Customer Ratings & Reviews

I absolutely love the Ninja Creami Swirl! It will do everything the original Ninja Creami does, and more. My absolute favorite part about this machine is the ability to make tart frozen yogurt soft serve! Then, you can top it with all kinds of fruit and honey! Trying to make froyo is difficult because for the freezing and melting process, but not with the ninja creami swirl! Just follow the recipe Ninja provides, freeze for 24 hours give or take, and put it in the Ninja Creami Swirl. Magic! It alsk makes fantastic ice cream, shakes, etc. I always keep at least one pint loaded to go and it makes way more than enough for 2-3 people. It saves our family from having to go out to get our favorites by just making them at home.

This ice cream maker is perfect for people who don't want to consume a lot of calories without losing the pleasure of enjoying soft-serve ice cream or making their own ice cream with their favorite flavor. The Ninja Swirl is easy to use and easy to clean. The only thing I don't like is that the container is only 16 oz., which is too small for how much I love eating ice cream. In terms of noise, I don't find it to be that loud. What I like is that I can go to the supermarket and buy cones and ice cream, then come home and turn it into soft-serve ice cream if I don't have time to make it myself and leave it in the freezer for 24 hours. It's not a kitchen necessity, but it's nice to have, although the price is a bit high for what it does.

Really good. Easy to work with. Great gift for anyone who loves to bake

The Ninja Swirl is likely the most unique appliance I have in my house, and one I never imagined liking as much as I do! I was mainly interested in this machine because my son struggles with trying new foods. He is diagnosed with mild autism and has always had severe challenges when it comes to introducing new foods or textures. My hope was that making ice cream together would provide him with a hands-on experience where he could learn about each ingredient, add them at his own pace, and feel more comfortable trying the final product. This may not seem like a big deal to some, but he refuses to mix foods—he loves tofu and he loves rice, but once combined into a single dish, he won’t touch it. I'm excited to say that my plan has worked amazingly well! He has already tried several new ingredients, including yogurt, and he’s genuinely excited about making ice cream now. As with all Ninja products, the design is incredibly well thought out. My wife was initially against getting this machine because she thought the cleanup would be excessive. To our surprise, it’s actually very easy to clean. The machine itself never gets dirty, only the pint containers and the various lids (blending and soft-serve tops) need washing. The lids have rubber gaskets, ensuring no ice cream ever touches the machine itself. I expected a steep learning curve, so I watched several tutorial videos before making my first batch. However, once you learn the process, it’s amazingly simple, and you’ll never need to refer to the instructions again. Interestingly, the machine is only used for the final step of the process (turning the mixture into ice cream or soft serve and dispensing it). This means you can store it away and only bring it out when needed, which is what we dot. I initially assumed the machine would be involved in the entire ice cream-making process, but it’s actually just the finishing touch. The soft serve function is incredible! My son absolutely loves soft serve, and this feature alone has made the machine worth it. So far, we’ve made a Mango Fruitwhip and a Peach Fruitwhip for soft serve, along with a Nutella Yogurt for scoopable ice cream. All three have been amazing and seem much healthier than store-bought alternatives. The machine is a thoughtfully designed machine that has exceeded all my expectations. I love that you can purchase extra pint containers, allowing you to store multiple flavors in the freezer and always have ice cream ready to go. A friend of mine is even considering buying extra containers to make homemade protein ice cream to bring over for the final step in the machine. Beyond the product itself, this appliance has given us a fun activity to share with our son. It’s helping him gradually overcome his sensory processing challenges in a fun and low-pressure way. I couldn’t be happier about it!

I love Ninja products and I own several. I will continue purchasing them because I trust Ninja will always deliver a quality product and so far, I have not been disappointed. The aesthetics and quality of their products have always been fantastic. I typically don't start with the bad things but I'll go ahead and get it out of the way. It's big. It's really big.It takes up a large amount of counter space for me. The problem with that is not everyone is ok with the amount of space it takes up. I think this is more of an item where you need to have a dedicated space that doesn't interfere with the day to day operations of your kitchen. It is quite loud too. I've made several recipes and I do have to say, it's loud when it mixes. It's not deafening but it's loud enough to make it unusable at certain times of the day/night. I love ice cream. My family loves ice cream. We are ice cream connoisseurs in my house and that's why I wanted this from Ninja. The recipes can take up to 24 hours before you can consume them. Which means, you really really need to like ice cream to make it, wait for it to freeze and be ready, then put it back through the machine. It's quite a process and I'm just being real that with a large family with little kids of my own, it's not very convenient. For someone with patience and creativity in the kitchen, I can see this being perfect as long as you are ok with the amount of space it takes up. It is great at what it does. There are endless options and recipes. It's very much a multi purpose machine if you are looking to make shakes and ice cream and soft serve, etc. I just think for me, it's a little too large and not convenient enough for me to use regularly.

Ninja’s latest small kitchen appliance, the new Swirl by Cremi, comes out just in time for warmer weather and is a fun option to do with the kiddos or experiment with the plethora of warm weather treats you can create with this machine. After being talked into a Cremi machine by a friend of ours who just raves about it, I was eager to explore the capabilities of our new appliance and made a specific trip to the grocery store just to stock up on ingredients I pulled from the included recipe book including dried yogurt, chocolate chips, protein powder, amongst other required ingredients. After getting the ingredients, unpacking the Swirl, and setting everything up, I immediately took notice of its bulky, heavy and awkward shape and immediately brainstorming as to where I was going to store it. I imagine others may run into the same problem searching for cabinet space so keep that in mind. The machine does feel and appear to be made out of high-quality materials ensuring durability, hence its bulk and weight, which I’m hoping means it will last us for years to come. There was definitely a learning curve to set it up, understand how it works and what you’ll need to start making frozen treats. There is a convenient QR code you can scan to watch a video and links to recipes to explore prior to use as well as the aforementioned included recipe book for quick reference. Although the set-up, preparation and recipe discovery may seem a little overwhelming and time consuming initially, at least it was for me, once you get the hang of it it’s fairly simple and fun to experiment with. Its user-friendly interface and easy to understand control panel is straightforward with clearly marked buttons for various functions. It offers a range of functions, including yogurt, sorbet, and gelato preparation. Whether crafting classic vanilla ice cream or experimenting with fruit sorbets, protein powder, coffee beans, etc. the Ninja Swirl handles it all. The versatility extends to accommodating various dietary preferences, with settings for dairy-free, low-sugar, and vegan options. After several uses, the Ninja Swirl handled everything I threw at it delivering creamy, delicious frozen treats in minutes. Its powerful motor can blend added ingredients, like chocolate chips, to perfection and the consistency of the swirls was pretty impressive with a smooth texture. Cleaning the Ninja Swirl is a breeze thanks to its removable parts that are dishwasher safe and the non-stick surfaces ensure minimal residue. Regular maintenance is simple, with clear instructions provided in the user manual. This ease of cleaning is a significant advantage, encouraging frequent use without the dread of post-preparation cleanup. Obviously the most important part is the end result. I will precursor this by saying I do not have a sweet tooth however the rest of my family does. Ice cream has always been my go to for a sweet treat but I can never justify today’s prices at the grocery store nor the junk they put into our foods so I usually don’t entice buying anything for myself. That being said, I can honestly say by using the provided recipes it produced the best tasting ice cream I have ever had using clean ingredients out of our fridge and pantry; everyone that tasted it even agreed. The Ninja Swirl is a game-changer for our household and ultimately will be providing us better quality foods and make up for the cost relatively quickly considering how much a pint of ice cream goes for now. While it has a few minor drawbacks with the size and preparation, the overall performance and quality far outweigh these. Whether you're health-conscious like my wife and I or a dessert lover like our kids, the Ninja Swirl is sure to impress.

I have a love/hate relationship with this Ninja Swirl by Creami (Swirl). It’s massively fun, addictive, and easy to use I feel the need to push harder during my daily workouts to deserve indulging. Thankfully for my heart and waistline, the Swirl is like a versatile James Bond gadget rather than a one-trick pony. So, while rich soft-serve ice cream is definitely the marquee attraction it can also deliver healthier treats like soft-serve fat-free yogurt and fruit whips. It’s also a boon to those who avoid dairy because substituting cow milk with nut “milks” and protein powders works great. If you stop reading here just know, yes, the Swirl is an appliance that will put smiles on everyone in your family, even if they have to run an extra mile afterward. I won’t list every kind of treat the Swirl makes. Best Buy’s product page does that fine. But, in sum, it’s almost any frozen treat you can imagine. I’ll discuss my experience making a few of these treats in a bit, but first a few details about the machine itself. THE SWIRL BY CREAMI MACHINE This machine not only has a tall list of talents, it also has a big presence too. I’ve attached a photo of it in my kitchen. It’s so tall it barely fits under my cabinets. The point here – identify its home in your kitchen before bringing it home. The Swirl’s body is plastic but imitates stainless steel well. You have to tap it to be sure. Build quality is solid too. The swirl lever offers a confident feeling resistance when pulling down to prevent accidentally going full throttle, and the touch-sensitive control panel is quick and accurate to engage. It’s easy to be intimidated by all the lids and bowls when unpacking the Swirl. Not to mention all the lock and unlock buttons. Relax, it’s really a kid-simple machine to use once the routine is learned. To assist, Ninja cleverly put stickers on all the important parts explaining what each does and when it’s used. It really made for a great experience not having to delve into a manual to figure out what bowl goes where and does what. It also made the learning curve that much flatter. All the removable parts are dishwasher safe. The main bowl doesn’t really come into contact with food, so I just rinse after use. All the other parts I put in the dishwasher after every use. Ninja also recommends removing gaskets after every few uses to clear any trapped build up. Perhaps the two most important items in the kit are the recipe book and the pint containers which hold the frozen treat. Two one-pint containers are included, and I think it’s highly likely you’ll want to buy extras, especially if you have more than 3 in your family or you want to keep treats ready-to-go in your freezer. If you do buy extras only buy the one’s specifically for the Swirl. Ninja says a pint makes 4-servings, but as we’ve all experienced, one person’s full serving is another’s sample. Personally, I think Ninja is doing a bit of marketing magic making the 4-serving claim. To my stomach a pint makes maybe 3 “adult servings.” Also, like an empty ketchup bottle, some of the treat won’t be able to make it to a cone and you’ll have to spoon it out. But it’s still delicious. If you have enough left over to make a full serving you can refreeze and use later, but it’s best to always start with a full pint. A SWIRL OF EXCITEMENT – MAKING TREATS Normally I trash included cookbooks. But I’m a rookie making ice cream and other frozen treats so the one that ships with the Swirl is my best friend. Sometimes I use it as a guideline, other times I follow directions verbatim. Regardless, the ingredients can get expensive, so don’t think of the Swirl as a way to save money. Its genius is that is allows you to create whatever flavor or kind of frozen treat you desire with the ingredients you want – things that might not be available at the grocery store or even the ice cream shop. By example, I’m not a fan of full fat milk or loads of sugar in commercial products and even some of Ninja’s own recipes. So, to make some vanilla ice cream, instead of 3% milk I substituted oat milk. And I cut the sugar does in half and used raw sugar rather than granulated. Still not healthy, but less unhealthy. And the result of that vanilla ice cream batch was not bad for a first try. It was rich and creamy and interestingly tasted more like honey than vanilla and plenty sweet for me. It had a slight syrupy texture, so, yeah, a work in progress, but, to me, experimentation is part of the fun with this machine. But if you want instant gratification, this machine does that too. Just pack in store-bought ice cream or similar, follow the directions in the recipe book, and in minutes you have soft-serve ice cream. Whether it’s a momentary craving or you are hosting a big family gathering where you need a lot of soft-serve fast, it’s great the Swirl is not so exclusive that it can accommodate store ice cream, not just specific recipes. To try this out I packed in some Breyer’s Pistachio Almond, which to me is ice cream, but to the powers that be is “frozen dairy dessert.” Either way it was amazing in soft-serve form. Long after I ate it I read in the Swirl’s instructions not to use mix-ins with soft-serve. I’m unclear if this applies to store bought ice cream too. This had chunks of almonds in it, and, while it’s clearly not recommended, my machine was no worse for it. Again, delicious, and enjoyed the almond bits. A few days later I tried this with Turkey Hill Cookies and Cream and that produced a slightly less thick soft-serve so YMMV depending on brand and ingredients. A twist, on this, if you will, is soft-serve store bought Greek yogurt. Personally, I only eat Dannon Oikos Triple Zero and Chobani Zero-Sugar to limit sugar and saturated fat. (I mention this because I’m sure brands with sugar and 2-3% fat will taste different, so again YMMV and just experiment.) I was feeling mischievous, so I mixed two Oikos cherry cups and one vanilla into the pint and put it in the freezer for about 20 hours. The basic process to make any soft-serve treat is 1. Place pint into an outer bowl, 2. Place outer bowl into the processing side (right) of the Swirl. 3. Press the kind of treat to be made on the control panel and let the Swirl do it’s thing. If the treat looks crumbly just press the re-spin button. 4. Place the pint into the soft-serve side of the machine and enjoy. As a warning the machine is loud. My Apple Watch noise meter app recorded it at 85 dB at one foot away, something to keep in mind if you have noise-sensitive people in your house. So, in this instance I pressed the “frozen yogurt” button and went through the quick process. A few minutes later soft-serve yogurt was delivered to my cone. To my surprise the taste was less sweet than the yogurt straight out of its own cup. It was tangy and tart, pleasantly so. Happy memories of Pinkberry swirled in my head as it left my area long ago. As noted, full sugar and fat yogurt will probably taste sweeter, but I can’t say for sure since I don’t buy that type to be able to test. These are just a few of the treats I made to find out what this machine can do, and how well it does it. It represents a small number in a long list of possibilities. I won’t touch on the hard ice cream and mix-in feature, but if you like hard ice cream too it’s available here too. BUT ITS NOT ALL A BOWL OF CHERRIES AND CREAM The downside of any kitchen appliance is the clean-up. And that’s no different here. As noted above, there’s lots of bowls, lids, grommets to be cleaned, some of which need hand cleaning from time to time. The beauty of going to the ice cream shop is you get your ice cream and leave the cleaning to the store. But you don’t get the unfettered flavor or ingredient options available with the Swirl. And while going out to get ice cream is fun, using the Swirl is too. It’s a great parent-child activity and introduction to cooking if that’s what it is. In short, whatever mess is involved is 100% worth it. This is a super-fun addition to everyone’s small kitchen appliance kit, and I look forward to experimenting with all it offers in the months and years to come. That said, this machine only makes small batches so while it’s a perfect family activity don’t pull it out for a summer party.

TLDR The Ninja Swirl is a full-featured make-it-at-home machine. While easy to use, it takes some trial and error to not only find good recipes, but to make whatever just like you like it. INTRODUCTION My family and I have been looking at the Swirl for some time now. We were very excited when it came up for review. Who doesn’t love a good bowl of ice cream? When the Ninja arrived, it was like someone had called a family meeting. Everyone was in the kitchen and couldn’t wait to see it. Ooh and aahs were heard all around and everyone had their own opinion on what the first kind of ice cream should be made. While unboxing, I was a little shocked to learn that the Swirl isn’t just a one trick pony that does only ice cream. The product advertisements show making ice cream and everything else is overlooked or just not advertised. But the Ninja can do so much more than just make a good bowl of ice cream. It can make very tasty protein shakes, milkshakes, gelato, soft-serve, whips, froyo, sorbet, etc. I was very impressed and didn’t realize the Ninja had a whole other side to it. USE Let’s be clear, protein shakes, and healthy snacks can wait. It’s all about ice cream. With each family member having their own idea of what ice cream is the best, grocery shopping is often a compromise. Who has room to fit multiple ice cream containers in their freezer? To me, this is the biggest benefit of the Swirl. Now each person can have their own personalized bowl of ice cream or ice cream cone whenever they want it. Surfing the interwebs and watching some YouTube videos showed me that, for most treats, you can just make a basic vanilla base and have multiple different flavorings or toppings as options. Super smart! Just keep some pints of vanilla “base stock” frozen and then each person can add what they want. Whether it be Snickers, Oreos, fruits and berries, etc. most desserts can be built with ease. There are dozens of recipes around the web for homemade desserts, protein infused desserts, healthy drinks and snacks, etc. The possibilities seem nearly endless. So many, it is hard to find one that you like. With 9 different food options available, the Ninja does its best to guide you without fuss to making your desired treat. Ninja has done an excellent job of making a product with so many moving parts and pieces, easy to use. Assembly and disassembly procedures are intuitive and very well labeled on all the parts. Items that fit together are clearly labeled and all snap with a reassuring click so you know everything is right. However, forget a step or not have things connected perfectly and the Ninja will let you know. The Swirl will give you an error code showing something is amiss. It won’t tell what it is, but it will tell you something isn’t right. NEGATIVES Without a doubt, using the Ninja is not as convenient as going to the freezer and grabbing a carton of ice cream. With the Ninja, you must plan ahead of time. The basic vanilla base stock I referred to earlier; the ingredients need mixed together and placed into the freezer a minimum of 24 hours ahead of time. The same goes for any other ice cream treat as well. Everything must be made ahead of time and kept frozen until use. Again, it is not nearly as easy as grabbing a spoon and container. There is quite a bit of clean up with the Ninja. It’s not horrible, but it’s not throw the spoon in the dishwasher when done easy either. Thankfully, Ninja has made most everything top rack dishwasher safe, so rinse off your stuff and throw it in the dishwasher. Mine come out squeaky clean after a cycle. There is a learning curve with the machine regardless of how well Ninja has worked to make things user friendly. There are a bunch of little tips and tricks that you learn either by trial-and-error, by reading the included documentation, or by watching some YouTube videos. For example, if you want Oreo ice cream, you can’t just grab the pint from the freezer, throw in some Oreo chips and hit the Mix-In button. Nope. Won’t work. It will just stir your Oreos in about a half inch down. Same with any other topping or ingredient. Instead, you must dig a hole down to the bottom of the pint and fill it up with topping as well, to ensure a thorough mix. Lastly, the Ninja Swirl is LOUD when blending and preparing. Using an Android app on my phone, I measured a peak of 95dB. That’s equivalent to an electric drill, heavy city traffic or a jackhammer at 50’. Thankfully, the longest blend cycle I’ve used was 5 minutes, but it was a loud 5 minutes. Plan on it waking the family up if used in the morning. FINAL THOUGHTS The Ninja Swirl has been a resounding hit so far in this household. It’s been used nearly every night so far. Whether it be for a bowl of ice cream or a quick milkshake, it has been put to good use. I think this is what sums up the Ninja Swirl better than anything. This is something the whole family is into. Everyone finds it user friendly enough that they all still love making a treat even after using it the first time. Not an easy feat for any manufacturer and Ninja has brought the goods. This scores a major win in everyone’s book. Ninja continues to impress me with their innovative products that are durable, easy to use, and easy to clean. Like all my other Ninja products, I have no doubt the Swirl will become a valued member of the family as well. RECOMMENDED

Make your own soft-serve ice cream, frozen yogurt, fruit whip cones, bowls and more at home. While it may seem daunting at first, it’s easy to use once you get it. There may seem to be lots of parts to clean but everything is easy to take apart and it’s all dishwasher safe. Keep a container of your favorite flavor in the freezer and you’re always ready to dispense a delicious treat in minutes. Highlights: * Everything is labeled with helpful stickers to get started. * The stickers are all easy to remove and leave no residue. * All parts are dishwasher safe. * Includes two pint containers so you can always have the next flavor ready in the freezer for later. Room for Improvement: * A lot of stickers to remove (12 of them)! * Lots of parts to assemble and clean for each use. * Louder than a blender during processing. * Need to attend to leftovers before enjoying the current treats. * Designed more for right-handed people. Setup: This is not a simple machine. There are many parts to clean and assemble between uses. You have to prepare your recipes at least a day in advance so they can freeze completely before processing. The unit is also quite large and while it has handle indents on the base to make it easier to pick up, the machine does lend itself to be left on a counter and not moved around much. The basic gist of the machine is that you prepare your desired recipe which is then poured into one of the two provided containers and frozen overnight. Then everything is ready when you’re set to make the magic happen just before you enjoy your treat. After unboxing, you’ll notice that nearly every part, lever or button has a helpful sticker which describes the basics of what that thing is used for. The only real first-time setup involves removing each of the twelve (12!) stickers, washing all of the parts (by hand or in a dishwasher), and then sliding the drip tray into its designated spot. Oh, and finding a good home for and plugging in the machine itself. It doesn’t need much clearance on the top but you do need easy access to the right side. Usage: The main improvement of this machine over the other Creamis is that it can make and dispense Soft Serve into cones or bowls. There are tons of reviews of those prior machines, so I’ll mostly cover the new stuff for this machine. To make soft-serve treats, there are 3 basics steps: 1. Prepare your recipe, fill and then freeze a pint container. This is done at least the day before you want to enjoy your frozen treats. 2. Process the treat. This is done by selecting the appropriate program and using the right-side of the machine. 3. Dispense the treat. This is done using the left side of the machine with the handle on the right. While you can’t make and enjoy a frozen treat all at the same time, you can get things ready for the freezer (step 1 above) and then when you’re ready to enjoy it, steps 2 & 3 are relatively quick and easy. It took about 30 minutes total to make my first two flavors and put them in the freezer. The next day, I chose the one I wanted and it took less than 15 minutes from freezer to cone. Depending on your serving size, each pint container yields about 4 cones-worth of soft serve. If you don’t need all 4 at the same time, you can put the leftovers back in the freezer for next time. Just remember to rinse the output area of the pint container before putting the leftovers back in the freezer. Processing the treat in this Creami Swirl is nearly identical to doing the same with the “classic” Ninja Creami machines. Sure, there are slight improvements over time and a bunch of new programs specific to soft-serve, but the gist is the same. You put the pint container in the holder, put that on the platform, lock it in, select your desired program that matches the recipe you used and wait a few minutes while it processes. Note that the pint containers from the other Creami machines are not compatible with the Swirl machine so you can’t reuse them if you’re upgrading. For soft-serve, the benefit that’s new with this machine, you take the processed pint container, swap the lid and lock it into the left side of the machine. Pull the lever on the right side to dispense your soft-serve treat into a cone or bowl. The treat dispenses faster the more you pull the lever. I’m right-handed so everything seemed convenient to me, but I can imagine that left-handers might have a bit more of a challenge given that the platform locking mechanism requires rotating the container handle to the right and the soft-serve dispensing handle is also on the right. Cleanup is relatively easy when you’ve dispensed everything from the pint. Sure, there are more than a few parts to disassemble and clean, but everything comes apart easily and it’s all dishwasher safe. Personally, I hand-wash it all unless the dishwasher is ready to run so I can immediately refill the empty container with the next recipe and pop it in the freezer for the next day. A great recipe book is included and has something for everyone; from dairy-free to low-fat treats and everything in-between. For more recipe inspiration, go to the ninjakitchen.com web site where there are more recipes than you can make in a year… all free to access. The machine takes up a bit of counter space and is rather tall, so it might be a challenge to find a good home for it. If you do need to move it around, there are cutouts near the base on either side to easily fit your fingers. I still haven’t figured out the best forever home for it as my kitchen has a very limited amount of counter space, but given how easy it is to make tasty frozen treats, something else might just have to get moved to make room for our Creami Swirl. Be aware that during treat processing, the machine is quite loud. When processing from the freezer, it was about 5 minutes of not insignificant noise like a blender but slower. If your TV or a sleeping child is nearby, you might want to time your treat processing accordingly. When dispensing, it’s only making sounds while the treat is actually coming out and it was much quieter to dispense than process. You can re-freeze any leftovers from the pint. Just remove the container from the left side of the machine, close the base and finally remove the spout and rinse out the exit hole at the bottom of the container. Swap the lids on the container to put the storage lid back on and pop it back in the freezer for next time. It’s important to rinse the outlet so it doesn’t clog when re-frozen. Next time, instead of doing the full processing, just do the “re-spin” program to quickly loosen up the leftovers and then follow the rest of the steps to dispense it again. My first recipe was the Chocolate Hazelnut Frozen Yogurt. It was easy to make up the recipe and the result was really tasty! We used about half the container for 2 small cake cones so the rest is waiting in the freezer for another day. Next up in the freezer was the Salted Caramel froyo… it, too, was divine! After that, we tried some Fruit Whip which needed a few ingredient adjustments but overall was tasty. So far, 3 recipes and all of them a great start. Yum! Overall: There are a few choices out there for ice cream makers. Some even freeze the recipe in the machine for faster enjoyment. The Creami by Ninja range of machines is more for slightly delayed enjoyment in that you need to prep at least a day in advance. However; once you have your pint prepared, you’re only minutes away from enjoying your treat. The Swirl is one of the few machines that actually makes and dispenses soft-serve, too! There are a few parts to clean but everything is dishwasher-safe. This isn’t necessarily an “upgrade” from an older Creami machine because it doesn’t share the same pints or other parts, but it fits right in as a replacement or a new machine. With full control over your ingredients, you can make just about anything for a cup, bowl and now soft-serve cone.

Great Adds even more dessert options beyond the standard Creami Easy to learn particularly if you know how to use the original Creami Dishwasher safe Makes it easy to have ice cream that is healthy and tastes good Includes lots of recipes Simple to use The same base can be used for ice cream, soft serve, and milkshake Works with simple regular ingredients Can turn existing store ice cream into new creations Color coding and keyed parts ensure you don’t put it together incorrectly Tells you if you forgot to install a part Not So Great Loud Takes up a lot of space Good results are temperature sensitive Looks and sounds like it is about to break with certain recipes Pints take more space due to soft serve spout Old Creami accessories are not compatible Getting soft serve right takes trial and error The Ninji Swirl by Creami is an upgraded version of the original Creami that adds soft serve capability. With a footprint nearly double the size and the weight to match this Swirl will likely need a dedicated spot unless you are ok with moving a 26-pound appliance on a regular basis. It is also very tall but should fit under most cabinets, but just barely. Thankfully there are no moving parts or things to worry about on top. The design is mostly chromed plastic, gray, and black with a few levers that are white. From a distance the appearance is nice but a bit busy in the Ninja way. Part of the unit sticks out for a drip tray under the soft serve area but you can store that underneath when not in use. It seems Ninja is worried about people being confused about how to use it as there are stickers all over the device and accessories that describe their function and some even include QR codes with more information. While the Swirl is more complex, the extra stickers may give the impression to some that it is hard to use and that is not true. Initially there is a learning curve but going through things step by step you realize it is a lot simpler than it seems. Setup is very simple as the only thing you need to install is a drop tray and plug it in. After washing all you need to do is choose your first recipes. The only frustrating part of setup is realizing you must wait 24 hours to enjoy your creation. The one exception is if you want to change a store-bought ice cream into something else. Probably the main challenge of the Swirl is determining what you are going to make with so many options. Out of the box you get 2-pint containers with lids. With so many recipes and low-calorie options, you are likely going to want to purchase extras. That does lead to a downside of the new pint containers. With the soft serve spout, they take up even more space in the freezer. The storage lids do ok but don’t feel fully secure either. Making standard ice cream is straightforward and identical to the older generation Creami. You just create your base and make sure it doesn’t go above the max fill like. Let it freeze for 24 hours, and you are good to go. Where things require more experimentation is on the soft serve side. Depending on how well your freezer does it might take more or less time for the process to work. Ninja lists a specified ideal freezer temperature range but if you have an old school freezer that likes to go well below zero it might take some extra work. On my freezer it likes to freeze things well below zero regardless of the setting. This means the Creami pints are extremely cold when you go to spin them. This doesn’t seem to be a problem if you are making them into standard ice cream, but it does if you are making soft serve. It seems like it is related to the process of adding air but when making soft serve if the pint was overly cold the entire container will shake, rattle, and move to the side as it is processed in the Swirl. It also looks as though it was to rip the pint off the base. So far it has held up fine but when a base does this it typically requires a respin. While most times it seems slightly quieter than the original Creami it is much louder when this happens. Either way the Swirl is still very loud. An easy workaround to reduce the shaking is to leave the pint on the counter for a few minutes to warm up. Again, this only applies to the soft serve options and a little trial and error, and you can get it sorted out. Until then, you still have perfectly edible soft serve with the texture just not perfect. The more you use it you start to realize how simple the process is. You just make your base, then process it to ice cream or with one extra step to soft serve. There are some things to remember like how to lock the pint into the process or retracting the press if stops but those quickly become second nature. The parts have color coding to help you learn but it doesn’t take long to get the hang of it. What seems to be more of a challenge besides finding the optimum freeze temperature for your base is mastering a good soft serve swirl. You can adjust the speed it pushes out the soft serve but getting it right still takes practice, but the process is fun. What is nice is if you don’t want to use it all you can just level off the top of the pint and put it back in the freezer for later. Another option is you can process it first as ice cream and then use the remainder as soft serve. If you have an original Creami model you can already make a version of soft serve. However, the Swirl does seem to make the soft serve slightly softer and airier without making it watery but most people probably wouldn’t notice the difference. Regardless, the Swirl makes the process easier and more fun. More so if you have kids. Cleanup is easy. If you are going to reuse the parts soon you can just rinse them. If not, then just toss them in the dishwasher as all the parts are dishwasher safe. However, you will want to remove 2 seals periodically as they can hold ice cream and over time could start to smell. Thankfully removing the seals is not difficult. Final Thoughts The Ninja Swirl by Creami is fun new version in the Ninja Creami line. It’s easy to get the hang of, provides even more dessert options, and is fun to use. If you are looking for an all in one cold dessert maker, the Ninja Swirl by Creami is hard to beat.

As a huge ice cream fan, I was excited to try out the new Ninja Swirl by CREAMi Soft Serve and Ice Cream Maker. With promises of being able to make multiple types of ice cream along with your own healthy ingredients, this machine seemed too good to be true and now with the function of soft serve, I had to take it for a Swirl. Setting up the Ninja Swirl was pretty straightforward. Out of the box, the machine requires little assembly, attaching the mixing paddle blade to the top of the motorbase, and hooking it into the Outer bowl. The power cord is a decent length, allowing for flexible placement on the kitchen counter. The machine is a tad taller than expected, so storing it could be difficult for those that do not have a high shelving or a pantry, so expect this to stay on the countertop. The Ninja Swirl comes with several attachments in order to make regular ice cream and the soft serve. 2x 16 oz pint containers with lids, which can feed 2 average people per pint. (NOTE: these containers are different from the older ones, because they have the new nozzle for soft serve and the old ones will not work with this machine, so you will have to order extra containers specifically made for the Swirl). The Swirl Paddle which is a four pronged blade that is used for churning the ice cream, and you will have to clean this after every mix. Then there is the Swirl Spout, which is the new addon that allows for the soft serve function, allowing to smoothly dispense the ice cream directly into a bowl or cone. The machine comes equipped with an impressive variety of different ice cream settings making the Swirl one of, if not the most versatile in-home ice cream makers on the market. The different ice cream settings you can choose are as follows. Regular Ice Cream - Which is the standard mode for creating rich and creamy ice cream with a perfectly churned texture. Creamifit - Which allows for High Protein, Low sugar mixture that offers a faster longer program spin to the whip air through the ingredients. This has been my go to since, I have been making high protein low sugar ice cream. Note this setting takes the longest time to mix in 5 minutes Gelato -Which is a denser and silkier consistency for an authentic gelato experience. Sorbet - Which is great for fruit-based frozen desserts without dairy. Lite Ice Cream - Is ideal for low-fat or dairy-free alternatives while maintaining smoothness. Mix-in Mode - Allows you to add crushed cookies, nuts, or chocolate chips into your frozen treat. Soft Serve Mode - This setting whips air into the mixture, creating a light and airy consistency similar to what you’d get at an ice cream shop. One key tip to remember before making any pint is that you will have to freeze your ingredients for 24 hours. This is a crucial step, as it ensures the proper consistency when blending. The process is straightforward: pour your base mixture into a pint, freeze it, and then after 24 hours pop into the Swirl and let it do the mixing. I put the Ninja Swirl to the test with a variety of recipes that I found on YouTube and found the cheapest and easiest one to make with the new soft serve function. I went with a healthier version with only low fat milk, sugar free vanilla pudding mix, ¼ tbsp of vanilla extract and 1x scoop of a high protein powder. I was genuinely shocked at just how well it works in delivering a light, creamy consistency that’s spot-on and thought I was eating the same soft serve from my favorite fast food fried chicken restaurant. Really the only downside is the noise that Creami swirl emits, in that it is about as loud or if not louder than a washing machine on full speed, especially when using the creamfit setting, which lasts 5 minutes. Pros: New Soft Serve Function – Delivers authentic soft serve with an easy-to-use swirl spout. Multiple Settings – Versatility to make different types of ice cream. Easy to Use & Clean – Dishwasher-safe parts and easy to take apart. Healthier Options – Works well with protein-based and dairy-free recipes Cons: Requires Pre-Freezing – Need to plan ahead and freeze ingredients for 24 hours. Taller Design – Might not fit under low kitchen cabinets. Limited Pint Capacity – Each batch serves about two people, so making multiple servings requires extra pints. Noise - Can be very loud, especially on the creamifit setting. Overall, the Ninja Swirl by CREAMi is a great choice for ice cream lovers looking for an in-home ice cream maker along with soft serve capabilities. The new soft serve function is truly a game-changer, making it easy to create soft serve that you would think was from your favorite fast food restaurant at the push of a button. While it does require some planning ahead due to the pre-freezing step, the results are well worth the wait. If you’re looking for a fun and versatile frozen treat maker, you can't go wrong with this ice cream maker.

The Ninja Swirl is an interesting but fun machine for making frozen treats. It can help create numerous  frozen favorites like soft serve, sorbet, gelato, shakes and more. It is relatively easy to setup and use thanks to the clear, concise guides and instructions that are provided. There are also several helpful stickers affixed to various parts of the machine with important operation reminders, setup steps, and QR code links to additional online documentation. There isn’t any notable assembly required, but given the number of required steps, differently used parts, and various levers and latches that must be toggled during use, the comprehensive instructions and helpful stickers identifying key components made setup and usage much easier. The Ninja requires a nearby AC outlet and uses moderate countertop space. Unlike the crank style ice cream makers of my youth, this machine does not use any ice. Instead, it uses already frozen ingredients. Whether store bought ice cream or frozen hand mixed ingredients, the frozen mixture is first prepped using one of the pint containers inside the outer bowl. This process whips and softens the ice cream into custard, or one of the other frozen options. The motor gets pretty loud during the outer bowl process, it’s comparable to a blender or vacuum. On the plus side, the Ninja chops through solidly frozen ice cream and fruit as good as any blender I’ve used. Once the softening process completes, the pint container is then transferred from the outer bowl to the soft serve dispenser. We pull the handle down to dispense soft serve custard just like a commercial ice cream machine.  A full-color recipe booklet is provided. The recipes vary from simple to slightly more complicated. However, none of the recipes are particularly difficult to prepare. The easiest recipes to make are the store-bought soft serve recipes. They convert store bought ice cream to custard form. The store-bought recipes don’t require any additional ingredients other than filling a pint container with the ice cream. Other ingredients can be added or used for toppings if desired. My only problem with the store-bought method is that the custard yields are much smaller in comparison to the amount of ice cream initially loaded and used. It’s a good alternative in a pinch for quick custard that avoids the 24-hour freezing step, but is not a feasible long-term option when compared to mixing the ingredients from scratch. Nearly all of the other recipes require freezing mixed ingredients for 24-hours beforehand. For example, to prepare vanilla soft serve I mix vanilla flavored powdered pudding mix, whole milk, heavy cream, and vanilla extract. I then pour the mixture into one of the pint containers and freeze it for 24-hours. The pint container is then removed from the freezer and put into the outer bowl where it is whipped into soft serve. After that process completes, the container is then transferred to the dispenser where it dispensed the mixture as soft serve into cones and cups. This is pretty much how all soft serve is created using the Ninja. Other desserts, like sorbet and shakes, are prepared in similar manner but are not transferred to the dispenser and are instead served directly from the outer bowl. Vanilla and chocolate soft serve are my go-to most times, but the included recipe guide contains numerous different flavored treats, all of which are somewhat easy to create and seem like they’d be delicious. Ingredients can be tweaked in numerous ways to make recipes low dairy, low sugar or just to change things up. I haven’t even scratched the surface yet of some of the concoctions I plan to whip up. Clean up after use is straightforward. I wash the pint container(s), lids, outer bowl lid and blade. I then wipe down anything else if necessary. The machine itself doesn’t require cleaning and all messiness is usually limited to the bowls and containers used. I typically soak all used containers, lids, and accessories like the mixing paddle in warm soapy sink water before hand washing with a sponge. Despite the helpful documentation and handy sticker reminders, it is still quite easy to overlook something simple. The first time I tried making soft serve, I did everything correctly except one step. I forgot to switch the small lever on the dispenser lid to the open position. It was a simple oversight, but one that proved a messy and nearly costly mistake when I saw the custard oozing out of every opening but the spout. A similar issue occurred when I forgot to confirm a pint container dispenser hole was closed before filling it with newly made ice cream mixture. That caused a huge spill and mess. There are so many different steps and settings required that I now make sure to go through every step very carefully.

I am now 2 years into my journey of a healthy lifestyle. I've lost 105 lb over this period of time, so let me start this review by saying that an ice cream machine was not really a temptation that I wanted to have widely available at home. Until I learned exactly WHAT all this machine can do and...it's crazy! Hint - you can have ice cream AND be healthy (or, just have ice cream, haha)! To start, it can do 6 different standard CREAMi programs from regular ice cream to frozen yogurt, sorbet, gelato, milkshakes and lite ice cream. This is ON TOP OF various soft-serve options as well, including regular soft-serve, fruit whip, frozen custard, swirled lite ice cream, frozen yogurt and CreamiFit. So, yeah, from my understanding, this does everything the CREAMi can do, PLUS Soft Serve. It really is the ultimate all-in-one stop for ice cream. I love the fact that you can do both Scoop or Swirl options and the Swirl is always so much fun to do and never gets old...it just brings out the kid in you, lol. Our daughter always volunteers to pull the handle and do the serving. However, my bread and butter with this machine is the CreamiFit setting. In the short time I've had this machine, I've already made two servings of ice cream with protein powder in it. Both servings were great and neither tasted overly "protein powder-ish". Anyway, unboxing this monster wasn't bad at all. I'm so used to Ninja products coming with a huge swathe of parts and various other tools and such that make it all work. I will say that it does seem a bit intimidating at first, but after making your first ice cream or two, it's not bad at all. All of the pieces and parts play together with each other, for the most part, so there's not like 10 different things to keep up with at once. Everything was packaged super well and in typical Ninja-fashion. The quick start and recipe book included are very nice and get you up to speed pretty quickly. There was some confusion at first because we thought we had to freeze the two pint containers first, before doing anything at all. But turns out, that's only for certain programs. Our go-to program so far has just been the Soft Serve and it's been amazing, in every way. Even our daughter was blown away by how great it tasted and said it was even better than the Vanilla cones from Dairy Queen! Score! We've tried several flavors, including Vanilla, Strawberry and Orange Creamsicle. The important thing to remember is for this, you cannot use ice cream that had "chunks" or "bits and pieces" in it, so make sure it's only the basic "flavors" and not the ones with say, cherries, chocolate pieces, etc, in it. And while I talked about the CreamiFit setting in the beginning, I can still use "healthy" yogurt-style, low-calorie ice cream in the soft serve function as well, if I don't want to do anything fancy, like adding protein powder or anything. Like, if I just want a typical "cone" ice cream, but not the full amount of calories. Really, with all of this being said, our only real complaint is when using the machine to make the ice cream, it gets SUPER loud. But this seems typical for Ninja, in general, from our experiences, especially with their various blenders. Not sure why this is the case, but it's a good sacrifice for some fantastic ice cream. The wife has used this way more than I have and when she does, I can hear it all the way across the house! Overall, I give the Ninja Swirl a solid 5/5 stars. It's design is minimalist, for the type of machine it is. Cleanup isn't bad at all - just make sure you rinse everything as soon as you're done with it. Don't let it sit overnight or you'll have a bit tougher of a time. There aren't too many stray parts to keep up with, which I love for a change and once you're over the initial learning curve and intimidation of all the various options this offers, you're well on your way to making the best ice cream in town, right in your kitchen. The little recipe book is only a start - your imagination is truly the limit with this one. We are having a small birthday for our teen daughter in the coming weeks and absolutely cannot wait to bust this out for the guests and it'll be amazing when we get into the hotter weather of Summer. We cannot wait to see what ideas we come up with for this and how creative we can get!

This is a fun, but ultimately pricy machine. It lands somewhere between being a pure novelty and a practical device you could real value from. That ultimately comes down to whether you take full advantage of all of its potential to create unique treats, or your desire to appease children (and adults) with swirled cones in Summer. You can make soft-serve from scratch (recipe) or simply process store-bought ice cream and extrude it into a cone. I tried a range of options, mostly with success, but probably the biggest point of advice is to be careful of how hard you make it work. It’s well constructed, but every machine has its limits. Regardless, I feel it’s important to mention that this thing is consistently loud - extremely loud - no matter what you make. The first thing you’ll realize is that this thing is both large and heavy. It seems very sturdy, but it also comes plastered with tons of stickers to encourage you to follow the instructions and make not of various locking buttons, etc. These stickers come off easily, but between them, the instruction booklet, and overall number of components, the machine gives the impression of its complexity. Luckily, once you get using it, everything makes sense and it’s not that hard to use properly. It’s worth noting that this ‘makes’ ice cream through shaving down pre-frozen concoctions in their special pint containers, and cannot freeze your mixture on the fly. The soft serve feature simply extrudes your treat right after you’ve processed your frozen recipe on the core part of the machine. (Using store bought ice cream speeds this process up, more on that below.) That said, *** Read all instructions! *** It’s easy to do just enough steps incorrectly in your first experiments to stress the machine. I jumped straight to the Signature Vanilla Soft Serve recipe because I was excited to see the machine make real, from scratch, soft serve. I followed the instructions, but used skim milk instead of whole. There are plenty of warnings about making sure you use proper amounts of sugar, fat or replacement ingredients to keep things going as expected. After freezing them for 24 hours, I suspect my mix had more ice crystals in it than it should have. The result was a toasty motor smell that emanated from the machine as it worked hard to get through the frozen block. You can find plenty of stories of people putting these through a bit too much stress, so be careful. My latter attempts went a bit better, with a little less worry about burning out the motor on my brand new machine. Ninja Test Kitchen provides a lot of recipes with various levels of difficulty, based mostly on how many steps, ingredients, or time waited are involved. I tried several so far: — Protein-Rich, Lite Soft Serve: With a little less prep than the Signature Soft Serve recipe that had me melting sugar (easy) this one required simply mixing protein powders and a few other ingredients and then freezing them. The machine seemed to struggle on this one as well, so if I did it again, I’d add a bit a cream or an emulsifier to the mix. After processing, it was a bit more watery than the others as well, but still extruded ok - yet melted quickly. I didn’t love the flavor of my Butterfinger-inspired recipe, but I could see its potential of being a protein-rich snack for summer months. — Frozen Yogurt: While there are more involved recipes, I chose the one-ingredient recipe, which is basically just instructions for freezing store-bought yogurt and processing it into soft serve the following day. It largely worked, but the mixed berry yogurt used remained a bit too tart in soft-serve form. Like the protein-rich recipe, it also melted fairly easily, so consuming your swirled cones quickly can be necessary. — Simple, Store Bought Soft Serve: This is by far the easiest way to make soft serve on this machine… mostly because you’re not really making it. You simply take a store bought ice cream (without chunky fillings) and scoop it into the machine’s pint containers. Since it’s already frozen, you don’t need to wait. You just need to process it on a lesser setting. This is perhaps an example of it being somewhat easy to overlook subtle differences in how you use this machine. I should have read the instructions and chosen ‘Re-spin’ in this case, but my brain defaulted to selecting ‘Ice cream’ - While the machine didn’t have to work that hard, it got slightly unbalanced as chunks of soft ice cream flung around inside. (Again, it’s all about following instructions, even if not many steps!) - This resulted in the best-extruding soft serve. My swirl technique was never mastered, but it still looked the part and didn’t melt as fast as my prior creations. I imagine this being the best way to appease young kids and have enough to go around at parties. The two included pints only provide 4 servings, so this route allowed for refilling quickly. — Summary: If you want to serve up unique soft desserts, whether that be ice cream, fruit sorbets, or protein desserts regularly, this could be the unique tool to do that. Some people swear by their Creamis, so there’s an audience for it. Similarly, those with kids who insist on swirled cones will find this fun. At the same time, cost and space requirements would still make this a novelty machine for many. It’s fun, but how much that fun is worth to you is subjective. Its learning curve is small, but I definitely felt like damaging the machine is a real possibility if you’re not careful, or if you fail to follow all of Ninja’s suggestions on prep and operation. And of course, the biggest downside is just how loud the machine is. I consistently registered 90 dBs during the height of use. I leave the room and close doors when running a program, it’s that loud. Yet, I still like mine, even if only for its fun factor. Making unusual or custom frozen mixtures seems to be the highlight of this machine. Where else can you get any kind of soft serve or real fruit sorbets you can imagine? *** The Good Stuff: - Ability to make unique desserts you won’t find elsewhere. - Making soft serve at home is a fun novelty. - Well designed, robust components. - All core components are dishwasher safe. Easy to take apart for cleaning. *** The Less Than Good Stuff: - Even with all its robustness, feels like you could easily destroy machine if not careful. - Extremely loud, no matter what you make (90 dBs) - Most recipes require a 24-hour wait time for freezing. - Small learning curve, lots of pieces to learn about and sort out before first use.

One of my favorite new gadgets of the last few years was Ninja’s Creami. My family and I enjoy the frozen treats. It has been nice knowing exactly what is going into our desserts. When I found out that Ninja was making a variant of the Creami with a soft serve dispenser, I leapt at the opportunity to give it a go. For the most part, the experience has been very good. It is not an experience without a few shortcomings, but my family and I have really enjoyed it. I can still make every treat that I love for the original Creami, but now we get the benefit of soft serve treats at home. Anyone looking into making their own soft serve ice cream cones, should pick up a Swirl by Creami. For more on my experiences, please read on! Setup: The Swirl comes with quite a few accessories. There are some obvious differences from the original Creami out of the box. For one, this comes with two new pints. These pints have a twist open base and a dispenser opening built into the pint. As far as I can tell, old pints from previous Creami models are not compatible with the Swirl. When making soft serve, there is a plunger lid that is made up of three different components. Beyond that, you still have the base unit, the container with handle, the paddle, and the lids for the pints. Experience: My favorite recipe for the original Creami is the Strawberry ice cream recipe from the original Creami recipe guide. Making a scoop recipe for the Swirl was exactly the same as it had been with the original Creami. I had heard that the Swirl was quieter than the original Creami. It may be a bit quieter, but it is still loud enough to wake up every kid in your house or to annoy apartment neighbors. Still, the recipe came out well. I tried my hand at a few soft serve recipes. There is a beginner soft serve recipe and an intermediate soft serve recipe. The difference primarily being that the beginner recipe uses vanilla pudding mix and the intermediate recipe uses milk powder and xanthan gum. Between the two recipes, I highly recommend the intermediate recipe. It is not much more difficult to make, and the product is much more stable than the beginner recipe. The beginner recipe tastes fine, but it melts super-fast. Nitpicks: I have already mentioned the noise, but there are a few other items that concern me a bit with the new model. First, the Swirl wastes a decent amount of soft serve from the pint. When the machine believes it has gotten all the ice cream out of the pint, there was still about a half of an inch of ice cream left in the bottom of the pint. More was stuck near the nozzle. The second complaint is that there are a lot more moving part now than there were with the original Creami. As mentioned above, the Swirl has many pieces to keep track of and clean. The original Creami felt more “self-contained” whereas the Swirl has an extra plunger lid that I must keep track of for making soft serve and the pints themselves have more working parts. And these new pints can leak beyond their base. They seal up, but the seal is not always perfect. Conclusion: Still, I have enjoyed Swirl by Creami. The frozen treats taste great. It is fun to make the recipes. Everything has worked well overall. I am not entirely sold on the new pints, and I wish the unit were quieter, but this is a great device for anyone looking to make frozen treats at home. 4.5/5 Recommend

Ninja hit it out of the ballpark with yet another gadget. I’ve been making homemade ice cream for years but it is a cumbersome process that only allows me to make one flavor a day and so I haven’t made it as often as I wished to. The Ninja Swirl makes it so easy that now I have been making some daily at my kids’ behest. I just make extra and leave it in the fridge ready to freeze for the next day once we finish a pint. Set-up was quite simple and intuitive. I did forget what parts went where after taking them apart and washing them, but the second page of the recipe book has easy to follow pictures on how to put everything together. The package comes with two pints, which is enough for a day and two flavors in my house, but we could definitely use more, especially since new batches require 24 hours to freeze. The good thing is Ninja sells more pints on their website by the 2- and 4-pack. One recommendation I have is to understand the size of this machine, especially its height. It is quite tall, but not too wide or deep. Luckily, I have an open shelve to store it on, but I can imagine it may be difficult to store in certain spaces. So far, I have made vanilla, strawberry, cookies and cream ice creams, and pineapple sorbet. The machine processes each batch within four minutes, and it comes out decadently creamy and smooth. Even the sorbet has a creamy mouthfeel after it is processed. After processing, I can add mix-ins, like the strawberry bits to my strawberry ice cream, and Oreos to my cookies and cream and it blends them in. Once the ice cream is mixed, it can be scooped out or swirled out with the soft serve function. The first two minutes of processing are extremely loud, I have to leave the kitchen to protect my hearing. After the first two minutes it quiets down, and we can hear each other talk once again. To be honest, I cannot complain much because it gives results fast. My previous methods of ice cream making took at least twenty minutes of processing if not more and provided no soft serve. The soft serve function is really simple to use, it presses out the ice cream right into my cone or container with a speed-control handle that the kids love to use. The soft serve will start counting down minutes and then retract on its own to let you know it might begin to melt soon. If there is ice cream left, it can be sealed back up and stored for next time. It always leaves a bit of ice cream behind that it is unable to press further, I just scoop that out and serve or eat it. I am very grateful with how easy clean-up is since I use this so often. Everything is simple to wash and even dishwasher safe and Ninja even made the gaskets easy to remove, clean, and replace. The machine hardly gets dirty, and I just give it a quick wipe down before putting it away. My kids and I have been having a blast with this machine, and I cannot recommend it enough to all the food connoisseurs out there. This allows me to control the ingredients in my family’s frozen treats and saves me money in the long run as outings to ice cream stores keep increasing. Moreover, it brings the family together for a tasty treat while allowing my kids to learn how to make their own ice cream from scratch.

I have loved all of my Ninja Products as they work great, are well built, and have a good price point. This Ninja Swirl is no different and honestly, I would give more than five stars if I could. When I first got the machine, I was a little overwhelmed by all the different pieces, the instructions to use the machine, and the instructions to make ice cream. The first thing I did was read the machine instructions to get an idea what the process is and how to use the machine. Then I read through how to make ice cream and there are so many different recipes. I found one that was basic and easy to make, plain vanilla. Basically, mix cream, milk, sugar, and instant pudding mix together and freeze in the ninja quart container for 24 hours. Once you have the ice cream frozen and ready to go, you then use the actual machine. Follow the user instructions/ice cream instructions and it will tell you exactly what to do. I used the soft serve mix, the machine did its thing, and I had soft serve ice cream. You have to change the lid to the soft serve lid to use the ice cream press. This SoftServe was fantastic and tasted just like anything I had at a store. It did melt a little quick, but it was perfect, cold, creamy, and light. I also made a pineapple nondairy fruit whip and that was fantastic as well. Start out basic to get use to the machine and then advance your recipe. I did use the same plain vanilla recipe to try scoop style ice cream. This was great as well and scoopable but still very soft and creamy. After eating some I refroze and then tried again with mix ins. I used some thin mint cookies, and honestly it tasted like a premium ice cream you would buy from the store. I totally love it and so happy to have this machine! I was dreading cleaning this thing because of the soft serve part. The great news is everything is contained in the containers, and nothing goes into or through the machine. This made it super easy to clean all the parts and get ready to use again. Ninja really took into account the things that would frustrate a user and just made it simple. I believe all the parts are dishwasher safe but I prefer to handwash all of them as its very simple to do. I cannot wait to try some of the other recipes in the book and really excited to try some of the high protein low fat ice creams. Many people have posted online about them and they look great and people say they taste great. This would be wonderful as I love Ice Cream, but would love something a little healthier. The machine itself is a little large and you need a place to store it, like a walk in pantry or a big cabinet. Thats the only downside I have found, but it is well worth the space it takes up. Overall, I love this machine way more than I ever thought I would. I'm excited to make ice cream for family visits or just to eat on a Saturday night!

Tired of going to fast food restaurants only to find their ice cream machine broken? Well, now you have an option to make it on your own. About the Ninja Swirl The Ninja Swirl lets you create a variety of frozen treats and personalize them how you want. You can make ice cream, soft serve, milkshakes, sorbets, gelato, frozen yogurt, fruit whip, and frozen custard from the comfort of your own home. Set Up Setting up the machine was really easy. Set the main base on the countertop. There are smaller components that create an outer bowl that houses the pint. The lid and paddle attach to the outer bowl. The pint, when ready, goes inside the outer bowl for mixing. Note, you have to make the ice cream mixture in the pint and freeze for 24 hours before you can use the pint. Once assembled with the pint filled, the next step is to select between Scoop and Soft Serve. When you pick one of these buttons other buttons will light up showing you what frozen treat options you have. You let the mixer run per the preprogrammed button. If you want soft serve you take the pint out of the outer base and install it in the soft serve dispenser. Once you get used to the machine, you can use the re-spin button to achieve the texture you want or use the mix-in button to add other items into the mixture. The instructions come with one scoop recipe and one soft serve recipe. There are tons of other recipes if you look online. Clean up Clean up isn’t as involved as I anticipated. All parts of the pint and outer bowl are top-rack dishwasher safe or can be hand washed. Simply take the components apart and reassemble them after they have dried. Comparison to Original CREAMi There are two main differences between the Ninja Swirl and the Original Ninja CREAMi: Soft Serve Feature & Size. Soft Serve Feature - Is a way to get swirled ice cream treats. Otherwise, you can get the same soft serve out of the normal pint. It causes the pint containers to be made differently. Size - The Swirl is much larger than the Original CREAMi and takes up more counter space (an increase of 3 in L x 3.5 in W and 2.5 H), though it does still fit under a standard cabinet height. It also weighs about 7 pounds more than the original CREAMi machine so if you need to store it, it’s a bit heavier in addition to the larger size. Important to Note – The Original CREAMi pints are not interchangeable with the Swirl. If you want more than two pints, you’ll have to purchase those separately. The Swirl pints cost more than the standard pints. In addition, the Swirl pints themselves are taller than the Original pints so they take up more freezer space. Here is a quick list of Pros and Cons for the Ninja Swirl. Pros *Variety of treats *Ability to make healthy treats *Easy to use and clean *Fits under a standard upper cabinet *Added functionality with swirl feature Cons *Large item on countertop *Have to be prepared ahead of time with pints already made *Only comes with 2 pints. Have to buy more pints for variety or to cater to larger groups *Not compatible with Original Ninja CREAMi pints *Swirl pints are considerably more expensive Overall, this is a device that has lots of functionality and will be used often by the whole family. I would recommend the Swirl for home use if you love ice cream, milkshakes, and soft serve ice cream. I’m giving the Ninja Swirl by CREAMi 4 stars.

The Ninja Swirl Creami is another well built, well thought out device from Ninja. I picked this up to appease my children who are both ice cream lovers as well as mini chefs, and we haven't been disappointed. The build quality on this Creami is very good. All the parts are pretty durable, with the machine itself being mostly metal with a few plastic parts, and the containers being durable plastic. The pint sized cups have survived a couple drops so far, as well as the lid for the soft serve portion being frozen on. The machine itself comes with 2 pint sized ice cream containers, and one mixer. I do wish that it came with more pint containers, or that they were larger, but if you find yourself needing more they can be ordered online (which I plan to do). The machine itself is as intuitive as I think is possible, with buttons the correspond to what you want to do. That said, I do highly recommend reading the instructions to be sure. As for the instructions, I advise looking online for recipes. While there are some included in the booklet, I found the two that I made to taste a little off and the instructions not entirely clear on how to make ice cream vs soft serve. Almost all the entries say soft serve while only a few say ice cream (or it might say bowl). Once I tried other recipes and experimented on my own, we were making very good ice cream that the family enjoyed. One critique I will give the machine is that I wish it was audible. There are times when you need to do something and it has a light flashing indicator that doesn't stand out vs all the other lights, which leads to momentary confusion as to what to do next. For instance, when attempting to remove the container after making soft serve, the retract button faintly flashes on the display, but if you're trying to figure out why it won't release, you won't see it. As for the ice cream and soft serve it makes, its very good. The consistency of both has been in line with what I expect from the store or an ice cream shop. I haven't tried making sorbet or any of the other things listed yet, but I have faith in this machine. Overall very happy with this machine and look forward to making more deserts with it.

This is our first ice cream maker and it couldn't be easier. We started out with the two vanilla recipes that come with the quick start guide and they are literally 5 ingredients. We mixed them up, put them in the provided pints, and put them in the freezer for 24 hours. While we were waiting, we had plenty of time to learn how to put the machine together. The instructions are easy to follow and several of the parts have a locking mechanism to show you that they are in the right spot and to make sure things are secure for when you operate the machine. Once your wait is over for the frozen mixture, the mixing has several pre-sets on the machine for what you are making. We have made soft serve ice cream that mixes for 4 minutes. It’s very loud in the first couple of minutes but not sure what they can do about that because it takes a lot of power to whip a frozen mixture. Once the mixing is done, to dispense the soft serve you simply lock on the cap and insert it into the locking mount and pull the dispensing lever. Kids can operate this as well with no fear of them getting injured as it has to lock into place to run. Once you are done, there are only a few pieces that need to be taken apart and cleaned which we have done by hand, but they are also dishwasher safe. And that's it! With only a few minutes of mixing, a day of freezing, and then a few minutes of operating followed by cleaning, it’s a very simple process. The machine also comes with a recipe book for many flavor ideas, but we also found one of my relative’s recipes that they made in an old-style ice cream maker and we duplicated it with ease. So, if you want to have some fun with the family, this Ice Cream Maker is easy to use, no mess, and safe for the whole family to operate. My kids thought it was great and commented that our ice cream was like getting it at a restaurant.