High-Speed Blender Triathlon: Abusive Lab Test

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• kitchens
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Even the cheapest blender is a ravenous beast, tearing through ice and fruit in a matter of seconds. But what happens when a model has just 10 seconds to make a frozen margarita (ice plus margarita mix), shave some ice, and power through whole fruit‚ skin and all (an orange, banana and apple, to be precise)? Our triathlon of high-speed blending produced a winner, but it wasn't pretty.

	Cuisinart Smart Power Premier ($100)
	Specs: Basic, easy-to-use 600-watt blender. cuisinart.com Frozen Margarita: A crunchy but drinkable frozen margarita, with a half-dozen inch-long, choke-worthy ice chunks. Shaved Ice: This 10-second test barely dented the ice cubes, with almost no shavings to speak of. PM Smoothie: The Cuisinart ate half the orange, and then gave up, nibbling some of the skin off the banana and apple.

Breville Ikon Die-Cast Blender ($200)

Specs: 750-watt model, with a special ice-crushing mode. breville.com Frozen Margarita: The Breville came closest to the real thing. The larg-est piece we picked out of the slush was 0.7 in. Shaved Ice: Another bust, but then we tried the 60-second Ice Crush mode: perfect, drink-ready slush. PM Smoothie: The hands-down hungriest blender, it left one scrap of orange skin, a banana stem and half an apple.

	Black & Decker Home 10-Speed ($50)
	Specs: 600 watts, fifty bucks. 'Nuff said. blackanddecker.com Frozen Margarita: 10 seconds gave us margaritas on the rocks — the biggest of many chunks measured 1.5 in. long. Shaved Ice: None of the models handled the ice well, but the Black & Decker produced a handful of snow. PM Smoothie: This blender pulped the entire orange, crushed most of the banana, but barely bit into the apple.

Bottom Line

An efficient six-blade design and 750 watts helped the high-end Breville hack its way to the top. The Black & Decker might be a better value, but a few of the Breville's bar-worthy margaritas convinced us that splurging — in moderation — has its benefits.

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