BlendJet 2, Morphy Richards Soup Maker and Banana Loca: Three Kitchen Gadgets Tested

Introduction

Three gadgets, three very different ideas about what counts as a helpful kitchen tool: a battery-powered portable blender, a one-button soup maker, and a device whose entire job is to hollow out a banana and fill it with something delicious. Each was put through genuine hands-on testing with realistic recipes, and each left a distinct impression, from genuinely useful to charmingly pointless. Here is how they stacked up.

BlendJet 2: Portable Power On Paper

The BlendJet 2 bills itself as the original portable blender, serving up big blender power on the go, from mountain top to kitchen countertop. The claims are bold: it can blend almost anything in 20 seconds, including ice, frozen fruit and leafy greens, it is USB rechargeable, and the battery should deliver 15 to 20 blending pulses, which is a couple of weeks of daily smoothies.

In testing, the story was more nuanced. Straight out of the fridge with plenty of ice, the first 20-second blend left ice chunks intact and nuts sitting at the bottom of the jug. A second pass helped considerably, and the result was a genuinely smooth, cold fruit drink. The lesson: this is a blender with limits, and it rewards you for choosing ingredients it can actually handle, like banana and fresh fruit rather than hard nuts and ice.

That said, the convenience argument held up better than expected. The pulse mode, activated with a double tap, was called out as a genuinely handy feature for making things like pea pesto, and the verdict was that in situations where you would never carry a full blender or food processor, it does the job. The expected price point came in at £42.95, slightly above the £35 the tester guessed, with the sensible advice to wait for a sale.

Morphy Richards Soup Maker: Set It and Wait

The Morphy Richards soup maker promises fresh, homemade soup in as little as 21 minutes, with a serrator blade for slicing ingredients, settings for both smooth and chunky soups, and a self-clean function. It works like a kettle: add chopped ingredients and liquid, press a button, and wait.

The concept earned some real praise before the results arrived. Throwing a bunch of ingredients in first thing in the morning and having hot soup to pour into a flask for lunch was seen as far more practical than a portable blender, and the product has thousands of enthusiastic reviews from people who have made it a daily or weekly habit.

Our own batch of creamy broccoli and ginger soup, however, did not land. After the full 21 minutes, the broccoli was undercooked and the texture was roughly chopped rather than smooth, more vigorous stirring than blending. Herbs also caught around the blade area. A second pass with the blend function improved things, and there is an honest caveat here: with any machine, there is a learning curve, and one early attempt is not a final verdict. Still, the fair comparison stung: a pan and a stick blender would have produced better soup in the same time. This is a gadget where existing owner enthusiasm suggests it can work well once you learn its quirks.

Banana Loca: Silly Concept, Surprisingly Solid

The Banana Loca is a banana corer and filler. It straightens the banana, cores it while still in the peel, and lets you fill the hole with anything from caramel to pesto. Setup involves a plastic sheath, a long metal corer, and a plunger-style hopper for your filling of choice.

Compared with the rest of the lineup, this one simply worked. Coring the banana was described as very satisfying, the plunger mechanism pushed the filling cleanly down the cored channel, and the finished banana was, as promised, filled. The build quality was noted as noticeably sturdier than similar novelty gadgets, and the whole process drew an uncontrollable grin, which counts for more than it should.

It sells in the United States for $28.99, and it was picked up for around £24. The honest assessment: if coring a banana and filling it with something delicious appeals to you, this will make kids and adults alike very happy, and it might even encourage more fresh fruit consumption. Sometimes a gadget does not need a deeper purpose than that.

Buying Advice: Which One Makes Sense for You

If you want smoothies away from home, the BlendJet 2 is a reasonable pick, as long as you respect its limits and stick to soft, forgiving ingredients. If you regularly crave hot soup with minimal hands-on time and are willing to learn the machine’s behaviour, the Morphy Richards soup maker has a large base of devoted owners, even if a first attempt can be inconsistent. And if you are shopping for a fun, inexpensive gift that reliably delivers a smile, the Banana Loca is exactly what it claims to be. Match the gadget to the actual habit you have, not the one the marketing suggests.

Conclusion

Of the three, the Banana Loca came closest to doing exactly what it promised, the BlendJet 2 proved useful within its limits, and the soup maker remains a question mark that clearly works better for some users than others. None of them replaces a full kitchen setup, but each has a version of real life where it earns its place.