Ninja Professional Plus BN701 Review

This blender stands out for its stellar margaritas and larger pitcher. The 72-ounce cup easily blends up a party-sized serving of margaritas or a family-sized serving of healthy smoothies. It doesn't take up much more counter room than the options in our test suite, but it is rather tall. Read on to see how the Pro Plus performs across all our metrics.

Performance Comparison

Smoothies

The Ninja Pro Plus makes a great berry smoothie and oreo milkshake. But struggles a bit with the green smoothie and fruit and oats smoothie. The milkshake is evenly blended with a rich, smooth texture with no chunks and a satisfying thickness. It also pours perfectly. The berry smoothie, while smooth, is a little too thick. Blending it for a little longer solves this issue, producing a slightly thinner substance, which is easier to pour and drink.

The Pro Plus struggles to create a truly smooth texture when leafy greens are introduced to the mix. Small pieces of kale do not completely puree, and the overall texture is a little grainy. The same thing goes for our fruit and oats smoothie.

Ice

The Pro Plus crushes ice quickly and makes the perfect margarita. Pulsing the blender on the crush ice setting crushed the ice into a soft, uniform, powdering texture without creating too much snowlike fluff. During our testing, we tried using the crush ice setting for our margaritas but found that the blend setting works better. It takes one more 60-second blend than the manual recommends, but the end result is awesome. Smooth, slushy margaritas for all.

Convenience

The labeling is easy to interpret, with a swirly icon for smoothies, a snowflake for crushed ice, and a cone for ice cream. The blend settings are easy to read, offering low, medium, high, and pulse settings. Each one has a small light to indicate which one you've chosen.

The lid, pitcher, and blades are all dishwasher safe, but they are easy to wash by hand. Unfortunately, you cannot allow the blender pitcher to dry on the base as it must be locked into place, leaving no room for airflow.

Pureeing

The Pro Plus makes a mean margarita and some pretty tasty smoothies, but it struggles in the pureeing department. Nut butters need to be mixed multiple times with a spoon between blending and require a good amount of oil to get and keep things moving. The end result is great, but there is a decent amount of tinkering and manual labor that goes into the process.

Pureeing soup is less successful than nut butters. The texture is mostly smooth but still grainy and not homogenous. There are no large noticeable chunks, but it's a little lumpy. This blender also cannot heat soup while pureeing.

Grinding

The Pro Plus grinds sugar and hard cheeses easily but struggles big-time with flour. The granulated sugar becomes a fluffy powder in 60 seconds, and the hard cheese is broken down mostly evenly with only a small chunk or two left out. The flour, on the other hand, is absolutely horrible to hear. It is extremely loud and clearly struggles to grind the kernels into a powder. They are visibly un-blended, and while the manual does not specifically warn against using this blender to make flours, it is obvious that it is not meant for that.

Should You Buy the Ninja Professional Plus BN701?

While the Pro Plus falls into the budget-friendly price range, the value of this blender depends completely on what you plan to use it for. It is an absolute steal if you are a smoothie and blended drink enthusiast. However, if you are looking for something that can serve up soup and help you create the perfect homemade flours, the Pro Plus will likely leave you with buyer's remorse.

What Other Blenders Should You Consider?