Kenwood Sport 2Go

What is the Kenwood Sport 2Go?

Kenwood’s no newbie when it comes to the world of blenders and smoothie makers, its Smoothie 2Go launching a couple of years ago, but the Sport 2Go is the first aimed at those with an overtly active lifestyle.
It comes with a pair of specially-shaped sports bottles, so you can either have one with you and one ready for next time, or use both if you’re out and about with a partner. They’re made from durable Tritan, a material that’s regularly used for sports drinking bottles, and come with rubber lid covers, so there’s no need to even take the top off to drink your smoothies or shakes.

Kenwood Sport 2Go – Design and features

The design of the silver base isn’t dissimilar from the Smoothie 2Go but much like the Sport 2Go’s elegantly tapered bottles, it’s sleeker and neater. Compact enough to store in even a tiny kitchen, it's light at 3kg, with a long power cord and non-slip feet.
A control wheel is front and centre, with two speeds for constant blending – a lower speed for starting recipes that include ice or frozen ingredients and a higher speed for more intense blitzing. There’s also a pulse that’s useful for quick bursts of blending to finish.



image: http://static.trustedreviews.com/94/000031daf/2c98_orh616w616/IMG-4574.jpg
The blade unit features four stainless-steel blades and is able to be disassembled for more thorough cleaning. To blend a smoothie, the blade unit screws onto a bottle and the whole lot locks onto the base unit with a clockwise motion. Each smoothie needs a certain amount of liquid for the best results and it’s not suitable for grinding ingredients when they’re dry, such as seeds and nuts.

Kenwood Sport 2Go – What is it like to use?

We decided to try a couple of combinations to put the Sport 2Go through its paces. There aren’t many recipes included but these do give examples of foods you can use to make smoothies. We started with a mixture of ice, fruit, yoghurt and honey.

The bottles might be the ideal size for carrying around but their slender design means that any ingredients need to be cut down to size to fit through the opening. In this case, 2cm chunks, which was time-consuming.
There are recommendations for some recipes as to which ingredients to add first for the smoothest blend, so it’s also not as easy as throwing everything in and blending. As this recipe included ice, we started on the Low setting to help mix the ingredients before turning up to High.


While all the ingredients were processed, there still wasn’t enough power to whisk the contents up to the top of the bottle, so it needed to be detached and shaken part way through to help it mix. The resulting smoothie had a good consistency but was a little too thick to drink through the bottle dispensing lid comfortably.


Next, we tried a green smoothie using spinach, fruit, ice, yoghurt and juice. This produced a thinner consistency but some pieces of fruit skin were still visible despite the Sport 2Go being run on High for around 40 seconds and a few pulses. It was also frothier than the previous blend. However, in both, the ice cubes were completely crushed and most of the fibrous fruit was well blended.



A thorough clean of the Sport 2Go, however, is not quite as simple. While the blades should dissemble, we were unable to separate the parts. However, even as one unit, it’s relatively easy to clean with a cloth. As the bottles and blades can’t be cleaned in the dishwasher, they had to be washed by hand. The neck of the bottles is too small to reach in without a brush, so it’s advisable to rinse bottles as soon as possible after use or they may have to be soaked to loosen any residue.

Should I buy the Kenwood Sport 2Go?

More for blitzing beginners than hardcore health fans, if up until now you’ve been reluctant to invest in a smoothie maker or compact blender, the Sport 2Go is an affordable way to find out how much use you’d get out of this type of appliance.
It’s a little limited by power and some more inspiring recipes would be welcome, as would a brush to clean it properly by hand, but as a basic package it’s good value. The twin bottles are also a big plus for convenience but getting the smoothie consistency liquid enough to drink from them easily may take a little practice.

Verdict

A choice of speeds, accessories and ice blitzing abilities are a bonus for the price but those looking to experiment may need a model with more muscle.