The best adjustable kettles are fully customizable and convenient, and this model excelled. It consistently boiled water in less than 3 minutes, besting every other kettle in the lineup by at least a minute. Its easily visible capacity line and single-knob controls made filling and operating a breeze, and its comfortable, grippy handle and lightweight construction made it easy to hold and steadily pour water for a perfect pour-over coffee. It was also the most accurate option: It hit every custom-selected temperature within 1 degree and held it for 30 minutes.
Healthy Drinks to Get You Through the Season
We have all the gear you need to nourish yourself with cozy drinks like bone broth, tea, smoothies, pressed juice, and Kombucha.
This capacious but lightweight kettle boiled water the fastest of the boil-only kettles, coming in consistently at around 4 minutes. Its maximum capacity line was easy to see, and its large on-off switch lit up in a vibrant blue that we could spot from across the room. This kettle’s comfortable handle and thin, nimble spout made making pour-over coffee a pleasure.
Lightweight and easy to lift, this nicely designed kettle held plenty of water for its size—a full 2 quarts. The kettle whistles loudly, and the spout pours neatly. The raised, open handle leaves plenty of space below for opening the lid and keeps hands out of harm’s way. The lid loop is big and comfortable to pull. The kettle showed no damage from our abuse testing and cleaned up nicely. We wish the interior were lighter, but otherwise this is a lovely, sturdy (but not heavy) kettle, which comes in a rainbow of colors at a moderate price.
This new blender from Breville improves upon its predecessor in a few key ways. It’s more powerful, so it can get smoothies and almond butter even smoother, and it has a dedicated “green smoothie” button that completely blends fibrous ingredients into a silky smooth drink. It’s reasonably quiet and reasonably compact, and combined its ingredients efficiently with minimal pauses to scrape down the sides. Like the previous model, it still automatically stops every 60 seconds, which can be a little annoying during longer blends, but this wasn’t that big of an issue. Its timer makes tracking recipe stages very easy.
Tall and lightweight, with a generous 8-cup capacity, a comfortable handle, and very basic controls (Low, Medium, High, and Pulse), this powerful blender aced every challenge except for mayonnaise, where its low speed was simply too fast. It was a bit noisy, but it got the job done.
This juicer was the most straightforward and enjoyable to use of the masticating juicers, with parts that fit together easily and a relatively fast auger that chewed through carrots, kale, and grapes with ease. As with all the masticating juicers, we had to cut our produce to match the size of its narrow feed tube, but its juice was smooth. It was relatively easy to clean, especially with its included cleaning brush.
Our winning centrifugal juicer is straightforward to assemble, with parts that fit together well. It’s fast, powering through a pound of carrots in 34 seconds, and it produced smooth juice from carrots, kale, and grapes alike. It had trouble efficiently processing kale leaves, though when we applied a few tips, such as firmly packing the leaves or rolling them up, we had more success. It was among the easiest to clean out of the centrifugal juicers and contained debris fairly well, flinging it from the feed tube much less often than the other centrifugals.
The most current Instant Pot multicooker is a great, easy-to-use appliance. Its flat-bottomed interior pot allows for even searing. Stay-cool handles mean you can easily move the pot, even when it’s hot. The streamlined interface was easy to navigate. A “favorites” feature lets you save go-to recipes. It has a pressure-release switch that keeps your hand away from the hot steam when you vent the machine, and a diffuser on the vent makes the steam disperse slightly more gently. We liked that we could disable the “keep warm” function so that the food wouldn’t keep cooking once it was done. You can also program a timer to alert you after 5 or 10 minutes of natural pressure release, which saves you a trip back to the machine between cooking stages. A few quibbles: The baking function uses steam, so it’s excellent for cheesecake but not much else. The machine doesn’t have a fan to circulate the water and isn’t as accurate as a good sous vide machine, so it’s not capable of true sous vide cooking. It also couldn’t slow-cook large cuts of meat well. But none of these issues was a deal breaker for us. The pressure-cooking, rice, sautéing, yogurt, and steaming functions were all excellent and are reason enough to get a multicooker.
It’s easy to use this model: Simply press the large button on the top of the machine until you’ve obtained your desired level of carbonation. The plastic water bottles connect to the machine easily and are dishwasher-safe. The machine uses SodaStream’s new “quick connect” CO2 canisters, which slide into the back of the machine and lock into place when you pull down a plastic handle. Like other models from SodaStream, it takes up fairly little counter space and is sturdy.
With a nicely balanced basket and handle, this strainer was a pleasure to use. The wide, rectangular hook made it easy to rest the strainer on a variety of surfaces, including tea cups and small bowls. Its fine-mesh basket also did a great job: It strained and sifted very well, resulting in crystal clear lemon juice and professional-looking dustings of cocoa powder
Hefty yet balanced, this strainer was a delight to use. Its wide, rectangular hook ensured that it sat sturdily on most surfaces, though it did slip occasionally. The fine-mesh basket also performed well, creating a delicate and even dusting of cocoa powder and catching all but the teensiest particles of tea.
Distinct from citrus presses that use small holes, this model features a star-like arrangement of large draining slots, which direct the juice in a steady stream with no splattering or overflowing. Its large, rounded handles were easy to squeeze for testers of all sizes, which helped this press quickly extract far more juice than any other model. Its roomy bowl could also accommodate up to medium-size oranges (but not large ones).
This classic model was accurate and had bold, easy-to-read measurement lines that clearly corresponded to specific numbers. The handle, though small, was smooth and wide enough to be comfortable. We also liked that the glass resisted staining and was durable. Our one criticism: Using the cup properly requires crouching down and looking at the lines at eye level, which was uncomfortable for some.
Our winning spoons had a simple design that allowed for a continuous, bump-free sweep, with a ball-chain connector (similar to what military dog tags hang on) that was easy to open and close. This set's metal construction felt remarkably sturdy, and ingredients didn't cling to the stainless steel. And while the 1-tablespoon measure did not fit into all spice jars, it was a minor inconvenience for an otherwise easy-to-use set.
When it came to containing tea leaves, this model was the clear winner; not even the smallest bits got through this supertight woven-mesh basket. It was the longest basket in our lineup—clocking in at nearly 4 inches in length—so its bottom was fully immersed in the hot water, which allowed the tea leaves to expand fully whether we were brewing in a mug or a teapot. It was also easy to clean by hand since no tea got stuck in its fine mesh. While the manufacturer claims this infuser is dishwasher-safe, we found that the plastic and mesh deformed ever so slightly after a few runs in the dishwasher, so we recommend washing the infuser by hand.
This roomy infuser held nearly double the amount of fruit of any other product, giving plain water the robust, bright flavor of whatever we put in. We liked that its oblong, clear plastic pitcher was large enough to hold drinks for a crowd but slim enough to fit in the refrigerator door. The model’s smart design comes with three interchangeable attachments: for infusing fruit, brewing tea, and keeping beverages cold.