Oster Pro Series Kitchen System: $117.40 at the time of review The cold, hard truth about our kitchen is that we have way too many gadgets. We have so many in fact that we ended up moving a bunch of them out to the garage. I kind of like being prepared for whatever type of cooking process I need to use, but it's also a hassle to go out there and rummage through our stuff to find the right tool. So when I saw this multipurpose blender kit from Oster, I was hoping it might help me declutter my garage, by reducing the number of kitchen gadgets that we have to store. *What I liked*: I'll be honest in that I didn't have super high expectations for the overall quality of construction considering the price. I wasn't exactly expecting cheap junk. After all, Oster is a brand that I am familiar with, and have relatively good experiences with in the past. However, I was pleasantly surprised. The blender base is heavy and sturdy. It's easy to swap out attachments in order to accomplish whatever type of cooking process needs to be done. Speaking of that, the variety of accessories that come in this kit is awesome! We are currently testing whether it can replace our food processor, blender and bullet smoothie maker. Now onto performance. As far as blending is concerned, this thing has more than enough power to get through whatever we've tested it on so far. (sorry, no blending iPhones here). We've made soups in the main blender base as well as smoothies in the included smoothie containers. Both were executed fast and efficiently. The food processor attachment is also very handy. Honestly, we really only use our food processor for guacamole and shredded cheese. To those ends, this is a great replacement for us. Another thing I'd like to mention is the touch interface. I wasn't sure whether I'd like this or not, but frankly, it's great. Having a surface with no cracks and crevices for food particles and juices to get into is great! And the back lighting of the function buttons is more than bright enough to accommodate, using full daylight or bright overhead kitchen lighting. We're probably going to give it another 30 days or so before we end up donating are giving away the tools that it's replaced, but so far so good. And it’s really hard to go wrong with the price. As of the time of this review, it’s around $120 dollars. If we do end up swapping out our other gadgets, it will cover well over $300 bucks worth of tools. A great deal if you don’t have them yet. *What I didn't like*: Honestly, I don't have any major complaints here. The one minor nitpick that I do have is with regards to the ring, seal nature of the blender and smoothie containers. Swapping out the blades and ring seal between the smoothie container and blender container is something of a hassle. Further, to that point, our prior blender had the blade built into the carafe, so there was no ring seal to worry about degrading and leaking. That having been said, for the price, this is an excellent package and a minor inconvenience like that is worth it. *The Bottom Line:* So far this has been a success in our kitchen. Both my wife and I enjoy using it for smoothies and blender related stuff. And for food processing, it makes a great guacamole and easily shredded cheese. The one minor nitpick that I do have in it is easily forgivable considering the price. This thing is an absolute steal. If you can find it for around 120 bucks and you don't already have the three desperate appliances that it replaces (one more time, food, processor, blender, smoothie maker) then, this is an absolute must buy. For that reason, I'm giving at five stars out of five. I would totally order this over again.
