Oh you little smoothie you. (Kenwood New York Smoothie Maker)

Name: kimking

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Product:	Kenwood New York Smoothie Maker
Date:	15/03/04 (1086 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A good blender

Disadvantages: No safety features.

At Christmas I like to buy my son and his partner a joint present as well as something personal. The joint one I rather prefer to ask them what they would like as it is often something that would be useful when Adam has qualified in his trade, Lisa has finished her university degree and they can finally afford to move from my home into one of their own.

Last year when I asked them what they wanted the reply was a ?Kenwood New York Smoothie Maker?. My first reaction was to explain that in my opinion it was simply a glorified liquidiser and I already had one of them on my food possessor. Of course in their view this was nowhere near the same so as it was their pressie, off I went in search of said item.

I found these were very easy to track down; they were on sale in Argos, Tessco, Sainsburys, Comet and many many more out lets. The price hovered around the 35-40 pound mark in most shops but I bought theirs for £34.50 in Comet.

One of the first things that struck me was just how light the complete package was when I carried it out to the car, as it was quite a large box. When I got it home I open the box to check all was well before wrapping so to avoid any upset on Christmas day.

I found the box to be well packed but not over packaged, just enough cardboard to keep every thing in place. The first thing I pulled out was a rather thin yet adequate booklet giving operation instructions and a couple of recipes for making smoothies, then the smoothie maker its self which when put together stood at 15 inches tall and measured 8x7 ½ inches around and a long black stick thing with a bulbous handle on one end.

The base had four small buttons on it; the one on the left had the word ?pulse? written underneath it, this is for mixing softer fruit etc. The other three buttons are on the
right hand side and are, the off button to stop the machine, then mix, to mix the mixture and you use this to crush ice etc. then the smooth button to give that lovely smooth texture to the drink.

The buttons were a good size and could be operated by easily by stiff or disabled hands. The base, which houses the powerful 450W motor, looked very smart and elegant in beautiful chrome but was a let down because it was all just made of plastic. It stood sturdy and evenly on the worktop, supported by four strong rubber feet to give a good grip and prevent slipping.

The funnel shaped goblet, which looked like glass but was only plastic, was large and had indicator marks for 2 and 4 servings and a measure indicator with marked measures up to 1500 ml, it also indicates levels for frozen foods and liquids. On the bottom of the goblet is a dispenser tap to help you serve your smoothie with ease, while inside are the four strong stainless steel chopping blades that can easily chop even ice to a pulp.

The black lid (also plastic) fitted well but I did find this a little fiddly and think maybe not so good for people with stiff hands. It has a large hole in the top, this has a couple of functions the first being to add the ingredients while the machine is in operation, the second being to poke the easy grip bulbous stick in, to push the food that gets stuck to the side of the goblet, there is a small clear plastic cap that fits over the hole when not using it, again I found this fiddly to put in and out.

All seemed well, present and correct so I wrapped it up and placed it under the tree and it was gratefully received on at Christmas, they tried it out almost immediately firstly using the recipes in the booklet before becoming more adventurous and then on to the stage where no food was safe if left unattended.

The machine handled crushing ice with the greatest of ease, it was
very easy to operate and quite straightforward. The bulbous stick did prove its worth by pushing food down onto the blades and the finished smoothies poured easily and quickly from the goblet through the dispenser tap.

To make a smoothie using this machine first you take your ingredients, peel and chop them into chunks. If you are going to use ice cubes it is best to put these into the blender and crush them using the mix button for about 10 seconds first, then add the rest of the ingredients and press mix for about 8-10 seconds. Lastly press and hold the smooth button for about another 10-15 seconds to produce and lovely smooth textured drink.

You can make all different kinds of smoothie, for a healthy drink smooth fresh fruit and water, to make it a little more creamy add yoghurt and for that really naughty taste of decadence use ice cream, milk or even fresh cream. Mmmmm.

The machine was very noisy when in operation so not much good for use when a sleeping baby is around, but the whole thing it easy to take apart for washing, the whole of the goblet can be submerged in hot soapy water and washes easily.

All in all my opinion of ?Kenwood New York Smoothie Maker? is although it does nothing a normal liquidiser cannot do, it does do all it promises and if you like smoothies then it could be a good purchase and well worth the money, although I think I?ll be sticking to my food processor. Homemade smoothies are of course much healthier than most shop bought ones and a lot cheaper.

There are downs side however, I?m really unhappy about the safety of this machine, with it being used to make something young children would enjoy I feel it should have some kind of safety device to prevent it from being used while the lid is removed, it has none and a small child could be tempted to place their hand inside the goblet to push down or retrieve a piece
of strawberry or such while the sharp blades are rotating.

These blades are strong enough to puree ice cubes, what they could do to a small child?s hand doesn?t bare thinking about and we all know how quick children can do these things even while being supervised. I have written to Kenwood to make my feelings known about this. Also was quite disappointed to see that the blades cannot be removed fro washing, although it?s easy enough to wash, I think you should be able to remove the blades to be sure of complete cleaning.

Kenwood have a well-presented web site where you can get lots of details of all their products including the smoothie maker, there are also many recipes to use with all of their appliances.

Adam and Lisa have now found a new past time, they make lots of boozy smoothies, then pour them into the ice-cream maker their gran bought them for Christmas, they now have a freezer full of delicious boozy ice creams and sorbets.

Recommended if you don?t have a liquidiser.

My favourite smoothie: -

Milk 250 ml
Coconut milk 150 ml
Vanilla ice cream150 g
Bananas 2
Pineapple chunks 200g can
White rum, good couple of slugs

Mix until smooth. Yum!

Thanks for reading.

Kim.

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