I’ve tried a lot of great blenders over the past few years and the one major thing I’ve taken away from every review is that, if you’re going to have a blender, you really need to have a powerful blender. A powerful blender like the Ninja Intelli-Sense Duo blender can literally blend, chop, pulse, or grate anything you’d like it to, and what it can do to ice is a sight to behold.
Having a powerful blender on your counter top can make prepping a healthy drink, yummy dessert, or delicious dip as easy as pie. After using the Ninja Intelli-Sense Duo in my kitchen for a few days, I can say for certain that, no matter what you throw in it, this is a blender that will never let you down.
Here’s my take on the Ninja Intelli-Sense Duo blender.
Appearance and features of the Ninja Intelli-Sense Duo
The Ninja Intelli-Sense Duo blender is a professional blender with 1200 watts of power. This is the type of powerful blender you’d see in a smoothie shop or on the counter in a bar. It’s a solid, fairly heavy blender with a base that’s built to last.
- Includes two 24oz. blender cups with lids and one 72oz. blender pitcher
- Auto-iQ Technology with touch screen gives you one-touch blending
- 8 settings you can use for the blender pitcher and the blender cups
- Has smart vessel recognition so it knows exactly which pitcher is attached and will display the menu items for that specific pitcher or cup
- Touchscreen also has low, high, and pulse options. To stop the blender you just need to tap the stop sign
- Includes great recipe booklet with tons of ideas for drinks, desserts, and dips
Testing the Ninja Intelli-Sense Duo blender
There are two ways you can use the Ninja Intelli-Sense Duo blender: with the blender pitcher and with the included blender cups.
I started testing it by setting up the blender pitcher. Like most blenders, the Ninja Intelli-Sense Duo blender won’t turn on unless the blender pitcher is engaged and locked in properly and the lid is fastened on. This can take a few tries, but once you’ve got it set up it’s easy to pop the lid off and on.
The blender pitcher is made of plastic and it’s a very generous 72oz. size. That gives you plenty of room for whipping up ice cream, crushing a pile of ice, or adding bags of frozen fruit. I love the size of the pitcher, because it means I can make 4 smoothies at one time.
The blade on the Ninja Intelli-Sense Duo blender is intense. Unlike most blenders with the blades at the bottom, the Ninja’s blade is tiered and almost as tall as the blender pitcher itself. This is why the blender can so easily pulverize ice.
I decided to try one of the 8 pre-set programs and make ice cream. As you’ll see in my review video, I added all of the ingredients including 3 full size candy canes. I’ve done this in other blenders and there were definitely chunks of candy cane visible in the ice cream. With the Ninja Intelli-Sense Duo blender, that candy cane was reduced to powder. You couldn’t see a trace of it once the blender was done.
The program only takes a minute to whip up, and once it’s done you’ll pour the ice cream into a cake pan and put it in the freezer for an hour or so. After we tried it, we discovered the difference between making candy cane ice cream in the Ninja and making candy cane ice cream any other way. The peppermint taste becomes a lot stronger in the Ninja, and that’s because the candy cane isn’t in chunks: it becomes part of the mixture.
Testing the Ninja blender cups
If you drink a smoothie every day and you like to take them with you to work, you know it can be a pain to have to make a big batch in your blender pitcher and pour it out into a to-go cup. With the Ninja Intelli-Sense Duo blender, you don’t have to do that. It includes two blender cups and a motor for them, so all you have to do is pop on the blender cup and use the touch screen to choose a menu item.
I put in a bag of frozen blackberries I had picked from my yard. It was solid ice, and I didn’t think the blades would be able to take it down considering how much was in there. Much to my surprise, it literally pulverized those black berries in under 10 seconds. My son said it was an amazing smoothie with barely any seeds.
Cleaning the Ninja Intelli-Sense Duo blender
Isn’t it the best feeling when you can put your blender pitcher in the dishwasher? It makes clean up so easy, and even if you wanted to hand-wash the Ninja Intelli-Sense Duo blender, you’ll still find it a stress-free experience. Because the blade pops right out there’s no excess gunk that collects at the bottom, and you won’t have to worry about losing a finger if you’re trying to hand-wash the bottom of the pitcher.
The blender cups, blender pitcher, and all lids can go straight in the dishwasher. The base easily stores in a cupboard too, so you can just pull it out when you need it.
Overall thoughts on the Ninja Intelli-Sense Duo blender
When it comes to small appliances, a powerful blender is one of my must-haves in the kitchen. After seeing the Ninja Intelli-Sense Duo blender in action, I can’t imagine ever going back to a blender that struggles with ice. It crushes it into snow cones in a blink, and that makes my kids even happier than the daily smoothies.
But beyond ice, the Ninja Intelli-Sense Duo blender blends so well it makes the drinks and recipes you’re making taste even better. My candy cane ice cream is a good example of that. I had no idea a blender could do that to candy cane, and it really enhanced the flavour of the ice cream.
You can find the Ninja Intelli-Sense Duo blender on Best Buy right now. I think it would make a great gift for your favourite home chef.
