Power: 300W
Dimensions: 13cm x 13cm x 38cm
Accessories included: 600ml cup, spout lid
The blingy black and rose gold accents on this bullet blender mean it will look great in even the most glam kitchen, and our tester liked the way it is narrow enough to tuck into the space beside her toaster and kettle for morning smoothie-making. Using ingredients such as kale and spinach required a bit of jiggling, but the pulse function soon helped blitz through them.
Buy now £29.00, Ao.com
Ninja foodi power nutri blender 2-in-1
Best: For nut butters
Guarantee: 1 year
Power: 1,100W
Dimensions: 30cm x 17cm x 17cm
Accessories included: 700ml power nutri cup, 400ml power nutri bowl, spout lid, storage lid
Our tester used this powerful blender to tackle everything from wheatgrass drinks to pancake batter and icy cocktails with great results. The nutri bowl attachment was a hit, allowing denser ingredients like almonds or peanuts to be transformed into silky nut butters. Very versatile and with the build quality we’ve come to love from Ninja products, this is a really good choice if you’re serious about your smoothies.
Buy now £79.99, Ninjakitchen.co.uk
Dunelm grey table blend and go blender
Best: For beginners
Guarantee: 2 years
Power: 300W
Dimensions: 13cm x 14cm x 36cm
Accessories included: 500ml cup
You can’t argue with a £15 price tag, but will this budget blender be up to the job? If you want to use it every morning to make soft fruit smoothies, the answer is a resounding yes. There’s a pulse setting to help make sure you get every last piece blitzed before pouring from the glass bullet to the 500ml spouted cup, which is made from BPA-free plastic. This is a great option if you suspect your love for smoothies could be short-lived or just for summer, as it doesn’t take up much storage space either.
Buy now £15.00, Dunelm.com
Salter nutripro blender
Best: For tough-to-blend ingredients
Guarantee: 1 year
Power: 1,000W
Dimensions: 15cm x 15cm x 21cm
Accessories included: 1l and 800ml cups, drinking and storage lids
There’s no excuse not to pack your healthy drink with greens, as this makes light work of stalks, seeds and all those tough-to-blend ingredients you may struggle to cope with if your blender is at the lower end of the power scale. We loved this Salter model’s ease of use, with the chunky cup twisting on and off to stop and start the blending. There’s a pulse mode too, which helps move things around the blending cup for even results in no time at all. This is a great all rounder.
Buy now £58.99, Amazon.com
VonHaus vonshef ultra blend smoothie maker
Best: Quiet bullet blender
Guarantee: 2 years
Power: 1,000W
Dimensions: 15cm x 15cm x 39.5cm
Accessories included: 800ml and 500ml cups, drinking and storage lids
Our mum-of-three-teens tester expected this blender to be a flash in the pan, but was delighted to see that the fruit bowl emptied just as quickly after weeks of use. Of course, there were arguments about who got to use the drinking cup so she wished there had been the option to buy more. We also gave top marks for its power and low noise levels – even crushing ice for the grown-ups’ daiquiris wasn’t too painful to listen to.
Buy now £53.99, Vonhaus.com
NutriBullet blender combo
Best for: Big families
Guarantee: 1 year
Power: 1,200W
Dimensions: 20cm x 21cm x 43cm
Accessories included: 900ml, 700ml and 500ml cups, 2 x flip-top lids, 1.8l blender pitcher with cap, pusher
A comprehensive selection of accessories come with this blender system, with three sizes of cups to suit all appetites. This was great for our tester couple, who could each grab a drink straight from the blender. The blitzing itself was done in a separate jug, and the large capacity meant this was a great choice for anyone who loves to cook and requires a strong blender for recipes beyond a breakfast smoothie.
Buy now £149.99, Highstreettv.com
Cuisinart cordless on the go blender
Best for: Style
Guarantee: 2 years
Power: 10W
Dimensions: 10.5cm x 9.5cm x 30cm
Accessories included: 450ml cup
Our testers agreed this was hands-down the best looking of the bunch, with a quality casing and minimalist styling. There’s one power button to press once the cup is screwed into place, and once the travel lid was on we trusted it not to go everywhere. Charged via USB, there was enough (average) power there to get through the equivalent of 6-8 smoothies. Great to take along with you – margaritas in the park, anyone?
Buy now £100.00, Cuisinart.co.uk
The verdict: Bullet blenders
For keeping ingredients at their best before blitzing to smooth perfection, we liked the Tefal freshboost blender. If that seems like a big investment, there are cheap and cheerful models that will do the job of straightforward morning smoothies with ease. We loved the Dunelm grey table blend and go blender model for that reason. What a bargain!
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