Blenders & Food Processors

Blenders and Food Processors

The useful question in this category is not power, it is what the machine is actually for, because five quite different appliances sit under one heading. A countertop blender makes drinks: smoothies, shakes, frozen fruit and ice, and a nutrient extractor is the same idea in a single-serve cup you drink from. A portable blender takes that on the road, recharging over USB-C and pouring through a leak-proof sip lid. A hand or stick blender works in the pot rather than in a jug, which is why it is the right tool for soup and sauces and the wrong one for ice. A food processor is a different machine entirely: it chops, slices, grates, shreds and kneads with reversible discs and a family-sized bowl, and it does not make a good smoothie. A soup maker cooks and blends in the same jug with smooth and chunky settings. Buying the wrong one of these is the most common mistake in the category.

Once the type is settled, three things decide between models. Jug or cup capacity, because a 1.5 litre jug is a family batch and a 700ml cup is one drink. Blade and motor design, where auto-sensing programmes adjust time and speed for a smoothie against a nut butter rather than leaving it to you. And what goes in the dishwasher, since a machine with six parts that all need hand washing is a machine that stays in the press.

Ninja covers the widest span, from the Blast Max and BlendBOSS tumbler blenders through Nutri and Detect countertop models to the Foodi hand blenders, food processors, cold press juicer and heated soup maker. NutriBullet covers the nutrient extractors, Smeg the retro-styled countertop blenders and citrus juicers, and Kenwood the food processors. Braun and Russell Hobbs lead on hand blenders, with Morphy Richards on soup makers. Narrow the range in smoothie makers, portable blenders, soup makers, food processors, hand blenders and juicers.

Blenders run on a clear seasonal cycle. January is the peak, when the health and smoothie buying starts, and that is when prices are firmest rather than softest. The reductions come earlier: Black Friday and Cyber Monday bring the deepest small appliance cuts of the Irish year, and they land just before the January demand rather than during it, which makes November the sensible time to buy a machine you intend to use in the new year. The named multi function models and the nutrient extractors clear first because they are heavily bought as gifts. Prices are live all year, so see what is reduced now on blenders and food processors on sale, or the Black Friday blender deals when the November weekend comes round.