There was something about this blender once I got it out of the box. I guess it was the look of it; it looked expensive and sturdy. The mechanism needed a little getting used to since the machine wouldn’t run when the jar wasn’t properly attached to the base --a good safety feature, but a bit of a hassle for the new user. It has integrated cord storage for all the neat freaks out there who hate having wires running around the kitchen countertop. The base is a shiny, chrome-like plastic. It may trick a few people in the kitchen, but then again, this "plastic-ness" serves its purpose: the base doesn’t heat up as much unlike blenders with metal bases. The lid is nice and tight, to make sure all your ingredients are locked in, and all things outside the jar are kept outside (like fingers, bugs and the like).

I put this baby on two tests, a coffee bean grinding test and a smoothie test, and I guess most households will be grinding or "shaking" so I thought these would be appropriate.

I put a cup of coffee beans in the jar, sealed the lid and used the Smartblend button (which is a longer word for the pulse feature in most blenders and food processors). The coffee beans began jumping up and I decided to just put it on speed 4 to process the beans. One thing I can say is that the blender had finesse; it’s not a pain to hear unlike most machines, and the contents jumped around beautifully like a fountain. My six-minute grinding caused the base to heat up a little, very little, which is great; I didn’t feel like I was destroying the machine.

After a few minutes it was time to look: the beans were ground finely, but about 20% of it was uneven. I guess it needed a few more minutes to even out, and maybe a little help from a wooden spoon to mix things around.

Ah, the famous fruit shake - nutritious, delicious and refreshing. But I just did this test to find out how smooth Pico-made smoothies can become. So I loaded some ice-cubes into the jar, put in a little fresh milk, and added some bananas and sugar. I turned the blender on and, again, it wasn’t as noisy and it made the ingredients jump around. A few seconds into it, I decided to mix the ingredients around a little. After a few minutes, voila! A banana smoothie! The size of the crushed ice was wonderful and the shake was entirely smooth.

This tiny, 20-liter black metal and stainless oven can fool the average Joe into thinking that it’s expensive. This is perfect for the compact kitchen, although the plastic feet must be a design fault, since the thing easily slips when pushed. Still it’s a PYT, and it’s got a working rotisserie.

There’s no better way to test the rotisserie functions than to make a rotisserie chicken. I marinated a spring chicken and popped it in the oven. The chefs who watched made a resounding "Wow!", once I turned the oven on and our snack began turning slowly inside the oven. Again, finesse. The chicken looked wonderful while slowly going round and round as the juices fell into the tray. Being the nerd that I am, I used their insert and followed directions, although I had a bad feeling that the insert itself was wrong (yes, the temperature was too low on the instructions and a normal person wouldn’t know if that’s correct). Anyway, we watched it and waited. Knowing this was a convection oven, I was hoping my snack would be done within a few minutes, but it wasn’t. It took about an hour (with me turning up the temperature after 45 minutes because my snack wasn’t browning). Ding! After an hour, it was time for the taste test: the chicken cooked evenly thanks to the rotisserie function although it made me think about the time I would spend if I cooked it in a normal oven (which is about the same). I guess all I can say is that this would be an okay product if you really don’t have space for an oven in your home since you can cook a whole chicken in it. Enough said.

Finesse. If it’s important to you, maybe you’d like to have these in your kitchen.