Ninja Luxe Cafe Espresso Machine First Impressions

Ninja Kitchens, an extremely popular small appliance maker in the USA and Canada recently announced their first entry into the premium espresso machine marketplace: the Luxe Cafe Premiere Series Espresso and Coffee Machine.

We just got a review unit (sent to us by the manufacturer), and after using the machine for a few days, I have some initial impressions to share about this $500, feature rich machine. It is available direct from Ninja (with some additional warranty options and occasionally a discount coupon), and is also available via Amazon in the USA.

But first, a bit of background in the market space Ninja is making a major jump into.

Current Espresso Machine Market

First, I want to talk about Breville, the company Ninja is directly targeting with the new Luxe Cafe. We are genuinely blessed that Breville, a large multinational small appliance maker, takes espresso so seriously. Many consider them to be the current leading innovator in high end consumer espresso technology, and their machines prove it. From the $400 Bambino Plus, the best machine available today below $400; to the $1,500 Dual Boiler; to the wunderkind of a super automatic built around traditional espresso tech, the $2,500 Oracle Touch; Breville has every price point loaded with excellent equipment for the home espresso enthusiast.

They also have the world’s best selling espresso machine, going on a decade now; the Barista Express. This $699 machine (which can go on sale down to $550-$600) set a new standard when introduced in 2013, and was bleeding edge for that time. Even today, though it lacks some 2020s style improvements (that higher priced machines from Breville have), it remains an excellent choice for someone wanting quality espresso in the home.

Espresso machine technology and abilities have moved on, and a growing segment of the consumer market wants espresso machines that do more than just plain espresso: they want automated milk frothing, automatic grinding and dosing, cold brews, and they want long coffee modes. Breville does offer most of these things (excepting the long coffee modes), but in machines at a much higher price point than the Barista Express. 

This is where Shark Ninja, a major player in the small appliance market in the USA and Canada, saw potential. Long known for producing unique, feature packed, reliable appliances priced very reasonably, Ninja Kitchens spent several years developing a premium entry into the espresso and coffee brewer market. A machine that does a lot of the good things the Barista Express does, but also a machine that promises to do a lot more. 

And we now have that machine: the $500 Ninja Luxe Cafe. For consumers, this is a really good thing. Healthy competition is always good for consumers.

The Ninja Luxe Cafe Premier Series Espresso Machine

When I first saw photos of the Luxe Cafe, my immediate thought was “this thing is a beast”. My second thought was “this looks way more pro-level than many Ninja products I’m familiar with”.

Then curiosity took hold. “What’s the portafilter like?”. “How are they managing cold brews?”. “Cold foaming systems on top of traditional microfoam-automation?” “How accurate is the grinder dosing?” “What’s the temperature controls like?” “How fast does it heat up?” “What’s a ‘quad shot’?”

Turns out, the Ninja engineers dived deep into all these elements, and more. We have had a test machine here for only a few days, but what I’ve learned so far is quite impressive. Please keep in mind: this is not a review. It isn’t even our formal First Look (both of these are coming). This is just some initial impressions about the machine, as well as some pertinent information that I haven’t seen published elsewhere yet about the Luxe Cafe.

It’s Not Just Espresso

Ninja is known for producing products that do more than just their basic functions: their camping cooler for example has a unique “dry zone” that keeps food both dry and 40F (4.5C) cold for days and days. Check out their other coffee devices to see how they do more than just basic coffee brewing. And sure enough, the Luxe Cafe has a lot of tricks up its sleeve.

The main one is, it’s not just an espresso machine. Of course, the Luxe Cafe will brew a traditional 45g output (from 18g doses) double espresso shot. The machine has a rapid heat up time, does a stepped and lower pressure preinfusion mode, and brews a very nice double shot, based on all the ones I’ve tasted so far. And it can bang them out, back to back to back, for as long as you want.

The Luxe Cafe will also brew a quad shot, around 100g liquid output (estimated), from a 40g shot dose (measured!!). And it doesn’t end there. It can do a cold pressed version of espresso. It also can brew a traditional cup coffee from 6 ounces to 18 ounces, in two different modes: “classic” or “rich”. The Ninja Luxe Cafe also performs a full on cold brew extraction, taking about 10 minutes to complete the brew cycle. 

The Luxe Cafe comes with two filter baskets: a traditional double that’s similar in size to Breville’s 54mm double basket for the Barista Express; and a super deep filter basket that is used for the quad shot, the cold brew, and the traditional coffee brew modes. The machine can sense which basket is being used, and directs you as to which basket is needed for different brewing modes, right on the display panel.

Another thing I should mention: this machine is very quiet overall. The pump noise is decently insulated and the grinder is the same. The machine varies and modulates the pump depending on the function it’s doing (it pulses for preinfusion, pulses slower for traditional coffee brewing etc), but it never really gets loud. Even the automated milk steaming is quiet.

The Grinder System

The Luxe Cafe grinder is based around a 39mm conical burr system that looks very similar to the design used in the Barista Express, but it has several key differences that put it in a class of its own. First and foremost, there is a scale built into the dosing assembly area. Yup, this machine accurately doses by weight.

Second, the grinder is designed to work with a dosing collar (which is stored on the side of the machine), and the included pressure-click tamper works with the dosing collar to ensure a level, properly compacted dose every time. 

The grinder has 25 settings. Considering the Luxe Cafe does every coffee drink style from real espresso to 500ml traditional coffee brews and cold extractions, the grinder’s grind setting resolution is fairly wide, and wider per click than Breville’s systems are. This grinder has to tackle a grind fine enough for espresso (usually “2” or “3” on our test machine with light to medium roasts, once the burrs have been seasoned), and go coarse enough for a 10 minute cold extraction steep brew (“25” in my testing so far). 

Remember how I said Ninja likes to have some tricks up its sleeve with its appliances? The grinder has a major one. Given that the Luxe Cafe can brew a wide range of coffees, and needs wildly different grind settings, you would think everytime you go finer, you have to run the grinder and waste coffee to adjust the grinder from cold brew down to espresso. Nope. Ninja figured this out with something very unique.

With the portafilter and dosing collar placed in the grinder cradle, every click you go finer on the grind setting, the grinder pulses for about 1/10th a second to accomodate the finer grind. It will do the pulse with every click finer. Brilliant! No more worry about wearing down the grind adjustment when going finer! And it only does it on finer clicks – coarser click changes don’t pulse the grinder. Further, it only works when the portafilter is in the grinder cradle.

In my initial tests, the grinder is very fast, and very quiet overall. In our First Look, we’ll present some initial timings and tests on the grinder system including a rudimentary look at particle sizes.

The Portafilter and Drip Tray Area

Ninja’s portafilter is very unique, and very deep. This is because it not only accommodates a traditional double style filter basket, but includes an extra deep coffee brewing basket. According to the manual, a third basket for shorter shots will also be available. The Luxe Cafe senses which filter basket is being used when mounted in the grinder dosing area, and in the machine’s grouphead. 

When we start our formal review, I’ll be looking into how this portafilter heats up (there’s a lot of mass involved as it is very heavy and well constructed), and best practices for cleaning it and its filter baskets between drink builds.

The portafilter has double spouts forged right into the body of the device, and I found myself early on wondering “why”? I wondered about this, because of the drip tray design, which is both fantastic and frustrating.

The Luxe Cafe has a very complex and multi-level drip tray system. It’s a big selling point for the machine in fact. There is a traditional, “slide into the base of the machine” drip tray with a very intricate design and niceties like a floating indicator for when it is full and needs emptying. Smack dab in the front middle is a “mini” self contained drip tray as well, square in design. It does not share reservoir space with the main drip tray: it is mini in all aspects, including its own mini reservoir for catching stray drips.

Ninja wanted this machine to accommodate giant 18oz travel mugs, as well as small 2oz espresso cups, so they designed a drip tray “shelf” to be part of the system, for holding cups. This thing is great, because you can slot your tiny espresso cups right up close to the portafilter’s spout exits, or you can move the shelf to any of three other positions to accommodate cappuccino cups, standard mugs, or even tall mugs. It’s all good, so far, right?

Well there is one frustrating thing: the drip tray area for cups, either in the removable centre base, or the floating shelf, isn’t wide enough to accommodate two espresso cups side by side. They are impeded on the left by the grinder doser area, and on the right by the steam pitcher. You can only fit one cup reliability under the spouts, or jam two in if you place them in awkward angles.

Which is why I think two output spouts in the portafilter are kind of moot. Just do a single output spout, or design a chopped bottomless version of the portafilter.

The Milk Steaming System

The Luxe Cafe automatically froths and steams milk, and gives you three settings for the amount of foam produced. There’s also a fourth setting: cold foam, which is pretty cool. (no pun intended). But there’s two specific things about the Luxe Cafe frothing, steaming and milk pitcher system that I had not seen covered online so far:

First, you can manually steam with this machine, using your own milk pitcher (and I’ve tried this, and it works extremely well and is very fast). Just set the machine to ‘no foam’ mode, extend the wand, and start manually foaming and stretching your milk.

Second, the steam pitcher has a trick; in the centre bottom, there is a spinning whisk-like disk that spins like crazy from the steam wand’s pressure and position. It effectively creates a vortex in the steam pitcher during the automatic steaming phase. And it is a serious vortex.

Though not confirmed, I believe the Luxe Cafe has an air pump incorporated into the milk wand system that gets activated at a low pressure for “thin foam”, and a higher pressure for “full foam”. The way the machine works in cold foam mode leads me to believe there is an air pump involved. I’ve tried cold foam mode twice, and a) it starts immediately (even while you’re brewing coffee), and b) there’s zero heat introduced into the milk, though it still spins at a very high velocity and creates mega thick, ice cold foam. Perfect for any cold espresso or coffee drink, or just doing ice cold milk foam on its own for cocktails.

The steaming and frothing system also has different settings for plant based milks vs regular milk, adjusting the finish temperatures automatically. It’s a very impressive system overall, and in all my use so far, it works very well, and very hands off. I am especially impressed with the cold foam mode, it is by far the best I’ve seen on any espresso machine or super automatic.

At first glance, there wasn’t any way to select the temperature for the automatic milk steaming (the machine has a temperature sensor built into the base where the steam pitcher sits) but there is a advanced service menu you can dive into to adjust, slightly, the final milk temperatures (this information is in the product manual). I found the stock finished milk temperature a bit too hot for my liking, but once I made this advanced menu change, I’m very happy with the temperatures delivered. In our First Look, I’ll detail this more.

The Luxe Cafe Lacks a Few Things

This machine offers a lot, but there are two things it lacks. One’s a genuine surprise for me, given how Ninja has a history of offering a ton of features in their appliances.

The Luxe Cafe has no hot water delivery ability, for preheating cups, americanos, or for hot water for tea. I’m a bit surprised by that. Adding some kind of hot water function would make this the ultimate and total hot and cold beverage system for your home. 

The second missing feature is there’s no easy way to just do a quick purge of the grouphead to rinse out your portafilter and clean the grouphead dispersion screen. You can just run a “blank” espresso shot, but the machine does have a nice preinfusion mode that can’t be bypassed (like you can with Breville machines),  Also, using the deep basket for traditional brewed coffee gets a bit soupy and messy. You’ll definitely want to clean it at the sink afterwards.

On espresso, there’s no ability to play around much. The machine is set up to do 18g in, 45g out for the double shot, and no real wiggle room. You can pick one of three temperatures however. On the coffee side of the machine, you get more volume control, in 2US fl.oz jumps.

Conclusion, and Review Plans

As of this writing, I’ve put about 3kg of coffee through the Ninja Luxe Cafe, and have made every drink except for the 10 minute cold brew, and the cold pressed espresso. Almost everything so far has been excellent. I love the taste of the brewed coffee at all the volumes I tried (6oz to 12oz), and the machine does a very enjoyable standard double espresso shot with very little muss and fuss from the operator. 

We’ve already begun our First Look process, where we’ll get a lot deeper into the machine’s abilities, functionality and limitations. We’ll also run some temperature and scale tests, but I can already say the grinder is accurate to within .2g on espresso doses, and within .5g on larger doses for brewed coffee. You get that with a weight-based dosing grinder system. We’ll also do some direct comparisons with the Luxe Cafe’s main competitor machines.

The Ninja Luxe Cafe is available now in the US market (and Canada) for a pretty amazing price, considering all it does and offers: $500. For that price, you get the complete machine, a very advanced steam pitcher, a highly capable steaming system including an effective and unique cold froth method;, what looks like a quality grinder system with weight-based dosing for the grounds, two filters, lots of steel, chromed brass and heavy duty parts, and a beefy portafilter. You also get a unique click-pressure tamper, a dosing collar, and a lot of engineering and brains inside the machine. The reservoir is huge, has a low water sensor, and is easily visible from the side. 

The Ninja Luxe Cafe is available direct from Ninja (with some additional warranty options and occasionally a discount coupon), and is also available via Amazon in the USA.

If you have any questions about this machine or specific things you want to see covered in our review process, please ask them below in the comments section and I’ll do my best to answer.

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