I take back everything I said about bullet blenders - Tefal's beats them all

Traditionally, bullet blenders have always been the go-to for gym bunnies who love their smoothies. Beyond that, they can be limited, loud, and lacking in longevity. Tefal has turned all that on its head and made a bullet blender that blows everyone else’s out of the water (or soups and smoothies, given the subject matter).

The best blenders, especially for crushing ice, working quietly, and making soups have always been bigger, more expensive models. And yet, as you will see, with every test that I put the Tefal Blend Up through, it scored full marks for speed and noise levels. It’s almost too good to believe, except I saw it with my own eyes.

I have since used this every day to work through all my blending tasks — of which there are many — and I have to share them with you. I haven’t been this excited about a blender in a long time. 

Tefal Blend Up Specifications

Unboxing the Tefal Blend Up

The Tefal Blend Up looks like it comes in a big box for its size, but it’s just really well packaged. There is some plastic, but it’s made from some recycled materials and Tefal recommends finding recycling points to dispose of the single use plastic in a sustainable way. It’s nice to see them making the effort. 

Inside the box you get a big blending cup (850ml), a small one (450ml), a cleaning tool, a recipe guide, the base station, and lids for both the blending cups. That’s a great little set up for the blender and it’ll really help to get the most out of the Tefal. Overall, it’s a great start. 

Who would the Tefal Blend Up suit?

The first thing I have to mention is quiet mode. If you blend early in the morning or you have an open plan kitchen with people chatting in, you don’t want to bring the house down with the sound of ice crushing and smoothie making at 6am. I was skeptical that this would do anything, after all, there are very few truly quiet blenders on the market, but the team and I were really impressed with the difference. We had to shout to be heard over the 72 dB smoothie noise, but in quiet mode, none of us had to raise a voice over the 34 dB it produced. To give you a gauge of this, it’s louder than a lm electric toothbrush, but quieter than a coffee machine. Much quieter, actually. 

The Tefal Blend Up also claims to be the first mini blender with culinary functions, which makes it really handy if you’re after a small, bullet blender, but one that can make more than smoothies. This has capacity for nut milks, cold soup, dips, crunched ice (it’s actually the first bullet blender that I’ve ever used which can crush ice), and more. 

You’re also helped out by travel lids, which make this not just versatile in function, but also in where you can go. if you’re a gym bunny or busy person that needs to take their coffees with them on the go, this is a brilliant, simple blender. 

What is the Tefal Blend Up like to use?

The Tefal is really easy to get blending with. You’ll have two different sizes of blending cups, a 850ml and a 450ml, which both have lids. These screw onto a blade base, which locks onto the blender. On the blender station, you’ve got a dial with all the different pre-sets — smoothie, crushed ice, quiet, dip, sauce, nut milk, cold soup, and pulse — which you press and then touch the middle button to start. These are auto-timed, so you won’t need to keep an eye on the blender. You can just let it run and do whatever other jobs that need attending to and then come back to it when you need to. 

Test 1: smoothies and protein shakes

I start all my blender tests with smoothies, not just because I live my life by consuming smoothies, but because they’re a great test for any blender. My classic tests involves frozen blueberries (these are icy and have tough skin), raspberries (to test seeds), oats (to test fibre), spinach (to test more tough skin), and almond milk (to help things along). I whizzed all this with a banana (for flavour) and got a really nice smoothie in exactly one minute. There wasn’t a seed, grain, lump, or fibre in sight. 

Given that this test had gone well, I thought I would see what happened when I added a scoop of protein powder in the mix. This can make things go a bit lumpy — and that’s at the best of times — so it’s a test that I always like to run. I added in my scoop of protein and the smoothie stayed, well, smooth. I guess it’s in the name. The protein powder didn’t cling to the edge and I didn’t end up with any powdery lumps in my drink. All in all, it was a great success. 

Test 2: dips and hummus

This is a tougher test, because there’s a lot less liquid in dips, which doesn’t always help when you have a bullet blender with small blades at the bottom of the cup. Nonetheless, it’s a test that I run on all my blenders, so it’s only fair that the Tefal has to face it too. 

I tipped a cup of chickpeas, a teaspoon of cumin, a squeeze of lemon juice, tahini, and a pinch of salt into the blender and set it running in the dip setting. Whilst it wasn’t as quick as the smoothie function, I did see some smooth hummus being made close to the blades. The top section of my hummus remained pretty untouched, so I gave the blender a shake and a rattle around, as well as a quick stir. This is pretty normal levels of involvement for a bullet blender, because they’re not really made for dips. However, with my token interference, I managed to get a really decent hummus. There was a little more texture than your average shop-bought dip, but it was scoopable, well blended, and still really delicious. 

I followed this up with wild garlic pesto, salsa, and guacamole, all made in the Tefal, and got really great results. These softer ingredients whizzed up into smooth, delicious dips really effortlessly, so you could definitely use this for dips and sauces.

Test 3: crushed ice

Before I started this test, I have to confess that I said to the team “this won’t work.” I’ve only had success truly crushing ice in models that are ten times the price and size of the Tefal and yet, to my shock, this misted ice like some of the best blenders I’ve tested. I still don’t know what magic is behind the Tefal, but it’s seriously good stuff. Get the frozen cocktails ready. 

Test 4: soup

Bullet blenders can’t traditionally be used to make soup. I won’t go into the science of it (not my area of expertise), but you need your ingredients to be cool so that you don’t crack or explode your blender. With cool peas, mint, cooled stock, cooked (and cooled) garlic and onion, I made a delicious pea and mint soup. You can see that it was really creamy and smooth — I couldn’t have achieved better results in any other blender that I’ve tested. 

Cleaning the Tefal Blend Up

Tefal says that the blending cups are all dishwasher safe, so if you want to, you can put yours in the dishwasher and clean it that way. Alternatively, you can wash these really easily by hand. Tefal gives you a clever brush that gets under the blades of the blender really effectively and can clear right to the base of the blending cup if you’re struggling to reach some smoothie. The control dial on the front of the Tefal will also need a wipe and polish, especially if you have food on your hands, but it doesn’t show up dirt as much as other control panels are prone to. 

How does the Tefal Blend Up compare?

I’m yet to test another portable blender that is as quiet as this. I also haven’t tested one that crushes ice as well either, so if those are your priorities, you don’t even need to consider another model. However, if you want to see what else is out there for you and your smoothies, there are some options worth trying. Most notably, there’s the NutriBullet Pro 900. This classic design is simplicity at its finest: push and twist to get a delicious smoothie. It offers more capacity and a super simple set-up, although you do lose the timer that will automatically stop blending with the Tefal Blend Up and the pulse options. The NutriBullet is really well priced for what it is though, so it’s also a winner if you’re looking to save some money on your smoothie habit. 

Should you buy the Tefal Blend Up?

I’ve been really impressed with the Tefal Blend Up. It offers some exceptional functions that other bullet blenders really can’t compete with. It’s quiet, versatile, and really stylish, so if you’re blending for one or two people, you don’t need to look any further. 

How we test

At woman&home, all the blenders that you see reviewed have been through exactly the same set of tasks. I score them on what they are like to use, their appearance, settings, and value for money. Then, I have a series of real-life tasks, designed to emulate your day-to-day life, that I put them through. I make smoothies and protein shakes — because what’s a blender without smoothies — as well as dips, crushed ice, and soup if it will let me. I’ll clean it and let you know if that’s an easy process (some models don’t let you submerge the blender) and then compare it to similar models on the market so you know whether you’re getting value for money. After that, you should be pretty clued up on the blender, but if you still have questions, don’t hesitate to ask me about them.

If you want to know more about how we test blenders, you can visit our dedicated page.