The Ninja Slushi changed my whole summer last year. It was the first home slushie machine to make bar-quality frozen drinks accessible to the American kitchen, back patio, and pool party. And so last year became the summer of daiquiris. (It was also the summer I got invited to children’s birthday parties, so I could make the nonalcoholic kind of slushie.)
Either way, the Slushi offers something that feels increasingly rare in these times: carefree adult fun. Fun is even more carefree when it’s cheap, and this $200 deal on the Ninja Slushi is the cheapest that this machine has ever been—around 40 percent off last year’s retail price.
This is actually, kinda, the price I always hoped the Slushi would be. Small dreams sometimes come true, I guess.
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Photograph: Matthew Korfhage
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Photograph: Matthew Korfhage
But in some ways, I’m not surprised the price has come down. Ninja has since come out with two newer, snazzier, and frankly better machines. The Ninja Slushi XL ($350) that arrived this spring offers a bigger capacity—96 ounces, compared to 64 ounces for the OG slushi—and freezes faster and colder. The flashier Ninja Slushi Twist ($400) also has a more powerful compressor that lets you freeze a drink in literally 10 minutes, and it’s split into two vessels that let you always have one drink ready and another blending.
I’ll be writing about the benefits of each of these soon. They are, truly, improvements on the original, and allow for even more drinks than the original Slushi. But neither is on sale. And the original was already a very good machine. Amid a heap of eager knock-offs, the Slushi remained my favorite home slushie machine until these two newer Ninjas arrived.
The Slushi will still make blended margaritas much better and less watery than your blender, not to mention a decent Dole Whip or Orange Julius knockoff. A full 64-ounce container will still only take 20 minutes or so to freeze, so long as you keep your liquor in the freezer like a civilized person. And lord, this price is good.
In fact, this Ninja Slushi deal is so good it almost leads me to believe a next-gen Slushi might be in the works. You probably don’t need to wait for it unless you’re desperate to make extra-high-ABV slushies, or thicker milkshakes. (Milkshakes are the weak link on this model.)
