Blenders
Sally took her Vita-Mix down to her boyfriend’s house today, which gave me the golden opportunity/excuse to buy myself a new blender :) After doing a ton of research online, I decided on the Waring PBB or MBB, whichever I could find locally. (I wanted to make Dan a margarita tonight and didn’t want to wait for Amazon to ship anything). They’re in the $120 range, but get great reviews and have a lovely retro look. Plus they have two speeds – low and high. I do not want a cheap-tastic plastic blender with 45 useless buttons. I want a solid sturdy glass/metal blender that will make fruit smoothies on weekday mornings and strawberry margaritas on weekend nights, both of which drinks require the ability to handle hunks of frozen fruit.
So I checked online to see which local stores might carry such a blender. No luck. Called Waring to ask if they knew who carried their blenders — they suggested Williams-Sonoma or Macy’s. Called both stores — no luck, but it didn’t really seem as if the customer service people had any clear idea of what they actually DID carry, so I decided to drive around and try my luck in the (gasp) mall.
No store there carried any Waring blenders of any description. No store carried ANY Kara-acceptable blenders. Finally I went to Target, thinking I’d just try ONE more store. Target had a $60 Oster in the same basic form as the Waring — a 1950s stainless-steel beehive shape and a single toggle switch – off, pulse, and on. And a glass blender jar! And the box boasted sturdy metal construction, etc. So I took a chance on it.
It makes a fine margarita, handling frozen berries with ease. The design of the lid leaves a lot to be desired, though. With an accidentally firm push, you can pop the center bit right out and into the whirling contents below.
I was considering returning it after the weekend and ordering the Waring from amazon but… I’ll probably just follow the path of least resistance and keep my Oster.