An immersion blender (also called a hand blender or a stick blender) isn’t as powerful as a countertop blender, but it can be more convenient. You can use an immersion blender to puree soup directly in the pot or to make a quick and easy mayonnaise. And you can throw it in a drawer when you’re done. We’ve blended gallons of soup, smoothies, and sauces with more than a dozen immersion blenders since 2013, and the Breville Control Grip has always come out on top. It produces smoother textures, is more comfortable to use, and comes with whipping and chopping attachments that actually work.
Top pick
This immersion blender’s ability to create smooth purees, its overall ease of use, and its well-designed extras make it worth the price.
The Breville Control Grip immersion blender thoroughly purees even fibrous soups and can blend smoothies made with ice and frozen berries into thick, frosty mixtures. It has a rubber handle and a power button that you press naturally as you grip, so it’s comfortable to hold even for long blending times. The blending wand doesn’t spatter as it purees. We also appreciate the extra-large, 42-ounce blending jar, which has a handle, clearly marked measurements, and a rubber grip to keep it firmly in place during blending. The Breville comes with both a whisk and a chopper attachment, and although it’s one of the pricier hand blenders out there, we think it’s far less likely to languish in a junk drawer than other, inconvenient offerings.
Budget pick
The Braun MQ505 pureed better than any other affordable immersion blender we tested.
The Braun MultiQuick 5 Hand Blender MQ505 rivals more expensive models at pureeing soup and smoothies thoroughly. It has a soft grip, but we found that pressing its small button for the entire blending time quickly grew fatiguing. In addition to a blending jar, the MQ505 comes with a whisk, but it doesn’t include a chopper. Although cheaper options are available, we think it’s worth paying a little more than a rock-bottom price to get a model that doesn’t spatter. The other lower-priced models in our tests were more difficult to use and splashed us with hot liquid, which wasn’t fun or easy to clean up. The Braun MQ505 was also able to pulverize ice and frozen fruit with ease compared with the competition.
Also great
You can intuitively change the speed on this blender with one hand, and it has the same great features as our budget pick, the MultiQuick 5.
If you prefer to use a variable-speed blender—which lets you adjust the speed simply by pressing more or less firmly on the control button—the Braun MultiQuick 7 Hand Blender MQ7035 is a great choice. Unlike other blenders, which require two hands to change the speed, you can use the MultiQuick 7 one-handed. This blender outperformed more expensive Braun models in our tests and gave us better control over blending soup and smoothies. It’s similar in design to the Braun MultiQuick 5, our budget pick, with a rubbery handle that’s easy to hold and a domed cover over the blade to prevent spatters.
