Ninja Thirsti Max review: your own personal soda machine
Ninja Thirsti Max: One-minute review
Make your own fizzy drinks at home and reduce the use of disposable bottles and cans with Ninja Thirsti Max. Just tap the CO2 button and you can add low, medium or high levels of carbonation to carbonated drinks, or you can skip carbonation entirely for a non-carbonated drink.
The Ninja Thirsti Max comes with four bottles of Flavored Drops, which you’ll need if you want to make anything other than regular soda. Ninja produces a variety of flavored drops in different categories: Zero Soda, Sparkling Water, Fruiti Chill (electrolytes or B vitamins) and Fruiti Chill+ (with caffeine). You can also adjust the amount of flavoring in your drink, whether it’s low or high. The machine holds two flavor dropper bottles at the same time, so you can combine flavors into one drink in the proportions you like. You can make drinks in four different sizes: 6 ounces, 12 ounces, 18 ounces or a liter.
After some experimentation, I found my favorite level of fizz and flavor. I tested eight different flavors, at least one from each category. I liked some flavors better than others, but overall, the drinks were delicious. Flavored sodas have no added sugar, similar to La Croix or other sodas. All other flavored drops are sweetened with the artificial sweetener sucralose.
Ninja Thirsti Max: Price and Availability
- List price: $169.99 (approximately £132 / AU$259)
Ninja Thirsti Max is available at all the major retailers you would expect, both in-store and online. Price includes a CO2 tank and four bottles of Ninja Flavor Drops. If you order directly from the Ninja website, you can choose the exact flavor you want, otherwise you’ll get four pre-selected flavors in the box.
Each flavored drop retails for $6.99 (£5.43/AU$10.64). Each bottle yields 17-20 12 oz drinks. A 60L CO2 tank costs $36.99 (£28.76/AU$56.34), but you can save 30% each time you recycle your used tank. Each jar should hold about 100 12-ounce drinks, depending on how carbonated you like your drinks.
Ninja Thirsti Max: Specifications
| price | $169.99 |
| Drink size | 6 oz, 12 oz, 18 oz, 1 liter |
| Tank capacity | 60 liters |
| size | 8 1/4 x 12 5/8 x 16 inches/20.9 x 32 x 40.6 cm (WxDxH) |
| Carbonation level: | None, low, medium, high |
| Flavor intensity: | None, low, high |
Ninja Thirsti Max: design and functionality
- Easy to use
- Choose your fizz and flavor intensity
- Choose your drink size
Ninja Thirsti Max is a beautiful neutral matte metallic gray that goes with almost any kitchen decor. It’s not a small machine, but its dimensions are pretty reasonable for what it does. Setting up Ninja Thirsti Max is easy and only takes a few minutes. Plug it in, insert the CO2 tank, fill the water tank, attach the drink tray, pop your flavor drops into the slots, and you’re ready to go.
The 60L CO2 tank is cleverly hidden behind a door at the back so you won’t notice it once installed.
The water tank also happens to have a capacity of 60L. Ninja recommends that you use very cold water or water with ice to maximize the carbonation and flavor. The water tank has a plunger so you can quickly cool ice water by pressing it up and down a few times.
The height of the beverage tray can be adjusted to the size of the cups or glasses you want to fill. If you are using an extra large cup, you can also remove it.
Ninja Thirsti Max: Performance
Ninja Thirsti Max works exactly as Ninja describes. Once you’ve set up your machine, select your desired flavor intensity from each flavor dropper bottle: none, low, or high. Choose your drink size: 6 oz, 12 oz, 18 oz or 1 liter. Choose your carbonation level: none, low, medium or high. Place the cup under the spout and press start. The Ninja Thirsti Max beeps when your drink is ready.
Ninja recommends using ice water or very cold water in the tank, which I agree will give better results. I also recommend emptying the tank and adding fresh water every day or every time the ice melts, otherwise your drinks may have a stale “melted ice” taste.
The real limit to Ninja Thirsti Max is the flavoring drops. There are currently more than two dozen zero-sugar flavors, with more on the way. The soda-flavored drops have no added sugar, but all other flavors are sweetened with sucralose (the artificial sweetener in Splenda). As of this writing, there are no flavors in the range that contain sugar or any other sweetener.
I tried all the flavoring drops Ninja sent me to test. Sodas come in four flavors: Root Beer, Orange Soda, Coke Soda and Dr Thirsti. I also received vitamin-fortified lemonade, strawberry kiwi electrolyte drink, peach mango energy drink, and unsweetened black cherry soda.
These sparkling waters are new to the Ninja Thirsti range. They all taste very much like the diet sodas they’re trying to replicate. However, in blind taste tests, the Coke and Dr Thirsti flavors wouldn’t fool you into thinking they were Diet Coke or Diet Dr. Pepper.
Ninja changed the labels on their original flavor drops and I got some of the old and new ones. “Hydrate” and “Vitamin” became “Fruiti Chill,” “Energy” became “Fruiti Chill+,” and the original “Splash” is now “Seltzer.”
Once I got the flavor intensity and fizz level right for my taste, all of them I’ve tried have been delicious. All carbonation levels were adequate, but I liked the highest level best. I find that I generally prefer the lower concentration flavors as the higher concentration ones tend to be quite sweet, but your taste may vary. In some cases, I even add extra regular soda water to cut down the sweetness a bit.
Just a note, I do use sucralose in my daily life, so I’m used to the taste and am happy with it. If you don’t, you probably won’t enjoy it.
Of course, soda isn’t sweet at all, and making soda may be the main reason some people buy this machine. I’m a huge sparkling water drinker and lugging multiple packs of canned water home was a hassle. I found Ninja Thirsti Black Cherry Seltzer to be comparable in fizz and flavor to popular canned sparkling waters like La Croix, Polar, Waterloo, and others.
Remember, there’s nothing stopping you from making plain sparkling water in Ninja Thirsti Max and adding whatever you like. I tried adding a favorite powdered drink mix to regular soda I made and it worked great. You can also try adding juice or even wine as a sprite drink. You can always add any other brand of flavoring.
Should you buy Ninja Thirsti Max?
| property | notes | grade |
|---|---|---|
| value | If you spend a lot on soda, this machine might save you some money. Remember, you still need to buy the CO2 tank and flavoring. | 4.5/5 |
| design | It’s well designed, looks great, and is easy to use. | 4.5/5 |
| Performance | This machine does everything it claims to do. But not everyone will like the taste of proprietary flavored drops. | 4/5 |
| Comprehensive | Overall, I am very satisfied with the Ninja Thirsti Max. However, the limited flavor variety and sucralose sweetener may put some people off. | 4/5 |
buy it if
If you don’t buy it
Ninja Thirsti Max: Also consider
If you’re not sure about the Ninja Thirsti Max, here are some other options to consider…
How I tested the Ninja Thirsti Max
- I tasted various drinks
- I tried different carbonation levels and different flavor intensities
- I made regular soda and added my own mix
I’ve been drinking lots and lots of fizzy drinks over the past few weeks. I tried all eight flavors Ninja sent me, plus I tried adding my own mixes to regular soda. I tried different fizz levels and different flavor intensities. Personally, I prefer the lower flavor settings as the higher flavor settings produce drinks that are too sweet for me. All the fizz settings are great, but I set it to max carbonation for the longest lasting bubbles. I tried mixing a few flavors together but didn’t find a combination I really liked. However, everyone’s taste is different.
Read more about How we test.
First review time: November 2024
