The best bullet blenders: is the new 'smart' NutriBullet Balance a step up?
A bullet blender is my breakfast weapon of choice. Unlike larger counter-top blenders for blitzing in bulk, an easy-to-store, compact blender allows you to create a delicious, health-conscious morning smoothie or protein shake directly into a hand-held beaker, to carry with you as you go about your day.
Sipping a smoothie in a travel cup is an easier way to digest fruit and veg than chomping on carrot and cucumber sticks at 7am, and a personal blender allows you to speedily pulverise your chosen ingredients.
These might include fresh or frozen vegetables, berries, nuts, seeds, spices and oats, paired with liquids such as milk, juice, yogurt, coconut water or almond milk (you’ll find our guide to the best NutriBullet breakfast recipes to try here). You get the picture – the possibilities are endless.
The best bullet blenders also enable you to make soups to heat up later, as well as sauces and desserts. If the blade is doing its job well, it shouldn’t matter if you chuck in certain whole fruits or vegetables without peeling them. If you have a small kitchen, a compact blender could easily be the only blender you’ll ever need.
Blenders – which typically retain more goodness than juicers – are now synonymous with the NutriBullet, which went mainstream a few years ago. But there are plenty of options on the market, and the technology is pushing forward: NutriBullet have now released the Balance, an update to their original blender that pairs with an app on your phone to analyse the nutritional content of your smoothie. Whiz-bang.
So, is the NutriBullet Balance better than the standard bestselling models? And is NutriBullet still the best buy in bullet blender world? When testing, I took into account factors including ease of use, smart technology, special features, price, power and speed, capacity and the success of my smoothies into account.
Here’s my pick of the best compact bullet blenders, tried and tested...
1. NutriBullet Balance
Why we like it: The NutriBullet Balance surpassed expectations – health-conscious foodies can access hundreds of recipes via an app, calculating and tracking nutritional content with no need to measure or weigh
The NutriBullet Balance takes a very good product – the original NutriBullet – and makes it that little bit better by adding (genuinely useful) smart functionality, including an in-built weighing scale to perfect your smoothie.
First, let's start with the product that sits on your countertop. It looks sleek and streamlined. As with all blenders, some noise is inevitable, but despite a 1200w motor (one of the most powerful on the market, matched only by a few other brands), its nowhere near as offensively loud and thunderous as slower, less efficient competitors.
The app recommends a standard blending time of 45 seconds to produce a silky-textured smoothie, but I found the blade to take just 30 seconds or so to suffice on rushed mornings.
Sadly, as with all bullet blenders, it's best to rinse and clean the blades and beakers immediately after use with warm soapy water to prevent congealing (a sponge-on-a-stick is your friend, should your nut butter cool and stick to the sides).
There's really no getting around this, no matter which bullet blender you go for. Dishwashers can damage blade attachments so the blade is always best washed in the sink, and while cups, lids, and lip rings tend to be dishwasher safe, you still have to rinse them first anyway.
If things get really bad and you end up with a coagulated mess, you can fill your cup with warm water and washing up liquid, screw on the extractor blade, and run your NutriBullet for 20-30 seconds to loosen stuck-on ingredients. The technique works well, I found.
Finally, because the power base is electric (and the same goes for most bullet blenders), you have to unplug it first and carefully use a damp sponge to clean it (it should never be submerged in water). I'd also note at this point that you should never blend hot ingredients or liquids, as this can be dangerous.
So far, this is all very standard – but the NutriBullet Balance really stands out because of the app it pairs with.
Linking to the free NutriBullet balance app via BlueTooth (available on the App Store or Google Play) proved easier than I thought – and it opened the doors to a wider world of blending. Among the many added functions are real-time nutritional data, an impressive number of recipes, and a recipe creation tool that comes up with concoctions based on what's already in your larder.
The nutritional data part is hugely helpful if you're watching your waistline or working hard in the gym. For example, if you fill your beaker with 480ml coconut water, 40g cashews, 50g cucumber, 110g pineapple, 30g kale and crushed ice, it will calculate that the smoothie contains just 308 calories, 8g of fat, 36g carbohydrates and 11g protein.
How does it know that? Easy: the appliance weighs as you tip them in. And the app shows the progress in real time: so, if you're tipping in, say, blueberries, you’ll see a purple line moving up to the top of the ingredient block on the graphic. It will bleep when you’ve put enough blueberries in, just like magic: no measuring cups or weighing scales required.
Once the beaker is filled with your ingredients, you simply flip it upside down, attach the blade, and push it into the base while twisting to the right. A timer suggests how long to blend for. After that, it’s ready to drink.
The beauty of all this is that the app takes the guesswork out of blending – I found it particularly useful for making sure smoothies don’t end up overly sugary, but are still tasty. Usually, I just chuck them in and it’s pot luck whether the results will be pleasant and balanced or not.
I was also impressed how I could make choices based on my personal dietary preferences. You can set wellness goals and dietary restrictions via the “virtual nutritionist” tab, which has options specifically for weight loss friendly, diabetic friendly, FODMAP, sports performance, heart health and energy boosting drinks.
It’s worth noting that NutriBullet is supposed to be better than competitors nutritionally, because the blade is designed for optimum nutrient extraction. Sadly, that wasn't something I could put to the test in my at-home laboratory (also known as my kitchen).
As for quibbles, I wasn't too keen on the two 946ml “colossal cups” that come with the blender, for supping on the go. These felt too large to carry around; and I wasn’t able to find smaller NutriBullet Balance attachments to buy.
Overall though, I was impressed – the NutriBullet Balance is an upgrade on my previous blender and has helped me to sustain a healthier lifestyle and improve my eating habits. It proved to be a useful tool to monitor my diet.
2. Salter Nutripro Multi-Purpose 1200w nutrient extractor blender
Why we like it: We found the Salter NutriPro to be a good match for the NutriBullet – at half the price
British cookware brand Salter’s take on a bullet blender is half the price of NutriBullet's standard model (see below) and a third of the price of the NutriBullet Balance, but still promises to afford a healthier lifestyle and make consuming nutrient-extracted smoothies easy.
Like the NutriBullet Balance, it has a high power of 1200w, which makes it speedy – and the one litre blending cup makes enough smoothies for two (useful for couples or small families). We liked it so much, in fact, that we preferred it to the original NutriBullet.
The blade is strong enough to crush ice, as well as extract nutrients and vitamins. In fact, the blade works well for chopping (nuts and chocolate), grating (cheese and breadcrumbs), mixing (for batter and dips), making sauces (such as vinaigrettes and salad dressings), and for frozen blending (think ice, frozen fruit and ice cream). The recipes suggested in the book have jaunty names, like Pumpkin Powerhouse, Skip to the Beet and Sweet Dream Elixir.
I tried the Citrus Aid on a sluggish morning, with ginger, honey, orange, lemon, lime, ginger and water, without bothering to peel the fruit (I was feeling particularly lazy, so I just blended the orange, lemons and limes in their skins ), and it produced a zingy, refreshing elixir with minimal bits within about 20 seconds. Next time, I might add broccoli for more of a health boost.
As well as the 1 litre blending cup, it comes with a "NutriPro" blender power base unit, two 800ml blending cups in which to blend and carry slightly smaller portions, two drinking lids for sipping, and two storage lids (in case you want to save some for later). The blending cups are proudly BPA free (a plastic chemical which many people prefer to avoid).
While in the course of testing the best bullet blenders, I became an unfettered NutriBullet fan (albeit about five years late to the party, having used a less powerful Breville blender previously). But the Salter version really gives the beloved brand a run for its money and does the same job incredibly well. Aesthetically, it might not be quite as swish, but given how good the Salter is (they're very similar in terms of speed and noise), at this prince point it really is an attractive buy.
3. Nutribullet 1000 Series 9 piece blender
Why we like it: the original style NutriBullet still has much to recommend it – without the extra faff and screen time associated with the NutriBullet Balance
So, how does the NutriBullet 1000 series – an upgrade on the original bullet, but without the smart sensor technology and app connectivity – match up to the NutriBullet Balance?
The core mechanism here is the same, so the 1000 should extract the same nutritional content as the Balance – although the engine is less powerful, at 1,000 watts. Still, that's enough to make short work of raw veg; I found my smoothies ran smooth in a matter of seconds.
Because it has fewer features to think about it, it’s easier to get going (if you loathe screen time, it’s probably the better option for you). All you have to do is load your ingredients into the flask, blend and drink.
It also comes with an 820ml insulated stainless steel cup, which will keep your “NutriBlasts” cold for up to eight hours (handy for long car journeys).
The nine-piece kit consist of the power base, one 930ml beaker (a NutriBullet “colossal cup” with a hand grip), the insulated steel cup, one flip top lid, one extractor blade and a comfort lip ring for drinking straight from the beaker. All are easy to replace.
Finally, there’s the user guide and recipe book. It doesn’t contain so many recipes as the Balance app, but it’s easy to seek out ideas online, or you might want to blend instinctively and come up with your own. I tried this model after going for a morning run and blended frozen cherries, a banana, a handful of oats, oat milk and some cherry and dark chocolate flavoured pea protein powder, and it worked a dream.
I liked that both beakers have a rubber grip, making them easy to hold when walking.
All in all, a seriously good piece of kit.
4. Breville Colour Mix Family Personal Blender
Why we like it: Far less powerful – but it's cheap, and it works
An upgrade on my old two piece Blend Active (£17.99, Amazon), the ColourMix Family Blender by Breville comes with two 600ml and two 300ml sports style bottles for blending on the go.
However, both models have only 300w power, making them significantly less powerful than the bullet blenders featured above. It struggles to chop things like carrots properly and takes a lot longer in general. However, it works perfectly well for a simple morning berry breakfast smoothie, and for fruits such as peeled mango and kiwi: when I tried mine out I used berries, semi-skimmed milk, Greek yoghurt and chia seeds.
It has different coloured lids so you know whose is whose (his and hers: handy if your other half has a propensity to lose theirs). It also has a whipping disc, which I was excited about, designed especially for whipping up milkshakes. As promised, it produced frothier, creamier drinks.
It also has a citrus juicer attachments, in case you want to juice oranges and lemons directly into the bottles, as well as the usual power base and standard blade attachment. The easy to grip bottles themselves are BPA free, and promise to be durable, shatterproof, odour resistant and dishwasher safe.
Really, the Breville is a starter pack for adding smoothies into your routine, but it just doesn’t have the power to blitz tougher ingredients efficiently (you’ll just about get away with things like apples, cucumber and ginger). My other criticism is that because the bottles don’t have a wide mouth and are tall and slim, it can be quite difficult to clean them after they’ve been left for a while.
5. Vitamix Ascent Blending Beaker attachments
£99, Lakeland (for use as an accessory with larger Vitamixes, such as the A3500i Ascent, £675 from Vitamix or via Lakeland)
Why we like it: Buying a countertop blender with bullet attachments could be a better option if you’re after a two-in-one buy
When Meghan Markle relocated from her native LA to Toronto, where Suits was filmed, her Vitamix went with her. "If I blend some apple, kale, spinach, lemon, and ginger in my Vitamix in the morning and bring it to work, I always find that sipping on that is a much better boost than a cup of espresso,” she told Today magazine.
But while larger Vitamixes such as the latest A3500i Ascent are great for kitchen creations of a grand scale, they’re not so good for smoothies to go – unless, that is, you buy their blending beaker attachments to go with them. This gives you all the possibilities of both the large Vitamix Ascent (for making dough and batter, frozen cocktails, soups and nut butters in bulk, as well as smoothies) and all the benefits of a personal bullet blender, too.
The 1200w A3500i Ascent is the blender I use at home to cook for a crowd and for food prep, and I was delighted with the blending beaker attachments I finally ordered, which have their own blade base and fit snugly on the same power base I already had on the countertop.
The lids are ergonomically designed – they were the most pleasant to drink from of all the bottles, beakers and flasks I tried. Personally, I prefer this option in terms of versatility when it comes to the Vitamix, and it’s easy to switch between the two – but if you really don’t want to have a larger blender taking up space, Vitamix also make the Vitamix S30 Personal Blender (£299, Curry’s).
The Ascent series may be expensive, but it comes with a 10-year warranty. And since it has the Duchess of Sussex’s seal of approval, you also get bragging rights.
6. Lakeland Personal Blender and Smoothie Maker
Why we like it: An easy to store blender with hidden features that does the job well
Lakeland’s own brand compact blender has much to recommend it. The 600ml capacity measuring jug-cum-blender has a handle and dual measurements (ml and oz), and even hides a secret 30ml measuring cup within the lid.
The blending jug isn’t so portable, but it comes with a snazzy 600ml sports-style bottle in which to pour your creation (the problem with not drinking straight from the blending jug is that you end up with double the washing up though, sadly).
This has a wattage of 350w, so it’s only slightly more powerful than the Breville and once again far less powerful than the NutriBullet and Salter.
It worked perfectly well when I made a smoothie with frozen pineapple, dessicated coconut and coconut milk, though fresh pineapple may have been quicker and smoother.
The overall design is compact, so it’s a good blender for one person to use in a small kitchen. It has both an on/off button for continuous blending, and a pulse button.
