REVIEW: 5 new blenders for your kitchen

PHILIPS AVANCE COLLECTION BLENDER HR2096 EDITOR’S RAVE
$169, from major electrical stores
Speed setting: Variable speed control dial + Ice crush + Smoothie
Capacity: 1.5 litres

IN A NUTSHELL Overall, this was the best-performing blender – it made the best smoothies and blended peanuts and rempah ingredients into a smooth consistency. It comes with a spatula - handy, but it couldn’t always get at ingredients that are closer to the bottom of the jug.

MAKING…
*Smoothies My banana and frozen berries smoothie was very well-blended, with no frozen fruit left. It also cut up spinach in my green smoothie finely.
*Peanut butter The blender’s blades kept sweeping the crushed peanuts to the side so I had to keep scraping them towards the bottom. But it churned out creamy peanut butter without much crunch.
*Rempah It had no trouble with the ingredients – long strings of dried chilli and hard, stubby chunks of lemongrass and candlenuts – chopping them up into an even mixture.

VERDICT Despite the minor hiccup with peanut butter, this blender won us over with its power and efficiency.

SCORE 8.5/10

BOSCH MIGHTYMIXX MMB54G5SGB
$139, from major electrical stores
Speed setting: Five speeds + Pulse + Ice crush + Smoothie
Capacity: 1.5 litres

IN A NUTSHELL Delivering an above-average performance, this was almost as impressive as the Philips blender, falling slightly short only in terms of the texture of the smoothies and rempah paste.

MAKING…
*Smoothies It catches fruits and vegetables in the blades well, giving us good smoothies and leaving no frozen bits, but it didn't blend as smoothly as the Philips.
*Peanut butter While it kept the peanuts in the blades and required minimal scraping to get them off the sides, these were the coarsest of the lot; good if you prefer chunkier peanut butter.
*Rempah The paste was a tad coarser than the one made with the Philips, although the blender handled the tough and stringy ingredients just fine.

VERDICT Good enough for everyday needs, and it’s wallet-friendly too.

SCORE 7.5/10

KENWOOD KMIX BLX50
$199, from major electrical stores
Speed setting: Preprogrammed speeds for Ice crush + Drinks + Soups + Dips
Capacity: 1.6 litres

IN A NUTSHELL This blender made good smoothies, peanut butter and rempah. My only issue was that the preprogrammed speeds were not very helpful; I had to guess which programme was suited for peanut butter and rempah. But it scores for its quiet operation.

MAKING
*Smoothies I used the Drinks programme for my fruit and veggie smoothies and it did a decent job blitzing even frozen fruits, but it cut up the vegetables less finely than the Philips.
*Peanut butter The Dips programme produced peanut butter with a creamy consistency and slightly less crunch than the one made with the Bosch.
*Rempah The paste came out relatively smooth on the Dips programme, save for some coarse bits of chilli left in the mix.

VERDICT A sleek model that’s best for precise blending.

SCORE 7.5/10

TEFAL BLENDFORCE MAXI GLASS BLENDER BL233
$109, from major electrical stores
Speed setting: Five speeds + Pulse
Capacity: 1.6 litres

IN A NUTSHELL An efficient blender that is fairly good at making smoothies and peanut butter. It also requires the least effort to clean – just press a button to remove the jug and blades.

MAKING…
*Smoothies Fruit smoothies were blended decently, though there were tiny bits of frozen berries left behind. Green smoothies turned out slightly pulpy although it did a good job blitzing the spinach. 
*Peanut butter It crushed peanuts with ease and gave us smooth peanut butter with minimal crunch. 
*Rempah After a few gentle jolts to get the rempah ingredients onto the blades, it produced a semi-smooth paste.

VERDICT An affordable blender that gets the job done.

SCORE 7/10

ELECTROLUX GLASS BLENDER EBR2700K
$109, from major electrical stores
Speed setting: Three speeds + Pulse/Ice crush
Capacity: 1.5 litres

IN A NUTSHELL Despite having only three speeds, this is a powerful blender that chops up ingredients well, even if it needs a little help along the way. It churns out the smoothest peanut butter, so if you like making your own spreads, this one’s for you.

MAKING…
*Smoothies It blends fruit smoothies well, leaving only very fine frozen bits. But it needed a few shakes before it started blitzing the veggie smoothie, which was slightly pulpy.
*Peanut butter Thumbs up for producing the creamiest peanut butter – thick, smooth and almost crunch-free.
*Rempah It required considerable scraping, stirring and shaking to get the rempah ingredients onto the blades. It helps if you cut up the longer dried chilli and lemongrass strips into smaller pieces.

VERDICT A good entry-level blender that works best for smaller, softer and finer ingredients.

SCORE 7/10

This article was originally published in Simply Her May 2015.