Ninja Introduces the Luxe Café Pro Espresso Machine

Last year, Ninja shook up the home espresso world with the launch of the Ninja Café Luxe Premier. It offered a surprising mix of good build quality, solid espresso, and enough features to make some of the more established brands shift uncomfortably in their (previously) comfy zones. All for a price that made Breville and Delonghi execs spill their macchiatos.

Now Ninja is back with new additions to the Luxe Café lineup. A new budget entry machine – the Luxe Café Essential – was introduced in the Canadian market last winter, and the subject of today’s article –  the Luxe Café Pro – is being rolled out this month in North America at a $699 price point. But before we get to the new kid on the block, let’s rewind a bit.

Last fall, at a European coffee trade show, some details quietly slipped out about two new machines. The ES601 – the original Luxe Café Premier – was positioned as the mid-range option. A more basic model, the ES501, would drop about $75 off the price tag by trimming some features. That one quietly landed in Canada not too long ago. On the other end of the spectrum, there was talk of the ES701, the Luxe Café Pro. This one would cost around $150 more than the Premier, and promised to bring a more tricks to the game.

Two of our writers went full caffeine-fuelled sleuth mode and dug up everything they could. They even tracked down the original source of the blurry “spy shots” from the trade show. What they pieced together was intriguing. The Pro would offer hot water on demand for Americanos, tea, or just warming your mug. It would also feature Ninja’s take on Breville’s semi-automated tamping lever, and a third filter basket for single shots, alongside the usual double and quad basket (which Ninja calls the “Luxe” basket)..

Our contact at Ninja Europe didn’t share much, but hinted at a smarter barista assist system and more options for brew volumes and presets would be found in the new ES701 top of the line machine.

We spilled the deets on CoffeeGeek’s social media channels, always stressing what we learned was half speculation, half sleuthing, and offering the caveat that anything and everything could change about the new machine. Now, speculation time is over. We’ve got one of the first Luxe Café Pro machines in North America. Here’s what it offers.

Hot Water Access

Our biggest complaint about the original Luxe Café Premier was the lack of any kind of hot water delivery system. On top of it being a good feature for preheating cups, and having hot water on demand for teas and other hot beverages, it’s a necessity for espresso based drinks like the americano and the misto. 

So good news, the Café Luxe Pro has a dedicated hot water tap that feeds right into the cup tray area. The machine also has a new dedicated americano button for a drink recipe. I haven’t figured out yet if you can program the volume of hot water for that drink, but it’s on the list. All I’ve determined so far is it is a 2:1 ratio of hot water to espresso, depending on the espresso shot volume you select (three espresso / grind coffee ratios are available – 4:1, 2.5:1, and 2:1). 

More Baskets, More Recipes… and Less Recipes

The Pro model comes with a third filter basket: a single basket. This is on top of the uniquely designed double and Luxe (or quad) shot baskets the Premier model initially shipped with. This also opens up more drink recipes and brew choices on the drinks menu. These include ristretto, espresso, americano and lungo, and a whole slew of hot and cold coffee brew choices.

One thing I found interesting: Ninja have decreased the amount of brew sizes available for the coffee brew side of the machine, removing the 20oz brew size. It now will do between a 6oz (180ml) and a 18oz size (525ml) brew of coffee, I won’t miss it.

Interestingly too, the “Quad Shot” option for a huge espresso is also missing on this machine, as far as I can tell. It was a weird outlier on the original Luxe Café Premier.

Because the Ninja Luxe Café Premier and Pro can “read” what filter basket you have in the portafilter when grinding, this also means the machine will dose the appropriate amount of ground coffee out to the single basket for shorter, “nespresso” style shots. It’s a good move by Ninja, because this machine is a very decent choice as an upgrade and replacement to nespresso systems.

Barista Assist Tamping

Breville pioneered this convenience – a machine with a semi-automatic method of levelling and tamping coffee – with their Impress technology in their Barista lineup, but I do have to say they aren’t the first to actually have this kind of ratcheted system for pulling a lever to clamp down and tamp coffee in a portafilter. These kinds of semi-automatic tamping systems were coming out of Italy as standalone devices for years. 

With the Luxe Café Pro, Ninja has incorporated a very similar system into their machine. Where they are different is that Ninja has a built in scale to ensure the right dose of coffee was ground out, before the lever-controlled tamping system does its job. This means less missfires or “press to grind a bit extra” like you have to do on the Breville Impress machines.

In my earliest testing, there isn’t any kind of tactile “click” or set position for the lever when pulling it down to tamp: the harder you push down, the harder it tamps. I have slight worries a home user may break this because they’ve pushed down too hard. You have to press the lever twice for the machine to be happy: each press down, once released, activates a bar of green at the top of the display. After the second press down and release, the “tamp” sign turns off.

Better Steam System

The Luxe Café Pro comes with an improved steaming system that has additional options, and the inclusion of an insulated wand that doesn’t get as hot as the one on the Luxe Café Premier does. I should note, it still does warm up and will get hot, but it’s more on the “no-burn” side of wand technology. 

They’ve also added an additional foaming option for the automated milk frothing ability bringing the choices up to five: extra thick foam joins steamed milk, thin froth, thick froth, and cold foam. The system still does the best cold foam in the industry, and this is because it uses a whisk to quickly froth up icy cold milk. For hot foamed milk, it uses a combination of air through the steam wand and the whisk to froth things up nicely. Steamed milk bypasses the whisk and introduces minimal air into the wand.

The steam pitcher is quite a bit bigger than the one that came with the Luxe Café Premier. Both fit in the Pro’s steam pitcher cradle area, but this is a curious change. My speculation is the wider steam pitcher works better with Ninja’s magnetically controlled frothing whisk to better froth up the milk. I’ll be testing this.

Unconfirmed: Better Barista Brain

I have not been able to confirm this, but I have been told Ninja’s engineers have heard all the feedback from the original machine, and slightly tweaked the machine’s barista guidance systems on things like grind fineness, shot volumes, temperatures, expected shot timings, and more. I’ll try to get something more solid for our formal review process.

Other Notable Elements

I’ve covered a lot of the changes already (larger steam pitcher, americano water ratio, lever arm, no tactile feedback on how hard you’re pressing to tamp, machine counts your lever presses, etc), but there’s also a few other things I’ve noticed about the Luxe Café Pro in my initial testing.

• The grinding range is quite different than the original Premier. On that machine, I had to sit in the 2-4 area of the grinder to get a good espresso shot. On the Pro, 14-17 range. Makes me wonder how coarse the grind is for the brewed coffee methods.
• The display now partially dims when brewing espresso or coffee: specifically, the grind settings and other elements not directly related to what’s happening at that moment. Very nice. 
• There’s also what appears to be a dim “barista light” in the shot pull area. Will cover this more in the First Look.
• Using the dedicated hot water button is a slow process, as the machine powers up the thermoblock a bit to get really hot water, which you can set to 3 different temperatures. A good/ bad thing. Good in that, if you want piping hot water for tea, this machine delivers: slowly. 
• The fit and finish is superb; if anything, the build quality is even better than the original. I loved the tactile touch of the buttons (which are textured), and the almost “audio tuner” like dampened smoothness of the center control and brew dial.

Here’s some other details and things we noticed in the initial use and walkthrough.

We also posted a quick video walkthrough of the display panel and its functions and drink choices, over on Instagram.

What They Missed

I feel there’s two big ‘misses’ with the Pro version of this machine: it doesn’t come with a knock box, and it doesn’t come with a water filter system.

Ninja doesn’t need to include a tamper or the dosing collar like the Premier model has (because of the semi automatic dosing and tamping system built in), so I feel they should have considered including a knock box instead. Ninja does sell a nice one, retails for around $35, and it would have been nice for this to be included in the box. 

I’m also shocked Ninja didn’t include a water filter system. Not only is it a future income stream for them, but it’s an absolute necessity with espresso machines. If you do buy one, make sure to get a good water filter system. We use the BWT Aqualizer system at CoffeeGeek, and it’s fantastic.

Other than that, this is a pretty amazing machine for $699. Heck, I feel the original Ninja Luxe Café Premiere would be an amazing machine at $699, and this one is better in most ways.

Who the Ninja Luxe Café is For

The Ninja Café Luxe Pro is what you might call a “bridge” machine. It’s built for people who are new to making espresso at home and want something approachable without diving straight into the deep end. It handles the basics well, makes a wide range of hot and cold espresso drinks, and keeps things consistent. For beginners or anyone stepping away from capsules and pods, that’s a solid starting point.

There are some useful customisation options too, like brew temperature, dose, and volume. That opens the door a bit for people who want to start tweaking their process and learning more. You’re not locked into full automation either. You can skip the built-in tamping, use your own tools, and take more control if you want to experiment. You can even steam manually with the machine if you want, bypassing the auto whisk system.

It’s also worth considering for anyone getting tired of how much pod systems cost over time. I haven’t crunched the exact numbers for this machine, but based on our $500 super automatic vs nespresso comparison, it’s likely you’ll break even on the cost within a year or so if you’re coming from something like a $199 Nespresso. And yes, you’ll get better coffee out of it: noticeably better.

That said, this is not a machine for purists. If you’re serious about full manual control and chasing down perfect shots, this isn’t going to satisfy you in the long run. There are better options around the same price, especially if you catch a Breville Infuser and a Baratza Encore ESP on sale. That combo gives you more freedom and long-term potential.

Still, for what it is, the Ninja Café Luxe Pro does its job and does it well, if our experience with the original Premier model is any indicator. Out of the box, with minimal barista skills, you will be getting excellent coffee and espresso based drinks. There’s enough tweaking available to flex your barista muscles a bit and get even more out of the machine. We’ve got it on the test bench now and will be posting our more official First Look soon.