Ninja SLUSHi Review: A Fun Home Slush Maker With Strict Rules

Ice-cold drinks come into their own in summer, and rather than buying ready-made slushies you can now make your own at home with the right machine. The Ninja SLUSHi promises to make exactly that as easy as possible, and the published laboratory test set out to see whether it delivers. This review is based on that test, not on a hands-on trial of our own.

The headline is that the SLUSHi produces convincing slushes and frappés — as long as the ingredients are cold, sweet and, for cocktails, alcoholic in the right measure. Getting the perfect slush is a small science that takes some trial and error and careful reading of the instructions. This is no bargain and no toy either: at £329.99 it is an investment for hard-frozen — pardon, hardcore — fans. Operation itself is simple, but cleaning is anything but automatic: the built-in cleaning mode cannot shift every scrap of ice residue, and although a few parts are dishwasher-safe, most owners will need to get hands-on to stop the machine becoming a breeding ground for germs.

Straight out of the box, the SLUSHi must stand in one place for at least four hours so the coolant can settle and the condenser work properly. After that the routine is: fill the container (a minimum of 475ml, a maximum of 1.89 litres), pour in your pre-cooled liquid, connect the power, choose a programme and wait. There are five presets — Slush, Frozen Cocktail, Frappé, Milkshake and Frozen Juice — selected by touch and dispensed through a tap. A word of warning for the calorie-conscious: Ninja demands sugar, at least 5 grams per 100 millilitres. Light drinks, diet fizz or unsweetened tea deliver nothing more than icy disappointment, and Ninja's own fix is to add a tablespoon or two of syrup, sugar or honey per serving. Alcohol needs precision too — the finished cocktail should sit between 2.8 and 16 per cent by volume, or there is no adult slush to be had. Those figures refer to the whole mixture, so it is easy to work out the ratio once you add spirits; a calculator, or simply the recipe book, will keep you right.

In warm weather the idea of a sweet chill-down is an appealing one, so three recipes went through the machine to give everyone a taste. Ready-made iced coffee became a frappé using the matching mode, 100 per cent strawberry juice became a classic slush, and a vodka-and-lemonade mix was turned into a frozen cocktail. At close to 15 sone the SLUSHi is fairly loud next to other slush machines, though you do not have to endure it for long, as the programmes generally run between 20 minutes and an hour. The strawberry-juice slush finished in just 23 minutes — arguably too soon, since the consistency came out a little too runny at first, though a manual top-up of a few extra minutes improved it noticeably. The frappé fared worse: even after re-adjusting, 36 minutes produced a very runny drink shot through with ice crystals that spoiled the experience, and nudging the temperature setting brought no lasting fix, as the machine reverts to its default after a few minutes. The frozen cocktail came off best, reaching a largely even, if still slightly loose, consistency after around 63 minutes.

Cleaning is supposed to run automatically via the dedicated programme, but anyone planning to use the machine more than once should expect to do it themselves. To clear every trace of ice and sugar you either scrub the parts under the tap with a sponge or use the dishwasher; everything except the motor base and its attached cooling element is dishwasher-safe, though you should skip the dishwasher's drying cycle, as the heat can warp the plastic. Ninja claims the SLUSHi keeps drinks cold for up to twelve hours, but in testing the consistency turned noticeably runnier after only about 15 minutes, so slushes are best served and drunk promptly — brain freeze included. Where the machine genuinely shines is its documentation: a thorough manual and a well-judged recipe book, the latter packed with ideas and useful guidance on which ingredients and ratios matter. Spend time with it and you are quickly drawn into a slush universe bursting with possibilities — much like the Ninja Creami, whose use likewise feels part science, part way of life.

At the time of writing the Ninja SLUSHi (model FS301UK) sells for £329.99 on Amazon UK. It is a stylish kitchen gadget with a real fun factor — provided you are willing to embrace sugar, waiting time and a spirit of experimentation, and to put in a little patience and elbow grease at the sink. It is not a cheap pleasure, but for dedicated slushie drinkers and cocktail enthusiasts it could prove money well spent.