Smooth..... (Cookworks Smoothie Maker)

Member Name: sandemp

Product:	Cookworks Smoothie Maker
Date:	03/08/09 (128 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Versatile, easy to clean, reasonable price (especially when in sale)

Disadvantages: Not perfect when using fibrous fruits, need to wait for hot liquids to cool

I must admit, I do like my gadgets, especially those that make my life a little easier in the kitchen. The Cookworks Smoothie Maker, was one of those 'Ooh that's sounds good' type of purchases, being basically a blender with sharp (and strong) enough blades to crush ice, I thought it would be more versatile than a bog-standard blender and at under £10 from Argos (at the time of purchase), it seemed to be worth a shot.

The smoothie maker itself is very basic white/transparent in colour and looks just like a normal blender with a tap sticking out of the front. It was very easy to fit the various parts together, and it's easy to take apart ready for cleaning. The base unit, which holds the 420 Watt motor is a lot bulkier than I was expecting, but not so large that it gets in the way. The 1.75 litre goblet is both clear and clearly marked with a guide to the capacity which makes it easy to see how much liquid is in the machine, and being made of plastic it's pretty lightweight while empty. The enclosed instruction manual is basic, but very easy to read and understand with a few simple recipes included.

In use this is simplicity itself, to make a smoothie all I need to do is add the ingredients (liquids first) and then press one of the two power buttons. Solid ingredients, however, do need to be cut into quite small chunks, there's a stirrer, which isn't really all that useful. Being two speed, means that slightly tougher or more fibrous ingredients can, in theory, be easily dealt with, and the pulse function is handy for when using thicker liquids. I've used this to make smoothies with various different fruits, ice and alcohol and I have found that when using more fibrous fruit such as mangoes the resulting drink does still have small lumps in it, while soft fruit is always blended perfectly. One small niggle is that the instructions tell me not to use the machine for more than a minute at a time, and to allow the motor to cool down for at least five minutes before reusing, there are times when a minute hasn't been long enough to blend the ingredients sufficiently.

After blending, it's easy enough to pour the drinks using the tap, which is placed high enough to place a tall glass underneath and doesn't leak when closed. I do find that with thicker liquids that the flow does slow, but a quick press on the pulse button normally gets things moving again. As I've already said, cleaning after use is simple enough, I tend to take the whole thing apart wash the goblet, lid and tap in warm soapy water, rinse, and run some clean water through the tap unit.

As well as using the Smoothie Maker to make drinks, I've also used it as a standard blender. I enjoy homemade soups, am slightly overweight and recently I watched a programme that said that eating foods that are blended into a thick, smooth consistency will keep you feeling fuller for longer. So I use this to make those soups, it does the job extremely well, but is not suitable for hot liquids so I have to wait until the cooked soup has completely cooled before blending. I do also have a hand blender, but find that I get better results with this. I've also used it to blend tomatoes ready to make a pizza sauce, and although none of my children are babies anymore, if they were I would use it to prepare baby food, and did so when a friend brought her baby over for the day.

So am I recommending you buy the Cookworks Smoothie Maker? Well if you're looking to buy either a blender or smoothie maker, then this is basic but does the job very well. The blades seem sharp enough to deal with most things I throw at it (with the exception of the more fibrous fruit and veg), smoothies are a great way of persuading the fruit-hating child to consume some of their five-a-day, there's less mess than with a hand-blender and it's fairly easy to clean. Once you've had a milkshake made with fresh bananas, milk and ice-cream you'll never want one of those powdered versions again. But I would recommend waiting until somewhere like Argos is having a sale, as I paid less than £10, which is incredible value, but it's now selling for a few pennies under £20 which is a price I would be less willing to pay.

Summary: Reasonable smoothie maker/blender