Test Kitchen Essential Tool, Part 3

A chief goal of our Test Kitchen (aside from feeding ourselves) is to develop recipes for the dedicated home cook to re-create at home. So, in all fairness to our readers, all of our equipment is residential—though high-end and super-stylish, of course. The only exception is my industrial-strength blender. Over the years, we've gone through about a dozen Hamilton Beach blenders because of the wear and tear they get daily. It really is a perfectly good blender for the average home cook—my own beloved HB has lasted about 15 years and counting. But for the kind of rigors we put our equipment through here, we need a blender that's more powerful and built to last—a Blendtec. You'll see these mega-blenders at Jamba Juice, Planet Smoothie, TCBY and Starbucks, to name just a few places, where they get constant use. As luck would have it, they also have a line of residential blenders, BlendtecHome, which helps the Test Kitchen stay true to its convictions.