The Ninja Specialty coffee maker claims to be able to brew specialty and over-ice coffees among other drinks. The Keurig K-Café proudly states that it is a café, but in your home. Fellow coffee heads, we have an answer for the Ninja Coffee Bar vs Keurig situation. Stick with our article and discover which the better coffee maker is.
Article summary
Ninja Specialty coffee maker:
Key features:
- 6 brew sizes (cup, mug, carafe)
- 50-ounce glass carafe
- Specialty brew
- Iced brew
- Classic coffee
- Rich coffee
- Lattes, macchiatos, and cappuccinos
- Drip stop
- Fold-away frother
- Programmable delay brew
- Auto off
Pros
Versatile, with a beautiful choice of interesting drinks
Brews all sizes, from small cups to a large 50-ounce carafe, which is very convenient
The delay brew option lets you program the coffee maker to brew the coffee exactly when you want to drink it
An all-in-one coffee maker that makes every coffee you can imagine
Cons
Delay brew has to be set every time
Frother won’t froth the milk and make it hot, but only mix it until it gets foamy; you’ll have to preheat your milk if you want hot milk foam
Keurig K-Café:
Key features:
- 4 cup brew sizes (6, 8, 10, and 12 ounces)
- Single-serve
- Works with K-Cups
- Compatible with the My K-Cup universal and reusable coffee filter
- Lattes and cappuccinos
- Brews over ice
- Shot button for cappuccinos and lattes
- Strong brew setting
- Milk frother
- Smart start
- 60-ounce water tank
- High altitude setting
- Auto off
- Maintenance reminder
Pros
A smart coffee maker that lets you toggle between K-Cups and your favorite ground coffee
Strength control is there when more caffeine is a must
The 60-ounce water reservoir is so large that it will make you question whether you’ll ever need to refill it
Has an actual automatic frother that heats up and froths the milk
Cons
Frother valve is plastic and flimsy
The buttons on the coffee maker are not always giving the proper feedback
Our pick: the Ninja Specialty coffee maker
This was undoubtedly one of the hardest winner announcements we’ve had to make so far— was this hard or WAS THIS HARD? In the end, we decided to go for the Ninja Specialty coffee maker. Our coffee hearts were beating faster for the 6 brew sizes, the carafe option, the iced setting, and the delay brew available on the Ninja Specialty. This coffee maker brings everlasting makeovers to lattes and cappuccinos, making them just the way you like them, hot or cold.
About the Ninja Specialty coffee maker
Truly a coffee house, the affordable Ninja Specialty coffee maker looks like a super high-tech robot. Its coffee kettle, if you want, sits right above the cup holder, but it looks as if it’s hanging. The alignment of the 10-cup water reservoir and the heating element seem to ‘frame’ the Ninja, giving it its recognizable design.
Everything you want, need, and deserve is available to you at the touch of a button: the programmable delay brew, the coffees—everything. You even get a 50-ounce glass carafe if you purchase the coffee maker. Fill the carafe to the top or stick with just half a carafe for the day. With the Specialty’s 6 brilliant brew sizes, this is also an option.
Choose between a single cup or a travel mug, but keep in mind that you can also XL these two brew sizes if needed. Latte or cappuccino your beautiful self, but don’t hesitate to explore the macchiato option as well. The Specialty and its fold-away frother will make your drinks more enchanting with a hot or cold froth.
For the simpler days, the classic coffee option is right there at the touch of a button, next to the other fabulous coffees. Feeling hot? Keep it cool with some iced coffee. The Ninja Specialty will make the coffee more concentrated so the beverage doesn’t water down. A perfect coffee maker, right?
About the Keurig K-Café
As a Keurig 2.0 model, the K-Café has a design that transcends the one of the classic Keurig coffee maker. Because the coffee maker brews and steams simultaneously, only part of its body screams ‘classic’ and the rest of it is an automatic frother. That said, if you have one K-Cup and one coffee cup or a 7.2″ travel mug, you’ll be able to go regular coffee or choose a milky alternative.
Invite the coffee winter by choosing the cold froth option available with the K-Café’s automatic milk frother. Up for a hotter drink? Simply choose your milk-based drink and you will have it. With the Shot button, the K-Café pours just the right amount of coffee in your cup, giving you a flavorful cappuccino or latte. If you choose the Strong Brew option instead, your latte or cappuccino will be a bit more concentrated.
Ice or no ice in your coffee, the Keurig K-Café always finds a way around your preferences of today or those of tomorrow. Cleaning it is, furthermore, easy with its dishwasher-safe frother. This is the Keurig you should buy if you’re up to quickly-made coffee anytime.
Similarities between the Ninja Specialty and the Keurig K-Café
Both the Specialty and the K-Café make your coffee in the brew size that you want, with or without milk. This, naturally, brings travel mugs in the game— a big convenience if you’re having the coffee outside your home.
Milk-based drinks are possible thanks to the frothers of the coffee makers, and it is also possible to control the strength of your coffee. Even though the Ninja Specialty coffee maker does this a bit differently from the K-Café, the fact that you can have a part into the design of your coffee is where the similarity lies.
You can use ground coffee on both of these coffee makers. While this is in the nature of the Ninja Specialty, the K-Café brings you this option by being compatible with the My K-Cup universal and reusable coffee filter.
Over-ice coffee drinks are an option with both the Specialty and the K-Café, even though they have different ways of making this possible as well.
Finally, both of these coffee makers are energy efficient; the only difference here is that the Specialty turns off after one hour of being inactive, while the K-Café does that after two hours of inactivity.
Differences between the Ninja Specialty and the Keurig K-Café
Brew sizes
The beautiful Specialty brews 6 cup, mug, and carafe brew sizes—perfect for when you have guests over. This is two sizes more than the single-serve only K-Café, unfortunately, that is not fit for a home party. Also, even though you can comfortably squeeze in a 7.2″ travel mug underneath the K-Café, we deemed the absence of the carafe size to be a big downside.
Milk frothers
While the frother of the Keurig K-Café is a frother per se, the one of the Ninja Specialty coffee maker is not. The Ninja Specialty will just automatically mix the milk until it gets foamy, but it won’t heat it up for you. This can be a large inconvenience if you need hot cappuccino in the morning because you’ll have to preheat the milk.
But here’s where the twist of the story comes: the frother of the K-Café has a frothing element inside the frothing cup that seems flimsy. That said, what if this part ends up in your coffee? That’s a ‘no-no,’ right?
Delay brew
We like that the Ninja Specialty coffee maker has a programmable delay brew. This is something that the K-Café doesn’t have, and that is not really convenient.
Drinks
While the Specialty brews classic, rich, specialty, and over-ice coffee, the K-Café brews regular coffee from different K-Cups or from pre-ground coffee. This difference defines how the two coffee makers brew over ice and how they control the coffee strength.
The Specialty has an over-ice setting that makes the coffee more concentrated so it won’t water down. Even though the K-Café brews over ice, it doesn’t have the over-ice setting, unfortunately. With the Strong setting of the K-Café, however, you have full control over the strength of every drink. On the other hand, the Ninja Specialty makes one coffee that is stronger, and that is the rich coffee.
Which one should you go with?
It’s nice when you have more ways to go about your coffee, including multiple brew sizes and a carafe brew option. It is also nice when you can brew and froth at the same time with a safe-to-use milk frother. Programming your next brew is great, and it is fantastic to know that, when summer hits, you’ll have a true over-ice setting for your favorite coffee. That’s why we recommend the Ninja Specialty coffee maker to you.