I could quickly sum up this review of the Cuisinart Smart Stick Hand Blender by describing it in one word:  Fantastic!  But I will say a bit more about it since I love it so much!

I received this stick blender from the CSN stores in order to do a review of one of their products – thank you very much CSN!  Like I mentioned in my previous review of my Cuisinart Quick Prep Stick Blender, I wasn’t too happy with it’s performance.

A few things that I don’t like about the Quick Prep blender are:

• It never really got the soup or smoothie really smooth and bits of food would get stuck in the plastic surrounding the blade.
• It was a pain to clean because the blade doesn’t detach from the motor.
• Plastic instead of stainless steel.

However, my new Smart Stick blender – the one pictured above – really performs so much better than it’s little brother.

The number one great thing about the Smart Stick Blender compared to the Quick Prep Blender is that it actually gets the food smooth!  Plus, food doesn’t get stuck in the holds on the side of blender like the Quick Prep.  When I make smoothies with it, it blends up the fruit quickly and very smoothly – so yummy!  My smoothies made with the Quick Prep were always a bit lumpy.   Because of this, my son was never very fond of them – go figure!  But yesterday I made a smoothie with the Smart Stick and he said, “I do really love this smoothie, mom!”

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Their logo really says it all. Shopping is easy and I love the fact that I can find what I am looking for at the CSN stores at such great prices.  You can find a wide variety of merchandise such as Le Creuset dutch ovens to beds and baby blankets.  I also love websites like CSN stores that allow their customers to write reviews of the products so that I can read them and get a feel for the product through the eyes of someone who has already used it.  Because of this one feature, I usually end up buying most of our household items online.

For the times I don’t read reviews and make a really informed choice before handing over my cash, I do sometimes end up with something I am not extremely happy about.  Last winter I bought a Cuisinart Quick Prep stick blender from Sear’s and I thought it would do the job.  My old one had been recently retired and I didn’t realize at the the time that stick blenders are not created equal!

Here is a picture of the stick blender that I have.  First of all I should have followed my intuition and purchased a blender with metal around the blade because I use the blender for blending up soups and have been steering away from using plastic.  But for whatever reason, I purchased this one.

The other thing that simply does not thrill me about this blender is that bits of food constantly get stuck inside the little holes around the base of the “blade shield.”  I can’t really blend up pea soup or plum smoothies without a mess of unblended food getting stuck in these holes.  This results in having to bang the stick blender against the pot or cup numerous times before it eventually gets blended.  And sometimes, even then, it is not as smooth as I’d like it.

So!  I have decided to take up CSN’s offer for me to review one of their products so that I can try out a new stick blender.  So, keep an eye out for a review of a different stick blender!

By the way, if you don’t have a stick blender, please consider buying one.  They make your life in the kitchen so much easier (when you have a good one).  Some of them even have an attachment for chopping nuts as well as whisking liquids.  I find it so much easier to pull out the stick blender than the food processor or counter blender for smaller jobs.  And it’s great to use for creaming soups because you don’t have to transfer the hot liquid to a blender – which can be somewhat dangerous.