Ninja Luxe Café Mini Plus vs Premier vs Pro: which Luxe Café?

Luxe Café Mini Plus vs Premier vs Pro at a glance

Head to head

The best result in each row is marked, based on my testing and Ninja’s specs. Where machines tie, both are marked.

The tally is not my verdict. If you don’t drink iced coffee, the cold rows won’t matter to you at all.

How the Luxe Café range steps up

Ninja’s naming suggests a straight ladder from Mini to Pro, but in practice it’s two different ideas.

The Mini Plus is the espresso purist’s Luxe Café: the most grind settings, a strong steam wand and filter coffee, in the smallest body, with no cold drinks at all.

The Premier and Pro are the do-everything machines. Both add drip-style coffee, cold drinks and cold foam. The Pro then removes the funnel and hand tamper, adds a hot water spout and upgrades the wand.

Our tip: Decide first whether you’ll ever drink iced coffee, because that single question rules the Mini Plus in or out.

Design, size and build

All three share Ninja’s Luxe Café look: a bean hopper on top, a control dial and display in the middle, a portafilter on the left and a steam wand on the right.

The Mini Plus is the compact one, at about 12.2 inches wide, 10.2 inches deep and 13.4 inches tall, and about 19.4 lb. Its drip tray, steam wand and brewing parts are metal, and its tamper and funnel store on top.

The Premier measures about 13.4 inches wide, 13 inches deep and 14.6 inches tall, at about 26 lb. The Pro is about 12.5 by 13.4 inches and 14.8 inches tall, at about 27 lb, with a grinding and tamping cradle, a thick steam wand, a hot water spout and two small LED lights under the machine.

The Mini Plus is about 10 inches deep, so it fits counters the other two can’t.

Depth on the counter

From Ninja’s specs. All three fit under standard wall cabinets.

Our tip: Remove part of the drip tray on the Premier or Pro to fit a tall travel mug, and put small espresso cups on the higher tray position.

Setup and the first week

Setup took about 15 minutes on each: rinse the parts, fit the water filter, test the hardness with the included strip and run a few flushes.

Then all three walked me through the first shot. Barista Assist recommended a grind for my beans, the built-in scale weighed the dose, and I tamped with the assisted tamper on the Mini Plus and Premier, or pulled the lever twice on the Pro.

The first week was mostly about trusting the grind recommendations and nudging them a step or two for my beans. By day three, all three were pulling consistent shots.

Our tip: Switch off the button beeps on the Premier during setup, because they’re loud enough to wake the house.

Controls and settings

All three use a control dial and a small display rather than a touchscreen, and I found that quicker with wet hands.

You turn the dial to choose a drink style, then pick a strength and a temperature. On every model, there are three strength levels, and the strongest aims for a classic 1:2 ratio. There are three brew temperatures too, which helped with brighter and darker beans.

Barista Assist is the clever part. It suggests a grind for the drink you’ve chosen and the size of basket you’re using, and the built-in scale tells you when the dose is right. On the Pro, basket recognition means the machine knows which basket you’ve fitted.

The Premier beeped loudly at every step until I turned the sounds off. After that, all three were pleasant to use first thing in the morning.

Our tip: Follow the Barista Assist grind suggestion for the first shot of every new bag, then adjust one step at a time.

Grind, dose and tamp

This is what makes the Luxe Café range so beginner-friendly.

All three use a conical burr grinder with Barista Assist, which suggests a grind for the drink you’ve chosen. All three weigh the dose with a built-in scale, so you never guess how much coffee is in the basket.

The Mini Plus has the most range, with 60 grind settings. For a double, it ground and weighed about 17 to 18 grams. I sometimes stirred the grounds with a needle tool to break up clumps before tamping.

The Premier and Pro have 25 settings. The Premier’s grinder was moderately loud but quick, finishing a double in about 10 to 15 seconds.

Funnel tamper vs integrated lever

On the Mini Plus and Premier, you tamp✕TampingPressing the ground coffee flat and firm in the basket, so water flows through it evenly instead of finding weak spots. with a spring-loaded assisted tamper through a dosing funnel. It applies the same pressure every time, and the funnel keeps grounds off the counter.

On the Pro, the tamper is built in. You pull the lever twice, the display tells you when the portafilter✕PortafilterThe handle with a metal basket that holds the ground coffee. It locks into the machine, and hot water is pushed through the coffee inside it. is ready, and you lock it in. No funnel, no loose parts, no mess.

Grind settings

From Ninja’s specs. More settings means finer control for different beans.

Our tip: Stir the grounds with a needle tool before tamping on the Mini Plus or Premier, because breaking up clumps gave me noticeably more even shots.

Espresso quality

Espresso is close across the range, because all three weigh and tamp so consistently.

The Mini Plus and Pro tied on espresso at 8.7. The Mini Plus pulled full-bodied shots with a good crema✕CremaThe golden, foamy layer on top of a fresh espresso, formed when pressure pushes oils and gases out of the coffee., and its strongest setting aims for about a 1:2 ratio. The Pro made the easiest good espresso of any guided machine I tested.

The Premier scored 8.5. Its espresso was good, and its grinder suited medium and dark roasts best.

All three brew at 9 bar with three strength and three temperature settings, so you can tune for brighter or darker beans without touching the grind.

My espresso scores

My scores out of 10 for body, crema, flavor and consistency, same medium-dark beans.

The Pro made the easiest good espresso of any guided machine I tested.

Big coffees and drip-style brews

This is where the three machines diverge most, and where the Premier stumbles.

The Premier calls itself a 3-in-1 because it also makes drip-style coffee and cold brew with the large Luxe basket. In my testing, those bigger coffees often tasted weak and watery, without the body of a proper drip brew.

The Pro offers coffee sizes from about 6 to 18 ounces, and its hot water spout means you can build a long black: it pours hot water first and then brews espresso on top, which keeps the crema intact.

The Mini Plus makes filter coffee and a coffee crema, and its 60-setting grinder gives it more room to dial in a longer brew.

Mug coffee, side by side

Relative body from my side-by-side tasting with the same medium roast.

Our tip: Make big mugs as espresso plus hot water rather than a large-basket coffee, because it tasted fuller on every Luxe Café I tested.

Milk and cold foam

All three let you froth automatically or steam by hand, and all three handle dairy and plant milks.

The Mini Plus has a strong steam wand that made real manual microfoam✕MicrofoamMilk foam with bubbles so small you can barely see them. It feels silky and glossy, which is what a good flat white or latte art needs.. Its automatic frothing, with three levels for dairy or plant milk, was less consistent, so I mostly steamed by hand.

The Premier’s Dual Froth System adds a whisk to the steam wand, with four presets including cold foam. The whisk spins without steam, so you get thick, sweet foam from cold milk for iced lattes.

The Pro upgrades that to the Dual Froth System Pro, with a 12 mm non-burn wand that wipes clean and automatic presets including cold foam. Its milk drinks scored 8.6, the best of the three.

My milk drink scores

My scores out of 10 for foam texture, consistency and convenience.

The Premier’s whisk makes thick cold foam without steam.

Our tip: Wipe and purge the steam wand right after every milk drink, because dried milk inside the tip is the most common cause of poor foam.

Oat and plant milk

All three handled barista oat milk well. The Mini Plus lets you choose dairy or plant milk for its automatic froth, and on the Premier and Pro, the whisk made a thick, stable cold foam from oat milk too.

For the silkiest hand-steamed oat milk, I used a high-protein barista oat and stopped steaming a little earlier than with dairy.

Iced drinks, cold brew and cold press

If you drink iced coffee, this is where the range splits cleanly.

The Mini Plus has no cold brew, no cold-press espresso and no cold-frothed milk. Iced drinks mean pulling a hot double over ice.

The Premier makes a fast cold brew with the large basket. It was quick, but the result was weak and lacked the deep, sweet, chocolatey body of slow-steeped cold brew✕Cold brewCoffee steeped in cool water for many hours. It tastes smoother and less acidic than hot coffee poured over ice.. Its cold foam was the highlight: a double shot over ice, cold milk and a layer of cold foam made a café-style drink in about two minutes.

The Pro’s cold press setting makes espresso with cooler water, so it tastes smoother and less bitter over ice, and it has the same cold foam.

Our tip: Top an iced latte with cold foam on the Premier or Pro, because it turns a plain iced coffee into a café-style drink in about two minutes.

Hot water and tea

Only the Pro has a dedicated hot water spout, with three temperatures. The US version of the Premier lacks one, and the Mini Plus has none either.

That spout is what makes the Pro’s americano better. It pours hot water into the cup first and then brews espresso on top, which is technically a long black and keeps the crema intact.

For tea, the Pro is the only one I’d use without a kettle.

Cleaning and upkeep

Daily cleaning is similar: knock out the puck, rinse the basket, purge the wand and empty the drip tray.

The Mini Plus scored best for cleaning. Its metal drip tray and parts wiped down easily, and its smaller size made the routine quick.

The Premier’s funnel, baskets and tank all rinse easily, but the funnel is one more part to wash. The Pro has no funnel at all, but it uses a lot of water, so its drip tray fills quickly and needed emptying more often than the others.

My cleaning scores

My scores out of 10 for daily effort, parts and drip tray.

Our tip: Empty the Pro’s drip tray every morning before the first shot, because its rinses fill it faster than you expect.

Noise and speed

None of these is a silent machine, because each has a grinder built in.

The Premier’s grinder was moderately loud but quick, at about 10 to 15 seconds for a double. Its default beeps were the loudest thing about it until I switched them off.

The Mini Plus heats up in about 30 to 35 seconds. All three use fast heating, so they’re ready far sooner than a boiler machine.

Hands-on time to a locked-in portafilter

Relative hands-on time per shot from my mornings. The Pro’s integrated tamper made it the quickest.

Two pulls of the Pro’s lever and the portafilter is ready.

Capacity, beans and supplies

The Mini Plus has the smallest tank at about 44 ounces, and it emptied fast. The Pro holds about 68 ounces in a rear tank, and the Premier’s removable tank has a low-water alert.

Hoppers are similar, at about 8.8 ounces on the Mini Plus and Pro. The Premier’s hopper is removable and lockable, which makes swapping to decaf easy.

Water tank size

From Ninja’s specs. The Premier’s tank is removable with a low-water alert.

Use fresh whole beans within a few weeks of the roast date. Medium and dark roasts suited all three, and particularly the 25-setting grinders. Spent pucks are great for the compost.

Our tip: Keep a full jug of water next to the Mini Plus, because its 44-ounce tank runs out quickly on a busy morning.

Which beans suit which machine

The Mini Plus’s 60 grind settings gave it the most room with lighter roasts, because I could go finer in small steps. The Premier and Pro, with 25 settings, were happiest with medium and dark beans.

For iced drinks on the Premier and Pro, a chocolatey medium-dark blend held up best under cold foam and cold milk.

Mistakes to avoid

All three Luxe Café machines are forgiving, but a few habits held my coffee back.

The most common was using the large basket for a big mug on the Premier. Espresso topped with hot water tasted much fuller.

The second was ignoring Barista Assist when changing beans. Every new bag needed a grind check, and the recommendation was a good starting point.

My four weeks, week by week

Week one was about learning each workflow. The Pro’s lever took one morning to get used to, and the funnel tamper on the other two took no learning at all.

Week two was espresso. I compared the same medium-dark beans on all three, and the Mini Plus and Pro pulled the fullest shots.

Week three was milk and iced drinks. The Pro’s non-burn wand was the easiest to keep clean, the Mini Plus wand gave me the best manual control, and the Premier’s cold foam was the drink everyone asked for.

Week four was about routine. The Mini Plus tank and the Pro drip tray became the two chores I noticed most.

Real-life scenarios

These are the moments where one machine clearly pulled ahead during my testing.

The Mini Plus has a strong wand for real manual microfoam.

My scorecard

These are my own scores out of 10, from my single reviews of each machine after four weeks of daily use.

Overall scores

My overall editorial scores.

The Pro wins overall because it makes great espresso with the least effort and the best milk. The Mini Plus matches its espresso in a much smaller body. The Premier’s cold foam is lovely, but its weak big coffees cost it.

Which one should you buy?

Start with your counter, then your iced coffee habits.

If space is tight and you drink espresso and hot milk drinks, the Mini Plus is the one. If you want the easiest, cleanest workflow and the widest menu, the Pro. If cold foam iced lattes are your thing and the Pro feels like more than you need, the Premier. Still weighing other options? I rank every model I’ve tested in my guide to the best Ninja espresso machines.

For more matchups, see my Ninja Luxe Café vs Breville Barista Express comparison and the full Luxe Café Pro review.

Living with them long term

On the Mini Plus, you’ll refill a small tank often and wash a funnel daily. On the Premier, the funnel stays, and you’ll learn to avoid its large-basket coffees. On the Pro, you’ll do the least puck prep but empty the drip tray most often.

What I would change: a bigger tank on the Mini Plus, stronger large-basket coffee on the Premier and lower water use and side handles on the Pro.

For most people, the Pro is the Luxe Café to buy.

Luxe Café Mini Plus vs Premier vs Pro specifications

From manufacturer specifications and my own testing.

How I tested and compared them

I used each machine as my everyday espresso maker for four weeks, making doubles, americanos, flat whites, lattes, drip-style coffee, iced lattes and cold drinks where available. A second HouseholdMe tester shared the machines, and we wrote the notes together.

I followed Barista Assist and adjusted the grind for each bag, weighed doses, compared large-basket coffee with espresso plus hot water, steamed and frothed dairy and oat milk, and made cold foam on the Premier and Pro.

I ran every cleaning prompt and then checked my notes against Ninja’s specifications and owner documentation.

• Coffee: espresso body, crema, big coffees and consistency.
• Milk: automatic, manual and cold foam.
• Workflow: grinding, dosing, tamping and mess.
• Ownership: cleaning, water use, capacity and footprint.