Choosing the right blender for the way you prepare foods is the trick. You may find you need more than one.

Which blender best suits your style and the foods you prepare? Blenders usually excel at mixing icy drinks. Stick-shaped immersion blenders are handy mostly for stirring powdered drinks or puréeing vegetables in a saucepan.

WHAT'S AVAILABLE

Blenders. Rugged construction and increased power are driving blender sales. Ice-crushing ability is one of the key attributes that shoppers look for in a blender, according to manufacturers. But appearance matters as well, since a blender is one of the appliances consumers are more likely to leave on the countertop than store in a cupboard. As a result, you'll see more colors and metallic finishes. Hamilton Beach and Oster account for about 40 percent of countertop-blender sales. Other brands include Back to Basics, Black & Decker, Braun, Cuisinart, GE, KitchenAid, Krups, Proctor-Silex, Sharp, Sunbeam, Vita-Mix, and Waring, a product pioneer. Price range: $10 to $400.

Immersion blenders. These stick-shaped handhelds with a swirling blade at the bottom are on a power trip, with models juiced up to 200 watts or more. With these devices, power seems to make more of a difference than with countertop blenders. An immersion blender in the 100-watt range didn't even have the energy to mince onions in our tests. Immersion blenders are popular for stirring soups and puréeing and chopping vegetables. Increasingly, they're being paired with accessories such as beaters, whisks, and attachments to clean baby bottles. Braun and Black & Decker are the most popular brands of handheld blenders. Price range: $10 to $100.

IMPORTANT FEATURES

Three to 16 speeds are the norm; power ratings range from about 300 to 500 or so watts. Manufacturers claim that higher wattage translates into better performance, but in our recent tests, lower-wattage models often outperformed beefier ones, turning out icy drinks faster and leaving them smoother in consistency. Three well-differentiated speeds are adequate; a dozen or more that are hard to distinguish from one another are overkill.

Containers are made of glass, plastic, or stainless steel, and have a capacity of about 5 to 8 cups. A glass container is heavier and more stable. In tests, the blenders with glass jugs tended to perform better because they didn't shake. Glass is also easier to keep clean. Plastic may scratch and is likely to absorb the smell of whatever is inside. Stainless-steel looks good, but prevents you from seeing how the blending is going.

A wide mouth makes loading food and washing easier; big and easy-to-read markings help you measure more accurately. A pulse setting lets you fine-tune blending time. Touchpad controls are easy to wipe clean. A blade that's permanently attached to the container (typical of the Warings) is harder to clean than a removable blade.

HOW TO CHOOSE

Choose the right machine for your cooking tasks. Blenders excel at puréeing soup, crushing ice, and making fruit smoothies. Most blenders we tested are competent at various tasks; most have the oomph to crush ice and are convenient to use. Choose a blender by noting the specific strengths of the models we tested.

Consider your budget. With blenders, power, performance, and price don’t always go hand in hand. In past tests, some modestly powered, inexpensive blenders turned out smooth-as-silk mixtures, while some bigger and fancier blenders left food pulpy or lumpy. Spending more for any of these appliances will typically get you touchpad controls, extra speeds and power, and perhaps designer styling or colors to match your kitchen's décor. You’ll pay more for a blender with a stainless-steel or other metallic jar than you will for one with a plastic or glass container.

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