The Ninja© Coffee Bar™ offers the most bells and whistles of any machine that we tested. You can make a single cup of coffee or an entire pot. You could also brew iced coffee or vary the concentration of your coffee for a specialty drink. If you purchase directly from Ninja, it comes with a lifetime warranty, a significant added value in our opinion. We think it is pretty expensive for the quality of the coffee produced, but overall we feel it was worth it for the coffee drinker who values convenience and variety.
Overall WinnerThe Ninja© Coffee Bar™ offers a number of ways to enjoy your coffee. First, you can select how much coffee to brew: a cup (9.5oz), travel mug (14oz), half carafe (19oz), or full carafe (38oz). Next, you can choose the strength of your coffee. Ninja offers a "classic" or "rich" intensity, as well as an "over-ice" option and a "specialty" drink option for layered or espresso-type drinks. The removable water tank is self-metered, so you don't have to worry about how much water you put in the reservoir. The Ninja utilizes a system called "Thermal Flavor Extraction™" that helps adjust the water, temperature, and saturation to automatically deliver within the parameters of your choices.
The Ninja© Coffee Bar™ uses automatic drip brewing technology to produce a variety of coffee styles. The water is self-metered, which is nice, you can fill the tank and brew a cup without worrying it will overflow, and all you need to do is select the size and strength of the coffee you want. During our test, we used the reusable Gold Tone filter, although you can use #4 cone filters if you prefer. We measured the brewing temperature as hot as 201°F, and it took just over 7 minutes to brew a full carafe. We like that it has a convenient brew-through lid featuring a destratification tube to help with mixing. The temperature in the carafe after brewing was 181°F, and after sitting for an hour was 165°F.
We conducted a blind taste test using 31 coffee drinkers to rate samples of black coffee on overall taste, flavor, body, acidity, and color. The Ninja Coffee Bar came in 6th out of the 10 machines that we tested. It did well in body and color, and scored its lowest marks for acidity. To learn more about how we tested the Ninja Coffee Bar against other coffee makers, please read our How We Test section.
We felt that the Ninja© Coffee Bar™ was constructed of adequate quality material. Although we didn't think the overall construction was excellent, it certainly gets the job done. We did feel like the thermal carafe was well designed and made with high quality materials. We also appreciated the internal mixing tube and that the pour spout worked well.
We were very impressed with the user-friendly Ninja© Coffee Bar™. This highly programmable machine is surprisingly simple to operate. It also features a removable water tank and brew basket that make it convenient for filling and cleaning.
Bonus FeaturesThe Ninja© Coffee Bar™ is a highly programmable machine. In addition to being able to choose the strength and amount of coffee you want, you can also program the Ninja to brew up to 24 hours in advance. We also love that it has a drip stop so you can sneak a cup of coffee before the brew cycle has finished.
Daily coffee brewing that is highly programmable with several beverage options.
ValueYou can purchase the Ninja© Coffee Bar™ for $200, and it comes with a 1-year limited warranty. However, if you purchase it directly from Ninja, you'll get a lifetime warranty, which we think is a great value.
ConclusionThe Ninja© Coffee Bar™ offers a great variety of choice when it comes to brewing coffee. Although we love the "ice-brew" option and the ability to pick our strength and beverage size, our taste testers ranked the quality of the coffee as average compared to the other machines in our test. However, the highly programmable interface won this machine some extra points, as did the lifetime warranty. Overall, we do think you are getting a good value. If you love the choices, and are into iced coffee or specialty drinks, this very well may be the machine for you. For more information about our award winners, please visit our Coffee Maker Overview.
AlternativesKitchenAid Pour Over Coffee Maker KCM0801
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The Best Coffee Maker Review Our Coffee Maker review compares 10 of the most popular models on the market. Read on to see how they measured up. |
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