There's nothing worse when your cooking than to have a piece of electrical equipment die on you. That's exactly what happened to me as I was blending some tomatoes for a spaghetti Bolognese. I foolishly decided I could live without a blender, and it's when you don't have the equipment you suddenly realise how much you used it. My old blender was a Braun and had been around for the best part of ten years, when it finally went to the great electrical graveyard in the sky.
I stumbled on the Hinari, purely by chance, I was looking at electrical stuff in Tesco's when I noticed the price tag of the blender. You know me, never one to miss out on a potential bargain, into the trolley it went!
Packaging .................
Is very simple. The blender is in a box with colour pictures depicting what's inside. Along with the make and model there's not much else.
Inside the box, the blender is inside it's own mixing jug which is inside a polythene bag. There are two booklets, one is the instruction booklet, and the other is a recipe booklet. To keep costs down, the booklets appear to be black and white photocopies but that's not a real issue.
The blender also comes with a wall mounting bracket, complete with screws and wall plugs.
Description .....................
The SB308 is a hand blender which means it doesn't sit on a base. It is 31 cm tall, 20 cm diameter at its widest point and only 7 cm at its narrowest. The electric lead is pre fixed into the top of the blender, and is reinforced by a rubber grommet. The power lead is fitted with a 13 amp plug complete with a 3 amp fuse. The plug is not pre-moulded, meaning a simple swap over should things go wrong in the future.
On the top is a CE certificate which also gives the manufacturer and model number. The top is circular and curves in to create a comfortable hand grip. At the front is the on off switch which has two speed buttons. The main body of the blender is white, except for the speed buttons, and the seal that separates the main body from the blending shaft. These are both a silver grey colour. Above and below the speed buttons are the wattage and make and model number, these are also silver grey in colour.
The main body curves in to create the blending shaft, which is approximately 10 cm in length. At the base of the blending shaft the blade guard fans out. The guard has four slots to allow blended food to circulate. The bottom of the guard has two slight indents which are again to allow the blending food to circulate.
The blade is silver coloured metal and looks like a flattened S shape. It is about 3 cm long and 1.5 cm at the widest parts'
The jug that's provided with the blender has measurements up to 500 ml and 16 oz. It is made of smoked grey see through perspex. It is 31 cm diameter at the pouring lip, and tapers down to 27 cm at the base. The overall height of the jug is 15 cm. The front of the jug tapers flat after the lip, so when the jug is viewed from the side it looks like a rounded capital D.
Instructions ...................
The instructions are very basic. The first page covers electrical safety and how to change a plug. The second page covers using the blender safely. Page three shows the parts and helpful hints, and the last page covers cleaning, maintenance and guarantee information.
To Use ............
All you have to do is put the required amount of liquid into the jug, chop the food into small squares, place that in the jug. Select your speed and blend. You can add more food whilst the machine is operating but beware of adding extra meat, in the shape of your fingers. Also keep any loose clothing out of the way, preferably taken off. (Ties, etc.)
The blender can deal with most foods but the instructions advise against blending meats or cheese.
In use it does what it's supposed to, there's not a lot you can say about the blender it either works or it doesn't.
Cleaning .............. Unplug from mains, before cleaning! The blades can be carefully washed in hot soapy water with the main body being wiped clean with a damp cloth.
The Recipe Booklet .................................
the booklet contains ten recipes: Broccoli and stilton soup, Guacamole, Chicken liver pate, Colcannon, Creamed Swede, Frittata, Hollandaise sauce, Pancake batter, Apple & raspberry fool and orange crush. You're safe I'm not going to list any of the individual recipes. It's interesting that the instruction booklet advises against using meat products, then the recipe book gives you a recipe for chicken liver pate!
I'm sure we all have recipes that are suitable for a blender, one of the big hits with my son is home made banana milkshakes. I like to make my own isotonic type drinks (fruit juice, water, salt and sugar)
Opinion .............
The blender only has a 110 watt motor but that's sufficient for the type of work I'll be subjecting it too, the unit shouldn't be run for more than a minute at any one time anyway. It is simplicity itself to operate but then there's not a lot to it really. The unit appears to be strongly made and at the moment gives the appearance that it's built to last. The instruction and recipe booklets use decent sized fonts so they are easy to read, even for an old git like me! I've not tried out any of the recipes yet but will do one day. It is imperative that children are kept away from the blender for obvious reasons. I only paid £5.99 in Tescos, the same blender is in Index for £7.99. If you can find it on the net you may get it cheaper but when you take into account shipping costs, the Tesco price will be hard to beat. (None of the documentation has the address for Hinari, nor does it have all the relevant CE references.)
This product has not yet been reviewed. 
