Personal Blenders

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This smaller version of our favorite provides all the same benefits in a more compact package. It’s easy to operate, makes impressively smooth smoothies and dressings, and is comparatively quiet. Like most models, it struggled a little with harder, colder ingredients such as ice and ice cream, but we were still able to make good milkshakes and frozen drinks by occasionally stirring the ingredients or pushing them back toward the blades. And as with the winner, ridges on the inside of the jar might help propel ingredients toward the blades for extra-smooth blending, but they made the jar a touch harder to clean. While it’s fairly pricey, we think it’s a great, attractive option if you’d like a slightly smaller personal blender.

This blender has four straightforward buttons—start/stop, crush, smoothie, and pulse—that make it easy to perform each task. It made acceptable, fine-textured smoothies with some visible flecks of kale and silky green goddess dressing. Its travel lid was leakproof and easy to drink from. When making a thick chocolate milkshake, we had to give its contents a shake halfway through to properly blend, as we had to do with other models. When blending hard, frozen ingredients, this blender was very loud.

This affordable model made great salad dressing and did a good job of blending fibrous kale and pineapple into smoothies, although they were a tad icy. As with other models, we had to stir halfway through blending to incorporate ice cream into a thick milkshake. Its simple twist-to-start mechanism didn’t require the user to hold down a button in order to blend, allowing us to walk away while blending. The travel lid permits leak-free transportation and on-the-go sipping.

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This blender’s jar was smaller than other models while still accommodating enough ingredients for a single-serving smoothie. It made good smoothies and dressing but struggled to incorporate thick, frozen ingredients for a milkshake. Both its travel lid and closed lids were leak-free. The jar’s bottom was rounded rather than flat, so it was a little wobbly, which made us worry we’d spill its contents when filling the jar with juice to make a smoothie or milk to make a milkshake.

These fairly small and narrow jars were easy to load and accommodated enough ingredients for a single-serving smoothie or a small batch of dressing, but when it came to actually blending, this model was relatively sluggish. Kale tended to get stuck at the top of the jar, and it was slow to mix up a milkshake. The tiny spouts on the travel lids were hard to drink from. 

This model’s narrow jars could accommodate enough volume for a smoothie or milkshake, but their slender shape made it difficult to thoroughly incorporate the ingredients. Another complaint: It lacks a travel lid, and even when the solid lid was twisted on, it leaked. 

Not only were the very narrow jars difficult and time-consuming to load, but they trapped food; testers had to stop frequently to shake or stir contents that got stuck. Although the travel lid was leakproof, it had a petite drinking spout and a swinging arm that bumped against our foreheads.

Like other skinny jars, this one was hard to fill, trapped ingredients, and was slow to blend. And because it’s tinted blue, we struggled to see if it was blending smoothly or not. We liked the leakproof closure on the travel lid.

Because this cheap model’s blade is permanently attached to the bottom of the jar, it stays at the bottom of the cup once it’s converted to a travel mug (a feature we found odd, but not dangerous). The blades consist of just four stumpy prongs, which explains why they struggled with every single task. Worse, the machine has only a pulse button, so testers were forced to press for several minutes. Its lid leaked.

The built-in blade at the bottom of this jar was short, stubby, and ineffective, so this blender produced mediocre results in every test. Its stainless-steel construction obscures the contents from view, which meant that we frequently had to stop blending to remove the lid and check the blender’s progress. Its lid leaked. 

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This sleek, pricey blender wowed us with its ability to quickly turn fibrous kale and pineapple into luscious smoothies and effortlessly incorporate chopped herbs into a smooth dressing. It’s relatively quiet and comes with three leakproof lids for various occasions: a travel lid that was easy to drink from, a lid with a handle loop for easy carrying, and a closed lid that felt secure when jostled in a backpack. It has one button in the back to power on the machine and one in the front to start blending; you hold the front button for a second to begin extended blending or you can press it quickly to pulse. As with other models, we had to stir milkshakes halfway through for the ingredients to fully incorporate. Its jar took a little more attention to clean, as it had ridges with crevices that trapped food.

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Thanks to its U-shaped pitchers and sharp, six-pronged blades that angle both up and down, this pricey model was among the quickest and most effective at every blending task—which compensated for the fact that users must continuously hold down the pitcher to engage the motor. Its travel lid was well designed, with a comfortable drinking spout and a hinged arm that seals tight with an audible snap. One defect: It’s as noisy as it is powerful.

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Although this blender’s U-shaped pitchers look much like our winner’s and also feature six-pronged blades, they were a bit less sharp and were slower to blend fibrous kale (milkshakes and salad dressing were no problem). Once engaged, the motor conveniently runs and allows the user to walk away. Neither of its travel lids—a solid one that has to be removed entirely for drinking and a twist-on ring with a handle—is convenient or practical on the go.

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The wide, bullet-shaped pitchers were easy to load, but the performance was inconsistent: We occasionally encountered clumps of ice cream or mayonnaise that did not get fully incorporated, and more than once it took almost a full minute to thoroughly blend a smoothie. Its drinking lid has a wide, comfortable spout and seals tight, but the rest of the lids were superfluous.