5 Best Blenders of 2023

A blender may be compact in size, but it packs a powerful punch in the kitchen, effortlessly transforming your favorite smoothies into velvety delights and crushing ice for perfectly blended slushies. However, these versatile kitchen essentials have even more to offer: they can whip up lump-free pancake batter, prepare a refreshing watermelon margarita in a matter of minutes, or craft homemade oat milk.

The dedicated team at Jeannie’s Wellness Journey conducted rigorous testing on immersion blenders and blender-food processor combos to identify the top-rated blenders available for purchase in the year 2023.

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Our selection comprises a range of blenders priced between $73 and $650 from brands that we love, including Vitamix blenders and Ninja blenders. Some models come with personal blending cups, food processor attachments and a variety of settings and functions. To determine the top-performing blenders that made this list, we put each model through a series of performance and ease of use tests. Find more about how we evaluate blenders in the next part of this guide.

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In 2021, the A3500 Ascent Series Smart Blender received the Kitchen Gear Award for its outstanding performance. We researched it against 8 Vitamix blenders and 25 other blender models, and it consistently emerged as the top choice. It boasts a user-friendly touch interface, five program settings, a programmable timer, variable speed, and pulse options. This blender seamlessly pairs with Vitamix’s self-detect containers, automatically adjusting blend settings based on container size. These containers come in various sizes, including a food processor attachment, stainless steel container, and 48-ounce color containers.

During our research, this model excelled in producing smooth kale and strawberry smoothies, completely free from any kale remnants or strawberry pieces. Milkshakes turned out creamy, frothy, and rich, while homemade peanut butter achieved a silky-smooth texture without any residual chunks.

Despite being noisy when dealing with tough ingredients and having a less effective self-cleaning function for sticky nut butter, this blender’s overall performance surpasses all others in our trials. Plus, it comes with a reassuring 10-year warranty, ensuring years of reliable use.

If the price point of a $600+ blender is beyond your budget, we also recommend theVitamix E310 Explorian Blender, which retails for around $350. This alternative model delivers margaritas and peanut butter just as delicious as the A3500 Ascent Series Smart Blender.

This high-performance blender is reasonably priced and remarkably versatile, earning us the title of best value. It has three jars included, which increases its adaptability. Two individual-sized cups – one measuring 32 ounces and the other 24 ounces – as well as a 64-ounce pitcher for handling large batches are included in the package. Both of these cups have handy lids that make it easy to enjoy your smoothies while on the go. The blender has a special “extract” button for blending smoothies at set, adjustable speeds. All three jars were used in our kale smoothie experiments, and the results were consistently smooth with no discernible flecks in each case. Additionally, it smoothly processed frozen strawberries, yielding a delicious and evenly-made mixeddrink.

The blender’s base is not significantly larger than other NutriBullet models, and it incorporates suction cups on the bottom to ensure stable positioning. When using the personal cups, the blades attach to the cup’s top and must be inverted for blending. It’s crucial to remember to unscrew the personal blending cups from the blender’s base when you’re finished blending, as unscrewing the cup from the blade can lead to accidental spills and messes.

 

We were suprised by how well this blender performed considering its low price. There was no indication of fibrous kale or spinach in the green smoothie setting, which produced a smooth and creamy texture. There is a regular smoothie button on this blender as well, and pressing it will yield a smoothie of juice bar quality in one minute. During our tests, this blender produced a mighty fine margarita in addition to pureeing soup to a silky smooth consistency. The jar and lid of the Fresh and Furious are dishwasher-safe and easy to clean.

Despite the fact that the jar only holds 50 ounces and has a slight sauce stain, we were unable to find many flaws in our research.

 

In contrast to many personal blenders that only have a pulse button, this one surprised us with the number of presets it offered. Over the years, we’ve evaluated a lot of personal blenders. The smoothie bowl maker cup, which has a built-in tamper and requires less liquid to blend ingredients into a smooth, very thick consistency, is what we particularly liked about it. In our evaluations, we particularly enjoyed how the margarita was thick and creamy with no grit due to the use of super-fine sugar. Don’t forget the quick and easy homemade peanut butter that was creamy and smooth.

This particular model firmly suctions to your counter, keeping it there throughout the pulse-style auto-smoothie setting.

 

It has a low-profile 40-ounce glass jar and seven blending and processing options that are clearly marked and simple to use, making it a very popular Cuisinart blender/food processor combo. We appreciate the small food processor bowl that is included for chopping, stirring, and shredding. During our blender evaluation, we discovered that this blender ground ingredients incredibly well and was incredibly simple to clean. Though we do advise against using tough kale in berry and protein smoothies because in our tests it didn’t blend kale very well. We were even more impressed with how well this model minced parsley, shredded carrots, and sliced pepperoni once the food processor attachment was turned on.

Except for the base, every component is dishwasher-safe. It should be noted that this blender only has 500 watts of power, so if you overwork it, it will temporarily stop functioning until it cools down.

 

What to consider when shopping for blenders

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✔️ Blender type: There are several different types of blenders. Choose the option that best suits your culinary requirements.

• Full-sized: The most popular size of blender, perfect for larger families and recipes that call for a lot of liquid.
• Food processor blender combo: Even though one of these might be more expensive than a regular full-sized blender, it combines two appliances into one. But this kind of blender typically comes with more storage options for accessories.
• Personal: This type of blender is perfect for smaller families or families where everyone wants a different type of smoothie. It is also great for traveling or keeping at your desk for a quick smoothie in between meetings. Keep in mind that there aren’t vents like in full-sized models, so you can’t puree a soup in here.
• Hand blender: A hand blender can fit in a drawer for even less storage and be used to blend ingredients in any container of your choice. These are also fantastic for travel, but bear in mind that the results of the blender aren’t always as consistent as those of a conventional style blender.

✔️ Controls: Depending on the blender, some presets and functions are offered by some while only a few by others. Look for a model with presets if you prefer to press the smoothie button and let the blender do the work. If you want to keep track of how long you need to blend something for a recipe, another feature to look for is a timer; some models have this feature, while others do not.

✔️ Blades: Although it may seem counterintuitive, better-functioning blenders do not include sharp blades (which eventually become dull). Instead, they have sturdy blades that will last a long time and can crush almost anything. They are also much safer to clean as a result.

✔️ Size: Choose a lightweight blender if you don’t intend to keep it on your countertop. They are more transportable, but when in use, they also have a higher propensity to scuff the countertop. Consider the height if you intend to keep your blender on the counter, as some models are too tall to fit neatly underneath kitchen cabinets. Consider an immersion blender if a countertop blender is too large for your kitchen. It is slim and can perform many of the same tasks.

✔️ Glass vs. plastic carafe: Although glass is heavier than plastic, it doesn’t absorb odors or stains as readily. Glass jars are typically not used in high-powered blenders because they cannot be guaranteed to be completely shatterproof, but if you insist on using glass, look for one that has undergone thermal shock testing so you can blend ice in a canister that has just been removed from the dishwasher. Many of our best blenders have jars made of Tritan plastic, which can withstand high-speed blades, and some that the manufacturer claims are BPA-free.

✔️ Wattage: Blenders with higher wattages typically performed better, but this was not always the case; performance is more heavily influenced by the blender’s overall design.

✔️ Accessories: If you want the flexibility of blending up a small batch of pesto or a custom smoothie, look for blender models that include a few personal cups with drinking lids. Accessories for food processor-blender combo models include discs for grating and shredding ingredients as well as dough hooks for kneading cookie or pizza dough. These add-ons can increase your cooking versatility if you have the storage space.

Which company makes the best blenders?

There are many excellent blender brand names. The blenders in this account come from a number of manufacturers that have consistently performed well in our lab tests. Companies that we support include Vitamix, Nutribullet, Ninja, Cuisinart, Breville, KitchenAid, and Wolf.