Jug blenders: How we test jug blenders

We think a blender should enhance a kitchen by making food and drink preparation easier, rather than be so awkward to use and clean it gets hidden in the back of a cupboard.

Jug blender with fruit

Jug blenders can make delicious smoothies and refreshing fruit drinks

Best Buy blender performance

To help find and recommend the best blenders, we carry out a variety of tough tests on a wide range of popular models.

We start by carrying out basic and simple tests, like blending – which all jug blenders should be able to do – and move on to the more complex and trickier tasks, such as making mayonnaise or crushing ice.

It’s not just performance we measure though, we’re looking for blenders that are simple to assemble, easy to use and won’t prove a nightmare to clean.

Blending tests

It sounds obvious, but every jug blender should be able to blend well. However not all of them do, so we ensure there’s no place for lumps to hide in our unique blending tests.

Our experts make three different types of smoothie with each blender we review, including smoothies with dairy, fruit and ice in them.

We don’t use just any recipes, either. Our specially-designed recipes contain hard-to-process ingredients like ginger and mango – if these can be blended to a smooth consistency, then tackling normal blending tasks should be no problem.

Soups

For soups, the cooked and blended ingredients are strained through a fine mesh sieve and then inspected to see what percentage of ingredients have escaped unblended. A Best Buy blender will whiz everything to a smooth, even consistency. A bad blender will leave bits unprocessed.

Jug blender mayonnaise

Some jug blenders can make mayonnaise

Making mayonnaise

Making mayonnaise is a delicate process. If the blender blades heat up too much before the ingredients have emulsified, the result will be a curdled mess.

Not every blender is good at this task, but our tests uncover the best ones for making smooth, even mayonnaise.

Ice crushing

Crushing ice is another fiddly task that Best Buy blenders have to excel at to earn our seal of approval. A bad blender will over process the ice leaving a snow-like mush, while the blades of others barely touch the cubes, just bashing them about and making a racket.

We inspect the crushed ice to see how fine and even it is, checking how many large lumps are left and how much has been reduced to water in the process.

Jug blender crushing ice

Uneven crushed ice from a jug blender

Noise

Most food preparation appliances are noisy, and blenders are no exception. Luckily most are only on for less than a minute, but we assess the noise; providing a comparative rating and highlighting any which are particularly unpleasant or annoying.

More about jug blenders

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