I made frappes & frozen cocktails for my thirsty colleagues with the viral Ninja SLUSHi

You know how it goes.

It’s another scorching-hot day, and all you want is a cold drink to soothe your overheated soul.

But the nearest mall is too far. Or you’re spending too much on cold drinks. Or they just don’t have the flavour you want.

Enter: the solution to all your problems.

If you haven’t heard of it already, this is the Ninja SLUSHi.

It’s a machine that makes frozen drinks, from the comfort of your own home.

Think the Slurpee machines that you see at 7-11 — but small enough to fit on your kitchen counter, and with the freedom to slush whatever flavoured drink you want.

How it works

The Ninja SLUSHi uses Rapidchill Technology so you can turn any drink into a frozen beverage, without needing any ice.

Whether it’s a milkshake, a frappuccino, or a frozen cocktail, the world’s your oyster.

The machine is incredibly straightforward to use.

Assemble it, add in whatever liquid mix you want to freeze, and select one of the temperature presets.

There’s no blending or ice involved. It’s all very intuitive, even for a tech illiterate like myself.

We tried out five recipes, to see exactly how versatile its slushing abilities were.

Frozen Coke

We started off really simple with frozen Coke.

For this, you only need one ingredient: Coke.

One thing to note is that you have to use regular Coke, not Coke Zero. The Ninja SLUSHi needs a certain amount of sugar (minimally 5 per cent) to work, otherwise it won’t freeze properly.

You’ll get a low sugar alert if that happens.

Steps:

1. Pour 1.5-litre bottle of Coke into Ninja SLUSHi.
2. Select “Slush” setting. We reduced the temperature level to 1 for easier dispensing.
3. Wait.
4. Serve.

This was a classic, and so easy to make. I could imagine making other frozen soft drinks: root beer, Sprite, even Ribena.

Difficulty rating: 1 out of 5

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Frozen Mimosa

This was the drink that all my colleagues were dying to try.

Even before I started, I started getting messages about it.

Fortunately, it was so simple that it really didn’t take that long.

Steps:

1. Pour a bottle of prosecco/champagne/sparkling wine into Ninja SLUSHi. Add orange juice in a 1:1 ratio.
2. Select “Frozen Cocktail” setting.
3. Wait.
4. Garnish with sliced strawberries, and serve.

This was great — delicious, light, and just the right amount of boozy. Exactly like what you’d find at an upscale brunch cafe.

I’ll admit, I’m a cocktail girlie and hence infinitely biased. But it was such a game-changer knowing that I could make my favourite alcoholic drinks in my own home.

Think frozen rosé. Frozen margaritas. Frozen pina coladas. Frozen chocolate liqueurs.

Be still my beating heart.

Difficulty rating: 1 out of 5

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Cheng Tng Slushie

When I looked up recipes for the SLUSHi, I mostly found very angmoh drinks.

But what if I could slushify my favourite local desserts, too?

After some discussions with a friend, we decided to try making a frozen version of the classic Chinese dessert, cheng tng.

If you’re unfamiliar with it, it’s a clear dessert soup, typically served with nutritious ingredients like longan, white fungus, and peach gum.

Steps:

1. Sieve out solid ingredients.
2. Pour cheng tng into Ninja SLUSHi.
3. Select “Slush” setting.
4. Wait.
5. Garnish with ingredients, and serve.

I was a little nervous about how this would turn out. But I needn’t have worried.

The frozen cheng tng was amazing. Light, fragrant, and wonderfully comforting.

I’d be eager to try other local desserts and drinks, like frozen Milo, bubble tea, or even DIY chendol.

Take note however; you do need to sieve out the ingredients beforehand, as you can’t add solid ingredients into the Ninja SLUSHi.

Alternatively, you could blend it first. I’m not sure how blended white fungus would taste though.

Difficulty rating: 2 out of 5

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DIY Frappe

Do you love frappuccinos? I do.

This was another one-ingredient recipe, but with more flexibility. I did it with just a few bottles of plain milk coffee, but you could theoretically add syrups to achieve the exact flavour you want.

Steps:

1. Pour around 5 bottles of milk coffee drink into Ninja SLUSHi.
2. Select “Frappe” setting.
3. Wait.
4. Serve.

Honestly? Even with plain milk coffee, this was delicious. Just perfect for a hot day.

But I’ll definitely be trying to recreate my favourite limited-edition flavours in future, like pumpkin spice and mint chocolate.

Difficulty rating: 1 out of 5

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DIY Oreo McFlurry

At this point, I was clearly super confident and considered myself a Ninja SLUSHi expert.

I was ready to try the most complex recipe I’d found: the DIY Oreo McFlurry.

I’m a big Oreo fan, and when I found this recipe online, I immediately knew I had to try it.

Steps:

1. Mix together two cups of milk, one cup of heavy cream, one-quarter cup of vanilla syrup, one tablespoon of vanilla extract, and two tablespoons of sugar.
2. Pour mixture into Ninja SLUSHi.
3. Select “Milkshake” setting.
4. Wait.
5. While waiting, crush one tube of Oreo cookies. (You can use a blender, but I just did it with a ziploc bag and a bottle.)
6. Dispense milkshake, add crushed Oreo cookies, and mix.
7. Garnish with more cookies and serve.

I’m not gonna lie. It was definitely less of a McFlurry, and more of a McFlurry-flavoured milkshake.

But, you guys. It tasted exactly like a McFlurry.

This was my personal favourite. Maybe a touch less sweet than what you’d get outside (a plus point to me), but with a lovely creamy texture nonetheless.

Pro-tip: If you’re looking for a quick clean-up, you might want to stick with lighter drinks.

With the previous drinks, setting it on the “Rinse” cycle and a quick rinse-and-wipe worked perfectly well. It was a five-minute job, tops.

If you’re experimenting with creamier blends, the clean-up may take longer as you’ll need to do a more thorough wash.

After a quick search on TikTok, I learnt that you’re actually supposed to soak the pieces in warm soapy water before scrubbing them down.

The more you know.

Difficulty rating: 3 out of 5 (for cleaning)

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Tips and tricks

While I’m now a certified Ninja SLUSHi expert, I did learn some things along the way.

The first thing is to fill it up to its limit if possible.

The frozen drink dispenses much better when it’s full. When I first tried it at the minimum setting, it was much harder to dispense, and came out in more of a trickle than a slush.

The second thing is to allow some time for trial and error.

Depending on the amount and type of drink you’re freezing, it can take anywhere from 15 to 60 minutes for a complete cycle.

But not every drink works with the presets. For some drinks — like the Coke — I ended up adjusting the temperature so it would dispense better.

If you’re having friends over, it’s a good idea to give it at least an hour in case you need to adjust the consistency of the slushie.

Finally, a watched drink never freezes.

The machine will beep and the lights will stop blinking once it’s complete. Once it’s done, it’ll continue slushing for up to 12 hours, with the same consistency.

So don’t agonise over when it’ll be ready.

Leave it, go do some work or watch a Netflix show, and come back later.

Your drink will be ready, and so will you.

Thirsting for a Ninja SLUSHi now?

You can get one for S$499, and it is available for pre-order islandwide, at participating offline retailers, Amazon, Lazada, Shopee, TikTok Shop and SharkNinja’s official website.

You can also receive a free Nutri-Blender Pro (U.P.: S$258) if you pre-order by Aug. 31. While stocks last!

Update on Aug. 25, 7:20pm: The free Nutri-Blender Pro has been fully redeemed online. You may still get a free blender with an in-store purchase at selected retailers. 

Writing this Ninja-sponsored article caused an influx of new requests for an office slushie machine. Sorry, HR team.