Ninja SLUSHi review: the ultimate party piece

The Sun

6 days ago

I'M OBSESSED with what Ninja's been up to lately.
The brand has perfected the art of taking fancy restaurant and bar gadgets and bringing them right into your kitchen for a fraction of the price.
First, it did it with the CREAMi ice cream maker, which utilised the same technology as the £6,000 machines used by fancy restaurants and incorporated it into a device costing just £200.
Now, it's gone and done it with my childhood dream item: the slushie machine.
I've been eyeing up the Ninja Slushi since it launched back in November, and managed to get my hands on one just as England was melting under its hottest June on record.
Spoiler alert: it was worth the wait.
BUY HERE
Pros:
Slushies! At home!
Incredibly easy to use
Can be used to make frappés and milkshakes as well as slushies and frozen cocktails
Not deafeningly loud
Big enough for 10+ portions, which is perfect for parties (or just gluttony)
Surprisingly quick (although it takes noticeably longer on hot days)
Plenty of recipes on the Ninja website, plus a 350k-strong Facebook community full of helpful enthusiasts
Slushies! At home!
Cons:
Not super easy to clean
Mine drips slightly, but I don't think this is an issue with all Slushis
Struggles to hit its coolest temperatures in hot weather
Heavy
Expensive
Rating: 8.5/10
How I tested the Ninja Slushi
Being the responsible journalist I am, I've thrown myself headfirst (or perhaps mouthfirst) into testing the Ninja Slushi.
My beverage intake has been 90% frozen drinks since I started using it.
Admittedly, I've mostly been testing the Frozen Cocktail function (I think this is called "Spiked Slush" on US models), because who wouldn't? It's probably the setting most people will hammer anyway, so I feel justified.
However, over a month of testing, I've had the chance to try out the other functions, as well as a bevy of recipes — both ones written by Ninja and ones from the goldmine that is the Ninja Slushi Enthusiasts Facebook group.
How much is it? This will be the biggest sticking point for most people — the SLUSHi retails for a cool £349.99, and it seems to be too early in its life cycle to go on sale — it was excluded from Ninja's most recent Prime Day deals.
Who's it best for? Parents and booze lovers alike. It's a lifesaver for keeping kids cool during summer holidays, and if frozen margaritas are your love language, this one's for you.
What we loved: It's a slushie machine you can use at home. What's not to love?
What we didn't: Oh, yeah — the price. It's also a slight nuisance to clean, and mine has a habit of dripping a bit while it's working its magic — not loads, but enough to be slightly annoying.
Ninja Slushi, £349.99 £340 from Amazon - buy here
Ninja Slushi review: The Nitty Gritty
First impressions
5
Ninja Slushi, £349.99 £340 from Amazon
A frozen drink maker certainly fits into the category of "silly impulse purchases I make after exactly four pints", but before you order one of these, make sure you've got space for it.
It's a hefty appliance, and initially I wasn't sure about where I was going to store it.
It's too tall to fit on a shelf and too heavy to store up high, so I had to shuffle some things around to make space.
I'd fully intended to use the Slushi straight out of the box, but it's important to leave it standing upright for two hours after unboxing to make sure the refrigerant inside the machine settles. (If it's been upright in the box for a few hours before unboxing, you can probably skip this step).
I decided to use the time to thumb through the several booklets Ninja included in the box, which include an actual instruction booklet (I hate QR code instruction booklets almost as much as I hate QR code menus in restaurants).
There's also a handy recipe booklet, and some basic instructions about how to go about creating your own recipes.
It's actually a bit more complex than I expected. If a recipe doesn't have enough sugar, for example, it'll freeze too much and jam the machine.
But if you put in lots of sugar and lots of alcohol, it won't freeze properly, staying in an unappetizing soupy state.
As a general rule of thumb, I'd use at least five cups of non-alcoholic liquid for every cup of alcoholic liquid, and always include an ingredient that boosts the sugar content.
If you're trying to stay healthy, you can buy sugar-free alternatives like liquid Stevia (many of Ninja's online recipes recommend allulose, but that isn't approved for sale in the UK).
And there's no need to worry too much about this; the Ninja will cleverly alert you if it senses that the levels of sugar or alcohol aren't within the recommended range.
Does it deliver?
5
Not wanting to overcomplicate things, I kept my first recipe simple; I headed down to the local corner shop and grabbed a carton of tropical juice and threw that in the machine with an irresponsible amount of tequila for a Tuesday night.
I switched the machine on (there's a hard-to-find switch at the back) pressed "Frozen Cocktail", and off it went.
When you choose one of the presets (there are five: Slush, Frozen Cocktail, Frappé, Milkshake and Frozen Juice), the Slushi will automatically adjust the consistency it aims for.
However, you can manually adjust this, which is handy — I thought the frozen cocktail function actually made things too solid and hard to drink, so I lowered the temperature target by one or two notches.
5
There's a display on the right-hand side that shows how far your Slushie is from its desired consistency, but be aware that it does tick up more slowly as it gets colder, especially in warm weather.
I found that, on hotter days (when you're most likely to use it) it struggled to reach the chilliest settings, but it did get there eventually.
And boy, was it worth the wait — a refreshing, chilly cocktail with tonnes of flavour... and a dangerously un-alcoholic taste, considering how much tequila I put in there.
I've used the other settings since, and the only ones where it falls slightly flat — and I've seen this in other reviews, too — is the Milkshake setting.
It's not that they're unenjoyable — they're perfectly drinkable, in fact — but the amount of agitation provided by the Slushi made the drink incredibly foamy.
After a perusal of my new favourite Facebook group, I've come to the conclusion that the answer might be in the amount of cream included; the more cream, the less foam.
My favourite Ninja Slushi recipe
Frozen Brazilian Lemonade (serves 4-5)
5 limes, washed thoroughly
1 can of condensed milk
1/4 cup sugar
4 cups cold water
Zest all 5 limes and add zest to a blender.
Peel the limes, removing the bitter white pith. Halve each lime and add to the blender with the sugar and water.
Blend and, optionally, strain to remove any remaining pith.
Stir in a full tin of condensed milk (you might want to add less if you don't have a sweet tooth).
Add to Slushi and select "Slush" preset.
I don't have too many other complaints — specifically, two.
Firstly, my machine drips a bit; it's nothing dramatic, but for a brand-new £350 machine, I'd expect this not to happen.
However, I've not seen any other people mention this, either in the Facebook group or in other reviews, so I'm going to assume that's just my machine.
Secondly, while it's not hard to clean, per se, it's not so easy that I feel I can use mine every night.
The drip tray, auger and condensation catch all happily go in the dishwasher. The barrel does, too, but it's so big that I have to clean it by hand, and it's tough to clean the hard-to-reach areas around the spout.
The drinks maker has a rinse cycle, too, which is especially handy if you've been making something extra-sticky or dairy-heavy.
How much is the Ninja Slushi?
5
Ninja Slushi, £349.99 £340 from Amazon
The Slushi retails for an ice-cold £349.99.
For a machine that is a bit of a novelty and can only really be used for one thing, it's undeniably a lot of money.
For me, though, it's one of those irresponsible "treat yourself" products.
If you look at it objectively, of course it's absurd to spend £350 on a home Slushie machine.
But, had a bonus at work? Treat yourself. Got some birthday money to spend? Treat yourself. Had a month so rough that it can only be fixed by a frozen strawberry daiquiri? Go on, treat yourself.
Being less than a year old, the Slushi has also so far been committed from most sales events; in Amazon Prime Day a couple of weeks ago, for example, it didn't receive any discount.
However, as we come out of summer and Black Friday draws nearer, I wouldn't be surprised to see it occasionally reduced to the £300 mark.
Where to buy the Ninja Slushi
The Slushi is widely available, from Ninja's website as well as third-party retailers.
The cheapest price we can see it available for is around £340.
Amazon - £340
Argos - £340
Very - £340
Ninja - £349.99
Ninja Slushi alternatives
5
With the Slushi, as with the Creami a few years ago, Ninja has made a device unlike almost anything else on the market.
The only device I've found that is similar is the Inoviva Slushi Machine, which looks remarkably like the Ninja and comes with the same presets.
It also has a very similar price tag — £329.99, although it's currently on sale on Amazon for £249.99.
Another option is the Cuisinart Frost Fusion, which does many of the same things as the Slushi, plus more — it also makes soft serve ice cream and sorbet.
It's also cheaper than the Slushi, at £299.
There are a few budget, lo-fi options available, too, which Sun Writer Lynsey Hope tested out back in June, with a sub-£10 gadget coming out on top.