I'm a coffee-hound. For most of my life. I was drinking espresso in New York's Little Italy when I was 6 years old. So perhaps it's no surprise that I got all excited when I first saw a commercial on TV a month or so ago for something called the Ninja Coffee Bar. It was being advertised by Sofia Vergara. But that wasn't the primary reason I was excited. This machine claimed to be able to make not only coffee but specialty drinks such as espresso, cappucino, lattes, iced drinks ... it was a barista in a box! I jumped on the 'Net to check this modern marvel out and watched hours of videos, but the more I watched the quicker my excitement waned. Yes, it made 4 different sizes of drinks - and most of the time you had to purchase the optional Ninja cups and mugs to fit. Yes, it made specialty drinks - often with the help of the optional Ninja Milk Frother. And it didn't just magically make these drinks - YOU still had to do all the work. The machine just supplies the coffee. Kind of a let-down, especially at an average price of $180. Have you seen this machine? What do you think?
After watching the commercial, I can certainly see what caught your attention, @Sifu Phil Bonifonte ! We have both a Ninja Blender, and the Ninja Home Cooking System, and I love both of those. So when we saw that Ninja had also come out with the coffee bar, it looked like it might do an excellent job as well. We did the same as you did; I looked it up on Amazon, and decided that (at least for us) this was just WAYY too much money to spend on a coffee maker, no matter what it could make. We mostly just drink regular coffee anyway, although I love flavored coffees; so we have two of the brewing stations, a small one for me, and a larger one for @Bobby Cole , who drinks a lot more coffee than I do. While I think it might be fine for people who entertain and need/want to make all of the different varieties of coffee and drinks that the Ninja makes, for us it would not be worth the price, as we still would probably mostly be drinking plain old coffee. Maybe it is the newest "status symbol" gadget for the modern home. In case someone has not viewed the commercial that attracted Sifu Phil to the Ninja, here it is.
Excellent - I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who decided not to get this. And, like you, I'm still mainly just a regular-old-coffee type - only once in a blue moon do I get the urge for something different, and then I can always whip it up myself with a little more effort. Thanks for posting the video!
... and, I just noticed that Sophia changed her dress sometime during the course of the commercial - she probably spilled hot coffee on herself!