Ninja Luxe Café ES601 Premier Espresso Machine: Coffee for prosumers (review)

The Ninja Luxe Café ES601 Premier Espresso Machine is an interesting take on a semi-automatic, semi-intelligent coffee machine that makes Espresso, Milk coffee, Cold Brew, and Filter Coffee.

It is a highly flexible machine at an incredible price. It is unlike any other semi-automatic coffee machine I have reviewed. Let’s define a few terms first to help position it.

• It uses fresh coffee beans.
• Has a fully adjustable stainless steel grinder with a measuring scale
• A barista-style portafiller (handle) and a tamper.
• Multi-size coffee baskets (single, double and quad shot)
• Dual froth induction milk jug and steam frother wand (milk and plant substitute settings), and a setting for the amount of froth.
• 15+ drink presets or make your own
• Barista Assist technology
• pH test and replaceable water reservoir filter
• It is very well made at 32.9 W x 34 D x 37 H x 11.6kg (plus beans and water).

The USP is that Barista Assist takes the guesswork out of coffee. Its defaults are good, but you can tweak these – grind, strength, water temperature, amount of water, cup size, size, and froth (steamed, thin, thick and cold).

Australian Review: Ninja Luxe Café ES601 Premier Espresso Machine (prices as of 31/12/25)

Note: This is the ES601ANZ model with hot water (a round button beside the centre start brew button) and more features. The majority of international reviews are for an earlier model without hot water, and it had less accurate dosing and fewer Barista Assist features.

Website	Ninja Kitchen AU Product Page   Quick Guide Quick Start Guide Inspiration Guide
Price	RRP $799.99, but seen for as low as $699.99.
Colours	Stainless Steel, Midnight Black, Genmetal, Cyberspace
From	Ninja Online (free shipping), Harvey Norman, JB Hi-Fi, Good Guys, Bing Lee, Myer, Appliances Online
Warranty	2-year ACL
Made in	China
Company	Ninja is a kitchen brand developed by SharkNinja, a pioneer in small household appliances and cleaning. Its headquarters are in Needham, Massachusetts, just outside of Boston. Mann&Noble is the exclusive distributor for SharkNinja in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and Malaysia.
More	CyberShack kitchen appliances news and reviews CyberShack Ninja news and reviews

Ratings

We use the following ratings for many of the items below. CyberShack regards a score between 70 and 80/100 as a fit-for-purpose pass mark. You can click on most images to enlarge them.

• Fail (below expectations), and we will let you know if this affects its use.
• Pass(able) rating that is not as good as it should be.
• Pass (meets expectations).
• Pass ‘+’ rating to show it is good, but does not quite make it to Exceed
• Exceed (surpasses expectations or is the class leader).

First Impression – Ninja Luxe Café ES601 Premier Espresso Machine is a quality, well-made coffee machine at a price that is hard to believe

Now I have tested many semi-auto coffee machines over the years and wrote the seminal guide, How to make good coffee at home (prices are a bit out of date – it was written in 2021), but the advice is spot on.

Back then, I said, “The real test is whether you and your machine can make a coffee as good as the one you get from your local barista? Nirvana. The answer is that it takes a lot of experimenting, even if you use the same beans and milk”.

What we found is that the Barista’s skill and considerably more expensive machine beats homemade coffee every time, regardless of the machine’s price. The question is, by what margin is the Barista’s coffee better?

So I am happy to pay for my favourite Barista’s great coffee because someone else makes it consistently well. I know when they have changed beans, when the milk is over-steamed or if other hired help made the coffee. When I am travelling, I measure all coffee by that. It’s either as good, great, worse, bitter or burnt, weak or strong – all at around $7+ per large flat white.

Ironically, at home I settled on the Lavazza pod machine, Lavazza Jolie and Milk – great black or milk capsule coffee. Why? Convenience. Once we found a pod variety we liked, it made a decent, drinkable coffee with no mess, thought, time commitment or washing up.

So, back to the Ninja Luxe Café Premier Espresso Machine. Using the above as a guide

• Out-of-the-box, it makes a good flat white using Campo’s Superior Original Cafe blend. Campos does not reveal the origin or mix of the beans, but it’s consistently blended to produce a similar taste. Price $65 per kg*.
• Using fresh full-fat milk (we also tested Lactose Free Lite)
• Espresso basket (double shot 45ml)
• Test Cup size 250ml (milk 200ml) but set to M (295ml)

* Coffee beans – never more true that you get what you pay for

This information is from our barista, and approximate prices are for 1kg bags.

• If you go to Woollies or Coles, you can get a kilo of generic beans for <$20. Forgive my bluntness. If you like this coffee, then you may as well drink instant!
• Grinders Espreso (black) or Crema (milk) at $32 per kg is tolerable but tends to be too bitter unless fairly coarsely ground.
• Lavazza Intenso (espresso) or Gram Cream (milk) at $44 per kg are OK, but still need separate beans for decent black or milk coffee.
• Campos Superior original café blend is for both espresso and milk, and the best all-round blend at $65 per kg.
• At the supermarket, there are a lot of trendy names and packages, but they are all blends. He recommends you start with Campos, make tasting notes, and then buy small packets of other brands/types to compare.

Or ask your Barista what they use and use that as a base.

How to use: Pass+

This is a five-step process (in this order). It can only do one step at a time.

Stage 1 (Setup – only needs to be done once)

• Set cup size: S (175ml), S+ (235ml), M (295ml), M+ (355ml), L (415ml), L+ (475ml) and XL (530ml). If your cup is smaller than the defined setting, use the next closest above that.
• Select coffee basket size: single (9g/22.5ml), double (18g/45ml) or Luxe (quad 40g/100ml) and inset into the handle. If you want long black, there are single, double or quad settings.
• Select espresso, quad long black or cold pressed
• Select classic, rich, over ice or cold brew)
• Barista Assist then knows what coffee you want
• While you can start the brew stage, we recommend waiting until after the milk stage.

Stage 2: Milk

• Pour 200ml into the milk jug with an integrated whisk (for a 250ml cup)
• Place jug on the induction platform, simultaneously lowering the steam wand into the jug
• Select dairy or plant-based
• Select foam (steam, microfoam for flat white, thick froth for cappuccino, and cold foam)
• Start milk, and the Barista assist takes over and ensures the right mix of the induction whisk and steam (or you can ‘froth queue’ to start after brewing).
• Or if you are more expert, you can use the steam wand and aim for 65° milk.

Stage 3

• Fill hopper with 250g of beans – good for about 13-14 double espresso coffees.
• Place the Grinds funnel on top of the handle (keeps the grinds in the basket) and insert it under the grinder. This is a great device as it stops grinds from spilling and the tamper fits into it.
• Barista Assist will suggest a coffee grind number (based on your experience), and you set it to that or to your taste. The higher the number, the finer the grind and the more bitter the coffee will be. Good coffee beans generally range from 10-12 setting (maximum 25 for the finest powder)
• Tamp (using the funnel to stop grinds from spilling)
• Insert the handle in the coffee ‘head’.
• Press start brew

Once the brew is done, pour the frothed/steamed milk into the coffee cup.

This may not sound very easy, but most of the time you will make the same coffee in the same-sized cup.  We adopted this order as it makes a hotter espresso than brewing in stage one.

Adjustments and tweaks

The machine remembers the last coffee, but you can also set additional defaults h01 to h08.

• h01: beep on/off
• h02: Eco mode on/off saves power after brewing
• h03: Grind size display on/off
• h04: Resets Barista Assist
• h05: Factory reset
• h06: Brew temperature Lo, Med (default) or High
• h07: Froth temperature as above
• h08: Water hardness pH setting (used to advise you when to descale)

After use, cleaning and maintenance: Pass

It is no better or worse than any semi-automatic machine. Once a coffee has been made

• Empty the grinds into the waste bin or optional knock box. Our experience was that it was easier to use a bin and a teaspoon to scoop the grounds out.
• Rinse the handle and basket
• Wipe the steam wand with a damp ‘Chux’ to remove milk residue. Purge the wand to remove milk that may have entered the wand.
• Rinse the jug (remove the magnetic whisk) using dishwashing detergent to cut through any milk scum.

Ninja say that the funnel, whisk, cleaning disk, water reservoir, bean hopper and driptray are dishwasher safe. Hand washing is easy and may extend the life of the finish.

As required, cleaning and maintenance: Pass

• Empty and rinse the drip tray when the indicator shows orange. It’s a simple job.
• If you wish to change beans or manually clean the grinder, it takes a few minutes. Ninja recommends a weekly clean for daily use. I suspect this will slip to monthly or when new beans are added.
• Descaling is required once the indicator light shows. It takes about 90 minutes (unattended) and involves using a decaling solution/powder.
• Head clean: Uses a Ninja tablet and cleaning disk to clean the main head of coffee stains and residual oils. Takes 5 minutes.
• You can use the clean and purge buttons at any time.

Spares and accessories: Pass

ES601 genuine

• Water filters XSKWATFILI 6-pack $29.99
• Knock Box XSKKNOCBOX (for used grinds) $49.99
• Descaler XSKDESCSOL 4-pack $29.99
• Cleaning tabs XSKCLENTAB (for the head) 8 pack $24.99
• Kit XSKCLNACKT (2 x filters, 2 x descaller, 2 x 8 cleaning tabs) for four months

You can buy lower cost generics like 12-packs of filters, replacement portafiller funnel, descaler, cleaning tabs, water container and spare parts from Amazon or eBay or  AliExpress.  

Clever design: Pass+

It looks like a small barista machine with lots of buttons and adjustments. Once you experiment, Barista Assist will take over.

The water tank has a replaceable filter.

The cup area takes single cups up to 160mm high.

The cup warmer on top is a passive heating plate that uses the single thermoblock boiler to warm it. It averages about 35° but can get hotter with moderate use.

Coffee tends to be hot – about 95°, but you can increase or decrease that. Coffee ratios are correct at Single 1:2, Double 1:2.5, and Quad 1:3.

Milk is around 75° (default), but we experimented with h07 LO, and it was closer to 65° (preferred). The steam wand (steam only) easily reaches 60-65°, but we recommend using a milk probe thermometer.

The tamp and funnel fit into the left side of the machine for storage, and a storage door on the right side holds two baskets and some of the cleaning accessories.

Decaf users: Pass

If you have caffeinated beans in the hopper, it does not have a bypass. There is no reason you cannot get an 18g scoop and dose/tamp the portfiller directly.

CyberShack’s view: Ninja Luxe Café ES601 Premier Espresso Machine is for those who want a good coffee at a great machine price.

Over Xmas, we had a chance to try it with different guests and everything from a single espresso to a quad shot. The universal response was that it was a good to great coffee. When you understand the techniques and do a little tweaking, it easily becomes your daily fix.

Cost-wise (assuming $65 per kilo and 50+ double expressos), it is about $1.30 per cup for coffee and $2.00 a litre for milk (40 cents per 200ml), totalling $1.70 for a 250ml cup.

We have not tested the filter coffee nor the cold coffee over ice modes, but the principles remain similar.

Ninja Luxe Café ES601 Premier Espresso Machine rating

We use a 100-point scale, with 70 being the bare pass mark. We add points for the build, warranty, ability to exceed the task, and any class-leading features. As for the price, we prefer to rate on value, so as a $699 machine, this is an outstanding value offering features found in more expensive models.

The only negative is that we had to experiment more to get the perfect milk coffee, but anyone reading this review will see it is all about customising to your taste.

• Features: 90. It is jam-packed with features not expected in a semi-automatic coffee machine. It consistently makes excellent espresso and milk/plant-based coffee
• Value: 90. If you can get it for $699, then add five points! I have had a brief look at <$1000 semi-automatic machines, and it punches well above its weight.
• Performance: 90. Mainly for consistently producing the same coffee.
• Ease of Use: 85. Initially a bit daunting, but once set, it’s a breeze. A two-year warranty is excellent.
• Design: 90. Clever design and high build quality.

Pro

• Minimal preheat
• Hot water button (not on earlier models)
• Excellent, consistent espresso shots
• More heat than you need (can be dialled back)
• Joe and Jane Average will be making near barista coffee in minutes

Con

• Drip trays are a little small – empty every 4-5 coffees
• Coffee by stages – complete one and move to the next