The 2 Best Slushie Machines of 2026: Now With Soft Serve

I tested the Ninja Slushi and the Inoviva slushie machine. Both my workfellow Kat Merck and I tested the Chivalz slushie machine. Note that the second 2 brands look successful all-caps connected Amazon, but we similar to constitute them the quiescent mode that doesn’t wounded our eyes nor the feelings of our transcript editors.

We made truthful precise galore slushies with each machine, from dairy to nondairy to java slushies to straight-up bottles of wine. Specifically, we tested each mentation of slush that a instrumentality advertised. If Ninja oregon Chivalz says they tin marque frappés and milkshakes and frozen juices, we made frappés and milkshakes and frozen juices, tinkering wherever necessary. I froze orangish foodstuff and strawberry juice, slushed a bouquet’s worthy of rosé, and made slushies from daiquiri to margarita to whiskey Coke. I slushed tamarind micheladas (an fantabulous idea) and Twisted Tea (a unspeakable idea).

I besides raced the freezing capabilities of each 3 machines by pouring a 16-ounce tin of delicious Mango Mike’s Hard Lemonade successful each, past seeing which instrumentality was fastest. And I made creaseless and dense coconut-lime daiquiris with coconut milk, according to to Ninja’s recipe, to trial however volition each machine’s dispenser handled a genuine dense-textured challenge.

The tech is beauteous simple, astir ingeniously so: A beefy cylindrical freezing halfway successful the halfway of the portion enclosure continually cools immoderate liquid successful interaction with it. It’s encircled by a integrative spiral auger attached to a motor. The auger mixes the drink, keeps it slushing alternatively of freezing solid, and besides pushes the resulting slush toward the dispenser nozzle truthful you tin person some. The resolute simplicity of this plan allowed Ninja and others to standard down the commercialized slushie shaper for location consumers thirsty for frozen treats.

The main request is that the frozen beverage person much than 4 percent sugar—or betwixt 3 percent and 16 percent alcohol—in bid to little the freezing constituent of the resulting concoction and marque slushing possible. Some slushie instrumentality vendors urge percentages much similar 15 percent sugar, for cleanable consistency. But I often balk astatine this. Coca-Cola and orangish foodstuff are each astir 11 percent sugar—so that’s quite, precise sweet. Some leader of the net has made a slush calculator for casual reference.

A minimum of 16 ounces of liquid is required for astir 88-ounce location machines, for elemental reasons: The liquid needs to beryllium successful carnal interaction with the halfway successful bid to slush up and besides to support crystal from forming connected the cardinal cylinder’s surface.

No and yes. Slushies trust connected a adjuvant spot of water: Sugar (and salt) dissolved successful h2o lowers its freezing constituent beneath 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Why? Solubles similar sweetener are chaos agents. Sugar molecules determination randomly, garbage to dissolve into ice, and interfere with water’s quality to signifier hydrogen bonds and crook crystalline. Some h2o molecules freeze, but sweetener h2o doesn’t. Tada! Slush.

If you effort to marque a slushie retired of sugar-free soda, oregon sugar-free anything, crystal crystals volition alternatively signifier easily. The stainless alloy freezing halfway volition crystal implicit and scrape connected the auger, and crystal cubes oregon hunks volition stitchery wide successful the slushie machine. The cylinder volition commencement to shake, past the instrumentality volition clunk, past yet you’ll astir apt interruption your machine: Low-sugar fail-safes connected these devices person not been overly reliable, alas. So don’t bash this!

This doesn’t mean you’re doomed to monolithic calories if you privation to marque a slushie. Not each artificial sweetener lowers freezing constituent appropriately, but the 1 that Ninja recommends for fare slushies is allulose, a uncommon but people occurring sweetener that’s 70 percent arsenic saccharine arsenic basal sweetener but is not metabolized efficaciously by the quality digestive system. This means it’s debased successful calories and doesn’t origin insulin spikes—but arsenic with a batch of indigestibles, enactment that broadside effects tin see bloating oregon GI distress for some.

For easiest usage successful a slushie, bargain liquid allulose. Powdered versions besides exist, but to usage them, you’ll request to marque a elemental syrup by heating up the pulverization successful h2o to assistance it dissolve, past fto it cool. If you conscionable effort to driblet the allulose pulverization into your instrumentality with immoderate Diet Coke, it mightiness not dissolve, and you mightiness inactive get crystal formation. Or astatine least, I decidedly inactive got crystal enactment erstwhile I tried this connected the Ninja, and had to halt my machine.

Bet you didn’t expect a acquisition successful beverage proteins today! But here’s the deal: Mlik proteins commencement to abstracted erstwhile agitated. Churning beverage is, successful fact, however food gets made. Proteins abstracted out, and you get food connected the 1 broadside and buttermilk connected the other. Both are delicious, but neither is wanted successful a milkshake.

If you effort to marque a milkshake successful a churning slushie instrumentality utilizing conscionable milk, you’ll yet commencement to spot the effects of these beverage proteins separating retired from buttermilk—which volition manifest archetypal arsenic an undesirable foaminess. To debar this, Ninja recommends besides adding dense pick oregon fractional and fractional to immoderate milkshake recipe. The higher abdominous contented volition support things smoother.

Note it’s easiest to usage effect syrups, alternatively than conscionable juice, and adhd vanillin, oregon it’ll beryllium a spot boring: The dense abdominous tends to overwhelm immoderate subtle effect flavors. Another heavy concealed of the tasty milkshake? Salt. Add a tiiiinny pinch; it’ll assistance bring retired flavor. A 16-ounce McDonald’s milkshake has 260 milligrams of sodium—about a 16th of a spoon of array salt, oregon astir the magnitude that fits betwixt your scale digit and your thumb.

But temper your expectations, here. None of the slushie machines we tested made texture comparable to a classical milkshake. The texture is often a small ice-gritty and ne'er arsenic richly textured and integrated arsenic the milkshake you’ll get from your section burger joint, fto unsocial the brushed service from the famously breached crystal pick machines astatine McDonald’s. Slushie machines besides can't grip chunks of frozen fruit, often the champion portion of a milkshake.