Fred Waring and his blender

Our 1 year old blender died and my husband and I began looking around for a replacement. After reading many reviews, honey surprised me with a Chili Red Waring blender.

Though I had wanted something sturdy that would last and be worth the money spent, I do have to say I wondered WHAT was I doing with this funky looking 30's design machine sitting in plain sight.

Out of curiosity I did some investigating and found in Wikipedia that Fred Waring himself had a hand in the design. A famous band leader in the 30's, according to the article Waring said, "this mixer is going to revolutionize American drinks." So, I rationalized it by telling myself I was taking part in the revolution some 70 years later.

I also wondered why the shape of the container? It's a clover shaped (looking straight down into it) and come to find out, that was because it smacks the contents into the curves and blends faster and more completely-see Alton Brown's Kitchen Gear book.

The container is a sturdy glass container with measurements on the side. You can check for cups, ounces or liters.

By the time I decided to get close to it and actually blend something, I had a stash of frozen fruit in the freezer and proceeded to run the test.

I added half a glass of water, some protein powder, half a frozen banana, 5 frozen strawberries, 2 scoops of frozen blueberries, some kefir milk and Carlson's lemon flavored cod liver oil (for those who want a bangup healty smoothie recipe.) Then I hit the ON button. I blinked. It was done. That fast! Frozen everything turned into a perfect drink.
it's actually not a button but a simple toggle switch, up and down- two speeds fast and faster.

So I was delighted with the quality of the drink but was wondering about what I thought might be a cheap feature on an expensive blender...the blender container is placed on what looked to be a very rubbery set of prongs. I wondered why not something sturdier and less flexible?

Then as I watched it blend my frozen breakfast every day it hit me...the rubber allows for the transfer of force as the blades are dealing with solid frozen pieces of whatever, the rubber gives a bit and keeps the thing from breaking. Pretty ingenious and well thought out.

The top of the blender is a rubbery mate to the prongs, with a removable center circle made of plastic. It's a tight fitting top and you don't have to hold your hand on it to make it stay.

As for cleaning it-I love the non-removable blades. You just put either clear water or a tiny bit of soap with water and turn it on..Whoosh. Clean. Goes as well in the dishwasher. I also realized I wasn't faced with the usual dirty goop build-up I had always fought with on my blender with buttons. There are very few places on this blender that will serve to catch food and create goop. the switch is a simple up and down toggle.

there is only one drawback that I can see. If I EVER forget to put the top on, and hit the switch, I'll be cleaning strawberries off the kitchen ceiling for the rest of my life! And it's very possible I could do such a thing.

This blender is the best. I'll never buy any other brand. And once you understand the reasons behind the design, it becomes beautiful to look at.