Taking the plunge on any purchase over £100 takes a huge amount of mulling over. In fact, when it comes to something as integral to your day-to-day as a coffee machine, the act of splurging on a new machine can feel monumental.
Ninja’s espresso machine the Ninja Luxe Café launched last year with huge fanfare, and I awarded it an easy five stars in my Ninja Luxe Café review after trying it out at home for months. But when I discussed it with my friends and family, they couldn’t understand spending hundreds of pounds on one of the best bean-to-cup machines when they could opt for something far less pricey.
That’s why I went on a mission to see how other Luxe Café owners felt about their purchases to see how it compared with my experience. Here’s what I found out.
1. It’s far simpler to use than it looks
There’s often a very steep learning curve when getting to grips with other bean-to-cup machines, even with something like the Sage Barista Express Impress, which is a really popular choice. Especially if you’re upgrading from something like a Nespresso, grinding beans and tamping can be initially be very confusing.
Considering how similar the Ninja looks to the Sage, I was worried it would be similarly hard to decode on first glance. Thankfully, due to the included Quick Start Guide and the many, many (thankfully peel-able) stickers on the machine itself, the set-up and first use was actually easy.
Most of the people who have used the machine and reviewed it agree that user-friendliness is one of its USPs.
One anonymous, verified purchaser on Ninja’s website said ‘We’d owned another bean to cup machine but could never get the taste right no matter what we tried. We decided to give this machine a try and we haven’t been disappointed.’
They go onto say ‘The books that arrive with the machine explain how to make the various coffees step by step. The machine itself is so easy to use as it does all the calibration for you.’
2. It requires more cleaning than your old Nespresso
One of the things I loved most when trialling the Luxe Café was the integrated, automatic milk frother. But with something that gets so much use and is so effective, there also comes the downside of added cleaning.
The bottom line is you’ll clean this machine far more than a Nespresso or a similar pod machine if you’re thinking about upgrading your set-up. That’s especially true of the milk frother, which it’s imperative that you keep free of burnt-on milk. Otherwise your morning lattes are soon going to taste very funky.
The water reservoir (which is where the run off from cleaning your milk frother and making espresso goes) will also need emptying regularly, as well as cleaning. While I don’t mind the extra work given the vastly improved quality of the coffees from this machine, there’s no doubt it’s a more labour-intensive experience.
This is something shared by the reviewers on Ninja’s website, too, many of whom discuss how it uses a fair amount of water to run. One reviewer said, ‘My only gripe so far is the amount of water consumed overall and the resulting frequency of emptying of the main drip tray.’
It’s a small price to pay, but worth bearing in mind.
3. It’s fairly hefty in size
If you are upgrading from a pod machine, just know that this machine is likely to have a much larger footprint than whatever you used to use.
There’s always a debate to be had at the Ideal Home offices over whether your appliances should live on your worktop full-time or not, but I’m a strong believer that a good coffee machine is worth giving up some kitchen space for.
It helps that the Ninja has a fashionable stainless steel look too. I think it’s the perfect excuse to put all of your favourite coffee station ideas into action – at least, that’s what I’ve done with my set up.
I’m not the only one. A reviewer on Ninja’s site said ‘My kitchen has been transformed into a coffee bar,’ adding that they had already ‘got back a quarter of what we paid for it buy not giving our money to Costa and Starbucks’.
It’s a good selling point if you can afford the heft of the RRP and the machine itself.
4. There’s already a new version available to buy
One thing about Ninja is that they’ve always got something new in the pipeline, which is a blessing and a curse for customers.
That was definitely the case with the Luxe Café, which, after less than a year has been superseded by the release of the shiny new Ninja Luxe Café Pro Series (available for £699.99 at Ninja). Whilst great for anyone who hasn’t yet invested, it might be the cause of some serious FOMO for anyone with the OG version.
Ninja
Luxe Café Pro Series
There’s a new coffee machine in town and I can’t wait to review it to see how it fares.
As I covered in my preview of the machine, the brand has already solved so many of the small issues that customers had the first time around with the Pro.
Now, you can make multiple coffees at once and minimise mess even further with an update tamping mechanism. Seeing as the Luxe Café is now the machine I recommend to most people and Ideal Home’s top-rated pick, I can’t wait to see how this new version fares.
Are you a Ninja Luxe Café convert? I’d love to know if you’ve tried this machine in the comments.
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