My week with the Nutribullet Flip Insulated Portable Blender

I’ll cut straight to the chase: I absolutely loved testing this portable blender. One of my guilty pleasures is stopping by Whole Foods for an eye-wateringly expensive green smoothie. It's always nice to have a boost of fruit, veg, protein, and fiber when you're miles away from your kitchen. But if you have one of the best portable blenders, you can enjoy that same luxury without the weekly overspend.

For cold, fresh smoothies, the Nutribullet Flip is the best portable blender I’ve tried so far. It’s a battery-operated machine with a stainless steel lining that keeps your drinks cool for up to 24 hours – a unique feature in the market. The motor is powerful, the design feels trustworthy, and the lid never leaked during my week of testing. My only disappointment? It can’t handle hot ingredients and it struggles on crushed ice, so soup and frozen margaritas are off the menu.

Specifications

Design

The market for cordless blenders is still small, so the Nutribullet Flip feels like an exciting new contender. In terms of appearance, it's very different from the rest (see the picture above). It has an opaque exterior that's lined with stainless steel to keep your drinks cold for hours. That's wonderfully practical, but it does mean you lose the satisfaction (and control) of watching your ingredients blend.

It's also pretty chunky. I have very small hands, and I found it a bit hard to twist the lid off. That said, the materials feel sturdy and reliable, whereas other portable blenders can feel cheap and plasticky.

I was sent the black colorway to test, and I thought it looked a little like a boring, camping thermos. But as of December 2024, Nutribullet has brought out some fun colorways, like purple, white, and indigo, which feel more personalized.

While the design is utilitarian, it is functionally brilliant. I loved the 'flip-to-blend' feature; it's fun and intuitive. The power button lights up and flashes different colors to tell you the charge status. The liquid measures inside the pitcher are super helpful, as are the included metal straw, straw cleaner, and travel lid.

My main design disappointment is that it's not suited to hot ingredients. I wouldn't have expected that from other portable blenders, but when I saw the word 'insulated' on the packaging, I instantly imagined blending hot soups for a healthy office lunch. Sadly, that's not the case.

Blending performance

Throughout the week, I made seven different smoothies in the Nutribullet Flip. I've never felt healthier! Without boring you with the details of every single blend, here are the results of the top three trickiest blends.

1. Berry breakfast smoothie

This was the first smoothie I made with the Nutribullet Flip. I added a banana, frozen blueberries, a scoop of protein powder, yogurt, and oat milk into the cup – as well as some tough-to-blend oats and chia seeds.

After pressing the power button, the blender sprang to life. It measured 80 decibels and ran for 30 seconds before stopping automatically.

Without the ability to see inside the opaque blending cup, I had to trust the process. When I opened the lid, I was pleasantly surprised to find a vibrant, frothy smoothie.

I could see a few flecks of blueberry skins, but on the taste test, the drink was deliciously smooth. The oats added a slight graininess, and I found a banana lump when I drank to the bottom of the cup. This is not quite Vitamix quality, of course, but for a portable blender, this was very good. In hindsight, blending it a second time would likely have eliminated the stray lump.

The smoothie stayed refreshingly cool as I drank it – a testament to the Nutribullet Flip’s thoughtful design. Sometimes when you're testing an appliance you get an instantly good feeling; I was really excited for the week ahead.

2. Iced coffee shake

I decided to test the Nutribullet Flip's claim to keep drinks cold for hours on end. At 6pm on Tuesday night, I blended a frozen banana, oat milk, cacao powder, collagen powder, ice cubes, and a shot of espresso. With the blending lid tightly on, I left it on my kitchen counter overnight.

The next morning at 7am, the shake was still cool. While it wasn’t ice-cold, it hit the perfect temperature for a morning pick-me-up. I took it to work and drank it at 10am – it was lovely.

3. Frozen kale & mango smoothie

I love a green smoothie and this was the ultimate test for the motor. I added a frozen blend of chopped kale, mango, pineapple, avocado, pumpkin seeds – along with a couple of small ice cubes and some coconut water.

This was the first time I saw the yellow flashing light – which concerned me. The instructions manual revealed this could indicate a jammed blade or overheating. I gave the blender a shake and tried again. I assume a lump of ice had lodged itself under the blade, because it was fine after that.

After two rounds of 30 second blending, the results were very smooth, creamy and pretty perfect. There were a few, tiny flecks of kale, but overall, I was impressed that the ice and seeds had disappeared to nothing.

I ended up making this smoothie most days going forward, and the results were consistently good.

4. Crushed ice

I'm not quite sure why you'd want to crush ice on the go, but I tested it anyway. I added six small ice cubes to the cup. This blender lacks a pulse function, so I ran four blending cycles. It got up to 100 decibels, which is as loud as a garbage truck (sorry neighbors). I got the yellow warning sign a couple of times, so I had to shake it to dislodge the ice from the blades.

You can see from the results, it didn't really work. If you want crushed iced on the go, the best you'll get it the Ninja Blast. But really, for frozen margaritas or slushies, you want a wider, stronger countertop model like a Vitamix or Breville Super Q. But if you're adding just a few ice cubes to a liquid blend, the Nutribullet Flip works fine (see the recipes above).

Is it bag-friendly and spill-proof?

I was slightly annoyed that the blender was too chunky for the coffee cup holders on the sides of my rucksack. However, the blender fit easily inside the main body. I carried it around all week, next to my laptop and notebooks. It felt lightweight and the lid stayed very secure. Not a single drop leaked. Even when I packed it into a gym bag for a barre ballet class, it remained spill-proof, despite rolling around quite a bit during transit.

It was too bulky for my handbag, but there is a handle so you can carry it around like a tote – if you so wish. I also tested it out in my car cup holders. It was much too tall for the central cup holder by the gear stick, but it slotted perfectly into the larger cup holder between the seats.

Cleaning, storage & maintenance

Portable blenders can sometimes be tricky to clean, especially if you’ve blended in the morning and left the container in your bag all day, allowing residue to harden.

However, I found the Nutribullet Flip easy to rinse and wipe down. The residue easily lifts away from the stainless steel interior, using a soft sponge and hot soapy water. There was a large space beneath the blades, so I could clean this area thoroughly without cutting my hand. The only part you need to watch out for is the sip hole in the lid, which can be easy to overlook. I found the straw cleaner very helpful for this.

In terms of storage and maintenence, it fits in a cupboard easily and I am thrilled to report I didn't need to charge it all week long. Nutribullet say there are over 14 30-second blending cycles per full charge.

How does it compare?

In many ways, this is the best portable blender I've ever tested. In terms of power, the 11 volts blows the competitors out the water. However, at over 3lbs, it's not as compact, slender or lightweight as other models, like the Ninja Blast (which weighs 1.7lbs). The Ninja Blast also excels on crushing ice, so if you're a slushie or frozen cocktail fan, that could be your winner. The Ninja is also a bit cheaper, but that's reflected in the more plastic materials.

Should you buy it?

Yes, if you're looking for refreshing cold smoothies and shakes on the go, you can't go wrong with this. It's super powerful, robust, effective and well-designed. There are some things to bear in mind: it's pretty large, chunky and it can't crush ice into a fine powder. But personally, I don't think those are dealbreakers.

If you're something who travels a lot or works long hours, you'll love the cold-insulation technology and long battery life. All week long, I enjoyed morning and afternoon smoothies that were fresh, full of fiber and packed with healthy fruit – with very little planning or effort. That's a winner for me.

How we test portable blenders

We're proud of how we test blenders. As H&G's kitchen appliances editor, I test blenders in my home kitchen and fit them into my daily routine, so I can see how they function in real life. When it comes to portable blenders, it's all about ease, portability and reliability.

We have a series of standardized tests that we carry out to help us gauge which kind of user each portable blender would suit. We'll keep making these tests harder and harder until the blender can't cope. It's important to know the limits of your model, even if they're extremely high.

Smoothies: We blend a mix of frozen and fresh fruits, leafy greens like spinach or kale, and regular or nut milk. We'd note down how well each ingredient was blended, how quickly it was done, and how loud it was in the process. If the blender has an automatic shutoff we made a note of how many tries it took to get the smoothie to the perfect consistency.

Added extras: We also try blending tough ingredients that add nutritional value to your smoothies, like sunflower seeds, collagen and protein powders. This is a good measure of the blenders vortex system, which should blitz evenly to create a smooth blend.

Crushed ice: Finally, we try crushed ice to see if the blenders can handle a few ice cubes. This is a big challenge for a portable blender since, it's not shaped very well for blending ice cubes. You generally need a lot of space and a wider blending pitcher if you want properly crushed ice but some surprise us with how well they do.

Speed & noise: It's pretty embarrassing to use a loud blender in the office or subway, so we measure the decibels on our performance tests, too. We also measure the speed so you can see how efficient the motor is.

Clean-up: Clean-up is just as important as the blending. If it's tricky and inefficient, we'll be the first to let you know.

Reliability & design: After these tests, we'll group together to think about how the model compares to other similar blenders in the market, and we'll consider who it suits. Here, we'll let you how well-built it is, whether it's well-designed for small bags, car cup holders, whether it leaks and how easy it is to use. We also read up on customer reviews to see how it fares over a long period of time and what unique insights real-life users can bring to our reviews.

Often, we're lucky enough to keep the products ourselves, which means we can continually update our buying guides with comments about longevity, including whether they leaked in our bags!

Our review and testing guidelines provide more insight into our processes, and our testers for this guide are listed below.