At the beginning of December last year our old, all singing, all dancing blender finally gave up the ghost after a long life. Aware that the weather was pretty awful and knowing that around Christmas when I have a bit of extra time I love making soups I decided to get myself a reasonably priced blender just to tide us over until new year when I knew my mum was likely to buy a better, new blender.


After buying a couple of appliances from the Tesco Value range previously, I decided to have a look as they're usually really good but just don't look that pretty, but I don't mind this as my blender usually stays in the drawer and I just get it out to use it every now and again. The Tesco Value HB07 Hand Blender retails for just £4.18 in stores and online, which by anyone's standards is an incredibly low price.


The Hand Blender is perfect for any novice, it's straight out of the box, a quick wash, plugged straight in and ready to go. As I've mentioned before the design isn't amazing but it does the job, it's not something that's going to sit out on the counter anyway. It's a basic plastic white model with a darker grey soft touch on/ off button.


The blender has an output of 150w, I'm no expert but I know this isn't very high; however I've never had problems blending. There's only one speed setting but it's a basic blender and for basic everyday needs it works perfectly. I've never had any problems with the blender over heating or cutting out, which I've found to be a common problem amongst other hand blenders I've used.


My only gripe is that often the blender isn't powerful enough- it is under a fiver though so I wasn't expecting miracles. I use my hand blender for soups and smoothies as it's a lot easier than getting out the big blender, especially if I'm just making a soup for one or two people. I find that once most veg is cooked its soft enough to be blended, however sometimes it does help if smaller pieces are used. Fruit is more difficult, I prefer softer fruits anyway, banana and strawberry smoothie being my favourite but when I have tried to blend small chunks of pear before the blender wasn't happy at all.


Overall, Tesco have a great value product here, it's not amazing but it's cheap and does the job. Basic needs can be met with this basic piece of equipment, it doesn't do much but it's worth a lot more than a fiver!