The 8 Best Blenders for Smoothies, Soups, and Sauces

The Best BLENDERs aren't just smoothie machines. They can widen your world of sauce, soup, and maybe even texture itself—bringing fresh salsa and mole within reach, making chimichurri a breeze, and making carrot or squash soups a matter of minutes. It's a staple of savory cooking that can change how you cook.

But let's be clear: The blender boom of the past decade has been fruits and nuts. Specifically, it's been nut butters and smoothies, and so don't worry: We made lots of smoothies to test, with everything from greens to nut butters to just frozen fruit and milk and ice. To keep ourselves interested, we also blended some cocktails. We've tested dozens of blenders over the past half-decade, and our top pick, the Vitamix 5200, has proven itself on the counters of multiple WIRED editors for as long as a decade. But ...