Ninja - Luxe™ Café Premier Series (ES601)

Honestly? Something like a Cuisinart or Breville or Ninja is just fine for her. A Moccamaster or an Aiden are absurd, terrible recommendations for someone who doesn't care that much about coffee, lol. That's like buying a Pappy Van Winkle for someone who only drinks Bud Light, or a Traeger for a vegetarian. If they aren't into coffee, they're not gonna care about "SCA certified" or any of that quality stuff. In fact, they probably care more about how it looks, how fast it brews coffee, and maybe some of the other bells and whistles attached like a programmable timer. Don't spend money on something that's purely built for quality coffee; spend on the features instead.

Tell that to my Ninja coffee maker. First the tank started to leak when you removed to fill with water. The clock timer failed next. Finally the whole thing started to leak. I just got a Moccamaster on 1/2 price sale, and I do think it makes a better cup of coffee faster than my Ninja.

Have one of these too…5 years and going strong.

We got the Ninja Cafe Luxe a few months back and it's awesome. Its versatility is killer, especially since my wife is super picky and rarely wants the same thing for coffee that I do. Drip coffee? Check. Espresso? Check. Latte or Cappuccino? Check. Iced? Cold brew? Yup; any of those. Really impressed with it.

I’ve been using the same ninja coffee maker for 8 years. I liked it so much it put me on to a lot of other ninja products.

Do you need a whole pot? Nespresso is like 100 bucks and the vertuo ones make espresso and coffee. Strong good cups too. Otherwise, a ninja drip coffee maker was good to me for awhile. I see the pour over and French press recommendations, both a pain in the ass for a minimally and maybe no different cup than a machine drip. If you like the process and the routine then absolutely go for pour over or French press. Otherwise all drip and pour over coffee is pretty similar assuming you have good grounds and don’t have the cheapest shittiest coffee maker. Diminishing returns are insane when it comes to coffee. Someone somewhere will tell you how his $30 espresso was magical when it’s still just coffee.

The fails I’ve had have been despite routine maintenance. The ninja I loved, but the buttons stopped responding unless I left it unplugged for a couple hours before using it again. We’re on our second Braun, the first replaced under warranty after it started leaking from somewhere internally. We got a cheap Mr coffee while we waited for the replacement, but more often than not it ended up with grounds in the coffee. Use less, too weak. Before we switched back to a pot, our Keurig chugged along for years, rarely requesting maintenance. 😂

I get where you’re coming from - over the past few years I’ve tried quite a few coffee makers myself and honestly had some bad experiences too. A lot of them either broke too quickly or had weird build issues that made me give up on them. But I will say this: [This Ninja](https://www.reddit.com/r/JamesHoffmann/comments/1n2w661/my_ranking_of_drip_coffee_makers_ive_actually_used/) and the Technivorm Moccamaster have been the real standouts for me. Ninja because of how versatile it is (iced coffee, stronger brews, frother, timer, etc.), and Moccamaster because it’s just insanely consistent with flavor and feels like it’ll last forever. Totally different machines, but both made me feel like I finally wasn’t wasting money.

Several people recommended a Ninja to us. We accidentally bought one that was refurbished, and was half the price of brand new. That was probably 8 years ago - still going strong!

I bought a ninja luxe only thinking of the espresso. But it makes excellent filtered? drip? coffee too. We retired our old coffee maker and now use it for everything. The coffee setting gets you a maximum of around 700 ml but is excellent and also makes small cups. Ground and brewed in no time. Awesome machine.