John Lewis is caroling Christmas success for a new kitchen gadget with one Cuisinart Soup Maker sold every 12 minutes, in a surprise festive success story this year.

The Cuisinart Soup Maker is the first blender to feature an integrated heater, meaning users can make hot soup in the machine itself, while the heat can be turned off to blend cold ingredients, such as fresh fruit smoothies.

Said to be simple to use, the gadget gets three heat settings and is offered with the boast it can make soup in 20 minutes, but we'd interject that this is also down to the competence of the chef and point out that you can make soup via other methods not requiring a stand-alone kitchen gizmo.

John Lewis' central buyer for small electricals at John Lewis says, "We are starting to see sales of the Cuisinart Soup Maker ramp up in the approach to Christmas, with one currently selling every twelve minutes. It’s a fantastic product that's extremely easy to use and what can be better than a hot bowl of home-made soup and crusty bread on a cold winter's day".

Complete with a 100-page recipe book with ideas for soups, sauces, dips, dressings, purees, desserts and drinks, the Soup Maker is on sale now for £139.