iCucina Portable Bullet vs. BLACK+DECKER FusionBlade Side-by-Side Comparison

The iCucina may be a good choice for you to prepare any protein shakes that use fresh plant-based food, but if you want to level up your workout drinks with raw nuts and dried fruits, we recommend going with other models, such as the Ninja Fit, Nutri BN401, or the NutriBullet. This blender is inefficient enough to liquify and combine such ingredients fully. 

For this test, our protein shake is designed to include oatmeal, almonds, protein powder, and dried blueberries. Throughout the blending process, we noticed that this blender didn’t have much hard time grinding the ingredients; it worked quite smoothly, indeed. All the oatmeal was turned into liquid form in approximately two minutes, which seemed not to be so fast yet acceptable enough. The final drink, unfortunately, couldn’t get the most flavor out of almonds and berries, since about a third of the fruits were still solid.

In this protein shake test, the FusionBlade came out as one of the best personal blenders. Its sturdy 2-prong blade, together with the 275-watt motor, breaks down tough foods, including almonds and dried berries, without much problem. However, for some reason, it had a hard time with oatmeal, requiring up to 2 minutes — longer than the average blending time — to completely pulverize the oats. If you’re willing to spend a few extra seconds on prep, this may not matter much. Overall, the smoothness of its product was more than acceptable, with just a very tiny flake of almond remaining solid.

Berries are the favorite superfoods of many people but their skins and seeds are typically a little bit hard to be liquified entirely. That’s why our recipe for this test calls for four berry varieties; we want it to be a practical way to test for the smoothie-making capacity of our personal blenders, including this iCucina, and fortunately, it does. 

Preparing frozen fruit smoothies with the iCucina asked us to compromise on texture. This was because while this blender could break down all the fruits in one minute and fifty seconds, after such a duration, the smoothie it delivered did lose its thick, icy consistency we prefer. 

Simply put, for an ice-cold treat to come out perfectly, your blender should blend as fast as possible so the frozen ingredients don’t have time to thaw and therefore dilute the overall consistency. But as we learned from our tests, this blender isn’t capable enough in this regard. We recommend using crushed ice instead of freezing your ingredients in advance if you prefer a smoother icy blend.

If you've ever wondered how efficient a low-powered personal blender is in preparing frozen-fruit smoothies, the BLACK+DECKER FusionBlade can give you an answer. Although this machine isn’t so powerful, it liquified the ingredients with little effort, though a few shakes were required to ensure the blending process went smoothly. 

The smoothie was churned into a smooth, chilly, and slushy consistency, though it lacked the perfect ice-cream-like texture we got from faster blenders, such as the Ninja Fit. This was because frozen fruits thaw quickly at room temperature, diluting the overall consistency if you don’t blend fast enough. Simply put, the longer processing time of the FusionBlade means its smoothie came out thinner and less desirable than it should. 

Nevertheless, this machine is an adequate personal blender for making frozen-fruit smoothies. We found it’s better at this job than many other models within the same range, and the great smoothness of its product in this test reminds us of pricier blenders, namely the Nutri Ninja Pro.

We blended kale, spinach, and celery in the time benchmark of 20 seconds to see how well this iCucina would incorporate fibers to your meals. Eventually, we found this blender underperformed significantly against top competitors, again. There was a ton of fibrous pulp left behind when we strained the mixture through a mesh strainer. This suggested that our final drink didn’t get the greatest nutritional value. 

Perhaps, you might think it isn’t necessary to blend that quickly, blending a little bit longer is concede as long as your desired consistency can be achieved. For the most part, we agreed this is entirely possible with the iCucina.

The FusionBlade didn’t struggle during the 20-second runtime (our time limit for this test). More impressively, of all the blenders we tested from this market segment, the BLACK+DECKER stood out with the best extraction of high-fiber foods. However, that doesn’t mean it did a complete job; there was still a considerable amount of coarse pulp left behind after we drained the mixture through a mesh strainer. It probably could have been better if we allowed our machine to blend longer. For sure, a quality green juice is worth a little extra waiting time.

Typically, personal blenders aren’t designed with a focus on ice-crushing capability, and the iCucina is not an exception. The lack of strength prevented it from powering through the ice. We noticed that the blade couldn't even spin so most of the ice came out virtually untouched. Sometimes we undocked the cup and shook it on purpose to even out the blend, but this still couldn’t help much. If you particularly have a need for this sort of blend, you’d be better served by something that is packed with a higher-powered motor, such as the Ninja Nutri Pro.

It’s safe to say the BLACK+DECKER was not up to the heavy-duty task of crushing ice cubes. As Scotty might say, it just doesn’t have the power. That’s not a major hit to its value — we’ve learned that not many personal blenders are capable of producing fluffy, snow-like crushed ice (For instance, the Oster, the Hamilton Beach, or the KOIOS). If you insist on that sort of blend, you’ll need a more powerful motor. Most of this FusionBlade’s ice remained very chunky. 

Overall, the BLACK+DECKER FusionBlade’s performance was not all bad, and we really like this blender, but there are still a few good ice-crusher alternatives to choose from.