We are now looking for a mixer/batteur/robot multifunction. Naturally, being young and trendy we looked at Kitchenaid: even though it's just an overpriced Whirlpool it has to be said they are solid, and we know people who have them and like them. We have written about this before. (The trouble is that for those in the US Kitchenaid is what your grandmother had, but this side of the world they are a fashion item, and don't appear to be good value for money. Until 5 years ago I had never heard of them, and I suspect that for 90% of the world it was the same.)
So I have been checking the soldes to see what's on offer. Once again, though, the pricing in the soldes has me confused:
11 minutes past 11 on Friday and the current leader of the
pack is only available at this price for another 2h 9min 43s
pack is only available at this price for another 2h 9min 43s
1.00am Saturday morning, and the price had increased 1€69.
It stayed at this price for 5 hours before dropping to 168€30 again
It stayed at this price for 5 hours before dropping to 168€30 again
We think this mixer is more or less what we are after - it certainly reads like what we want. The problem is that like many French appliances they only seem to be offered by a few online stores so we have never seen one in the flesh.I am still confused about prices, though.
Simon
PS If any of our readers have experience of Robusta or Clatronic mixers, we would be very interested in hearing their thoughts. The Kenwood KMix is still in the running, and is clearly a good machine. But - it is much more expensive than the French Robusta or German Clatronic models, and we are wondering if these less well known brands might give us better value for money.
8 comments:
I forgot to mention on Thursday... check for spares availability. This occasionally indicates a common manufacturer as well.
And the quince 'pastilles' were absolutely scrummy.
WV is 'canju'... zydeco with a back beat?
Simon, For years I had a KitchenAid and then gave it away before leaving the States. We recently bought a Kenwood Prospero from Darty for 179 euros and so far I've been happy. It has 900 watts of power, came with a glass liquidizer, a juicer and a food processor attachment. Although the food processor capacity is smaller than my old Cuisinart [also left behind in the States], I think it will do the job on most things. In my search I never came across a Robusta.
Simon... Robusta's own site lists Carrefour as the only shop outlet... all the others are e-shops.
Simon, they are just playing games with your mind and those prices! The Robusta looks like a good deal, if it's reliable. The customer reviews on the CDiscount site say it's very noisy. One criticizes the egg beater and another the variable-speed motor.
I got a Kenwood Chef last year and it's brilliant, with dough hook, whisk, standard beater, liquidiser and mincer included, it was a great price from Amazon. It is fairly noisy but I am very pleased with it, but I still occasionally use my little cheap hand whisk which is also very good.
There are things the Kenwood doesn't do, so for my 60th birthday, although diamonds, fur and leather were discussed (only joking), we decided to buy a Magimix food processor, mainly to replace my 25 year old Braun machine which was on its last legs. (Walt blogged about a similar purchase not long ago.) It is truly fabulous. It came with a mini-processor and blade, slicing discs, extra fancy slicing discs and a juicer included, at a very good price from John Lewis. It's fairly quiet and seems of very robust quality.
So two major purchases in one year, which may seem extravagent, but one machine simply won't do absolutely everything you want and we are in the mindset of buying all this stuff now while we are still working and can afford it, in preparation for our retirement, which hopefully won't be too long now.......
Have had a couple of Magimixes over the years and have always been happy with them, although don't use many of the attachments as I prefer do do my own slicing and chopping even though it is occasionally one of my fingers!
Ken - all mixers are noisy, aren't they? I make enough noise when I have to beat egg whites by hand...
I think they are all noisy, and it's not as if you keep them running for half the day or anything.
We are liking our Moulinex robot culinaire, but it's a food processor, not a stand mixer. I saw Keir's Kenwood mixer yesterday. It's a stand mixer that has a food processor bowl as well as a liquidizer/blender. It looked pretty spiffy.
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