Customer Reviews

iSi Cream Whipper Dessert Whip Black 1 Pint 6764

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I hated getting out my whole heavy mixer and having to clean a large mixing bowl for a dab or two of whipped cream, especially in the middle of entertaining guests and preparing dessert during a dinner party...

These have actually gone down in price considerably since they were first released and I longed for one but would not justify the splurge.

It could not be more simple than to put in some cream (I add sugar and vanilla) and then dispense it like pre-purchased Reddi Whip. BUT with no preservatives, far better taste, and will hold its shape longer. The cartridge creates the magic.

I use this when I'm entertaining because there is absolutely nothing that will match the taste of homemade whipped cream atop a dessert...while Cool Whip will hold its shape forever, if you look at the ingredients you'll also see why. And, for me, Cool Whip tastes as artificial as its ingredient list signafies.

In the winter, we make gourmet hot cocoa and top it off, in seconds, with great whipped cream.

As a rare splurge, I'll also make chocolate chip pancakes and place the whipped cream on top.

But, my main reason for purchase is the taste you can't beat on top of any dessert...piece of pie, cobbler, even to beautify a cake slice by placing the ripples of cream beside it. It creates the perfect ending to my dinner parties.

For the cook or the foodie, it's a delectable gadget!

I first came across an ISI cream whipper in a pastry shop in a quaint riverside town in Germany about 7 years ago. I was immediately captivated, not only by its sleek look, but the way the lady added the freshly whipped cream onto my warm apple strudel. Of course it was love at first bite! One of the first things I did when I came home was search for an ISI of my own.

There are so many advantages to having an ISI cream whipper:

1. Since I LOVE fresh cream, but am also in my 40s and shouldn't really be ingesting fresh cream on a frequent basis, the ISI cream whipper allows me to enjoy cream, but in healthier portions. You see, due to the way the whipper works, you are not really eating the same amount of calories as in conventionally whipped cream with the same portion size. Here's why: the whipper creates the cream by putting lots of air into it; so if you were to put a cup full of ISI whipped cream onto a plate and another cup of hand whipped cream onto another plate (leave in the fridge) and check it about an hour later, you would find the ISI cream will basically have "disintegrated" into about a quarter cup of cream, whereas the hand whipped cream would look the same. The ISI whipper gives you the satisfaction of having a decent serving of cream on your dessert, however you are truly not eating the amount of calories and fat which you think you are! :) This is a HUGE plus for me!

2. Relating to the above comment, this also makes one pint of cream go much farther than hand whipping.

3. Ease of use of the product-no need to get bowls, whips, beaters, etc. Also convenience of having whipped cream on hand whenever you need it when you keep it in the refrigerator. When my children have their friends over, they love to have freshly whipped cream on their ice-cream or hot cocoa or even pancakes!

4. Length of time cream lasts in the ISI whipper is yet another advantage to this product. I have had cream last as long as 10 days while in the whipper.

5. HAVE ISI, WILL TRAVEL. My friends have made jokes about me getting a holster for my ISI whipper because when we go to visit them for dinner (and I always bring dessert)-I go with my cream whipper-armed and loaded! I bought one for a friend's wedding shower and she was so happy after seeing and enjoying mine.

6. Using your own cream and not having extra added chemical ingredients, sugar (I never add sugar to mine) preservatives, etc. is so much healthier than buying Reddi-Whip! That stuff tastes NASTY.

7. TASTE. You will only taste cream, the better quality, the better the taste. I have used organic whipping cream and cannot believe how wonderful the flavor is. You can also add your own flavors to the cream; eg vanilla, chocolate etc. ISI also has recipes for making desserts right inside the whipper, which I've always wanted to try, but have not as of yet.

As much as I hate to admit is, there are two disadvantages to the ISI whipper as compared to hand whipping cream (neither of which even comes close to outweighing the advantages which is why I have purchased a second ISI whipper so I'm prepared when/if my first ISI ever dies!) Yes, I'm a bit obsessed with fresh cream.

1. Due to the first advantage noted above (where the cream essentially "deflates") this is not what you want to use for desserts like cream puffs or anything which is to sit for any length of time. This is only for desserts where you will dispense the cream and eat it immediately (within 10 minutes or so.)

2. The only other "bummer" about the ISI whipper is the cost of the nitrous cartridges. They tend to be overpriced everywhere, and they're not a product you can easily shop for at your local grocery store.

That's my review of the ISI cream whipper. I think I've covered all the points which are important on both pros and cons. And just in case you are curious...no, I don't own stock in the company :)

Happy Whipping!

Bought this for my dad for his birthday, he loves whipped cream. I thought it would be alot easier to use than getting out the kitchen aid after dinner each night, I was right. It was a hit, he really liked it!

Having used "disposable" whipped cream cans, sparingly, over the years, and comparing those products with the hand-made whipped cream my grandmother made, standing for what seemed like a half-hour at the kitchen counter with a hand-mixer beating the liquid cream to the magical fluff I loved just as much as the freshly-baked berry pie beneath it, I finally, at age 50, myself, decided to treat myself to the iSi whipped cream dispenser. It seemed a reasonable compromise between buying the (hmm, fake isn't quite right, I suppose, but they don't really contain natural whipped cream, either...) "fake" stuff in the guilt-laden landfill stuffers and standing there, beating the stuff indefinitely, by hand.

I was absolutely delighted with this tool for the first six or seven months, and my family and friends all seriously admired and coveted the thing, as well. Somewhere around six months' lapsed time and daily usage of the charger, making myself cafe' mochas that gave (and continue to give) Starbucks a proper run for its money, the nozzle I was using (the one in most of the product photos, long and black and with a serrated edge) stripped and would no longer stay on the dispenser.

It's an issue of having metal threads gripping plastic ones, and stripping is surely inevitable--no matter how gently and carefully the nozzle is attached. With daily use and more-than-weekly disassembly for cleaning between fills, metal is destined to wear away plastic against which it's--even gently--forced. So I tossed the stripped attachment into the drawer and switched to the alternate attachment. The second, white, attachment, with a somewhat vase-like profile and a much broader dispensing trajectory (much more suited to topping a slice of pie, or creating a fluffy layer in a layered dessert...not as controlled and, in my opinion, less tidy and precise, is a bit ill-suited for getting a reasonably small squirt of whipped cream atop my mocha, in an average-sized coffee cup. Am I picky? Not so much, not at this age, but I revere good tools, in design and in the quality of their manufacturing. . .there's nothing so satisfying as the heft and patina of an excellent and well-lived tool of any purpose or material. That kind of quality is usually beyond the measure of my pockets, but I've always been a pauper with a prince's/princess' tastes, probably from the womb and completely incurable, no matter how much life pushes my face again and again in the dirt to remind me to practice humility and generosity. If I am to own a thing, I would rather have it of good quality, and likely do without several others equally needed and useful, than find myself with one of everything I need, but it all flimsy things of planned obsolescence, every one consigned to the garbage/recycling within a year, and limping along probably the last half of its function.

The body of the dispenser is definitely quite good quality, the threaded top machined nicely, fitting perfectly without apparent leakage, without burrs or porosity of the metal, and the black finish to the metal parts reasonably durable, though not what I would call extremely hard-wearing. No mind for me; I care far more about its function than its beauty and minor wear and tear marks from bumping against dishes in the sink aren't that important to me.

I managed, with the second, remaining attachment, for another six months, trying to be even more careful than with the previous tip, which I had handled gently in the first place, being more than a bit of a handyman and knowing a modest amountn about the properties of various materials and the suitability of their use in combination...(not to brag, but I was fortunate, also, to have the opportunity to meander about among various science and science-based courses, in college, before finally settling, in my junior-cum-freshman year at university on, of all things, art as my major and eventually my degree; I loved science as much as art--that was the problem--and did learn a great deal of it, as a "gifted" student; some of that knowledge has served me quite practically, too, as it seems to have, here, in fully expecting the mechanical failure of these nozzles' inadequate method of attaching to their parent vessel.

Now, not easily finding replacement attachments (I guess I'd need them in bulk, given their failure rate, too!), I am dispensing the cream in my coffee with no nozzle attached, at all. It still works; the cream still dispenses without great chaos...but without the nozzles to slow down and scatter the fluff, it dispenses quite rapidly, forcefully, and compactly. Once again, I'm making do, but it's a bit of a disappointment. That is why I'm only giving four stars: the quality of the whipped cream it produces is excellent, by my judgement, but the mechanical failure of the nozzles really should be prevented, in manufacturing them with a metal threaded sleeve, perhaps, it rigid enough to withstand regular disassembly and reassembly without causing the plastic around it to stretch or abrade. It's not a difficult fix to design, and I think that a tool of this quality really ought to be provided with bells and whistles that do it justice. Room for improvement on an otherwise excellently-manufactured and delightfully indulgent, quality tool that is a tremendous relief from that stuff you buy in the disposable cans. . .if you find a good one with that problem resolved--or if iSi has, by now, redesigned its attachments, perchance, I do recommend buying one, if only for the small but critical strain it will relieve from our landfills. (I haven't yet located a recycling station that will accept the NO2 cartridges that charge this appliance, but I'm sure that's a lapse on my part--I have had to move my habitation, not by choice, twice in the past twelve months and simply haven't been able to organize things that well...yet!)

In summary: recommended--especially if you can find a source for replacement attachments at a fair price and in quantity! Or if iSi has fixed the problem, by now.