Ninja Luxe Café Premier vs Pro: is the Pro worth the extra money?

Luxe Café Premier vs Pro at a glance

Head to head

The better result in each row is marked, based on four weeks with each machine and Ninja’s specs. Where they are the same, there is no winner.

The Pro wins most rows, but it is not my verdict for everyone. If you do not drink Americanos or hate emptying drip trays, several of those wins matter less.

Design, size and build

Side by side, these are obviously family. Both have a bean hopper on top, a control dial and display in the middle, a portafilter on the left and a frother on the right, in plastic with brushed metal accents.

The Pro is slightly narrower and taller, at about 12.5 inches wide, 13.4 inches deep and 14.8 inches tall, against about 13.4 by 13 by 14.6 inches for the Premier. It weighs about 27 lb, a pound more.

The Pro also adds two LED lights over the drip tray, which helped in a dark kitchen at 6 a.m. Neither has side handles, which I missed when sliding them forward to refill the hopper.

The Pro looks almost identical to the Premier, but tamps inside the grinding cradle.

Our tip: Leave room behind either machine to lift out the rear water tank, and a few inches above to refill the hopper.

Tamping: funnel and lever vs integrated

This is the Pro’s headline upgrade, and it is the reason I would choose it over its siblings.

On the Premier, a dosing funnel sits on the portafilter while you grind. After grinding, you pull a lever to tamp without removing the funnel, then take the funnel off and lock the portafilter in.

It is clean and easy, and my counter stayed tidier than with almost any grinder machine I have used. But it is still a few extra steps and one more part to rinse.

On the Pro, you place the portafilter in the cradle, grind, pull the tamping lever and brew. There is no funnel at all, and the machine recognizes whether you have fitted the single, double or Luxe basket.

The result was effectively zero mess and a noticeably faster routine. The only thing you give up is manual puck preparation, because there is little room to stir or level the grounds yourself.

Grinder and Barista Assist

Under the hood, the grinder and brew group are the same design on both, so do not expect the Pro to grind finer or extract differently.

Both have 25 grind settings on a conical burr grinder, a built-in scale that doses by weight and Barista Assist✕Barista AssistNinja’s guided system. It recommends a grind setting for your drink, then tells you after each shot whether to grind finer or coarser., which recommends a grind setting and tells you after each shot whether to go finer or coarser.

On the Premier, that feedback got me from a sour, watery shot to a balanced one in three tries with a medium roast. The Pro behaved the same way.

Shots to a balanced espresso on the Premier, by roast

My week-one dial-in results; the Pro’s identical grinder followed the same pattern.

Both grinders are at their best with medium and dark roasts. Light, fruity beans were the weak spot on both, because the grinder does not go fine enough to extract them fully.

Both also let you change brew temperature across three levels. Dropping one step for a very dark roast took the edge off the bitterness on both machines.

Our tip: Make one grind change at a time and pull a shot after each, because Barista Assist can only tell you which way to go if one thing changed.

Espresso quality and styles

With the same beans, the double espresso tasted the same on both machines: rich, smooth and full-bodied, with a thick hazel crema and clear chocolate, caramel and nutty notes.

The difference is range. The US Premier makes a double-basket espresso and its large-basket drinks. The Pro adds a single basket and ristretto, lungo and Americano styles.

I weighed the Pro’s shots against its own targets. A double aimed at 18 grams in and 36 grams out landed at 17.8 to 18 grams in and 38 to 39 grams out, a classic 1:2 brew ratio✕Brew ratioThe weight of coffee in the basket compared with the weight of espresso in the cup. 18 g in and 36 g out is a 1:2 ratio. near enough that I could not taste the difference.

My scores by drink style on the Pro

My flavor scores out of 10.

Double espresso by roast, both machines

My scores on the Premier; the shared grinder and brew group gave the same pattern on the Pro.

The extra styles matter more than they sound. A ristretto on the Pro was sweeter and thicker than a normal double, and the single basket made an afternoon espresso without wasting 18 grams of beans.

Our tip: If the Pro’s lungo stops early, go one or two grind steps coarser before changing anything else.

Hot water and Americanos

This is the Pro’s quiet second advantage, and for big-mug drinkers it may be the deciding one.

The Pro has a dedicated hot water spout with three temperatures. Its Americano style puts the water in first and the espresso on top, and the three strength levels change the amount of water.

The US Premier has no hot water spout at all. For an Americano✕AmericanoA shot of espresso topped up with hot water. The coffee is never over-extracted, unlike pushing a whole mug of water through the grounds., I pulled a double shot and topped it up from my kettle every morning.

That sounds minor, but it changed my routine. On the Pro, the Americano became our daily big coffee and scored 8.6 in my tasting; on the Premier, it meant boiling a kettle first.

The Pro’s spout also made tea and cup-warming easy. Rinsing a cup with hot water before brewing kept small espressos noticeably warmer.

The Pro’s hot water spout made a big Americano a one-touch drink.

Our tip: Rinse your cup with water from the Pro’s hot water spout before brewing, because a small espresso cools quickly in a cold cup.

Big coffees from the Luxe basket

Both machines make drip-style coffee from the large Luxe basket. On the Premier, those cups were often thin, watery and under-extracted, because a lot of water passes through a small bed of coffee in a short time.

The Pro adds Classic and Rich styles, three strength levels and sizes from about 6 to 18 ounces. Rich uses less water for a stronger cup, which helped, but I still preferred an Americano for a big black coffee.

One trick worked well on the Pro: keep a dark espresso blend in the hopper and grind a medium roast separately for drip-style coffee. The machine’s grind recommendation for your espresso beans stays untouched.

Steam wand and milk drinks

Both use Ninja’s Dual Froth System: a steam wand with a spinning whisk inside, four automatic presets and a manual steaming mode.

On the Premier, the presets made a tall, airy cappuccino foam and a decent latte texture, with milk at about 140 to 149°F. The automatic foam is a little stiff and separates from the milk, so manual steaming gave the silkiest microfoam✕MicrofoamMilk foam with bubbles so small you can barely see them. It feels silky and glossy, which is what latte art needs..

The Pro’s Dual Froth System Pro uses a thicker, 12 mm wand with an internal tube that keeps the outside cooler. That non-burn✕Non-burn steam wandA wand designed so the outside stays cooler during steaming. Milk does not bake onto it, so it wipes clean in seconds. design means milk does not bake onto it, and it wiped clean in seconds after every drink.

Texture was similar on both. Manual steaming on the Pro felt slightly more controllable, and cleaning was clearly easier.

Milk scores, my testing

My texture and stability scores out of 10 with whole milk.

The Premier’s presets make easy cappuccinos, though the foam is a little stiff for latte art.

Our tip: Wipe the steam wand with a damp cloth straight after frothing on either machine, even though both purge themselves automatically.

Cold foam and iced drinks

Cold foam was a highlight on both. The whisk spins without steam, so you get thick, sweet foam from cold milk that held its shape for more than five minutes on top of an iced latte.

A double shot over ice, cold milk and a cap of cold foam took about two minutes on either machine.

The Pro adds a cold press setting that brews espresso with cooler water, so it tastes smoother and less bitter over ice. Because cooler water extracts more slowly, the machine recommends a finer grind and flushes the group to cool it first.

It was a nice upgrade for daily iced coffee drinkers, though the Premier’s hot shot over a full glass of ice was perfectly good too.

Our tip: Fill the glass completely with ice before brewing over it, because hot espresso melts a few cubes faster than you would think.

Water use and the drip tray

This is the Pro’s biggest weakness, and it is worth knowing before you buy.

The Pro uses water for brewing, rinsing, purging the wand and flushing the system before cold press. Overpressure water goes into the drip tray rather than back into the tank, so the tray fills fast.

I emptied the Pro’s drip tray every morning and sometimes twice a day, and topped up its roughly 2-liter tank daily. The Premier was noticeably less thirsty.

Daily water chores

From my four weeks with each; two people, three to four drinks a day.

Cleaning and maintenance

Day to day, both are easier to clean than most grinder machines. Pucks knock out firm and dry, and the counter stays clean.

On the Premier, the funnel, baskets, water tank, hopper and drip tray are dishwasher-safe. Its whisk pulls off for rinsing, and I soaked it in warm water once a week.

On the Pro, the non-burn wand made milk cleaning quicker, and there is no funnel to rinse. The drip tray and tank were the only chores that took longer.

Both alert you to descale✕DescalingRunning a mild acid through the machine to dissolve the mineral scale that hard water leaves behind in the heater and pipes.. On the Premier, descaling took about 30 minutes and came up after about a month of daily use with my moderately hard water; the Pro also asks for a brew group clean with a tablet, which takes about 10 minutes.

My hands-on cleaning time per day

Including drip tray and tank chores, not counting descaling.

Our tip: Purge and wipe the wand straight after every milk drink on the Premier, because dried milk is far harder to shift than fresh.

Daily use and noise

Both heat up in about a minute and grind a double in 10 to 15 seconds. A latte took me three to four minutes on the Premier, including grinding, tamping, brewing and frothing.

By week two on the Pro, my weekday routine took about three minutes: empty the drip tray, check the tank, switch on, grind, tamp twice, brew and steam. No funnel saved about 20 seconds per drink.

Minutes for a latte, start to finish

Average across my weekday mornings.

Noise was similar: a moderately loud grinder for a few seconds, a steady pump hum and a whoosh from the wand. The Premier’s beeps were loud until I turned them off in the settings.

Both have a low-water alert and huge cup clearance. On the Pro, two cups side by side only fit if they are narrow glasses.

A week of mornings on each

In week one on both machines, I focused on setup and espresso, and the guided workflow got me to good doubles within three shots. In week two, I moved to milk drinks; the Premier’s presets were easy, while the Pro’s non-burn wand was the clear winner for cleaning.

Week three was cold drinks and big coffees, where the Pro’s cold press and Americano became daily habits. In week four, I tested pre-ground decaf and long-term cleaning, and the only thing that wore on me was the Pro’s drip tray.

Two narrow glasses fit side by side under the Pro’s spouts.

Beans, water and supplies

Both machines are happiest with fresh medium and dark espresso blends, roasted within the last month. Keep only a few days’ worth in the hopper so beans do not go stale on top of the machine.

For decaf on the Pro, I ground about 17.8 grams separately, put it in the double basket and tamped it by hand with a 53 mm tamper. It worked well and did not affect the grind recommendations for my main beans.

Use fresh, filtered water and descale on time. University of Oregon researchers found that uneven extraction can waste up to 40% of the coffee in a puck, which is exactly what consistent weight-based dosing and an even tamp help prevent on both.

Our tip: Buy beans you can finish within a month and keep only a few days’ worth in the hopper.

Where they sit in the Luxe Café range

It helps to see these two as steps on the same ladder rather than different machines. The Premier is the middle of Ninja’s Luxe Café family, and the Pro builds on it with workflow and convenience upgrades.

What does not change is the core: the grinder, the brew group and the overall construction are shared, so neither machine grinds finer or extracts light roasts better than the other.

What changes is everything around the shot. The Pro removes the funnel, adds a better wand, adds hot water, adds drink styles and adds cold press.

If you want something smaller still, Ninja also makes the compact Luxe Café Mini Plus. If you want full one-touch automation with no portafilter at all, the AutoBarista range grinds, brews and froths for you.

For most people choosing between these two, though, the decision is simple. If the funnel, the lack of hot water or the wand cleaning would annoy you every day, pay for the Pro; if none of them would, the Premier gives you the same coffee for less.

One last practical point: both machines are large. Measure under your cabinets, leave room behind for the rear tank and above for the hopper, and remember that neither has side handles, so pick a spot you will not need to move it from.

Real-life scenarios

Specs only go so far. These are the situations where one machine clearly pulled ahead during my eight weeks of testing.

For daily milk drinks, the Pro’s non-burn wand made the routine noticeably easier.

My scorecard

These are my own scores out of 10, straight from my single reviews of each machine, plus two areas that decide this matchup.

Ninja Luxe Café Premier

Ninja Luxe Café Pro

Overall, I rate the Premier 8.1 and the Pro 8.6. The Pro earns its lead with a cleaner workflow, a better wand and real hot water, and gives a little back on water use.

Which one should you buy?

It comes down to two questions: do you drink big Americanos, and how many milk drinks does your household make each day? If the answer to either is "lots", the Pro earns its place.

For more detail, read my Luxe Café Premier review and Luxe Café Pro review, or see how the Premier stacks up against a hands-on machine in Ninja Luxe Café vs Barista Express.

For espresso, lattes and cold foam on a tighter budget, the Premier is the sensible pick.

Luxe Café Premier vs Pro specifications

From manufacturer specifications and my own testing.

How I tested and compared them

I used each machine as my everyday coffee maker for four weeks, making espresso, Americanos, lattes, cappuccinos, flat whites, iced lattes with cold foam and the large-basket coffee styles, plus ristretto, lungo and cold press on the Pro. Testing notes were written up together by Michael Reynolds and a second HouseholdMe tester.

I counted shots to a balanced espresso by roast, weighed doses and outputs on a separate scale, measured milk temperatures with a probe and compared automatic presets with manual steaming using whole, 2% and oat milk.

I tracked drip tray and tank refills, followed every cleaning and descaling routine, then checked my notes against Ninja’s specifications and owner documentation.

• Coffee: dose, crema, body, flavor and consistency.
• Milk: foam texture, temperature, speed and drink range.
• Workflow: heat-up, controls, guidance and daily routine.
• Ownership: cleaning, water care, noise and footprint.