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The quintessential little treat is subjective. Some will say iced coffee, others will argue ice cream.
But we can all probably agree that many of the biggest little treats of them all are the elusive ones — the ones that aren't available at your fingertips year-round, or the ones that can't exactly be brought home and stored for a later time. Consider the Shamrock Shake or the $16 frosé that one rooftop bar only has in the summer.
After the success of the ice cream and other frozen dessert-making Creami, Ninja is exploring the frozen drink side of little treat culture. The Ninja Slushi is a professional frozen drink maker that has sold out more than once since its debut in July 2024. The Slushi is not only a vessel for making a homemade Slurpee without leaving the house but is also an opportunity to treat-ify mundane beverages, like a morning protein shake or afternoon pre-workout electrolyte mix. And FWIW, a slushy in hand just feels like an appropriate accessory to brat summer.
TikTok, a massive community of little treat enablers, naturally ate this shit up. I had to get my hands on one, too.
How does the Ninja Slushi work?
Though they both can ultimately whip up frozen drinks, the Ninja Slushi is far different than a blender because the Slushi doesn't require ice.
Rather, the Slushi achieves that chef's kiss chilled consistency via Ninja's RapidChill Technology, which involves an auger spinning around a cooling cylinder. This approach can take room temperature ingredients from liquid to, well, slushy, in under an hour (give or take a few minutes, depending on the alcohol and sugar content, as well as the size of the batch).
And even if you can achieve that with a blender, it's ephemeral; frozen margs go to melted margs in a matter of minutes when they're just hanging out in a blender pitcher. The Slushi, however, keeps drinks frozen. Once it hits optimal temperature for the recipe in question, the Slushi beeps and switches from a blinking light to a steady light, but continues spinning and cooling, keeping your recipe perfectly slushied for up to 12 hours. Just mind the condensation.
What can you make in the Ninja Slushi?
Officially, there are buttons on the front for slush, spiked slush, frappé, milkshake, and frozen juice. I hesitate to claim that you can make really any frozen drink that pops into your brain, but it basically feels like that. And if you hatched the idea for something but aren't sure of the exact ingredients, someone has probably already attempted to make it on TikTok.
My first endeavor was frosé following the exact recipe in the Ninja booklet: literally just rosé, juice, and a little bit of simple syrup. It was so easy, so quick, and so damn good — just like the overpriced ones at the bar.
Other fun experiments included Slushi'd White Claws plus simple syrup (which turned out to taste incredibly bland and decarbonated after being frozen), a humble can of Pepsi to play out my roommate's dream of an on-demand cola slushy, a blueberry vanilla protein milkshake I saw on TikTok, and a slushy version of my pre-workout electrolyte powder drink. Past this week of testing, I could totally see the Slushi getting weekly use in my household.
When attempting frappé mode, I realized that I'm personally kind of turned off by the idea of coffee in that thick consistency. After the first batch was done but I still hadn't emptied anything, I just added more almond milk and some chocolate protein powder to turn it into a café mocha milkshake.
The Slushi needs to be cleaned after every use to prevent sticky, rotted residue buildup. After using the rinse cycle button on the machine itself, there are four super basic parts to disassemble and wash — either by hand or in the dishwasher if there's room. After dealing with the detachable parts, wipe down the metal base and interior of the machine, and then click the parts back on.
Ninja Slushi vs. Ninja Creami
Before there was the Slushi, there was the Creami. Ninja's 7-in-1 ice cream maker blew up on TikTok when it first came out in 2021 — likely the thing that tipped Ninja off to how lucrative the Little Treat Trend could be.
While many drinks with that solid-but-not-solid consistency can be made in both machines, the main difference between the two lies in preparation. The Creami can only start with solid bases that you freeze for 24 hours ahead of time, while the Slushi can only start with liquids. Those liquids don't have to start frozen, giving the Slushi the leg up when it comes to spontaneity.
The Slushi is also significantly quieter than the Creami (or a blender). Yes, most Creami settings don't run for longer than a few minutes, but it's a jump scare that still needs to be preceded by a warning each time someone in the household is going to rev it up. While the Slushi does have to be on for an hour-ish, its hum is barely noticeable — it sounds like nothing more than the refrigerator running.
Downsides: What can't the Ninja Slushi do?
A successful slush depends on a few main ingredient components, one of them being sugar. Though I typically love to trash instructions before reading a single word, I will say that the Slushi booklet is one that you'll definitely actually need to read. Any Slushi recipe needs a certain ratio of sugar to coagulate — if there's not enough in the ingredients you've dumped in, the machine will beep at you and stop moving.
On the flip side, a stoppage also occurs if the Slushi senses that the alcohol content is too high compared to the other ingredients. In any case, the lights on the front will flash in a way that coincides with each error so that you can make a quick fix.
I wish you could all see the defeat on my roommate's face when we realized you actually can't simply pour Diet Coke into the Slushi because Diet obviously has no sugar. The booklet does provide a workaround for this, including ways to subtly add sugar and the appropriate measurements. Still, there's way more math involved than I would have expected — remember when third grade me cursed fractions because "I would never use them in real life?"
Because the Slushi doesn't have blades, it cannot crush solid ingredients. To make some sort of healthy frozen smoothie from whole ingredients like frozen berries or kale, they'd have to be in puree form first. I blended these up in our blender ahead of transferring the contents to the Slushi afterward, but at that point, you may as well just add ice to the blender and avoid dealing with the extra dishes.
Is the Ninja Slushi worth it?
The Ninja Slushi's splurge-worthiness depends on how much of a frozen drink enthusiast you might be. I mean, people drop double the coin to bring a fancy espresso machine home, so spending a few hundred dollars on a niche kitchen appliance definitely isn't unheard of. If you're someone who needs to have three drinks within reach at any given moment, surely the two that aren't plain water could be slushed, and doesn't that just open up a world of possibilities? Plus, anyone who struggles with getting their fruits or veggies or protein might stay on top of it more with a drink more appetizing than a room-temperature chalky mixture. Is it too far to dub the Slushi a wellness hack?
The Slushi would also be a guaranteed hit in a home with kids who are way more likely to drink their healthy fruit juice if it basically feels like a Slurpee. Grandparents, aunts, and uncles, this is definitely how to become the favorite.
At any rate, the serotonin boost of one of life's most simple treasures — a fun little drink — is priceless, as is the bonding (and money saving) that could come with staying in with friends and having a frozen marg party in your PJs.
Topics Kitchen
