Key Points
- The Ninja CREAMi does an outstanding job at making pint-sized ice creams.
- It does an adequate job of making mix-ins (Blizzards), sorbets, milk-shakes, and smoothies bowls. Other appliances can do those better but the CREAMi can do all.
- If you need to make large amount of ice cream, you should opt for a traditional ice cream maker.
You’ve seen the ads. Maybe you’ve already read a few Ninja Creami Reviews but you are still wondering: is the Ninja Creami worth the money? Ultimately, you’ll decide that for yourself.
I used the Ninja CREAMi heavily for about 3 months. It certainly has it’s pluses and minuses. I made ice creams, mix-ins, sorbets, and milk shakes. My full thoughts, including pros and cons are below:
The Ninja Creami is a neat device! As long as you can plan ahead, you can quickly and easily make frozen treats without expending a lot of time or effort.
The device is versatile but excels most at making ice cream. If you can get by the quirks of having to process treats multiple times as well as the loudness, then you'll be happy with your purchase.
- Great Ice Cream Maker
- Replaces Up To 4 Appliances
- Faster and Requires a Lot Less Work
- Parts are Dishwasher Safe
- Loud
- Mixes Routinely Need Respinning to Get Creamy
- Expensive Relative to Traditional Ice Cream Makers
- Can't Make a Lot of Ice Cream at One Time
Below, I’ve put together 4 reasons why you’ll want to buy a Ninja Creami… and 4 reasons why not to. But before I get into that, let’s talk about what the Ninja Creami does.
4 Reasons to Buy a Ninja Creami | 4 Reasons Not To
Unboxing | Final Verdict | Specs | FAQ
What Does the Ninja Creami Do?
The Ninja Creami is a countertop frozen dessert maker. The Ninja Creami can make the following frozen/chilled desserts:
1 Big Takeaway from My Testing
Other than making full-fat ice cream, there are other devices that make these treats better than the Ninja Creami. However, it is the most affordable device that can make all of them.
4 Reasons to Buy a Ninja Creami
Alright, let’s get into the meat and potatoes of this review. My Ninja Creami Review has four reasons why you’d want to buy the device.
#1 – The Ninja Creami is Dang Good at Making Ice Cream
Making Ice Cream is the Ninja’s greatest strength. The Creami shines most when making full fat ice cream.
Ice cream seemed like an obvious place to start with my testing. So right out of the gate, I made the vanilla ice cream recipe that was in the accompanying “cook book.”
How Does The Ninja Creami Compare to Traditional Ice Cream Makers?
Traditional machines work by constantly freezing the ice cream on the sides of a drum and then scraping and mixing that ice cream back into the mixture. They also require a lot of ice, salt, and prep work. That is not how the Creami works.
To make ice cream with the Creami, you make and pour your liquid mixture into one of the three pint-sized containers. Then you place it into the freezer for 24 hours.
After 24 hours, you’ll remove the frozen pint of liquid and place it into the larger, outer container. Then you’ll place that into the Ninja Creami.
After you make the ice cream selection on the touch controls, the Ninja Creami scrapes and mixes the frozen liquid until a smooth, creamy ice cream remains. The processing usually takes about 2 to 2 ½ minutes.
In my opinion, the flavor of the ice cream was as good as the homemade ice cream I had growing up in the 80’s and 90’s. My husband agreed.
Crumbly Ice Cream & The Re-Spin Feature
Often times, the initial processing of ice cream is crumbly. Most of the time, this can be cured by using the “Re Spin” feature.
When I mixed the vanilla ice cream, I also tried out hand at a chocolate ice cream recipe. There is a recipe in the cook book but my husband decided to deviate from it slightly–because of course!
Long story short, the chocolate ice cream came out more crumbly than creamy. The manual actually talks about what to do when this happens. You are supposed to insert the container back into the Creami and use the Re-Spin feature to mix the ice cream again.
I tried it and the result was actually good. Not as creamy as the vanilla but still pretty good.
#2 – The Ninja Creami Replaces Up To 4 Appliances
When it comes to desserts, a Ninja Creami can replace the following kitchen appliances:
- Ice Cream Maker (for making ice cream and gelato)
- Stand Mixer (for making mix-in desserts like Dairy Queen Blizzard and Sonic Blasts)
- Power Blender (for making smoothie bowls and milk shakes)
- Food Processor (for making sorbets)
Let me be very clean on one thing. The Ninja Creami doesn’t do as good of a job as some of the appliances it replaces.
- It can’t make a Blizzard-like dessert as well as a stand mixer
- It can’t make a smoothie bowl as good as a power blender
- And it can’t mix a sorbet as well as you can with a food processor (although the Ninja Creami does it with much less work)
Mix-In Verdict
If you say a good ol’ Dairy Queen Blizzard is a 10, then I’d put a Ninja Creami Mix-In Blizzard at maybe a 8.5… maybe a 9. It can’t process the mix-in ingredients as well as the high-powered commercial equipment, but it’s not a big drop-off.
How to Make a Mix-In Concoction
To make a mix-in using the Ninja Creami, you must do the following:
- Make your ice cream as normal using the Ninja Creami
- Hollow out an area of ice cream in the middle of the container
- Sprinkle in your mix-in ingredients
- Place the container back in the Ninja Creami
- Process it again using the Mix-In setting
It’s really easy, it just requires a few extra steps.
The result is actually good. But you are more limited in the ingredients you can use than you would be using a more powerful stand mixer. If you want to mix in chocolate chips, the user’s guide suggests using mini chocolate chips versus regular-sized chips.
The guide is also pretty adamant that putting the wrong things inside your mixer can damage the device and possibly void your warranty!
Ninja Creami Review – Smoothie Bowls
After I tried making ice creams and mix-ins, I turned to smoothie bowls and sorbets. I’d classify the Ninja Creami as being “good but not great” at making smoothie bowls and sorbets. I made both using pineapple–I love pineapple, btw!
The smoothie bowl was pretty decent, which I made by:
- Chopping the pineapple into small chunks
- Freezing the pineapple
- Placing the pineapple in the container
- Filling up the remaining empty space with canned coconut milk
- Processing using the Smoothie Bowl setting
Smoothie Bowl Result
The result was tasty but it there was noticeable unmixed pineapple cream in the smoothie bowl. I processed it again and the result was better but still not what you’d get with a high-powered blender.
Ninja Creami Review – Sorbets
Other than ice cream, making sorbets was one of the reasons I looked forward to writing this Ninja Creami review. Sorbets, like everything else, are quite easy to make. The recipe I tried called for filling up the container with canned pineapple, including juice.
So I opened the can of pineapple and loaded the container. I alternated adding pineapple and pressing it down with a large spoon until the container was full. Finally, I added juice from the can until full.
After a 24-hour deep freeze, I was ready to process!
Sorbet Result
I ended up classifying the resulting sorbet as pretty good. Certainly not commercial grade, but not terrible.
The taste is great, don’t get me wrong. I just wish the consistency was a bit more smooth. However, the entire mixture of frozen fruit was not “sorbet-ified,” even after using the re-spin feature.
That being said, I’ll make sorbets using the Ninja Creami again because of the flavor.
Most of the fruit on the counter wall was never fully processed. The result was a mixture of sorbet and of frozen fruit. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t terrible. But it wasn’t a smooth, uniform sorbet like I had hoped for.
Ninja Creami Review – The Milkshake Test
The final thing I made was a milkshake, which turned out great!
How to Make a Milkshake with a Ninja Creami
To make a milkshake with a Ninja Creami you must first make an ice cream. Then, you’ll add milk to the ice cream while it’s still in the container. You’ll then place the container back into the Ninja Creami and select “Milkshake.”
The result was actually quite good. It was a little thicker than I would have liked. It was somewhere in between a soft serve and a milkshake. I could have added more milk and processed it again to get it perfect, but I never did.
This Ninja Creami review fully endorses the Creami as a milkshake-making device!
#3 – The Ninja Creami is Faster and Requires a Lot Less Work
This is one of the biggest strengths of the Creami. It only takes a minute to prepare most Ninja Creami recipes. And after a 24-hour freeze, it takes just 2 – 3 minutes to make the ice cream.
You don’t have to lug out a huge ice cream machine, add a bunch of ice and salt, and go through that process. You just pour, freeze, and Creamify!
It does require a bit of planning, however. The 24-hour freeze requirement takes a little planning. But in terms of you actually have to do something, the Ninja Creami saves a lot of time.
#4 – Parts are Dishwasher Safe
Cleanup of the Ninja Creami is a breeze. Just remove the lid and paddle from the container and place everything in the top rack of your dishwasher.
- Great Ice Cream Maker
- Replaces Up To 4 Appliances
- Faster and Requires a Lot Less Work
- Parts are Dishwasher Safe
- Loud
- Mixes Routinely Need Respinning to Get Creamy
- Expensive Relative to Traditional Ice Cream Makers
- Can't Make a Lot of Ice Cream at One Time
4 Reasons to Not Buy a Ninja Creami
Alas, not everything is sunshine and roses. While this Ninja Creami Review has been overwhelming positive towards the device, it isn’t without it’s share of drawbacks.
#1 – It is Unpleasantly Loud
The CREAMi is unpleasantly loud. The loudest I recorded was 98 decibels, which is equivalent to a loud power tool or nearby car horn. Unless you’ve already lost part of your hearing, you may find the noise level uncomfortable.
Because hearing loss can be caused by sounds above 85 decibels, I recommend you protect your ears in some way.
#2 – Mixes Routinely Aren’t Creamy on the First Round
In my testing and in speaking with others who own the Creami, most mixes need to be processed multiple times to achieve the desired level of creamy texture. This isn’t deal killer for us. Despite having to reprocess, it still requires much less hands-on time compared to traditional ice cream makers. But it is rather annoying to remove and then reinsert the container multiple times.
#3 – It is Expensive Relative to Traditional Ice Cream Makers
It’s easy to find a 4-quart electric ice cream maker for $40 – $50. The Ninja Creami’s MSRP is 4 times that amount. But if you value your time a lot, the Ninja Creami is definitely worth considering.
#4 – The Ninja Creami Can’t Make a Lot of Ice Cream at One Time
If you need to make several quarts of ice cream, you need to go with a traditional ice cream maker. The Creami is is limited by the single pint size of its container. If you want to make 4 quarts of ice cream with the Creami, you’ll need to:
- Buy the additional pints
- Freeze 8 of the pint containers at the same time for 24 hours
- Process all 8 back-to-back
Unboxing the Ninja Creami
Ninja CREAMi Review – Final Verdict
After using the video for 3 months, I decided to make a final video detailing my likes and dislikes of the Ninja CREAMi. All-in-all, it’s a solid ice-cream maker. Check out the video for my final thoughts.
Technical Specs
| Dimensions | 12”w x 16”h x 6.5”d (30.48 x 40.64 x 16.51 cm) |
| Power | 800 Watts |
| Weight | 13 lbs |
| Container Size | 1 pint (.45 kg) |
| Documents | User Manual, Quick Start Guide |
| Color Options | Black, Blue, Red, Rose Gold, Silver, and White |
FAQ
Can you refreeze Ninja Creami Ice Cream?
Yes. Just place the lid back on the container and place the container in the freezer. When you are ready, you can reprocess the remaining dessert using your Creami. Or, you
Is the Ninja Creami dishwasher safe?
The pint-sized containers, the paddle, and lids are top-rack dishwasher safe. Do not place them on the bottom rack of your dishwasher. Alternatively, they can be washed by hand.
Does the Ninja Creami actually work?
In My testing, the Ninja Creami makes outstanding ice cream. Sometimes the ice cream is crumbly but that is usually solved by using the “Re Spin” feature to reprocess the ice cream.
How Loud is the Ninja Creami?
The highest level I recorded during my test was 98 decibels, which is equivalent to a loud power tool or nearby car horn.
How does the Ninja Creami work?
The Ninja Creami makes frozen treats using a three-step process: 1) Make your ice cream mixture. 2) Freeze for 24 hours. 3) Process using the Ninja Creami.
How large are the containers on the Ninja Creami?
The Ninja Creami containers hold up to a pint of ice cream or other frozen treat. If you want to make a gallon of ice cream, you’ll need 8 of the pint-sized containers.
What colors does the Ninja Creami come in?
The Creami is available in Black, Blue, Red, Rose Gold, Silver, and White.
Everyone has their opinion… I love my Ninja Creami!
How many db is the sound from creami? I am concerned it is high enough to cause hearing loss over time.
We set up a quick test to answer your question. The highest we recorded was 98 decibels. We’ve updated the post to show this information. Thanks for the question!
It is not that loud.
You don’t need to buy extra pint containers. I bought cardboard ice cream pint containers and freeze stuff in them. Transfer into a Creami pint to process. These are cheap and can be reused many times.
Never thought about that. Thanks for the tip!
I’ve heard that doing that could actually damage your machine! Perhaps you should contact Ninja to find out just to be on the safe side!