Ninja Thirsti Max review: your own personal soda machine
Ninja Thirsti Max: one-minute review
Reduce the use of single-use bottles and cans by making your own carbonated beverages at home with the Ninja Thirsti Max. With a touch of the CO2 button, you can add a low, medium, or high level of carbonation for fizzy drinks or you can skip the carbonation entirely for a still beverage.
The Ninja Thirsti Max comes with four bottles of Flavored Drops, which you'll need if you want to make anything besides plain seltzer water. Ninja makes a variety of these flavor drops in different categories: Zero Soda, Seltzer, Fruiti Chill (electrolytes or B vitamins), and Fruiti Chill+ (with caffeine). You can also adjust the amount of flavoring that goes into your drink, either low or high. The machine holds two flavor drop bottles at once, so you can combine the flavors into one drink, proportioned the way you like. You can make four different drink sizes: 6oz, 12oz, 18oz, or one liter.
With some experimentation, I found the fizz and flavor level I liked best. I tested out eight different flavors, at least one from each category. I liked some flavors better than others, but overall the drinks were tasty. The flavored seltzer drops are unsweetened, similar to a La Croix or other sparkling water. All of the other flavor drops are sweetened with the artificial sweetener sucralose.
Ninja Thirsti Max: price and availability
- List price: $169.99 (about £132 / AU$259)
The Ninja Thirsti Max is available at all the major retailers you'd expect, both in brick and mortar stores and online. The price includes a CO2 tank and four bottles of Ninja Flavored Drops. If you order directly from Ninja's website, you can select the exact flavors you'd like, otherwise you get four pre-selected flavors in the box.
The Flavored Drops retail for $6.99 (£5.43 / AU$10.64) apiece. Each bottle yields 17-20 12oz beverages. The 60L CO2 tank runs $36.99 (£28.76 / AU$56.34), but you can save 30% by recycling your spent tank each time. Each canister should carbonate about 100 12oz drinks, depending on how carbonated you like your beverages.
- Value score: 4.5/5
Ninja Thirsti Max: specifications
Ninja Thirsti Max: design and features
- Easy to use
- Choose your fizz and flavor intensity
- Choose your beverage size
The Ninja Thirsti Max is a nice neutral matte metallic gray that will probably look at home with nearly any kitchen decor. It's not a tiny machine, but it's reasonably-sized for what it does. Setting up the Ninja Thirsti Max is easy and takes just a couple of minutes. Plug it in, insert the CO2 tank, fill the water tank, attach the drink tray, place your Flavored Drops into their slots, and you're ready to go.
The 60L CO2 tank is neatly hidden behind a door in the back, so once it's installed you don't notice it.
The water tank also happens to have a 60L capacity. Ninja recommends that you use either very cold water or water plus ice in order to maximize your carbonation and taste. The water tank has a plunger so you can quickly chill your ice water by pressing it up and down a few times.
The height of the drink tray can be adjusted depending on the size of the cup or glass you're filling. It can also be removed if you're using an extra large cup.
- Design score: 4.5/5
Ninja Thirsti Max: performance
The Ninja Thirsti Max works exactly as Ninja describes. Once you have set up the machine, choose the flavor intensity you want from each Flavored drop bottle: none, low, or high. Choose your beverage size: 6oz, 12oz, 18oz, or 1L. Choose your carbonation level: none, low, medium, or high. Place your cup under the nozzle and press start. The Ninja Thirsti Max will beep when your drink is ready.
Ninja recommends using ice water or very cold water in the water tank, and I agree that you get a better result if you do that. I'd also recommend emptying the water tank and adding fresh water once a day or each time the ice melts, otherwise your drink can have a stale 'melted ice' flavor.
The real limitation of the Ninja Thirsti Max is the Flavored Drops. There are currently more than two dozen zero sugar flavors with more on the way. The seltzer flavor drops are unsweetened, but all of the other flavors are sweetened with sucralose, the artificial sweetener found in Splenda. There are no flavors with sugar or any other sweeteners in the lineup as of this writing.
I tried all of the Flavored Drops that Ninja sent me to test. There were four soda flavors: root beer, orange, cola, and Dr Thirsti. I also received a lemonade with added vitamins, strawberry kiwi electrolyte beverage, peach mango energy drink, and unsweetened black cherry seltzer.
The sodas are new to the Ninja Thirsti lineup. They all tasted pretty much like the diet sodas they are intended to replicate. However, the cola and Dr Thirsti flavors wouldn't fool you into thinking they are Diet Coke or Diet Dr Pepper in a blind taste test.
Ninja has changed the labeling on their original Flavored Drops, and I got both some of the old and the new. 'Hydrate' and 'Vitamins' became 'Fruiti Chill', 'Energy' became 'Fruiti Chill+', and what was called "Splash" is now "Seltzer."
All of the ones I tried were pretty tasty, once I got the right flavor intensity and level of fizz for my taste. All of the carbonation levels were sufficient, but I liked the highest level the best. I find I generally prefer a low level of flavor intensity since the higher level tended to be quite sweet, but your tastes may vary. In some cases, I even added extra plain seltzer to cut the sweetness a bit.
It's important to note that I do use sucralose in my everyday life, so I'm used to the way it tastes and I'm fine with it. If you don't, you might not enjoy it.
Of course, the seltzer flavor drops are not sweetened at all, and making sparkling water might be some people's main reason for buying the machine. I'm a big sparkling water drinker, and lugging home multi-packs of canned water is a hassle. I found the Ninja Thirsti black cherry seltzer to be comparable in both fizz and flavor to popular canned sparkling waters like La Croix, Polar, Waterloo, and others.
Keep in mind, there is nothing stopping you from making plain seltzer in the Ninja Thirsti Max and adding whatever you like to it. I tried adding a favorite powdered drink mix to the plain seltzer I made and that was great. You could also try adding fruit juice or even wine for a sort of spritzer beverage. You can always add flavor drops from any other brands.
- Performance score: 4/5
Should you buy the Ninja Thirsti Max?
Buy it if
You love carbonated beverages
Whether it's soda, sparkling water, energy drinks, or vitamin drinks, you'll likely enjoy the convenience of making your own carbonated beverages at home.
You want to reduce your use of single-use containers
Rather than buying carbonated beverages in disposable cans and bottles, you can make your own at home and take it with you in any reusable container.
You like sucralose-sweetened sugar-free drinks and/or unsweetened seltzers
All of the Ninja Thirsti sweetened flavor drops contain sucralose, as many diet beverages on the market do. The seltzer flavor drops contain no sweeteners.
Don't buy it if
You don't like carbonated drinks
Technically, you can make non-carbonated drinks in the Ninja Thirsti Max, but what would be the point? I guess if you really like those Ninja flavor drops but not the fizz, go for it.
You don't like any of the Ninja Thirsti flavor drops
You can just make plain seltzer and add anything you like to it, but if none of the Thirsti's flavor drops sound appealing, it's probably not worth buying this particular machine.
You lack counter space
While this isn't a huge appliance, if counter space is particularly limited, it might be a deal-breaker for you.
Ninja Thirsti Max: also consider
If you're not sure about the Ninja Thirsti Max, here are some other options to consider...
SodaStream Spirit One Touch
The obvious competitor to the Ninja Thirsti Max is the slighter cheaper and smaller SodaStream. Unlike the Thirsti, it doesn't add the flavors directly, it just carbonates your water. Any flavorings are added after the fact.
Read our full review here.
Breville the InFizz Fusion
This gorgeous machine is a bit more expensive than the Ninja Thirsti Max, but it carbonates any and all of your favorite cold beverages.
Read our full review here.
How I tested the Ninja Thirsti Max
- I tasted a variety of beverages
- I tried different carbonation levels and different flavor intensities
- I made plain seltzer and added my own drink mix
I've been drinking lots and lots of fizzy drinks over the past couple of weeks. I tried all eight of the flavors that Ninja sent me, plus I tried adding my own drink mix to plain seltzer. I tried different fizz levels and different flavor intensities. Personally I liked the lower flavor setting, as the higher flavor setting yielded too sweet of a beverage for my taste. All of the fizz settings were really fine, but I kept it set to maximum carbonation for the longest lasting bubbles. I tried mixing some of the flavors together, though I didn't find a combination that I really loved. Everyone's tastes are different, though.
Read more about how we test.
First reviewed November 2024
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