Ninja Luxe Cafe Espresso Machine – FULL Review and Test



In this video, we look at the highly anticipated Luxe Cafe Premier home espresso machine by Ninja. This is a sweet machine, that …

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Transcript

  • 0:00 | [Music] This right here is the Ninja 
    Luxe Cafe Espresso Machine. Now,  
  • 0:04 | when I first heard about the Luxe Cafe, 
    the first question in my mind was,  
  • 0:09 | “Can it make real espresso?” And I can say it 
    right away, at the beginning of the video—yes,  
  • 0:13 | it can. Ninja was not screwing around when it 
    came to the design of this machine, and they’ve  
  • 0:19 | included a couple of really cool, interesting 
    features. It’s got some tricks up its sleeves,  
  • 0:23 | and I will show those, along with a couple 
    of caveats, as I introduce the machine.
  • 0:30 | So, it can do espresso. It can also do a normal 
    brew coffee. It’s got an extra basket for that,  
  • 0:39 | which is hidden away in a little 
    cubby hole. It’s this one right here,  
  • 0:42 | and what you’ll notice is it’s an 
    actual real basket—it’s got holes in it,  
  • 0:45 | it is not the pressurized type. That is the first 
    thing I wanted to mention right away—this machine  
  • 0:53 | has real baskets. If we just take a look 
    here at the portafilter, the portafilter is  
  • 1:01 | metal. There, as you can see, I do believe that 
    it is chrome-plated, probably brass underneath,  
  • 1:06 | would be my best guess. The handle itself is 
    plastic, but otherwise, it’s a nice, heavy-duty  
  • 1:12 | portafilter, and it weighs 450g, so that’s a 
    whole pound in your hands. Here’s the double  
  • 1:18 | basket right there, so you can see the double 
    basket that it comes with is non-pressurized—a  
  • 1:25 | nice traditional basket. It is also keyed, so 
    you can only put it in a certain way, like this,  
  • 1:31 | and that is so the machine can determine which 
    basket you have in there—the large basket or this  
  • 1:39 | double espresso basket. Oh, and another thing I 
    should mention right away—this is a 53mm basket.  
  • 1:46 | It’s got a couple of interesting features. We’ll 
    make an espresso, and I’ll show those on the fly.
  • 1:51 | Right now, I’ve got espresso selected. It shows me 
    my current grind setting, and it also shows me a  
  • 1:57 | recommended grind setting. So, when you initialize 
    the machine, go through a couple of iterations of  
  • 2:03 | espressos, and it will realize if that was too 
    fast or too slow, and it will recommend that you  
  • 2:08 | either grind finer or grind more coarse. So, we’re 
    going to go ahead and make an espresso. I want to  
  • 2:13 | show you what I think is the coolest feature so 
    far on this machine. The workflow is actually kind  
  • 2:20 | of fun. Take the portafilter out like that. 
    On the side here, you have got stuff stuck,  
  • 2:26 | so we’ve got this funnel. Just stick that on 
    top like that, and when you put the funnel in  
  • 2:31 | the machine like this, you’ll see it’s actually 
    taring out a scale. Is that not awesome? This  
  • 2:39 | comes with an integrated scale built into 
    the grinder—that is the best thing yet.
  • 2:44 | So, let’s just do some grinding. Start grind, 
    and you’ll notice that the grinder is pretty  
  • 2:52 | quiet. Okay, so it’s done. That’s what the 
    grinds look like in there, and just kind of  
  • 3:03 | tap it to even it out. Then, we’re going to use 
    the included tamper. Now, this tamper is kind of  
  • 3:10 | interesting—the bottom part is solid; I believe 
    this part here is hollow, with a spring inside,  
  • 3:19 | so it’s pretty fun to use also. All you’ve 
    got to do is just put that on there like so,  
  • 3:24 | press down on it, and you’re good to go. You 
    could polish a little bit, press down once  
  • 3:29 | more if you want, and that is your finished puck 
    right there. Alright, then just remove the funnel,  
  • 3:35 | put that back in its spot, and we’re going to put 
    the tamper back in its spot—easy as pie. Then,  
  • 3:40 | put this into the machine, lock it in, and 
    let’s go ahead and make ourselves an espresso.
  • 3:49 | This machine does include pre-infusion. It is a 
    really slow pre-infusion, so the shot is going to  
  • 3:55 | take a fair amount of time. You’ll also see that 
    we can put this cup holder in different spots—you  
  • 3:59 | can put it all the way up for an espresso, 
    or you can put it a bit lower if you’ve got  
  • 4:05 | a larger drink, just like that. This is also 
    pretty heavy-duty metal right there. You can  
  • 4:12 | see right now we’ve got espresso selected and 
    we’ve got a double. We’re going to start the brew,  
  • 4:17 | and we’ll see what it looks like. [Music] Oh, 
    there it comes! That is looking pretty tasty,  
  • 4:26 | full of crema. These are nice fresh beans. Oh 
    yeah, that is looking delicious, and we’ll see  
  • 4:33 | where the machine stops. Alright, it stops at 42g. 
    Alright, so there’s our espresso right there. You  
  • 4:41 | can see, full of crema. This is a Robusta blend, 
    so I expect a lot of crema. It’s also a nice,  
  • 4:47 | fresh bean, so I expect crema for that reason 
    as well. And because this is a Robusta,  
  • 4:52 | I do expect some earthy flavors, maybe a bit 
    of chocolate. Let’s see what it tastes like.
  • 5:00 | That is a pretty nice, balanced espresso right 
    there. Nice and hot too, and this is on the  
  • 5:04 | lowest setting. You do have low, medium, and 
    high. I choose the lowest setting, actually,  
  • 5:09 | for a Robusta, and in particular, 
    this is kind of a darker roast,  
  • 5:12 | and that is a tasty espresso. I 
    do get some bitters, chocolate,  
  • 5:16 | and because it is so much on the dark side, 
    I get some black licorice too. Getting value  
  • 5:21 | from this video? Please take a moment to like and 
    subscribe. Let’s go ahead and make a cappuccino,  
  • 5:27 | because that’s my favorite drink. This machine 
    does something much differently than all the  
  • 5:32 | others that I have experienced so far. Let me 
    show you. The automatic steaming does work well,  
  • 5:38 | and it works differently than the other machines 
    because, as you can see, it’s got a spinner  
  • 5:42 | inside. So, you’ve got the injection here of the 
    steam—you’ve got hot steam coming out of here,  
  • 5:48 | warming up the milk inside here, and you’ve got 
    the spinner to spin it around, and that’s going  
  • 5:53 | to actually be able to give you that vortex that 
    you need to make a decent cappuccino milk foam.
  • 5:59 | Now, what I will say is this: What I find a 
    little unfortunate about this milk pitcher is  
  • 6:04 | the fact that the lip on it right here is not fine 
    enough to really practice any latte art—it is too  
  • 6:12 | bulbous there, so you won’t be able to practice 
    latte art with this machine, at least not with  
  • 6:17 | this milk pitcher. But operation is simple. 
    Just go ahead and put it in like that. Okay,  
  • 6:23 | so here is the froth side. We’ve got dairy 
    or plant-based. I’m going to choose dairy,  
  • 6:29 | and I’m going to choose this middle one right 
    here. You can choose either really thin milk foam,  
  • 6:35 | or the little bit thicker one, or the thickest. 
    So, you choose it right here, or you can also  
  • 6:40 | choose a cold milk foam. I’m going to go with this 
    one and just press the start froth button. It also  
  • 6:49 | does have a progress bar that you can see here. 
    It does show you its current status and how long  
  • 6:55 | it’s going to take. Alright, so there you can see 
    the milk turning. We’re adding air to the milk,  
  • 7:03 | and it’s turning at the same time with that little 
    wheel on there. I’m going to stop it right there  
  • 7:14 | because I do find that this heats up the milk 
    a little bit hotter than I would like, and you  
  • 7:19 | do have, in the settings menu, the possibility to 
    choose between low, medium, and high as far as the  
  • 7:24 | milk temperature is concerned, but even the low 
    for me stops a little bit later than I would like.
  • 7:29 | You’ve got to make sure to wipe off the steam 
    wand immediately; otherwise, the milk sticks  
  • 7:33 | onto the wand, which is not good. The milk 
    is actually pretty nice and silky. I mean,  
  • 7:38 | for an automatic milk foam, that’s quite 
    good. But pouring any kind of latte art,  
  • 7:43 | I find, is not very easy 
    with the pitcher as it is.
  • 7:56 | So, we got a little design there, 
    but certainly, you can do much better  
  • 7:59 | if you take this milk that has been frothed 
    and pour it into a better pitcher for doing  
  • 8:05 | latte art. Let me show you what I have 
    been doing. I just take the milk that’s  
  • 8:09 | been frothed and put it in a pitcher like 
    this—more of a conventional pitcher that’s  
  • 8:13 | got a better lip for doing latte art on it. This 
    is also easier to handle. It’s smaller and just  
  • 8:19 | more ergonomic to use one of these to do latte 
    art than such a big honker like this one here.
  • 8:26 | Of course, the question is: How’s the taste? It’s 
    quite good. It does a nice job with the espresso,  
  • 8:35 | and it does a pretty nice job with the milk 
    foam. If you want a little bit thicker,  
  • 8:38 | for a little bit more texture, you can just go 
    up to the next setting and have a little bit  
  • 8:42 | thicker texture. This is more like something 
    kind of like a flat white, you could say.
  • 8:47 | Cleanup is pretty easy. I 
    just rinse it out like that,  
  • 8:52 | and then you’re good to go. If you want 
    to clean it out a little bit better,  
  • 8:56 | all you have to do is put it inside there 
    like that. You can choose the lowest foam  
  • 9:02 | amount and start that—just put a drop of 
    detergent in there, and you’re good to go.
  • 9:10 | Okay, so what else I mentioned is that this 
    can do normal coffee. Let’s make one of those.  
  • 9:17 | Another thing is the puck knockouts are pretty 
    good—you see, just like that, the puck just  
  • 9:22 | knocked right out. So, those puck knockouts have 
    been nice for me. Let’s pop out this basket here  
  • 9:29 | and put in the Luxe basket. We’re going to pop 
    this guy in there—you see it says Luxe right  
  • 9:36 | there, and it is keyed, so now the machine knows 
    which basket we’ve got installed. Pretty neat.
  • 9:44 | Now, if we want to go to coffee, all we have 
    to do is select coffee. Alright, so if we move  
  • 9:49 | from the espresso side over to the coffee side, 
    you’ve got Classic and Rich. Rich just gives you  
  • 9:56 | a slightly higher ratio of coffee to water—it 
    makes it a little bit stronger. We’re going to  
  • 10:01 | stick with Classic, and we’re going to do 10 oz. 
    There, you can choose the size here. Let’s start  
  • 10:07 | from the beginning: 6 oz, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, and 
    18 oz. So, you can make some really big coffees.  
  • 10:13 | Let’s just do 10 oz for us, and it’s telling me, 
    “Oh, look at this—the current grind setting is 7,  
  • 10:18 | and we have to go up to 25.” So, what we’re going 
    to do is go on the side here and just adjust this.  
  • 10:23 | We’re going to make it coarser, so I’m going 
    to adjust this towards the back, and you’ll  
  • 10:29 | see that it has an encoder on there—it knows 
    that we are getting larger. That is pretty cool.
  • 10:36 | Let’s grind into our portafilter. Start 
    grind. Alright, so what do we have here? That  
  • 10:46 | is how coarse the grind is. Considering that the 
    basket is not full, we do not have to tamp that,  
  • 10:52 | but we’ll just kind of level it out like that, 
    and we’re going to put it inside like so,  
  • 10:56 | put our cup on there, and press the 
    button to start the brew. [Music]
  • 11:12 | Alright, so the coffee is all 
    done. There’s our 10 oz coffee,  
  • 11:16 | and let’s just see what that tastes like. 
    Yeah, that is actually a pretty nice,  
  • 11:24 | intense, strong coffee—hot too, 73°C. 
    So, if you have guests who don’t like  
  • 11:33 | espresso or cappuccino, you can make 
    them a nice brew coffee just like that.
  • 11:40 | One more thought before I 
    go further: as I mentioned,  
  • 11:42 | there is a scale in here. For the double 
    espresso basket, it’s giving me consistently  
  • 11:48 | 17.5g—anywhere between 17.3 up to 17.9g 
    consistently, regardless of the bean. I  
  • 11:54 | have tried three different beans with this 
    machine, and also regardless of the grind,  
  • 11:58 | it’s able to measure out the dose that you’re 
    using, and that is one really important  
  • 12:03 | thing when you are dialing in an espresso 
    machine. It does the same for brew as well.
  • 12:08 | So, let’s see how many grams we get for 10 
    oz. It’s taring out—that’s really cool—and  
  • 12:15 | grind. Okay, so for 10 oz of coffee, we get 
    20.5g. This machine can also do cold brew,  
  • 12:29 | so we’re going to do that next. As you can 
    see, it wants me to go from 25 down to 23,  
  • 12:35 | so we’re going to tighten the grind 
    a little bit for the cold brew.
  • 12:40 | Let’s do a 10 oz cold brew. Before we can grind,  
  • 12:47 | we have to rinse because the 
    boiler is too hot for a cold brew.
  • 12:51 | We’ve got to rinse, so let’s do that. Rinse…  
  • 13:00 | okay, alright, here we go with our cold brew. 
    Taring out the scale, and here we go. We’re  
  • 13:12 | doing this with 20g of coffee. Let’s start 
    our brew. I’ve got to add water, so let’s just  
  • 13:19 | fill the sucker up—that’s 37 oz, by the way, in 
    total. It is nice that it’s got a water sensor,  
  • 13:24 | and now we can start our brew. This is supposed 
    to be a rapid cold brew, so let’s see how long  
  • 13:32 | it takes. It’s brewing at 38°C, which is pretty 
    much par for the course for doing a cold brew.
  • 13:50 | Alrighty, and there is our 
    cold brew coffee. Cheers! Mhm,  
  • 13:59 | pretty tasty. Add some milk to that, 
    and you’ve got a nice iced drink.
  • 14:03 | As far as the build quality is concerned, I 
    think this build is pretty good. It is made  
  • 14:09 | out of a mixture of materials—you’ve got some 
    pretty heavy-duty metals like this one. The  
  • 14:14 | drip tray is made out of a mixture of stainless 
    steel on the top and plastic otherwise. Of course,  
  • 14:23 | the reservoir has a fair capacity. It’s 
    got the little button that pops up when  
  • 14:28 | it’s full of water and needs to be emptied. 
    You know, the chassis itself is a bit nicer,  
  • 14:36 | honestly. The molding of the—I’m guessing it’s 
    ABS plastic—feels a little bit nicer than what I  
  • 14:41 | was expecting, to be honest. It does have 
    some jacketing here in stainless steel,  
  • 14:47 | so you get that nice stainless steel look on the 
    machine, mixed together with the gray plastic.
  • 14:54 | As far as the dimensions are concerned, it’s 
    almost like a cube. It is just over 12 inches  
  • 15:00 | wide, about 15 inches tall, and about 13 
    inches deep. It is kind of heavy. Also,  
  • 15:08 | with that being the case, I wish there 
    were handles here on the bottom. There  
  • 15:12 | are no handles—I find that unfortunate because 
    I don’t want to grab here since this actually  
  • 15:16 | has an integrated scale in it. So, I’ve got to 
    tip it up and grab it from the bottom like that.
  • 15:22 | While we’re doing that, let’s just have a 
    look. This is what it looks like from the side:  
  • 15:26 | you’ve got this really cool area where you can 
    put the funnel, and this sweet area where you can  
  • 15:32 | put the tamper in. It’s nice and satisfying 
    to insert that here into this hole. Then,  
  • 15:38 | on this side, you’ve got this really 
    neat cubby hole where you can put your  
  • 15:42 | things. You can fit your large filter 
    in there, put the small filter in there,  
  • 15:48 | and you’ve got a little back-flushing 
    disc—look at that. The back-flushing  
  • 15:51 | disc is included so that you can back-flush the 
    machine. It even comes with back-flush tablets,  
  • 15:56 | so that’s a good sign. It also comes with some 
    descaler solution, which is important to keep  
  • 16:03 | up with the maintenance of your machine. It comes 
    with a little brush as well, and all this stuff  
  • 16:09 | fits in this nice little cubby hole right here. I 
    do quite like that—I think that’s a nice feature.
  • 16:16 | This is the water tank here—fits 37 oz. 
    One more thing I should mention is that  
  • 16:22 | the top part actually has a cup warmer 
    on there, and it gets decently warm.
  • 16:27 | Now, as far as the pros and cons go on this 
    machine, I think it has a lot to offer. It can  
  • 16:32 | make real espresso, comes with a non-pressurized 
    basket, and has a pretty heavy-duty portafilter.  
  • 16:37 | What I really love is the fact that it has 
    a weight-based dosing system—it’s great. The  
  • 16:43 | automatic milk steaming also does quite a good 
    job because it has the spinner inside, so you  
  • 16:49 | actually get a vortex going. And yeah, you can do 
    three things: you can do espresso, brew coffee,  
  • 16:56 | and make a cold brew. It’s got quite a bit 
    going for it, particularly in that price range.
  • 17:01 | What’s a little unfortunate is if you ever 
    start a drink and then decide you want to do  
  • 17:06 | something else—like if you just grind but then 
    decide you want to do a different type of drink  
  • 17:10 | instead—there’s no way to just abort. You have 
    to actually turn the machine off and then turn  
  • 17:14 | it back on—that’s a little unfortunate. And 
    finally, the ratios are a little bit long. If  
  • 17:20 | you are grinding for espresso, you almost 
    always get 17.5g, but it usually gives me  
  • 17:26 | around 40g out, so that’s a little over a 
    2:1 ratio. I wouldn’t mind reducing that,  
  • 17:31 | particularly for darker roast beans, 
    down to maybe 30 to 35g. In that case,  
  • 17:37 | you just have to stop it on your own. But 
    all in all, it’s a very interesting machine.
  • 17:41 | Now it’s up to you guys. What do you think 
    about this machine? Is it interesting? How  
  • 17:44 | does it compare to other machines that 
    you’ve been considering? No matter what,  
  • 17:48 | thanks very much for watching the video. If you 
    made it this far, write #Lux in the comments  
  • 17:54 | below. Until next time, I say happy coffee 
    drinking and happy cappuccino drinking. Bye now!
  • 18:04 | [Music]

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