Ninja Blast Portable Blender BC100 – USB with a twist (kitchen review)

17/06/2024
By Ray Shaw
In Reviews

Ninja Blast Portable Blender BC100 is a USB-C rechargeable mini-blender with a surprising amount of torque. It is perfect for individual servings of protein, vegetables, smoothies, and other drinks.

When I first received the review unit, I wondered how useful it would be, especially on these cold winter days (when the review was done). I love shakes and smoothies and have a penchant (some may say addiction) for a coffee thick-shake, but in Winter, I prefer hot chocolate.

So we had to test a range of drinks, but the most useful thing it did was blend eggs, thick cooking cream, milk and parmesan cheese for the smoothest scrambled egg mix ever.

Australian Review: Ninja Blast Portable Blender BC100

Website	Ninja Company site Product page Manual FAQs
Colours	Denim Blue, Black, Cranberry, Forest Green, Passion Fruit, White
Price	RRP $99.99 but seen as low as $69.99
From	Ninja Online, Myer, David Jones, and Amazon AU
Warranty	12-months ACL
Company	Ninja is a kitchen brand developed by SharkNinja, a pioneer in small household appliances and cleaning. Its headquarters are in Needham, Massachusetts, just outside of Boston. Mann&Noble is the exclusive distributor for SharkNinja in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and Malaysia.
More	CyberShack kitchen appliances news and reviews

We use Fail (below expectations), Pass (meets expectations) and Exceed (surpasses expectations or is the class leader) against many of the items below. We occasionally give a Pass(able) rating that is not as good as it should be and a Pass ‘+’ rating to show it is good but does not quite make it to Exceed. You can click on most images for an enlargement.

We are also tightening up on grading. From now on, Pass, for example, means meeting expectations for the price bracket. We consider a Pass mark to be 70+/100 with extra points added for class-leading and excellence.

First Impression – Looks like a lantern – Pass+

Out of the box, it looks more like a portable light/lantern than a blender. It has a carry handle up top, a battery base, a clear 470ml mixing bowl, and sharp teeth (blades) at the bottom.

The lid screws off – it’s a typical drink bottle sealed lid with a rubber-sealed drinking spout. The mixing bowl screws off the base for cleaning, revealing its teeth sitting atop a sealed motor and battery compartment. The latter is water resistant but should be kept as dry as possible.

At the front is a power button and a Start/Stop button with a LED light ring that means

Flashing WHITE: The vessel and base are not aligned.
Solid PURPLE: when the unit is ready to blend. It defaults to 30 seconds.
Solid RED: The unit needs charging.
Clockwise Orange: Clear and wait 15 minutes.
Flashing Orange: Blades are blocked
Flashing Red and Blue: Defective or incompatible charger.
Flashing Red: call customer service
Flashing Red and white: Call customer service

Power

The USB-C 3W cable (don’t use a standard 2W cable) needs a 5V/3A/15W charger (any 15W+ PD or PPS charger is fine). It can charge from 5V/5A/2.5W, but it is much slower. A full charge takes about 2 hours.

Battery life is claimed to be about 10-15 x 30-second blends. We were able to charge and blend at the same time (tested). We think the claim is over-ambitious and is more like 6-10 depending on liquid thickness).

470ml (15oz) is just big enough for one

That is the total jug capacity; in fact, it needs a minimum of 177ml (6oz) and a maximum of 400ml (13oz). You must leave enough room for ‘froth’ if the liquid is prone to that.

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While you can throw in ingredients, you will get better results if you start with liquid, followed by fresh fruit, seeds/powders, frozen fruit (defrosted) or finely crushed ice. You can also shake it to help mix.

Remember, it is a portable, battery-operated blender – not a powerful food processor with giant blades to match.

Tests – Pass+ for blend

Avocado salsa

Our Avocado dip is simple: ripe, large diced avocado, lemon juice, mild chunky salsa (store-bought), and light cream cheese. The problem is that we can never get the cream cheese to mix in properly, as it leaves little clumps.

It took two 30-second cycles to make a creamy, smooth avocado dip.

But cleaning was messy. While a silicon spatula could remove about 80% from the jug, the remainder was around and under the blades. We removed the jug and carefully removed about half the remainder from the blades. Using fingers around the blade was too dangerous to get the rest.

We rinsed the jug, carefully tried to rinse the blades (keeping the motor unit as dry as possible) and then put a drop of dishwashing liquid and 200ml of water in the assembled unit to do a full clean.

Scrambled egg mix

We usually use multiples of 2 x 70g eggs per person, a tablespoon of Carnation Lite thickened lite cooking cream, 30-40ml lactose-free lite milk and a generous pinch of grated parmesan. That makes about 200 ml; you can double the mixture for two people.

Using a fork to beat the mix does not blend well, and you have an uneven mix of yellow yokes, whites, and cream. A 30-second blend (probably too much) yielded a perfect fluffy egg mix that scrambled beautifully in the pan.

As this was liquid (not avocado), a drop of dishwashing liquid and 200ml of water in the assembled unit did a full clean.

Coffee Thick Shake

Pour 60ml (2 standard espresso shots—or more), add 100ml cold milk, and add 4 x 60ml scoops of semi-soft vanilla ice cream for a total of 400ml. Adult taste – yumm. I have been known to reduce the milk and increase the ice cream😁.

Gin and lemon

We had been experimenting with gin and lemon mix with our Breville InFizz Fusion – carbonated drinks on command, and while excellent in flavour, the fruit was not as macerated as it could be.

This allowed us to place two to three peeled, finely diced lemons (at a lime), some water, and stevia in to get a nicely even mix for the InFizz to do its job. It was far more convenient than getting out a large food processor and cleaning it afterwards.

You could use this for any drink with fresh or frozen (defrosted) berries or fruits.

Marinade

When experimenting with the Ninja OG751 Electric BBQ Grill & Woodfire Smoker – smoking, yeah, this is ideal for making two cups of marinade.

Marinades use a mix of ingredients, such as mayonnaise (creamy), vinegar, sugar, mustard, lemon juice, salt, pepper, chilli, garlic, ginger, oil, and honey… It is a real pain to hand fork-beat these in a bowl.

While the final mix may be sticky, it comes out easily with a silicon spatula and is easier to get from under the blades.

Ice – yeah, nah

Don’t expect it to crush typical freezer-size ice cubes. It is OK with finely crushed ice or mostly thawed frozen berries.

What it is not

Forget dry mixing like spice rubs – it must have about 200ml of liquid to cover the blades.

You have our message about not expecting it to perform heavy-duty tasks like a food processor. If you don’t prepare/load the ingredients properly, it can block the blades with thicker mixes.

At 786g plus about 400g liquid, it is pretty heavy to cart around as a drink bottle. Our single caveat is that we would have preferred the jug to be inverted, as it would have made cleaning so much easier and doubled as a drink bottle without the heavy base. See the food processor image below – the three jugs on the right.

CyberShack’s view – Ninja Blast Portable Blender BC100 is perfect for what it is intended for

Ninja’s pedigree means it won’t be a cheap, shoddy, generic mini-blender that you find on eBay.

In its place, it is a solution to making single-serve drinks. Although its food processors already have an inverted jug design that, in my opinion, is more useful and easier to clean – they lack portability and convenience.

Ninja Blast Portable Blender BC100 rating 79/100

We will rate it as a portable blender with a bonus USB-C rechargeable battery. Note that 2024 reviews use 70/100 as a Pass mark to allow for recognition of excellence or class-leading qualities. Pre-2024 reviews—deduct 10 points as they used 80/100 as a pass mark.

Features: 80 – Rechargeable battery-operated personal one-cup blender.
Value: 75 at RRP and 85 at $69.99—There are many personal blenders, some with inverted jugs that can be used as drink bottles.
Performance: 80—It is hard to qualify this. Is 10 x 30-second uses per charge reasonable? Is the mix as smooth as other brands? Our assessment is that a food processor with a cup accessory does a better job but is nowhere near as convenient.
Ease of Use: 80 – again, difficult to quantify. As a personal drink maker, it is very easy to use. Cleaning and care can be more of an issue.
Design: 80—It is very similar to the plethora of generic drink blenders, although we suspect Ninja is the original, and these are copies. Again, this is purely subjective, but we would have preferred a more useful removable drink bottle design.