alpenmicho's Full Review: Oster 4127 Beehive 2-Speed Blender
I feel like I've been dating blenders for the past 6 months. First my old Oster of 15 years was thrown out. Really this is my fault. It was a good blender. Reliable, powerful...just kinda boring. After 15 years, I got a dishwasher and the plastic jug had become all deformed by it (meaning by me).
So began my quest for the perfect blender. I'm sure all my friends/family are sick of me obsessing about blenders but I truly do use it alot, so I don't want to just settle. I use my blender for daily protein shakes, frequent smoothies, and the occasional milkshakes, salad dressing, waffle mix, etc.
In the past 6 months I've tried the following blenders.
1. KitchenAid 5-Speed Ultra Power Blender
2. KitchenAid 5-Speed Blender (newer version)
3. A second KitchenAid 5-Speed Blender
4. Cuisinart Smart Power Premier Blender
Number 1 and 4 couldn't blend properly and 2/3 was great had the jug not kept cracking.
I chose the Oster beehive model 4127 because basically I've tried everything else and I was about to turn into crazy cat lady. Although there are not many reviews on this particular model, the Oster brand, all based on the same "all-metal" drive, seemed to collectively get really good reviews, it's only fault being that it is loud, so I thought I'd give it a try. Having a dishwasher safe glass jar was also important.
First of all, the Oster Classic Beehive looks really cool. It does get lost in a long line of blenders, because it is so simple and unassuming, yet when it stands alone it looks really great with it's clean retro look. Like it's name, it is shaped like a beehive and the body looks like brushed stainless steel. None of that cheap 'stainless steel look' plastic. If it isn't stainless steel then it has me fooled. The dishwasher safe jug is glass, round in shape, with spout and is your typical assembly type jug. It comes with a very plain instruction manual that looks like it's from the 1970's. No recipes like all those other fancy instruction manuals. Then again I don't buy blenders for their instruction manuals.
The Oster blender is a 2 speed blender. It has a 500 Watts motor. It has one toggle switch with the words "on","off" and "pulse". How simple and innovative is that! I've never understood the need for a gazillion buttons. The "ON" toggle position is a high speed setting that continously blends and is recommended for hard textured foods and smooth mixtures. The "PULSE" toggle position is used for processing small quantities of medium or soft-textured foods to a smooth mixture. To chop foods it recommends holding the the pulse button down for 2 seconds and counting 1001 ... 1002. I'm assuming this is to done in your head or out loud. In case some find this counting too difficult the Cuisinart Premier blender might be just for you (see review).
I've had the blender for one week now. I have used it to make the following:
Protein shakes consisting of 1 cup of water, protein powder, and 2 ice cubes. This resulted in liquid texture with one or two very small crunchy ice chunks (not big enough to choke on or make it unpleasant). I did have to take the jug off one time and smack it to redistribute things but this only happened once out of 4 times so far.
Protein shake same as above but with 4 ice cubes. This resulted in a smooth slushy texture. No chunks of ice.
Smoothie made from 1/2 cup of frozen yogurt, 1 cup milk, 1/3 cup of frozen berries, 1/2 pack of light jello. This resulted in a very smooth texture. No berry chunks left.
Salad dressing from 1/4 cup of olive oil, 1/4 cup of balsaamic vinegar, 1/4 cup of parmesan, 2 big cloves of garlic. Easy job performed well.
I threw about 6 ice cubes into the jug and it chopped them up into snow/fine chunks. Performed very well despite not having a dedicated 'crush ice' button like all those other blenders.
Water and a squirt of dishsoap to clean the blade. Unlike the Cuisinart, the water doesn't explode in the jug causing leakage.
So far the Oster blender has performed really well meeting and even surpassing my needs.
The only drawback I see to this blender is that the jug is not as big as some of the other blenders I tried. It holds 5 cups and I don't know yet how it would perform with a full jug. This could present an issue to those who make large quantities of frozen drinks for gatherings.
One really neat thing about this blender is that you can get accessories. After alot of searching I was able to find the "BlendN'Go" smoothie cup. This is perfect for smoothie makers like myself. Basically it looks like your typically travelling cup except you can take the lid off, fill it up with your protein or smoothie ingredients, add the blade assembly from your Oster jug and voila! I like having the extra container as alot of times my jug is in the dishwasher. I used this twice now and no leaks so far.
The other neat thing is that my mom, who keeps everything, surprised me with these ancient little Oster 1 cup jars. I think they must be about 30 years old. However, they also fit the blade assembly. For me these are perfect for salad dressings so as to keep that garlic odor to one container. The Oster website says they are also good for other small blending uses like baby food, spices, coffee, etc.... These have lids so you can store what you've blended. I tested one with water and it did not leak. Coincidentally, my mom also noticed the blade assembly also fits Mason jars, although I'm not sure how leak proof that would be and I'm not about to take up canning.
So who knew after trying out all these blenders I would end up with what I had in the beginning. Oster had been there all my life and it took 3 other blenders to make me realize that he was all I ever needed.
The classic look of the Oster Beehive blender has made it one of the most recognized designs in this small appliance category. It's the one appliance ...More at Cooking.com
Oster Classic Brushed Chrome Beehive finish with new scallop base design Revolutionary Ice Crusher stainless steel blade with all metal drive Powerful...More at Amazon
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