I love soft serve. When I lived in Brooklyn, I chose my primary care physician primarily because her office was next to a location of pay-by-weight soft-serve chain 16 Handles. When I moved from New York to Los Angeles, before committing to my apartment, I confirmed that it would be within a 10-minute drive of Magpies. Every Wednesday, my sister and I exchange text messages with a brief appraisal of Magpies flavors — is roasted strawberry intriguing, or not blowing us away? (The former.) Should we center our evening around trying the Vietnamese coffee and butterscotch swirl? (Probably!) While I love a cheeky impulse scoop from Jeni’s, Salt & Straw, or Van Leeuwen, it’s soft serve that really motivates me.

However, until very recently, it had absolutely never occurred to me, not even once, that I might want to own a home soft-serve machine. In fact, I didn’t even have any interest in making ice cream at home at all, and thought it sounded laborious and unnecessary… until my TikTok #fyp became inundated with content surrounding a very popular machine called the Ninja Creami.

I’m sure you’ve heard of the Creami by now; its reach is virtually inescapable, with a devoted fandom on par with the people living in Vegas for months on end for the Dead & Co. residency at the Sphere. At the touch of a button, it creates ice cream in all different textures, with infinite possibilities for bases and mix-ins, and the internet is aflurry (no pun intended) with Creami-centered flavor ingenuity. Thanks to its seemingly magical ability to turn storebought protein shakes into creamy frozen desserts, fitness buffs and calorie-counters love it just as much as dessert-first home cooks. The Creami cult has truly taken on a life of its own, spawning a subreddit with a whopping 80,000 members exchanging recipes for Creami-made homemade cookie butter ice cream, stracciatella gelato, and Dole Whip. A friend bought the countertop appliance for his girlfriend and told me they used their Creami every day for months — something you never hear about a single-purpose kitchen appliance.

Like many others, I became deeply Creami-curious. Unsure whether it was worth the 200-ish dollars and the counter space, I abstained from making a purchase, but continued to observe it from afar. However, Ninja recently released a new model called the Ninja Swirl by CREAMi — or Creami Swirl, for short — with a built-in soft-serve feature as well as several other upgrades. When the opportunity came knocking for me to give it a literal and figurative whirl, I was beyond ready.

As a longtime food and commerce writer, I’ve reviewed everything from full-size refrigerators and high-end espresso machines to gummy candy (I also have a major sweet tooth). With this convergence of experience and interests, the Creami Swirl fell firmly within my purview and area of coverage, and was the first home ice cream machine that really compelled me. After a preliminary spin, I can confirm that while it’s big, it’s loud, and it costs $350, it can do some pretty amazing things. Here’s my honest review.

First impressions…

The unboxing process for the Swirl, while exciting, was also intimidating. At about 21 pounds, the Swirl is a bit lighter than a KitchenAid stand mixer (weighing in at 26 pounds), and similar in terms of counter footprint. While the original Creami’s footprint is roughly that of a medium-sized coffee machine, the Swirl is nearly twice its width to accommodate the soft-serve dispensing function, which also includes a large handle on the right side of the machine. At over 17 inches tall, it clears the underside of my kitchen cabinets by less than two inches, so be aware that you might have to get creative with where you keep it or position it.

The Swirl has — quite literally — a lot of moving parts. In addition to the main machine, in the box, there are two pint containers, an external container, a Creamerizer paddle, a drip tray, a few different lids, and stickers on everything encouraging you to scan QR codes to get started. Unfortunately, I am personally allergic to QR codes and would rather stick to an instruction manual, so I decided to commit to learning everything through paper, words, and trial and error.

Setting the Swirl up

If you’ve never used a Creami machine before, know that you have to make your ice cream base recipe and freeze it overnight before you can truly get started, so you will have to plan ahead (by one day, anyway). Because the Swirl comes with two pints, I decided to prepare two opening recipes to taste- and texture-test: the Ninja-recommended classic chocolate soft-serve recipe, and a protein ice cream recipe, since that’s such a point of appeal for so many Creami devotees. For the latter, I took the simple two-ingredient format from this recipe and started with a Premier Protein shake in Cake Batter flavor; I added pistachio-flavored Jell-O instant pudding mix instead of vanilla for a little added jazz and pizzazz. I froze the bases overnight in the pint containers (it says to freeze them for 24 hours, but close enough), and they emerged ready to churn the following day.

Identifying the pint containers and storage lids had been simple enough, but I was nervous to take the many stickers off the rest of the machine for fear that I’d miss an important step. Thankfully, if you look VERY CLOSELY at the illustrations in the instruction booklet and try as hard as humanly possible not to be lazy or stupid and mistake one part for another, you’ll figure things out in just a few minutes, although I wouldn’t exactly say “intuitively.” There is a lot of twisting, pulling, and remembering which way is counterclockwise. None of it’s actually difficult, and after the first run, it got exponentially easier. By the second batch of ice cream, I was moving much faster and with far less apprehension that I was going to miss a step.

What are the new features on the Ninja Swirl by CREAMi?

Let’s break it down.

The latest-model standard Ninja Creami has seven different settings: ice cream, sorbet, lite ice cream, smoothie bowl, gelato, milkshake, and mix-in.

The Creami Deluxe — also called the Creami XL Deluxe — has 11 settings: ice cream, sorbet, lite ice cream, gelato, milkshake, frozen yogurt, Italian ice, frozen drink, “slushi,” “creamiccino,” and mix-in. The Deluxe also has 24-ounce tubs vs. the 16-ounce pints used in the other machines (thus the XL), so it can make larger batches of ice cream, as well as the option to spin only the top or bottom of the tub, which is a cool feature if you want to do a multi-layered creation.

The new Swirl by Creami has a total of 13 programs, including two main modes — soft serve and scoop — plus 10 additional settings: ice cream, sorbet, lite ice cream, gelato, milkshake, frozen yogurt, fruit whip, frozen custard, and, notably, a new setting called Creamifit. Creamifit is optimized for low-sugar, high-protein recipes, clearly intended for those who are frequently using this machine as a way to make their protein shakes into dessert. So, to be clear, the entirely new settings — besides the soft-serve functionality — are the fruit whip, frozen custard, and Creamifit programs. You’ll also notice a new “retract” button on the machine; it simply retracts the plunger that dispenses the soft serve when you’re done with that function.

How does it perform?

Alright, enough specs! Let’s talk about the ice cream.

The first batch of ice cream I made using the Swirl was the cake-batter-pistachio protein recipe that I (sort of) invented. I used the scoop setting and the Creamifit program because it had a protein shake base, and after some troubleshooting, was rewarded with a very creamy, scoopable, and frankly delicious ice cream.

Despite being made with untraditional ingredients as far as old-school ice cream goes, the protein ice cream was very smooth, silky, and appropriately sweet. After enjoying a bowl with my friend Jake, who was along for the taste-testing, I reprocessed the pint with the soft-serve setting, then transferred it to the soft-serve port and pulled the handle. The result was a little bit liquidy for optimal soft-serve texture, but since this was literally my first batch, I decided to reserve judgement for the next round. Plus, it still tasted good, and I was having a nice time regardless of imperfections.

This machine is not quiet, but it is fast. The sound level is louder than my KitchenAid mixer but quieter than my noisy, annoying Vitamix blender. There’s a digital countdown clock that lets you know how many minutes each program will take, and I find this to provide a lot of psychological relief, because even when the machine is roaring, you know that it’s only going to last a few minutes.

We then processed the chocolate ice cream, made with a more standard recipe of milk, sugar, and heavy cream, using only the soft-serve setting, and the texture and viscosity came out very close to traditional soft-serve, albeit still slightly melty. We refroze the pint for about 30 minutes after the first run and then ran it through the soft-serve side of the machine again, and this time achieved pretty impressive results and a more classic texture that highlighted the edges of that signature soft-serve “swirl.” I garnished my bowl with some unreasonably cute sprinkles from Williams Sonoma and felt very satisfied.

Does the Swirl really make instant soft-serve?

This machine does produce ice cream that looks and tastes like soft-serve (not “instantly” if you consider that you have to pre-freeze the base), but it is not exactly true soft-serve by technical definition. “Real” soft-serve machines can hold ice cream at a very-low-but-not-quite-frozen temperature and will continuously churn it and introduce additional air each time a portion is dispensed. It’s not super realistic for a home-use countertop appliance to be able to perform that complicated process, a problem that virtually every home “soft-serve” machine attempts to deal with differently, and alternative machines like the Cuisinart Soft Serve Ice Cream & Slushy Maker and the TooA Gelato Maker deal with it less successfully than Ninja. My understanding is that the Creamizer paddle does whip additional air content into the ice cream when it’s on the soft-serve setting, and then it’s pressure-extruded in the format of soft-serve with the “piped” look.

I’m not saying you should care about whether it’s “real” soft-serve, because I kind of don’t, and I’m not going to put a standalone, commercial-grade, several-thousand-dollar soft-serve machine in my home. So the Ninja Creami Swirl is superior in that respect: As far as home countertop machines go, it does outperform virtually every competitor within its price and size range.

How’s cleaning it?

Not too bad — I was able to disassemble and hand-wash all the parts in hot water in about five minutes. To my understanding, virtually every part that comes off of the machine is dishwasher-safe, so that’s also an option if you want to make sure every nook and cranny is 100-percent rinsed.

What I want to do next

Because the Swirl has so many settings, it will take time for me to try out all of its different dessert programs, and I will update this review as I go. I’ve heard great things about its frozen yogurt capabilities, so that’s on deck for my next test. I’m also keen on trying the frozen custard — that’s a brand-new setting, as I mentioned above — and, of course, making Dole Whip, one of my all-time favorite desserts (and lovely mixed with rum). Stay tuned, and I’ll be back soon with a full report on how it performs with those programs.

The Ninja Swirl by CREAMi: Overall Pros and Cons

Pros

• Makes fantastic scoopable ice cream
• Touch-button technology is seamless and easy
• Wealth of programs for making frozen dessert out of pretty much anything
• Great for people who want to make healthy desserts at home
• Far better results than comparable home soft-serve machines on the market
• No need to add ice or buy special mixes
• It’s fun

Cons

• Price range is high
• Might be tricky to find space for in small kitchens
• Achieving optimal texture of soft-serve takes some trial and error
• Cleaning requires taking apart several things (although most are dishwasher-safe)
• Noisy

Is it worth it?

If you have the funds, the counter space, and a persistent desire to make soft-serve ice cream at home, the Swirl is likely your best option for a semi-affordable home machine. The soft-serve function is relatively easy to set up, and an enjoyable novelty that doesn’t take up too much extra time beyond the initial processing.

That being said, if you’re more intrigued by the Creami’s main features — to turn a wide variety of bases, traditional and healthy, into customizable frozen desserts — and you don’t really need to experience your ice cream in soft-serve form, you’re probably better off going with a classic Creami (for $200) or a Creami Deluxe (for $250), which are at considerably lower price points and take up less kitchen space but can still do almost everything else the Swirl can.

I forecast that I’ll mostly use my Creami to make scoopable protein ice cream (inside me there are two wolves: a gym rat and a level-10 sweet tooth), but I’m hoping to have more dinner parties this year and beyond, and I’m genuinely excited to have this machine on hand for a next-level dessert setup: laying out a topping bar and serving guests cool, creamy soft serve that they can top with expensive Williams Sonoma sprinkles, cookie dough, mochi, salted caramel, and chocolate shavings. Chic, right?

The Ninja Swirl by CREAMi is available at Amazon, Walmart, and Ninja.