Ninja is hosting a pop-up event for its sell-out espresso machine, the Ninja Luxe Café, which you enter through a giant version of the coffee maker. Inside, you'll find various stations to try out the machine for yourself, as well as the chance to consume ample amounts of caffeine.
Following the release of the Luxe Café (which I awarded an easy five stars in my Ninja Cafe Luxe Café review), one of the best bean-to-cup coffee machines out there, the hype has only grown around this product. Not only is it excellent value for the price, considering the market competition from the likes of Sage and De'Longhi, it's also remarkably capable.
The London pop-up is open to the public for free until Saturday the 5th of April (with tickets available via Eventbrite). Here's everything I learned when I visited the House of Vibes to have a coffee myself.
With the ability to use beans or ground coffee for your morning wake-me-up, this machine will soon become your favourite appliance in your kitchen.
1. It's designed to help you achieve the golden espresso extraction time
My favourite thing about testing the Luxe Café is how user-friendly it is. While most of the bean-to-cup coffee machines look good, once customers get them home it can be a steep learning curve to understand how to use them to make a good cup of coffee.
That's not the case with the Luxe Café. As demonstrated at the pop-up, the machine guides you through the tweaking process with every packet of new beans you get, recommending you the ideal ground size for the perfect espresso, even if you are a beginner.
To illustrate the point at the pop-up, I tried an under-extracted coffee before tasting an espresso made with the machine-recommended grind size - the difference in taste was stark.
I also learned that the machine is geared toward the golden espresso extraction time of 27 seconds, so that you can have a perfectly pulled shot every time. With features like these, it's easy to see why this machine has been such a hit with Ninja fans.
2. It's perfect for summertime coffees
Though I tried a cold brew on the machine during my testing, I hadn't quite realised the depth of flavour available with the setting, especially when experimenting with different types of beans.
The pop-up was hosted in collaboration with the coffee experts over at Lavazza, who put on a whole host of different bean varieties to try with the cold brew function. If you haven't tried cold brew before, the pop up is great opportunity to taste all of the different floral, fruity and nutty flavours and see if you like it.
Part of the pop-up also features an espresso martini bar, made with the delicious cold brew from the machine!
Another feature of this Luxe Café which is perfect for summer is the cold froth setting on the automatic milk frother, another one of my top highlights on the Luxe Café.
The hands-free frother creates absolutely perfect microfoam for lattes, and the cold setting is just as good. I can't wait to use it all summer long for an iced cappucino or two!
3. It pairs perfectly with Ninja's new travel mug
The Ninja Luxe Café has so many selling points that it's hard to imagine it being rivalled by something as simple as a travel mug, but the accompanying Sip Perfect flask already has a huge following of its own.
Designed to keep any hot drink deposited in it at a 'perfect temperature', it absorbs heat from too-hot coffees to give commuters a much-improved morning experience.
Ninja's travel mug already has hundreds of positive reviews and I can't wait to try it out for myself.
It pairs perfectly with Ninja's espresso machine with its leak-proof lid and heat-retaining abilities, so I can't wait to try it out to see if it lives up to its hype.
Have you tried Ninja's new coffee machine?
