Ambiano Portable Blender

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I got a Ninja blender for Christmas a couple of years ago. It’s a workhorse when it comes to blending up frozen fruit for smoothies, or even ice cubes for blended coffee drinks. It’s also great at making the perfect fresh homemade salsa.

But a large countertop blender is not exactly portable. It’s heavy and not the kind of thing you would take to work, to the park, or on a camping trip.

Did you know that small portable blenders actually exist so you can mix up smoothies, coffee drinks, soup, or dips on the go? You can even puree homemade baby food in one of these blenders.

Aldi has sold a portable blender annually for the last few years, usually in August or sometime in the late summer. I don’t exactly need a portable blender. I’m fine with using my countertop model at home, and I don’t have any need to blend food or drinks when I’m away from home. But I was curious, especially after seeing this portable blender show up year after year at Aldi.

So I picked one up this week so I could put it through the paces at home.

The Ambiano Portable Blender is an Aldi Find, so it’s only in stores for a short time. Each store receives a single shipment, and after that sells out, it’s gone until the next time Aldi decides to sell it, whenever that might be. Aldi does not offer ordering for products that are out of stock at your local store.

This blender cost $14.99 at the time of publication. The price for this has dropped a bit over the last couple of years. Aldi sold it for $17.99 in 2022 before reducing it to $14.99 for 2023 and 2024. It’s yet another example I’ve seen of Aldi quietly lowering prices on certain Aldi Finds during the last few years.

That price is also lower than other portable blenders I found on Amazon. The only portable blender I could find that is cheaper is one from Five Below, but I haven’t tried that one, so I can’t speak to how it compares to the Aldi blender.

Here’s more information:

• Available in black, blue, purple, or teal (I bought the blue one)
• Convenient: make fesh, healthy snacks, anytime, anywhere … at the touch of a button
• Added safety feature: double click the power button to turn blender on
• USB cable included
• Includes travel base lid
• Features stainless steel blades
• Includes built-in strainer
• Comes with a carrying handle

The portable blender comes with a three-year warranty serviced by Tempo, a common Aldi warranty provider. For service, call 866-235-5029 or email info@customercareusa.com.

Unboxing and Setting Up the Ambiano Portable Blender:

When you open the box, you’ll find the main blender, plus a travel base lid, a USB charging cable, a user manual, and two warranty sheets (one in English, and one in Spanish).

This blender does not have a traditional cord and plug for a wall outlet. Instead, it operates on a nonreplaceable rechargeable battery, and you charge it using the included USB cable.

One important thing the blender does not come with is a charger block or wall charger, which you’ll need in order to plug in the blender’s USB charging cable so you can plug it into a wall outlet to charge.

Also, before using the blender, you’ll want to clean all the different components. The manual has specific instructions for how to clean the blender, and it’s important to follow these instructions so you don’t damage the electronic parts. You can clean the blender as follows:

• Cutting blades: pour some water into the blender jug and switch the device on for a few seconds to remove any food residue from the blades. Dispose of the water after cleaning.
• Blender jug, filter, and lid: clean these in warm soapy water. Rinse all parts thoroughly and dry them well.
• Motor base: clean with a damp cloth and then dry with a dry cloth.

The manual says to never immerse the unit in water, and make sure no water or other liquid gets inside the housing.

How to Use the Ambiano Portable Blender:

The manual recommends that you only process small amounts of food at a time in the blender. After all, it’s not that large, hence the portability factor.

Also important: the manual says not to process extremely hard food such as ice cubes or “meat with bones” in this blender. That rules out my favorite frappe mixes from Aldi, which are made with ice. It is good for smoothies (I thaw frozen fruit first).

To use the blender, first make sure it’s fully charged. The light on the base will turn from red to blue when it’s completely charged.

Screw the blender jug onto the motor base by turning the blender jug clockwise until it’s firmly in place. The indicator light on the base will briefly flash blue to show that the jug is attached.

Next, pour your solid ingredients (cut into small pieces) into the blender jug. Fill it to about 60% capacity, making sure it’s not too full.

Then, pour your liquid ingredients into the blender jug. Fill it to about 80% capacity, again making sure that the blender jug is not too full.

Screw the filter onto the blender jug. Then screw the lid onto the filter.

Press the on/off button twice to switch the blender on. Press the on/off button once to switch the blender off. You should not run the blender for longer than 30 seconds at a time. In fact, the blender will automatically switch off after 30 seconds without you having to press the button. Press the on/off button again if you need a longer processing time.

Unscrew the lid and pour your drink (or dip, soup, etc.) into a glass, cup, or bowl for consumption. Clean all the parts thoroughly after using.

Thoughts:

The portable blender is easy to use. I charged it using a quad charging station I purchased from Aldi years ago, which isn’t exactly a fast charger, and it took about two hours to fully charge.

For the blender’s trial run, I went with something simple. I dropped in some strawberries (frozen ones that I thawed in the microwave), along with a few spoonfuls of vanilla Greek yogurt and a dash of milk. I hit the on/off button twice to turn on the blender, and I let it run for 30 seconds. It automatically turned off after 30 seconds. I unscrewed the lid and the filter, and the smoothie mixture inside looked pretty well blended, so I poured it into a cup to serve.

A few things I noticed: the blender jug has an 8.5-ounce capacity, so this isn’t going to make large drinks. If you want bigger drinks, or if you want to make drinks for more than one person at a time, this blender isn’t for you.

However, this is great when I want a single smoothie and don’t want to drag out my large, heavy Ninja blender. It’s fast, easy to operate, and easier to clean compared to my larger blender. It also takes up less room in the dish drainer.

Something I noticed is that the filter has to be screwed on top of the blender jug before the lid will screw on. I feel like I don’t really need the filter, but I have to use it every time I use the blender, and it’s an extra step. I wasn’t sure why a blender like this would need a filter, but one portable blender brand indicates they can be useful if you’re making a coffee-based drink and have coffee grounds to strain out, or if you want pulp-free juice.

Finally, I was worried about safety because the blender jug can completely unscrew from the motor base with blades, and you might do that in order to clean the blender, but it leaves the blades exposed. I was afraid that bumping the on/off button might turn them on. The on/off button has to be pushed twice to turn on the unit, so that helps avoid accidentally turning it on.

I still wasn’t sure how safe it was, though. So, I did a little experiment. When the blender was dismantled with the blades in the open, I kept my fingers out of the way and carefully pushed the on/off button twice to see if the blades would spin. They didn’t. So, this appears to have another safety feature: it won’t turn on if the jug is not securely screwed on.

The Verdict:

The Ambiano Portable Blender has an 8.5-ounce capacity and is a good size for making smoothies, soup, dips, or even baby food on the go. It has some built-in safety features, including a start button that has to be pushed twice, and the blades don’t spin unless the jug is securely screwed onto the base unit. This isn’t built to handle hard foods like ice, but for other things it works just fine. You’ll have a hard time finding a portable blender with a lower price. The three-year warranty is nice, too.