Other Slushie Machines I Liked
greenpan
Frost Slushie Machine
Belgian-established wellness brand Greenpan’s slushie machine is probably the only slushie machine I’d describe as even slightly attractive or pleasant on the countertop — available in a trendy pistachio color scheme that a 21-year-old co-tester called “cute.” The slush produced by this device also had fairly good consistency, probably due to a tight auger around the cylinder that allowed the slush to rotate a bit more. My colleague Martin Szymar, who also tested this device, was able to recreate the Philly recipe for Italian-style water ice with Meyer lemons, and he declared himself an endless fan.
The Greenpan muddied admirably, creating an entire chamber’s worth of spiked mud in about 25 minutes. Sadly, in terms of slow speeds it’s nowhere near as fast as the XL or Twist. The filler chamber is a little shallow, which means you have to pour slowly or you’ll make a mess. If you accidentally drop the handle down, you’ll make a mess, too. Some online reports of cracks in the cylinder due to use are also the reason for the stoppage. But if aesthetics are a major consideration, this will easily outweigh it. And look a little better while doing it.
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Photograph: Matthew Korfage
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Photograph: Matthew Korfage
When the original Ninja Slushie arrived in 2024, it was straight up a triumph of industrial design — the machine that managed to bring the cocktail bar or convenience-store slushie to the home kitchen countertop. Among the many imitators, the Ninja’s original design remained the most user-friendly and reliable until the next generation of Ninjas replaced it.
I’ve made coconut-lime daiquiris for a family of Brazilians, who joked that they planned to take the machine back with them on the plane. I’ve entertained a party full of kids with a non-alcohol version of slushie. And I’ve made silly frozen cocktails at home, whether lime Jarritos slushies or tamarind michelada slushies. It turns out that everything frozen is better. Freezing cocktails adds to the fun and takes away the embarrassment.
But it has been changed. I consider the original Slushie to be a good value model, but it is no longer at the top of the market. The Original Slushie doesn’t slash as well as the new XL and Twist on higher-alcohol slushies, even for less than 16 percent ABV. (In fact, with the OG Ninja Slushie, the sweet spot is about 10 to 12 percent ABV if you want a good consistency.) Milkshakes/soft-serve aren’t really possible on the original Ninja, always being either frothy or ice-gritty.
That said, buy the Slushie when it’s on good sale for $250 or less – or when it’s been updated with a good compressor like the XL or Twist.
Other slushie machines tested
Ever since Ninja brought slushies to the domestic market, Amazon directories have been filled with new brands you’ve never heard of and whose names sometimes seem to be subjected to a randomizer engine: Innoviva, Chivalz, ViboFrost, Frivest, Ekada, Cintao, Vischik, Ranvera, Rinovotio, and the list goes on. Most are available at a discount compared to Ninja or other more recognized brands.
I have tested three such brands: Chivelz, Invoviva, and ViboFrost. All three have had some form of reliability issue: fundamental design flaws, performance inconsistency, or simply disappearing from the market.
Chivelz Slushie Machine (No Longer in Stock): It was previously WIRED’s budget pick, which my co-tester Kat Merk called, without any disrespect, “a fairly respectable Ninja Slushie knockoff.” The device came with a welcome digital temp readout and a removable back panel, making cleaning on the slush chamber easier. Performance was on par with the original Ninja, although the user interface was a bit awkward. But since last year, the brand’s slushie machines have disappeared, as the brand’s focus has shifted to air purifiers and humidifiers.
ViboFrost Slushie Machine ($235, sold out after Prime Day): This ViboFrost, like Chivelz, freezes slushies longer than the original Ninja Slushie. And like the Chivelz, it has a somewhat annoying child-lock feature and a timed feature that seems to be of limited usefulness. Although it will slim down within about 20 to 30 minutes, the awkwardly designed spout can spray wildly if there is any fluid in the machine, the drip tray does not attach securely, and it groans like a dying tandoor during operation.
Innoviva Slushie Machine for $120: I tested this Innoviva slushie machine twice. For the first time, the device recorded much louder sound than competitors, the drip tray stuck to the machine, and the compressor began to fail after a week of testing. The second time, it was still faster, and the locking feature was difficult to navigate in the user interface, but the freezing was actually more consistent. Inconsistencies in quality control make it difficult to recommend this device. But you might be willing to give it a try at a deeply discounted price. The Innoviva also has a great feature: the ability to adjust the thickness for each drink setting.
My co-tester Kat Merk (at the now-defunct Chivelz) and I made lots of slushies with each machine, ranging from dairy to nondairy to coffee slushies to straight-up bottles of wine. Specifically, we tested every version of slush advertised by the machine. If Ninja or GreenPan say a machine can make frappes and milkshakes and frozen juices, we made frappes and milkshakes and frozen juices, tinkering where necessary. I froze orange juice and strawberry juice, diluted a bouquet’s worth of rosé, and made slushies ranging from daiquiri to margarita and whiskey coke. I tried diluted Tamarind Micheladas (an excellent idea) and Twisted Tea (a terrible idea).
Photograph: Kat Merk
I tested the freezing capabilities of all three machines by putting a 16-ounce can of delicious Mango Mike Harder Lemonade in each, then seeing which machine was the fastest. (For the XL, I used a 24-ounce can.) And I made smooth and dense coconut-lime daiquiris with coconut milk, according to Ninja’s recipe, to test how well each machine’s dispenser handled the real dense-textured challenge.
How do home slushie machines work?
The technology is very simple, almost ingenious: a beefy cylindrical freezing core in the center of the beverage chamber continuously cools any liquid that comes in contact with it. It is surrounded by a plastic spiral auger connected to a motor. The auger mixes the drink, keeping it thin rather than freezing solid, and pushes the resulting slush toward the dispenser nozzle so you can grab some. The sheer simplicity of this design allowed Ninja and others to market the commercial slushie maker to home consumers thirsty for frozen treats.
The main requirement is that the frozen drink contain no more than 4 percent sugar – or between 3 percent and 16 percent alcohol – in order to lower the freezing point of the resulting mixture and make slushing possible. Some slushie machine vendors recommend more than 15 percent sugar for the right consistency. But I often shy away from this. Coca-Cola and orange juice contain about 11 percent sugar each – so it’s very sweet. Some hero of the internet has created a slush calculator for easy reference.
Most 88-ounce home machines require a minimum of 16 ounces of liquid, for simple reasons: the liquid needs to be in physical contact with the core to liquefy and to prevent ice from forming on the surface of the central cylinder. The Slushie XL requires a 24-ounce minimum, because it is large.
Can you put diet soda in a slushie machine?
Yes and no. Sludge depends on the supporting properties of water: sugar (or salt) dissolved in water lowers its freezing point by 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Why? Soluble substances like sugar are chaos agents. The sugar molecules move randomly, refusing to dissolve into ice, and interfering with water’s ability to form hydrogen bonds and become crystalline. Some water molecules freeze, but sugar water does not freeze. Tada! mud.
If you try to make a slushie with sugar-free soda, or sugar-free anything, ice crystals will easily form instead. Ice will freeze on the stainless steel freezing core and scratch the auger, and chunks or pieces of ice will collect mass in the slushie machine. The cylinder will start shaking, then the machine will shut down, then eventually you’ll probably break your machine: alas, the low-cost fail-safes on these devices have not been highly reliable. So don’t try this at home!
This doesn’t mean you’re doomed to heavy calories if you want to make a slushie. Not every artificial sweetener lowers the freezing point appropriately, but the one the Ninja Diet recommends for slushies is allulose, a rare but naturally occurring sugar that is 70 percent as sweet as the original sugar but is not metabolized as effectively by the human digestive system. This means it’s low in calories and doesn’t cause insulin spikes — but as with so many indigestible substances, note that side effects may include bloating or GI distress for some.
For easiest use in slushies, purchase liquid allulose. Powder versions also exist, but to use them, you must make a simple syrup by heating the powder in water to help it dissolve, then cooling it. If you try to put allulose powder into your machine with some Diet Coke, it may not dissolve, and you may still get ice formation. Or at least, when I tried this on the OG Ninja I definitely still had the problem of icing up and had to stop my machine.
How do you stop milkshakes from foaming up in a slushie machine?
Bet you didn’t expect a lesson in milk protein today! But the thing is: milk proteins begin to separate when agitated. In fact, butter is made by churning milk. The proteins separate, and you get butter on one side and buttermilk on the other. Both are delicious, but neither is necessary in a milkshake.
Photograph: Matthew Korfage
If you attempt to make a milkshake in a churning slushie machine using only milk, eventually you will begin to see the effect of these milk proteins separating from the buttermilk – which will appear at first as an undesirable foam. To avoid this, Ninja recommends adding heavy cream or half-and-half to any milkshake recipe. The high fat content will keep things greasy.
Note that it’s easiest to use fruit syrup instead of just juice and add vanillin, otherwise it would be a bit boring: the heavy fat drowns out any subtle fruit flavor. Another deep secret to delicious milkshakes? Salt. Add a small pinch; This will help bring out the flavor. A 16-ounce McDonald’s milkshake contains 260 milligrams of sodium — about 1/16th of a teaspoon of table salt, or about the amount that fits between your index finger and your thumb.
But temper your expectations here. The texture of none of the slushie machines we tested was on par with a classic milkshake. On most machines, which don’t have as powerful a compressor as the newer model Ninjas that are now our top picks, the texture is often a bit ice-gritty and not as richly textured or integrated as the milkshakes you get from your local burger joint, let alone the soft serve you get from McDonald’s famously broken ice cream machines. Slushie machines also can’t handle frozen fruit pieces, which are often the best part of a milkshake.
On the new Ninja, with their more powerful freezing power, I was able to get the smoothness and freeze I wanted. But because most recipes call for a high-fat mixture of 2:1 milk and heavy cream to avoid foaming and churning the butter, the results were still not quite a light milkshake. It was like a dense, rich, quite delicious soft serve.
Now, would I like to be able to have 20-minute soft-serve in my home? From milk and heavy cream and sugar and a little bit of vanilla? Oh yes I do.
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