After selecting my immersion blender and shopping around on the CSN Stores website quite a bit, I wanted to share a couple of features that I especially appreciate. One of the first things is that they have an option where you can ask them to price match a product if you've found it for less elsewhere (including shipping costs). They may not always be able to price match exactly, but my experience is that they are usually willing to come down closer to the competitor's price, which is great! I don't know of any other websites willing to do that!
The other feature that I especially like is that if an item that you'd like to purchase is currently out-of-stock, you can have them email you as soon as they get more in their warehouse. I used this feature to buy my Cuisinart immersion blender and, a week or two later, once it was back in stock, I got an email and was able to make my transaction. I really appreciated it, because it saved me the trouble of having to go back every few days and see if the status had been updated. Of course I could have selected a different item that was in-stock, but I really wanted this specific one.
Why? Well, for starters, at $32.95, it's priced pretty squarely between the cheapest blenders ($15-ish) and the top-notch ones ($70+). I foresee using my blender mostly for soups, so I don't need anything extremely heavy-duty, but I also didn't want something that was going to break or burn or smoke (!) while I am using it. I've also found Cuisinart to be a pretty reliable name brand.
When it arrived recently (very well packaged, too, might I add), I was able to see, up-close and personal, how well-made this blender was. Now, I've never used any other stick blender, but because the blending element on this one is all metal (as opposed to many of the other cheaper kinds that are fully plastic) it comes with some heft. I was really surprised when I pulled it out of the box and it was over a foot long! Still, it's much more compact than a full-size blender and with so much less to clean up afterward! That is one of my main reasons for wanting one!
So far, I've only whipped up a pot of black bean soup with it, and it took care of the job with ease that left me very happy with my decision!
Find the Cuisinart SmartStick Hand Blender at CSNStores.com.
this is neat! how do you get the opportunity to review products? like, was it free because you reviewed it for them? and the picture of it is with what looks like stuff to make a smoothie with :) just wondering if you'd ever made one before because I am contemplating a juicer, but if this makes smoothies, that's healthy too! ;)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Stephanie! Yes, this immersion blender also works pretty well for smoothies. It doesn't work as great as a food processor would, but as long as you don't mind a random chunk or two, I would recommend this especially because it's so, so easy to clean! I use it for tons of things.
ReplyDeleteI did receive this product to review from CSN in exchange for writing my review. They used to team up with bloggers a lot but from what I understand, they've really limited doing that although you could always contact them and see if any of that has changed.