Fresh home-made smoothies have become a favourite in Kiwi households and our love for blending up ingredients to create healthy drinks requires some decent kitchen hardware!
Oster is the #1 blender brand in the United States and it recently launched three blenders in New Zealand. Ange took their FitBlend for a road test to see if it’s as easy and convenient as they say it is!
The sales pitch
This compact personal blender has been specially designed with fitness in mind. The FitBlend personal blender features a soft grip rubber wrap and handle perfect for attaching to the gym bag for fresh drinks on-the-go. The one-touch blending action quickly and simply pulverises fresh ingredients into healthy blends.
Road test results
I tried the FitBlend out over the course of three weeks, using it to make smoothies for breakfasts and snacks, and to blend protein drinks following fitness training sessions.
To create a smoothie, you fill a sports bottle with ingredients, screw the blade attachment to the top of the bottle (where the lid would normally go), flip the bottle upside down and place onto the blender base taking care to line up arrows on the bottle and base for it to work correctly.
The blender starts by either just pressing the bottle downwards onto the base, or you can press it down and twist to lock it into the base for hands-free blending.
To stop blending, you either stop pressing downwards or twist it to unlock and release.
To take the bottle away with you, all you have to do is flip the bottle back up the right way, unscrew the blade attachment and replace it with a bottle lid.
The FitBlend also has a self-cleaning function to clean bottles and blades after use. You can do this by filling a bottle halfway with warm water and a little detergent, screwing the blade attachment onto it and run the blender as you normally would when creating a smoothie before rinsing the parts under running water.
Pros
- It blends frozen fruit and ice cubes finely without leaving big frozen chunks in your smoothies.
- Protein powder and loose rolled oats blend in well without creating floury pockets throughout your drinks.
- Being able to easily blend your smoothie, change out the lid and have it ready to go means it’s a great breakfast option if you’re time-poor or struggle to get out of bed in the morning and end up short on food prep time.
- The self-cleaning process is really quick and easy (much easier than scrubbing out a full blender jug!).
Cons
Not too many to name here:
- Although the FitBlend comes with two bottles, it’s best suited to making individual personal smoothies which can make it a bit slower if you need to make one for your partner or friend as well (as you need to divide the ingredients into each of the bottles separately before blending). If you need to make smoothies for multiple people, you may be better off with a traditional jug blender.
- After assembling the blender blades to the full bottle for blending, you need to line up arrows on the bottle and the base prior to pressing down/locking it in. While I didn’t have an issue with doing this, I have a slow cooker with a similar arrow-line-up process that a former flatmate would never pay attention to and repeatedly forcing it without the correct alignment was causing it to break. Make sure anyone else with access to your FitBlend knows how to use it!
Key features
– Powerful 350 Watt Motor
– Blends smoothies, shakes and protein drinks with ease
– 2 reuseable BPA-free sports bottles included
– Quick and convenient one-touch blending
– Spill-proof drinking lid
Where to get it
The Oster FitBlend (RRP $119.00) and other Oster blenders are available at Harvey Norman, Farmers, JB HiFi Wairau Park, Smiths City and other leading appliance stores nationwide. For more information and recipes, visit www.osterappliances.co.nz.
Note: Blender provided for reviewing by Oster
Image / Supplied (top), NZ Real Health (bottom)