The Best Personal Blenders

Our top choice is a truly impressive machine. Its powerful motor blitzes even the toughest, densest, and most fibrous ingredients into the finest, smoothest drinks, dressings, and sauces within seconds. And it’s incredibly easy to use, with a simple power switch and a single button that lets you either pulse ingredients or blend them for a longer cycle. It has one of the largest capacities we’ve encountered for a personal blender, too, which makes it useful for producing several smoothies or milkshakes at once. A few tiny quibbles: As with many of the models we’ve tested, we found we needed to scrape down milkshake ingredients in order to get them all blended, though this was the only application where this was required. And because the jar is ribbed, it’s a bit harder both to clean and to scrape out your blended drinks or sauces completely.

The first model from Beast to come with a stainless-steel blending jar, this is ideal for those who want to avoid plastic. The set also includes a 4-cup plastic blending jar (one cup bigger than the Beast 1200’s). In testing, the blender was quick, powerful, and effective. However, because stainless steel is not transparent like plastic or glass, we had to pause, check the contents of the jar, and start blending again more frequently.. On the plus side, the double-walled steel construction will keep contents chilled on the go, unlike plastic. This is a deluxe version of our winning blender, perfect for the plastic-averse or for the serious user who wants plenty of options and accessories. The inclusion of two larger-than-average jars allows this personal blender to tackle more full-sized blender tasks, while still excelling at making a smoothie for one.

This handsome blender is a stellar performer. While its wattage is lower than that of some other models we’ve tested, it made some of the most incredibly fine-textured smoothies, dressing, and milkshakes we’ve seen yet. It’s easy to operate, with a simple power switch and a single button that lets you start blending, stop, or pulse the food inside. It’s also fairly quiet. All lids screwed on impressively tightly, ensuring that we never spilled a drop on the go. We had just one small quibble: The model’s jar is ribbed on the inside, which makes it a touch harder to clean than smooth-sided jars. (While we appreciated the fact that this model comes with cleaning brushes, we’d prefer not to have to use them!)

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.

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.

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. 

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.