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FBI’s Kash Patel says he’s investigating Signal use by anti-ICE organizers

FBI’s Kash Patel says he’s investigating Signal use by anti-ICE organizers

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The encrypted messaging app Signal has become a critical tool for organizers following the actions of immigration agents in Minneapolis. Now that activity is the target of a probe launched personally by FBI Director Kash Patel — one that has Constitutional law experts questioning its merits.

Criticism of the Signal investigation was swift from figures on both the right and left. The libertarian Cato Institute called the investigation an “epic constitutional and legal fail by Patel.”

Whether or not courts would accept any action bought by Patel against Signal or its users, the circumstances are at least highly unusual: Patel announced the probe via podcast.

Patel discussed the investigation during Monday’s episode of The Benny Show, a podcast hosted by the right-wing commentator Benny Johnson. Patel alleged, without evidence, that participants in the chat might have incited violence, threatened law enforcement, or broke the law.

SEE ALSO:

‘Shameful’: Tech leaders react to ICE killing of Alex Pretti

Patel said that alleged screenshots from a Signal chat amongst Minneapolis anti-ICE organizers posted to X by the rightwing, self-described independent journalist Cam Higby led to the investigation.

Higby has said he hopes the government conducts a “witch hunt” of the Signal chat participants, who were allegedly sharing information about license plates belonging to cars driven by federal immigration officers.

“We immediately opened up that investigation because that sort of Signal chat being coordinated with individuals, not just locally in Minnesota, but maybe even around the country,” Patel said. “If that leads to a break in the federal statute or a violation of some law, then we are going to arrest people.”

Signal did not respond to Mashable’s request for comment on the investigation. The X accounts belonging to the app and its president, Meredith Whittaker, have remained silent on the investigation.

Here’s what you need to know about whether the investigation has merit and how it unfolded:

Does the FBI Signal chat investigation violate Constitutional rights?

Patel insisted that the investigation wouldn’t infringe on the public’s First Amendment right to express political speech and protest but rather focus on illegal activity.

Yet legal and Constitutional scholars have questioned whether the Signal chat participants were doing anything illegal.

In an interview with the Guardian, First Amendment expert Kevin Goldberg said that his review of Higby’s social media posts revealed nothing clearly illegal.

“I got the sense the [Signal chat] group has been organized for purposes that are fully protected by the First Amendment: To observe, to speak, and to alert others of possible dangers,” said Goldberg, vice president of the Freedom Forum, a nonpartisan foundation that works on First Amendment issues. “I didn’t see anything that impedes or obstructs justice. The claimed ‘doxing’ of law enforcement is not necessary illegal.”

Patrick G. Eddington, senior fellow at the Cato Institute, had a cutting response for the Trump administration and Patel.

“I suppose it was just a matter of time before a Trump administration official would suggest that the use of public key encryption — protected by the First Amendment — to monitor federal agent misconduct was itself allegedly a crime,” he wrote in an article on the Cato Institute’s website. “This is another epic constitutional and legal fail by Patel.”

Eddington added that a decades-old federal court case affirmed citizens’ First Amendment right to coordinate peaceful protest activity, and even monitor an agency like ICE for “acts of brutality,” using encrypted speech.

On Thursday, Higby alleged on X that he had more material to leak about the Signal chat he infiltrated.

How did the FBI learn about the Signal chat?

When Patel spoke on Johnson’s show, he followed an interview with Higby, who alleged on X that he attempted and succeeded in infiltrating the anti-ICE organizers’ group Signal chat.

Higby admitted to Johnson that though he isn’t a “legal expert,” he viewed the Signal exchanges as a “mass conspiracy” to violate federal law because the participants were, in his opinion, “engaging in collusion against federal law enforcement.”

When Johnson asked Higby how he wanted the FBI to respond, Higby made his goal clear. “I want to see a witch hunt January 6th style,” Higby said, referencing the federal prosecution of insurrectionists who stormed the U.S. Capitol in 2021.

Patel was literally the next guest on Johnson’s show. He said Higby’s X post on his alleged infiltration of the Signal chat triggered his decision.

“As soon as Higby put that [X social media] post out, I opened an investigation on it,” Patel said. He argued that the practice aligns with the FBI’s policy of following publicly-provided tips, leads, and information.

Speaking with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, Patel indicated that the FBI would issue subpoenas, collect data, call grand juries, and “find out who broke the law.”

What to know about using Signal

Though Signal uses end-to-end encryption, that doesn’t mean user messages will be protected from the government.

Signal’s website acknowledges it will disclose transcripts of chats when legally compelled by the government or law enforcement agencies.

ICE reportedly also has a contract with the digital forensics company Cellebrite to help officials unlock phones to retrieve all of their data, including apps, location history, and Signal messages, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

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#FBIs #Kash #Patel #hes #investigating #Signal #antiICE #organizers

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Beef jerky can be a delicious treat. But a recent report illustrates why you should be cautious about biting into a piece of homemade jerky made from wild bear meat—it just might be teeming with parasitic worms.

Last week, federal and local health officials in North Carolina detailed an unusual outbreak of Trichinella roundworms in 2024 traced back to undercooked jerky from the same infected bear. At least three people were likely sickened by the cursed jerky, one of whom ended up hospitalized with severe illness. Though such cases are rare, they can be entirely prevented by cooking bear and other game meat to the recommended internal temperature, the authors say.

“Low-cost safety measures and prevention efforts regarding safe wild game preparation are needed to avoid future outbreaks,” they wrote in their paper, published June 24 in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.

A bear of a time

The outbreak was first detected in November 2024 by a clinician who treated the hospitalized patient and notified health officials. The Graham County Health Department and North Carolina Division of Public Health then conducted an investigation.

The patient had killed a bear at the start of the hunting season in October. The person froze half of the meat as various cuts and prepared the rest into jerky; they then shared the jerky with five other people.

By the time officials began probing, no jerky was left, but four remaining pieces of the frozen bear meat were sent off for testing at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; all the meat subsequently came back positive for Trichinella larvae. It’s likely the person’s jerky preparation, which only involved a marinade and drying, did not heat the meat sufficiently to kill off the worms nestled inside.

Of the six people who ate the jerky, three developed symptoms characteristic of Trichinella infection. The hospitalized patient developed severe symptoms, including muscle weakness, swelling around the eyes, and eosinophilia (a high level of eosinophils, a type of white blood cell). The hospitalized case eventually tested positive for antibodies to the infection, but the other two cases declined testing because they lacked health insurance and balked at the out-of-pocket costs for such a test (roughly $200). All three were given a standard deworming medication and made a full recovery.

A growing trend?

Trichinellosis used to be commonly caused by undercooked pork but is now very rare in the U.S. due to better food safety. Most cases these days are instead tied to infected game meat, including bears. According to the CDC, only about 15 cases on average are reported annually.

Still, there are some signs this disease could become more common in some places like North Carolina. In November 2023, 10 people were likely infected by eating the undercooked meat of a wild bear hunted in western North Carolina; it was the first major outbreak recorded in the state since 1991, with only three isolated cases reported during that same time period.

Officials weren’t able to test the meat implicated in the 2023 outbreak and identify the specific species that caused it. This time around, testing identified a species known as Trichinella spiralis. That’s a potentially worrying discovery, the report authors note, since T. spiralis is rarely ever found in bears. So it’s possible that infection patterns might be changing among the wildlife in North Carolina and elsewhere.

“Wildlife disease surveillance is needed to update our knowledge of Trichinella prevalence, host affinities, and associated public health risks,” the researchers wrote.

That said, human trichinellosis is easily preventable with some proactive measures. However it’s prepared, officials say, game meat should always be cooked to an internal temperature above 165 degrees Fahrenheit (74 degrees Celsius) to ensure all larvae are killed off. Freezing meat prior to making it into jerky might help as well, though some Trichinella species are known to be freeze-resistant. Other safe food handling practices, like keeping raw or undercooked meat away from other foods, can also prevent cross-contamination.

#Tainted #Beef #Jerky #Caused #Outbreak #Bear #Wormsbears,foodborne illnesses,Parasites,Weird medicine">Tainted Beef Jerky Caused an Outbreak of Bear Worms Beef jerky can be a delicious treat. But a recent report illustrates why you should be cautious about biting into a piece of homemade jerky made from wild bear meat—it just might be teeming with parasitic worms. Last week, federal and local health officials in North Carolina detailed an unusual outbreak of Trichinella roundworms in 2024 traced back to undercooked jerky from the same infected bear. At least three people were likely sickened by the cursed jerky, one of whom ended up hospitalized with severe illness. Though such cases are rare, they can be entirely prevented by cooking bear and other game meat to the recommended internal temperature, the authors say. “Low-cost safety measures and prevention efforts regarding safe wild game preparation are needed to avoid future outbreaks,” they wrote in their paper, published June 24 in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases. A bear of a time The outbreak was first detected in November 2024 by a clinician who treated the hospitalized patient and notified health officials. The Graham County Health Department and North Carolina Division of Public Health then conducted an investigation. The patient had killed a bear at the start of the hunting season in October. The person froze half of the meat as various cuts and prepared the rest into jerky; they then shared the jerky with five other people. By the time officials began probing, no jerky was left, but four remaining pieces of the frozen bear meat were sent off for testing at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; all the meat subsequently came back positive for Trichinella larvae. It’s likely the person’s jerky preparation, which only involved a marinade and drying, did not heat the meat sufficiently to kill off the worms nestled inside. Of the six people who ate the jerky, three developed symptoms characteristic of Trichinella infection. The hospitalized patient developed severe symptoms, including muscle weakness, swelling around the eyes, and eosinophilia (a high level of eosinophils, a type of white blood cell). The hospitalized case eventually tested positive for antibodies to the infection, but the other two cases declined testing because they lacked health insurance and balked at the out-of-pocket costs for such a test (roughly 0). All three were given a standard deworming medication and made a full recovery. A growing trend? Trichinellosis used to be commonly caused by undercooked pork but is now very rare in the U.S. due to better food safety. Most cases these days are instead tied to infected game meat, including bears. According to the CDC, only about 15 cases on average are reported annually. Still, there are some signs this disease could become more common in some places like North Carolina. In November 2023, 10 people were likely infected by eating the undercooked meat of a wild bear hunted in western North Carolina; it was the first major outbreak recorded in the state since 1991, with only three isolated cases reported during that same time period. Officials weren’t able to test the meat implicated in the 2023 outbreak and identify the specific species that caused it. This time around, testing identified a species known as Trichinella spiralis. That’s a potentially worrying discovery, the report authors note, since T. spiralis is rarely ever found in bears. So it’s possible that infection patterns might be changing among the wildlife in North Carolina and elsewhere. “Wildlife disease surveillance is needed to update our knowledge of Trichinella prevalence, host affinities, and associated public health risks,” the researchers wrote. That said, human trichinellosis is easily preventable with some proactive measures. However it’s prepared, officials say, game meat should always be cooked to an internal temperature above 165 degrees Fahrenheit (74 degrees Celsius) to ensure all larvae are killed off. Freezing meat prior to making it into jerky might help as well, though some Trichinella species are known to be freeze-resistant. Other safe food handling practices, like keeping raw or undercooked meat away from other foods, can also prevent cross-contamination. #Tainted #Beef #Jerky #Caused #Outbreak #Bear #Wormsbears,foodborne illnesses,Parasites,Weird medicine

published June 24 in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.

A bear of a time

The outbreak was first detected in November 2024 by a clinician who treated the hospitalized patient and notified health officials. The Graham County Health Department and North Carolina Division of Public Health then conducted an investigation.

The patient had killed a bear at the start of the hunting season in October. The person froze half of the meat as various cuts and prepared the rest into jerky; they then shared the jerky with five other people.

By the time officials began probing, no jerky was left, but four remaining pieces of the frozen bear meat were sent off for testing at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; all the meat subsequently came back positive for Trichinella larvae. It’s likely the person’s jerky preparation, which only involved a marinade and drying, did not heat the meat sufficiently to kill off the worms nestled inside.

Of the six people who ate the jerky, three developed symptoms characteristic of Trichinella infection. The hospitalized patient developed severe symptoms, including muscle weakness, swelling around the eyes, and eosinophilia (a high level of eosinophils, a type of white blood cell). The hospitalized case eventually tested positive for antibodies to the infection, but the other two cases declined testing because they lacked health insurance and balked at the out-of-pocket costs for such a test (roughly $200). All three were given a standard deworming medication and made a full recovery.

A growing trend?

Trichinellosis used to be commonly caused by undercooked pork but is now very rare in the U.S. due to better food safety. Most cases these days are instead tied to infected game meat, including bears. According to the CDC, only about 15 cases on average are reported annually.

Still, there are some signs this disease could become more common in some places like North Carolina. In November 2023, 10 people were likely infected by eating the undercooked meat of a wild bear hunted in western North Carolina; it was the first major outbreak recorded in the state since 1991, with only three isolated cases reported during that same time period.

Officials weren’t able to test the meat implicated in the 2023 outbreak and identify the specific species that caused it. This time around, testing identified a species known as Trichinella spiralis. That’s a potentially worrying discovery, the report authors note, since T. spiralis is rarely ever found in bears. So it’s possible that infection patterns might be changing among the wildlife in North Carolina and elsewhere.

“Wildlife disease surveillance is needed to update our knowledge of Trichinella prevalence, host affinities, and associated public health risks,” the researchers wrote.

That said, human trichinellosis is easily preventable with some proactive measures. However it’s prepared, officials say, game meat should always be cooked to an internal temperature above 165 degrees Fahrenheit (74 degrees Celsius) to ensure all larvae are killed off. Freezing meat prior to making it into jerky might help as well, though some Trichinella species are known to be freeze-resistant. Other safe food handling practices, like keeping raw or undercooked meat away from other foods, can also prevent cross-contamination.

#Tainted #Beef #Jerky #Caused #Outbreak #Bear #Wormsbears,foodborne illnesses,Parasites,Weird medicine">Tainted Beef Jerky Caused an Outbreak of Bear WormsTainted Beef Jerky Caused an Outbreak of Bear Worms Beef jerky can be a delicious treat. But a recent report illustrates why you should be cautious about biting into a piece of homemade jerky made from wild bear meat—it just might be teeming with parasitic worms. Last week, federal and local health officials in North Carolina detailed an unusual outbreak of Trichinella roundworms in 2024 traced back to undercooked jerky from the same infected bear. At least three people were likely sickened by the cursed jerky, one of whom ended up hospitalized with severe illness. Though such cases are rare, they can be entirely prevented by cooking bear and other game meat to the recommended internal temperature, the authors say. “Low-cost safety measures and prevention efforts regarding safe wild game preparation are needed to avoid future outbreaks,” they wrote in their paper, published June 24 in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases. A bear of a time The outbreak was first detected in November 2024 by a clinician who treated the hospitalized patient and notified health officials. The Graham County Health Department and North Carolina Division of Public Health then conducted an investigation. The patient had killed a bear at the start of the hunting season in October. The person froze half of the meat as various cuts and prepared the rest into jerky; they then shared the jerky with five other people. By the time officials began probing, no jerky was left, but four remaining pieces of the frozen bear meat were sent off for testing at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; all the meat subsequently came back positive for Trichinella larvae. It’s likely the person’s jerky preparation, which only involved a marinade and drying, did not heat the meat sufficiently to kill off the worms nestled inside. Of the six people who ate the jerky, three developed symptoms characteristic of Trichinella infection. The hospitalized patient developed severe symptoms, including muscle weakness, swelling around the eyes, and eosinophilia (a high level of eosinophils, a type of white blood cell). The hospitalized case eventually tested positive for antibodies to the infection, but the other two cases declined testing because they lacked health insurance and balked at the out-of-pocket costs for such a test (roughly $200). All three were given a standard deworming medication and made a full recovery. A growing trend? Trichinellosis used to be commonly caused by undercooked pork but is now very rare in the U.S. due to better food safety. Most cases these days are instead tied to infected game meat, including bears. According to the CDC, only about 15 cases on average are reported annually. Still, there are some signs this disease could become more common in some places like North Carolina. In November 2023, 10 people were likely infected by eating the undercooked meat of a wild bear hunted in western North Carolina; it was the first major outbreak recorded in the state since 1991, with only three isolated cases reported during that same time period. Officials weren’t able to test the meat implicated in the 2023 outbreak and identify the specific species that caused it. This time around, testing identified a species known as Trichinella spiralis. That’s a potentially worrying discovery, the report authors note, since T. spiralis is rarely ever found in bears. So it’s possible that infection patterns might be changing among the wildlife in North Carolina and elsewhere. “Wildlife disease surveillance is needed to update our knowledge of Trichinella prevalence, host affinities, and associated public health risks,” the researchers wrote. That said, human trichinellosis is easily preventable with some proactive measures. However it’s prepared, officials say, game meat should always be cooked to an internal temperature above 165 degrees Fahrenheit (74 degrees Celsius) to ensure all larvae are killed off. Freezing meat prior to making it into jerky might help as well, though some Trichinella species are known to be freeze-resistant. Other safe food handling practices, like keeping raw or undercooked meat away from other foods, can also prevent cross-contamination. #Tainted #Beef #Jerky #Caused #Outbreak #Bear #Wormsbears,foodborne illnesses,Parasites,Weird medicine

Beef jerky can be a delicious treat. But a recent report illustrates why you should be cautious about biting into a piece of homemade jerky made from wild bear meat—it just might be teeming with parasitic worms.

Last week, federal and local health officials in North Carolina detailed an unusual outbreak of Trichinella roundworms in 2024 traced back to undercooked jerky from the same infected bear. At least three people were likely sickened by the cursed jerky, one of whom ended up hospitalized with severe illness. Though such cases are rare, they can be entirely prevented by cooking bear and other game meat to the recommended internal temperature, the authors say.

“Low-cost safety measures and prevention efforts regarding safe wild game preparation are needed to avoid future outbreaks,” they wrote in their paper, published June 24 in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.

A bear of a time

The outbreak was first detected in November 2024 by a clinician who treated the hospitalized patient and notified health officials. The Graham County Health Department and North Carolina Division of Public Health then conducted an investigation.

The patient had killed a bear at the start of the hunting season in October. The person froze half of the meat as various cuts and prepared the rest into jerky; they then shared the jerky with five other people.

By the time officials began probing, no jerky was left, but four remaining pieces of the frozen bear meat were sent off for testing at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; all the meat subsequently came back positive for Trichinella larvae. It’s likely the person’s jerky preparation, which only involved a marinade and drying, did not heat the meat sufficiently to kill off the worms nestled inside.

Of the six people who ate the jerky, three developed symptoms characteristic of Trichinella infection. The hospitalized patient developed severe symptoms, including muscle weakness, swelling around the eyes, and eosinophilia (a high level of eosinophils, a type of white blood cell). The hospitalized case eventually tested positive for antibodies to the infection, but the other two cases declined testing because they lacked health insurance and balked at the out-of-pocket costs for such a test (roughly $200). All three were given a standard deworming medication and made a full recovery.

A growing trend?

Trichinellosis used to be commonly caused by undercooked pork but is now very rare in the U.S. due to better food safety. Most cases these days are instead tied to infected game meat, including bears. According to the CDC, only about 15 cases on average are reported annually.

Still, there are some signs this disease could become more common in some places like North Carolina. In November 2023, 10 people were likely infected by eating the undercooked meat of a wild bear hunted in western North Carolina; it was the first major outbreak recorded in the state since 1991, with only three isolated cases reported during that same time period.

Officials weren’t able to test the meat implicated in the 2023 outbreak and identify the specific species that caused it. This time around, testing identified a species known as Trichinella spiralis. That’s a potentially worrying discovery, the report authors note, since T. spiralis is rarely ever found in bears. So it’s possible that infection patterns might be changing among the wildlife in North Carolina and elsewhere.

“Wildlife disease surveillance is needed to update our knowledge of Trichinella prevalence, host affinities, and associated public health risks,” the researchers wrote.

That said, human trichinellosis is easily preventable with some proactive measures. However it’s prepared, officials say, game meat should always be cooked to an internal temperature above 165 degrees Fahrenheit (74 degrees Celsius) to ensure all larvae are killed off. Freezing meat prior to making it into jerky might help as well, though some Trichinella species are known to be freeze-resistant. Other safe food handling practices, like keeping raw or undercooked meat away from other foods, can also prevent cross-contamination.

#Tainted #Beef #Jerky #Caused #Outbreak #Bear #Wormsbears,foodborne illnesses,Parasites,Weird medicine

Photograph: Matthew Korfhage

GreenPan

Frost Slushie Machine

The slushie machine from Belgian-founded wellness brand GreenPan is maybe the only slushie machine I’d describe as being even slightly attractive, or pleasant on a countertop—available in a trendy pistachio color scheme that a 21-year-old co-tester called “cute.” The slush produced by this device also had quite a nice consistency, perhaps due to a tighter auger around the cylinder that roiled the slush a little more. My colleague Martin Cizmar, who also tested this device, was able to recreate a Philly recipe for Italian-style water ice with Meyer lemons, and declared himself an unending fan.

The GreenPan slushed admirably, making a full chamber’s worth of spiked slush in about 25 minutes. This is nowhere near as fast as the XL or the Twist on slushing speeds, alas. The fill chamber is a little shallow, which means you have to pour slowly or you’ll make a mess. If you accidentally leave the handle down, you’ll also make a mess. Some reports online of cracks in the cylinder over use are also reason for pause. But if aesthetics are a prime consideration, this will slush handily. And look a little better while doing it.

  • Photograph: Matthew Korfhage

  • Photograph: Matthew Korfhage

The original Ninja Slushi was quite simply a triumph of industrial design when it arrived in 2024—the machine that managed to bring the cocktail bar or convenience-store slushie to the home kitchen countertop. Among many imitators, Ninja’s original design remained the most user-friendly and reliable until the next-generation Ninjas supplanted it.

I’ve made coconut-lime daiquiris for a family of visiting Brazilians, who joked that they planned to take the machine back with them on the airplane. I’ve entertained a party full of children with the nonalcoholic version of slushie. And I’ve made silly frozen cocktails at home, whether lime Jarritos slushies or tamarind michelada slushies. Everything frozen is better, it turns out. Freezing a cocktail adds fun and removes shame.

But it’s been replaced. I consider the original Slushi a good value model, but it’s no longer the top of the market. The original Slushi doesn’t slush as well on higher-alcohol slushies as the newer XL and Twist, even for ABV below 16 percent. (Really, with an OG Ninja Slushi, the sweet spot is around 10 to 12 percent ABV if you want good consistency.) Milkshakes/soft-serve are not really feasible on the original Ninja either, always either foamy or ice-gritty.

Which is all to say, buy the Slushi when it’s on a good sale at $250 or less—or when it’s updated with a compressor as good as the one on the XL or Twist.

Other Slushie Machines Tested

Ever since Ninja took slushies to the home market, the Amazon directories have filled with newer brands you’ve likely never heard of and whose names sometimes seem subject to a randomizer engine: Inoviva, Chivalz, Vibofrost, Friwest, Aekda, Syintao, Vischic, Ranvaira, Rinvotio, and the list goes on. Most are available at discounts compared to Ninja or other more recognizable brands.

I’ve tested three such brands: Chivalz, Invoviva, and Vibofrost. All three have had one form of reliability issue or another: basic design defects, inconsistency of performance, or simply disappearing from the market.

Chivalz Slushie Machine (no longer in stock): This was previously WIRED’s budget pick, which my co-tester Kat Merck called, without insult, “a quite respectable Ninja Slushi knockoff.” The device arrived with a welcome digital temp readout and a removable back panel that made cleaning easier on the slush chamber. Performance was comparable to the original Ninja, though the user interface was a bit janky. But since last year, the brand’s slushie machines seem to have disappeared, as the brand’s focus moved to air purifiers and humidifiers.

Vibofrost Slushie Machine ($235, sold out after Prime Day): This Vibofrost, like the Chivalz, freezes slushies comparably to the original Ninja Slushi. And like the Chivalz, it has a somewhat irritating child-lock feature, and a timed feature that seems of limited utility. Though it will slush within around 20 to 30 minutes, the oddly designed spout can spray wildly if there’s any liquid in the machine, the drip tray does not attach securely, and it kinda moans like a dying tauntaun while in operation.

Inoviva Slushie Machine for $120: I tested this Inoviva slushie machine twice. The first time, the device registered much louder than competitors, the drip tray arrived stuck to the machine, and the compressor began to fail after a week’s testing. The second time, it was still loud, and the user interface had a difficult-to-navigate locking feature, but freezing was indeed more consistent. The inconsistency in quality control makes this device difficult to recommend. But maybe you’re willing to brave this for a steeply discounted price. The Inoviva also has one terrific feature: The ability to adjust thickness for each drink setting.

My co-tester Kat Merck (on the now-discontinued Chivalz) and I made so very many slushies with each machine, from dairy to nondairy to coffee slushies to straight-up bottles of wine. Specifically, we tested every version of slush that a machine advertised. If Ninja or GreenPan says a machine can make frappés and milkshakes and frozen juices, we made frappés and milkshakes and frozen juices, tinkering where necessary. I froze orange juice and strawberry juice, slushed a bouquet’s worth of rosé, and made slushies from daiquiri to margarita to whiskey Coke. I slushed tamarind micheladas (an excellent idea) and Twisted Tea (a terrible idea).

Image may contain Cutlery Spoon Indoors Interior Design Cup Jar Floor Flooring Cooking Pan and Cookware

Photograph: Kat Merck

I also raced the freezing capabilities of all three machines by pouring a 16-ounce can of delicious Mango Mike’s Harder Lemonade in each, then seeing which machine was fastest. (For the XL, I used a 24-ounce can.) And I made smooth and dense coconut-lime daiquiris with coconut milk, according to Ninja’s recipe, to test how well each machine’s dispenser handled a genuine dense-textured challenge.

How Do Home Slushie Machines Work?

The tech is pretty simple, almost ingeniously so: A beefy cylindrical freezing core in the center of the drink chamber continually cools any liquid in contact with it. It’s encircled by a plastic spiral auger attached to a motor. The auger mixes the drink, keeps it slushing instead of freezing solid, and also pushes the resulting slush toward the dispenser nozzle so you can have some. The resolute simplicity of this design allowed Ninja and others to scale down the commercial slushie maker for home consumers thirsty for frozen treats.

The main requirement is that the frozen beverage have more than 4 percent sugar—or between 3 percent and 16 percent alcohol—in order to lower the freezing point of the resulting concoction and make slushing possible. Some slushie machine vendors recommend percentages more like 15 percent sugar, for perfect consistency. But I often balk at this. Coca-Cola and orange juice are each around 11 percent sugar—so that’s very sweet. Some hero of the internet has made a slush calculator for easy reference.

A minimum of 16 ounces of liquid is required for most 88-ounce home machines, for simple reasons: The liquid needs to be in physical contact with the core in order to slush up and also to keep ice from forming on the central cylinder’s surface. The Slushi XL requires a 24-ounce minimum, because it’s bigger.

Can You Put Diet Soda in a Slushie Machine?

No and yes. Slushies rely on a helpful property of water: Sugar (or salt) dissolved in water lowers its freezing point below 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Why? Solubles like sugar are chaos agents. Sugar molecules move randomly, refuse to dissolve into ice, and interfere with water’s ability to form hydrogen bonds and turn crystalline. Some water molecules freeze, but sugar water doesn’t. Tada! Slush.

If you try to make a slushie out of sugar-free soda, or sugar-free anything, ice crystals will instead form easily. The stainless steel freezing core will ice over and scrape on the auger, and ice cubes or hunks will gather mass in the slushie machine. The cylinder will start to shake, then the machine will clunk, then eventually you’ll probably break your machine: Low-sugar fail-safes on these devices have not been overly reliable, alas. So don’t try this at home!

This doesn’t mean you’re doomed to massive calories if you want to make a slushie. Not every artificial sweetener lowers the freezing point appropriately, but the one that Ninja recommends for diet slushies is allulose, a rare but naturally occurring sugar that’s 70 percent as sweet as basic sugar but is not metabolized effectively by the human digestive system. This means it’s low in calories and doesn’t cause insulin spikes—but as with a lot of indigestibles, note that side effects can include bloating or GI distress for some.

For easiest use in a slushie, buy liquid allulose. Powdered versions also exist, but to use them, you’ll need to make a simple syrup by heating up the powder in water to help it dissolve, then let it cool. If you just try to drop the allulose powder into your machine with some Diet Coke, it might not dissolve, and you might still get ice formation. Or at least, I definitely still got ice formation when I tried this on the OG Ninja, and had to stop my machine.

How Can You Stop Milkshakes From Getting Foamy in a Slushie Machine?

Bet you didn’t expect a lesson in milk proteins today! But here’s the deal: Milk proteins start to separate when agitated. Churning milk is, in fact, how butter gets made. Proteins separate out, and you get butter on the one side and buttermilk on the other. Both are delicious, but neither is wanted in a milkshake.

Image may contain Cream Dessert Food Ice Cream Soft Serve Ice Cream Frozen Yogurt Baby and Person

Photograph: Matthew Korfhage

If you try to make a milkshake in a churning slushie machine using just milk, you’ll eventually start to see the effects of these milk proteins separating out from buttermilk—which will manifest first as an undesirable foaminess. To avoid this, Ninja recommends also adding heavy cream or half-and-half to any milkshake recipe. The higher fat content will keep things smoother.

Note it’s easiest to use fruit syrups, rather than just juice, and add vanillin, or it’ll be a bit boring: The heavy fat tends to overwhelm any subtle fruit flavors. Another deep secret of the tasty milkshake? Salt. Add a tiiiinny pinch; it’ll help bring out flavor. A 16-ounce McDonald’s milkshake has 260 milligrams of sodium—about 1/16th of a teaspoon of table salt, or approximately the amount that fits between your index finger and your thumb.

But temper your expectations here. None of the slushie machines we tested made a texture comparable to a classic milkshake. On most machines, which don’t have compressors as powerful as the new-model Ninjas that are now our top picks, the texture is often a little ice-gritty and not as richly textured or integrated as the milkshake you’ll get from your local burger joint, let alone the soft serve from the famously broken ice cream machines at McDonald’s. Slushie machines also can’t handle chunks of frozen fruit, often the best part of a milkshake.

On the newer Ninjas, with their more powerful freezing power, I was able to get the smoothness and freeze I wanted. But because most recipes call for a high-fat mix of 2:1 milk and heavy cream in order ot avoid churning foam and butter, the results still weren’t quite a light milkshake. It was more like a dense, rich, quite tasty soft serve.

Now, do I like being able to make 20-minute soft-serve in my home? From milk and heavy cream and sugar and a dash of vanilla? Heck yes, I do.

#Ninja #Quietly #Drastically #Improved #Slushie #Machineskitchen,shopping,household,food and drink,amazon">Ninja Quietly but Drastically Improved Its Slushie MachinesOther Slushie Machines I LikedPhotograph: Matthew KorfhageGreenPanFrost Slushie MachineThe slushie machine from Belgian-founded wellness brand GreenPan is maybe the only slushie machine I’d describe as being even slightly attractive, or pleasant on a countertop—available in a trendy pistachio color scheme that a 21-year-old co-tester called “cute.” The slush produced by this device also had quite a nice consistency, perhaps due to a tighter auger around the cylinder that roiled the slush a little more. My colleague Martin Cizmar, who also tested this device, was able to recreate a Philly recipe for Italian-style water ice with Meyer lemons, and declared himself an unending fan.The GreenPan slushed admirably, making a full chamber’s worth of spiked slush in about 25 minutes. This is nowhere near as fast as the XL or the Twist on slushing speeds, alas. The fill chamber is a little shallow, which means you have to pour slowly or you’ll make a mess. If you accidentally leave the handle down, you’ll also make a mess. Some reports online of cracks in the cylinder over use are also reason for pause. But if aesthetics are a prime consideration, this will slush handily. And look a little better while doing it.Photograph: Matthew KorfhagePhotograph: Matthew KorfhageThe original Ninja Slushi was quite simply a triumph of industrial design when it arrived in 2024—the machine that managed to bring the cocktail bar or convenience-store slushie to the home kitchen countertop. Among many imitators, Ninja’s original design remained the most user-friendly and reliable until the next-generation Ninjas supplanted it.I’ve made coconut-lime daiquiris for a family of visiting Brazilians, who joked that they planned to take the machine back with them on the airplane. I’ve entertained a party full of children with the nonalcoholic version of slushie. And I’ve made silly frozen cocktails at home, whether lime Jarritos slushies or tamarind michelada slushies. Everything frozen is better, it turns out. Freezing a cocktail adds fun and removes shame.But it’s been replaced. I consider the original Slushi a good value model, but it’s no longer the top of the market. The original Slushi doesn’t slush as well on higher-alcohol slushies as the newer XL and Twist, even for ABV below 16 percent. (Really, with an OG Ninja Slushi, the sweet spot is around 10 to 12 percent ABV if you want good consistency.) Milkshakes/soft-serve are not really feasible on the original Ninja either, always either foamy or ice-gritty.Which is all to say, buy the Slushi when it’s on a good sale at 0 or less—or when it’s updated with a compressor as good as the one on the XL or Twist.Other Slushie Machines TestedEver since Ninja took slushies to the home market, the Amazon directories have filled with newer brands you’ve likely never heard of and whose names sometimes seem subject to a randomizer engine: Inoviva, Chivalz, Vibofrost, Friwest, Aekda, Syintao, Vischic, Ranvaira, Rinvotio, and the list goes on. Most are available at discounts compared to Ninja or other more recognizable brands.I’ve tested three such brands: Chivalz, Invoviva, and Vibofrost. All three have had one form of reliability issue or another: basic design defects, inconsistency of performance, or simply disappearing from the market.Chivalz Slushie Machine (no longer in stock): This was previously WIRED’s budget pick, which my co-tester Kat Merck called, without insult, “a quite respectable Ninja Slushi knockoff.” The device arrived with a welcome digital temp readout and a removable back panel that made cleaning easier on the slush chamber. Performance was comparable to the original Ninja, though the user interface was a bit janky. But since last year, the brand’s slushie machines seem to have disappeared, as the brand’s focus moved to air purifiers and humidifiers.Vibofrost Slushie Machine (5, sold out after Prime Day): This Vibofrost, like the Chivalz, freezes slushies comparably to the original Ninja Slushi. And like the Chivalz, it has a somewhat irritating child-lock feature, and a timed feature that seems of limited utility. Though it will slush within around 20 to 30 minutes, the oddly designed spout can spray wildly if there’s any liquid in the machine, the drip tray does not attach securely, and it kinda moans like a dying tauntaun while in operation.Inoviva Slushie Machine for 0: I tested this Inoviva slushie machine twice. The first time, the device registered much louder than competitors, the drip tray arrived stuck to the machine, and the compressor began to fail after a week’s testing. The second time, it was still loud, and the user interface had a difficult-to-navigate locking feature, but freezing was indeed more consistent. The inconsistency in quality control makes this device difficult to recommend. But maybe you’re willing to brave this for a steeply discounted price. The Inoviva also has one terrific feature: The ability to adjust thickness for each drink setting.AccordionItemContainerButtonMy co-tester Kat Merck (on the now-discontinued Chivalz) and I made so very many slushies with each machine, from dairy to nondairy to coffee slushies to straight-up bottles of wine. Specifically, we tested every version of slush that a machine advertised. If Ninja or GreenPan says a machine can make frappés and milkshakes and frozen juices, we made frappés and milkshakes and frozen juices, tinkering where necessary. I froze orange juice and strawberry juice, slushed a bouquet’s worth of rosé, and made slushies from daiquiri to margarita to whiskey Coke. I slushed tamarind micheladas (an excellent idea) and Twisted Tea (a terrible idea).Photograph: Kat MerckI also raced the freezing capabilities of all three machines by pouring a 16-ounce can of delicious Mango Mike’s Harder Lemonade in each, then seeing which machine was fastest. (For the XL, I used a 24-ounce can.) And I made smooth and dense coconut-lime daiquiris with coconut milk, according to Ninja’s recipe, to test how well each machine’s dispenser handled a genuine dense-textured challenge.How Do Home Slushie Machines Work?AccordionItemContainerButtonThe tech is pretty simple, almost ingeniously so: A beefy cylindrical freezing core in the center of the drink chamber continually cools any liquid in contact with it. It’s encircled by a plastic spiral auger attached to a motor. The auger mixes the drink, keeps it slushing instead of freezing solid, and also pushes the resulting slush toward the dispenser nozzle so you can have some. The resolute simplicity of this design allowed Ninja and others to scale down the commercial slushie maker for home consumers thirsty for frozen treats.The main requirement is that the frozen beverage have more than 4 percent sugar—or between 3 percent and 16 percent alcohol—in order to lower the freezing point of the resulting concoction and make slushing possible. Some slushie machine vendors recommend percentages more like 15 percent sugar, for perfect consistency. But I often balk at this. Coca-Cola and orange juice are each around 11 percent sugar—so that’s very sweet. Some hero of the internet has made a slush calculator for easy reference.A minimum of 16 ounces of liquid is required for most 88-ounce home machines, for simple reasons: The liquid needs to be in physical contact with the core in order to slush up and also to keep ice from forming on the central cylinder’s surface. The Slushi XL requires a 24-ounce minimum, because it’s bigger.Can You Put Diet Soda in a Slushie Machine?AccordionItemContainerButtonNo and yes. Slushies rely on a helpful property of water: Sugar (or salt) dissolved in water lowers its freezing point below 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Why? Solubles like sugar are chaos agents. Sugar molecules move randomly, refuse to dissolve into ice, and interfere with water’s ability to form hydrogen bonds and turn crystalline. Some water molecules freeze, but sugar water doesn’t. Tada! Slush.If you try to make a slushie out of sugar-free soda, or sugar-free anything, ice crystals will instead form easily. The stainless steel freezing core will ice over and scrape on the auger, and ice cubes or hunks will gather mass in the slushie machine. The cylinder will start to shake, then the machine will clunk, then eventually you’ll probably break your machine: Low-sugar fail-safes on these devices have not been overly reliable, alas. So don’t try this at home!This doesn’t mean you’re doomed to massive calories if you want to make a slushie. Not every artificial sweetener lowers the freezing point appropriately, but the one that Ninja recommends for diet slushies is allulose, a rare but naturally occurring sugar that’s 70 percent as sweet as basic sugar but is not metabolized effectively by the human digestive system. This means it’s low in calories and doesn’t cause insulin spikes—but as with a lot of indigestibles, note that side effects can include bloating or GI distress for some.For easiest use in a slushie, buy liquid allulose. Powdered versions also exist, but to use them, you’ll need to make a simple syrup by heating up the powder in water to help it dissolve, then let it cool. If you just try to drop the allulose powder into your machine with some Diet Coke, it might not dissolve, and you might still get ice formation. Or at least, I definitely still got ice formation when I tried this on the OG Ninja, and had to stop my machine.How Can You Stop Milkshakes From Getting Foamy in a Slushie Machine?AccordionItemContainerButtonBet you didn’t expect a lesson in milk proteins today! But here’s the deal: Milk proteins start to separate when agitated. Churning milk is, in fact, how butter gets made. Proteins separate out, and you get butter on the one side and buttermilk on the other. Both are delicious, but neither is wanted in a milkshake.Photograph: Matthew KorfhageIf you try to make a milkshake in a churning slushie machine using just milk, you’ll eventually start to see the effects of these milk proteins separating out from buttermilk—which will manifest first as an undesirable foaminess. To avoid this, Ninja recommends also adding heavy cream or half-and-half to any milkshake recipe. The higher fat content will keep things smoother.Note it’s easiest to use fruit syrups, rather than just juice, and add vanillin, or it’ll be a bit boring: The heavy fat tends to overwhelm any subtle fruit flavors. Another deep secret of the tasty milkshake? Salt. Add a tiiiinny pinch; it’ll help bring out flavor. A 16-ounce McDonald’s milkshake has 260 milligrams of sodium—about 1/16th of a teaspoon of table salt, or approximately the amount that fits between your index finger and your thumb.But temper your expectations here. None of the slushie machines we tested made a texture comparable to a classic milkshake. On most machines, which don’t have compressors as powerful as the new-model Ninjas that are now our top picks, the texture is often a little ice-gritty and not as richly textured or integrated as the milkshake you’ll get from your local burger joint, let alone the soft serve from the famously broken ice cream machines at McDonald’s. Slushie machines also can’t handle chunks of frozen fruit, often the best part of a milkshake.On the newer Ninjas, with their more powerful freezing power, I was able to get the smoothness and freeze I wanted. But because most recipes call for a high-fat mix of 2:1 milk and heavy cream in order ot avoid churning foam and butter, the results still weren’t quite a light milkshake. It was more like a dense, rich, quite tasty soft serve.Now, do I like being able to make 20-minute soft-serve in my home? From milk and heavy cream and sugar and a dash of vanilla? Heck yes, I do.#Ninja #Quietly #Drastically #Improved #Slushie #Machineskitchen,shopping,household,food and drink,amazon

Photograph: Matthew Korfhage

GreenPan

Frost Slushie Machine

The slushie machine from Belgian-founded wellness brand GreenPan is maybe the only slushie machine I’d describe as being even slightly attractive, or pleasant on a countertop—available in a trendy pistachio color scheme that a 21-year-old co-tester called “cute.” The slush produced by this device also had quite a nice consistency, perhaps due to a tighter auger around the cylinder that roiled the slush a little more. My colleague Martin Cizmar, who also tested this device, was able to recreate a Philly recipe for Italian-style water ice with Meyer lemons, and declared himself an unending fan.

The GreenPan slushed admirably, making a full chamber’s worth of spiked slush in about 25 minutes. This is nowhere near as fast as the XL or the Twist on slushing speeds, alas. The fill chamber is a little shallow, which means you have to pour slowly or you’ll make a mess. If you accidentally leave the handle down, you’ll also make a mess. Some reports online of cracks in the cylinder over use are also reason for pause. But if aesthetics are a prime consideration, this will slush handily. And look a little better while doing it.

  • Photograph: Matthew Korfhage

  • Photograph: Matthew Korfhage

The original Ninja Slushi was quite simply a triumph of industrial design when it arrived in 2024—the machine that managed to bring the cocktail bar or convenience-store slushie to the home kitchen countertop. Among many imitators, Ninja’s original design remained the most user-friendly and reliable until the next-generation Ninjas supplanted it.

I’ve made coconut-lime daiquiris for a family of visiting Brazilians, who joked that they planned to take the machine back with them on the airplane. I’ve entertained a party full of children with the nonalcoholic version of slushie. And I’ve made silly frozen cocktails at home, whether lime Jarritos slushies or tamarind michelada slushies. Everything frozen is better, it turns out. Freezing a cocktail adds fun and removes shame.

But it’s been replaced. I consider the original Slushi a good value model, but it’s no longer the top of the market. The original Slushi doesn’t slush as well on higher-alcohol slushies as the newer XL and Twist, even for ABV below 16 percent. (Really, with an OG Ninja Slushi, the sweet spot is around 10 to 12 percent ABV if you want good consistency.) Milkshakes/soft-serve are not really feasible on the original Ninja either, always either foamy or ice-gritty.

Which is all to say, buy the Slushi when it’s on a good sale at $250 or less—or when it’s updated with a compressor as good as the one on the XL or Twist.

Other Slushie Machines Tested

Ever since Ninja took slushies to the home market, the Amazon directories have filled with newer brands you’ve likely never heard of and whose names sometimes seem subject to a randomizer engine: Inoviva, Chivalz, Vibofrost, Friwest, Aekda, Syintao, Vischic, Ranvaira, Rinvotio, and the list goes on. Most are available at discounts compared to Ninja or other more recognizable brands.

I’ve tested three such brands: Chivalz, Invoviva, and Vibofrost. All three have had one form of reliability issue or another: basic design defects, inconsistency of performance, or simply disappearing from the market.

Chivalz Slushie Machine (no longer in stock): This was previously WIRED’s budget pick, which my co-tester Kat Merck called, without insult, “a quite respectable Ninja Slushi knockoff.” The device arrived with a welcome digital temp readout and a removable back panel that made cleaning easier on the slush chamber. Performance was comparable to the original Ninja, though the user interface was a bit janky. But since last year, the brand’s slushie machines seem to have disappeared, as the brand’s focus moved to air purifiers and humidifiers.

Vibofrost Slushie Machine ($235, sold out after Prime Day): This Vibofrost, like the Chivalz, freezes slushies comparably to the original Ninja Slushi. And like the Chivalz, it has a somewhat irritating child-lock feature, and a timed feature that seems of limited utility. Though it will slush within around 20 to 30 minutes, the oddly designed spout can spray wildly if there’s any liquid in the machine, the drip tray does not attach securely, and it kinda moans like a dying tauntaun while in operation.

Inoviva Slushie Machine for $120: I tested this Inoviva slushie machine twice. The first time, the device registered much louder than competitors, the drip tray arrived stuck to the machine, and the compressor began to fail after a week’s testing. The second time, it was still loud, and the user interface had a difficult-to-navigate locking feature, but freezing was indeed more consistent. The inconsistency in quality control makes this device difficult to recommend. But maybe you’re willing to brave this for a steeply discounted price. The Inoviva also has one terrific feature: The ability to adjust thickness for each drink setting.

My co-tester Kat Merck (on the now-discontinued Chivalz) and I made so very many slushies with each machine, from dairy to nondairy to coffee slushies to straight-up bottles of wine. Specifically, we tested every version of slush that a machine advertised. If Ninja or GreenPan says a machine can make frappés and milkshakes and frozen juices, we made frappés and milkshakes and frozen juices, tinkering where necessary. I froze orange juice and strawberry juice, slushed a bouquet’s worth of rosé, and made slushies from daiquiri to margarita to whiskey Coke. I slushed tamarind micheladas (an excellent idea) and Twisted Tea (a terrible idea).

Image may contain Cutlery Spoon Indoors Interior Design Cup Jar Floor Flooring Cooking Pan and Cookware

Photograph: Kat Merck

I also raced the freezing capabilities of all three machines by pouring a 16-ounce can of delicious Mango Mike’s Harder Lemonade in each, then seeing which machine was fastest. (For the XL, I used a 24-ounce can.) And I made smooth and dense coconut-lime daiquiris with coconut milk, according to Ninja’s recipe, to test how well each machine’s dispenser handled a genuine dense-textured challenge.

How Do Home Slushie Machines Work?

The tech is pretty simple, almost ingeniously so: A beefy cylindrical freezing core in the center of the drink chamber continually cools any liquid in contact with it. It’s encircled by a plastic spiral auger attached to a motor. The auger mixes the drink, keeps it slushing instead of freezing solid, and also pushes the resulting slush toward the dispenser nozzle so you can have some. The resolute simplicity of this design allowed Ninja and others to scale down the commercial slushie maker for home consumers thirsty for frozen treats.

The main requirement is that the frozen beverage have more than 4 percent sugar—or between 3 percent and 16 percent alcohol—in order to lower the freezing point of the resulting concoction and make slushing possible. Some slushie machine vendors recommend percentages more like 15 percent sugar, for perfect consistency. But I often balk at this. Coca-Cola and orange juice are each around 11 percent sugar—so that’s very sweet. Some hero of the internet has made a slush calculator for easy reference.

A minimum of 16 ounces of liquid is required for most 88-ounce home machines, for simple reasons: The liquid needs to be in physical contact with the core in order to slush up and also to keep ice from forming on the central cylinder’s surface. The Slushi XL requires a 24-ounce minimum, because it’s bigger.

Can You Put Diet Soda in a Slushie Machine?

No and yes. Slushies rely on a helpful property of water: Sugar (or salt) dissolved in water lowers its freezing point below 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Why? Solubles like sugar are chaos agents. Sugar molecules move randomly, refuse to dissolve into ice, and interfere with water’s ability to form hydrogen bonds and turn crystalline. Some water molecules freeze, but sugar water doesn’t. Tada! Slush.

If you try to make a slushie out of sugar-free soda, or sugar-free anything, ice crystals will instead form easily. The stainless steel freezing core will ice over and scrape on the auger, and ice cubes or hunks will gather mass in the slushie machine. The cylinder will start to shake, then the machine will clunk, then eventually you’ll probably break your machine: Low-sugar fail-safes on these devices have not been overly reliable, alas. So don’t try this at home!

This doesn’t mean you’re doomed to massive calories if you want to make a slushie. Not every artificial sweetener lowers the freezing point appropriately, but the one that Ninja recommends for diet slushies is allulose, a rare but naturally occurring sugar that’s 70 percent as sweet as basic sugar but is not metabolized effectively by the human digestive system. This means it’s low in calories and doesn’t cause insulin spikes—but as with a lot of indigestibles, note that side effects can include bloating or GI distress for some.

For easiest use in a slushie, buy liquid allulose. Powdered versions also exist, but to use them, you’ll need to make a simple syrup by heating up the powder in water to help it dissolve, then let it cool. If you just try to drop the allulose powder into your machine with some Diet Coke, it might not dissolve, and you might still get ice formation. Or at least, I definitely still got ice formation when I tried this on the OG Ninja, and had to stop my machine.

How Can You Stop Milkshakes From Getting Foamy in a Slushie Machine?

Bet you didn’t expect a lesson in milk proteins today! But here’s the deal: Milk proteins start to separate when agitated. Churning milk is, in fact, how butter gets made. Proteins separate out, and you get butter on the one side and buttermilk on the other. Both are delicious, but neither is wanted in a milkshake.

Image may contain Cream Dessert Food Ice Cream Soft Serve Ice Cream Frozen Yogurt Baby and Person

Photograph: Matthew Korfhage

If you try to make a milkshake in a churning slushie machine using just milk, you’ll eventually start to see the effects of these milk proteins separating out from buttermilk—which will manifest first as an undesirable foaminess. To avoid this, Ninja recommends also adding heavy cream or half-and-half to any milkshake recipe. The higher fat content will keep things smoother.

Note it’s easiest to use fruit syrups, rather than just juice, and add vanillin, or it’ll be a bit boring: The heavy fat tends to overwhelm any subtle fruit flavors. Another deep secret of the tasty milkshake? Salt. Add a tiiiinny pinch; it’ll help bring out flavor. A 16-ounce McDonald’s milkshake has 260 milligrams of sodium—about 1/16th of a teaspoon of table salt, or approximately the amount that fits between your index finger and your thumb.

But temper your expectations here. None of the slushie machines we tested made a texture comparable to a classic milkshake. On most machines, which don’t have compressors as powerful as the new-model Ninjas that are now our top picks, the texture is often a little ice-gritty and not as richly textured or integrated as the milkshake you’ll get from your local burger joint, let alone the soft serve from the famously broken ice cream machines at McDonald’s. Slushie machines also can’t handle chunks of frozen fruit, often the best part of a milkshake.

On the newer Ninjas, with their more powerful freezing power, I was able to get the smoothness and freeze I wanted. But because most recipes call for a high-fat mix of 2:1 milk and heavy cream in order ot avoid churning foam and butter, the results still weren’t quite a light milkshake. It was more like a dense, rich, quite tasty soft serve.

Now, do I like being able to make 20-minute soft-serve in my home? From milk and heavy cream and sugar and a dash of vanilla? Heck yes, I do.

#Ninja #Quietly #Drastically #Improved #Slushie #Machineskitchen,shopping,household,food and drink,amazon">Ninja Quietly but Drastically Improved Its Slushie Machines

Other Slushie Machines I Liked

Photograph: Matthew Korfhage

GreenPan

Frost Slushie Machine

The slushie machine from Belgian-founded wellness brand GreenPan is maybe the only slushie machine I’d describe as being even slightly attractive, or pleasant on a countertop—available in a trendy pistachio color scheme that a 21-year-old co-tester called “cute.” The slush produced by this device also had quite a nice consistency, perhaps due to a tighter auger around the cylinder that roiled the slush a little more. My colleague Martin Cizmar, who also tested this device, was able to recreate a Philly recipe for Italian-style water ice with Meyer lemons, and declared himself an unending fan.

The GreenPan slushed admirably, making a full chamber’s worth of spiked slush in about 25 minutes. This is nowhere near as fast as the XL or the Twist on slushing speeds, alas. The fill chamber is a little shallow, which means you have to pour slowly or you’ll make a mess. If you accidentally leave the handle down, you’ll also make a mess. Some reports online of cracks in the cylinder over use are also reason for pause. But if aesthetics are a prime consideration, this will slush handily. And look a little better while doing it.

  • Photograph: Matthew Korfhage

  • Photograph: Matthew Korfhage

The original Ninja Slushi was quite simply a triumph of industrial design when it arrived in 2024—the machine that managed to bring the cocktail bar or convenience-store slushie to the home kitchen countertop. Among many imitators, Ninja’s original design remained the most user-friendly and reliable until the next-generation Ninjas supplanted it.

I’ve made coconut-lime daiquiris for a family of visiting Brazilians, who joked that they planned to take the machine back with them on the airplane. I’ve entertained a party full of children with the nonalcoholic version of slushie. And I’ve made silly frozen cocktails at home, whether lime Jarritos slushies or tamarind michelada slushies. Everything frozen is better, it turns out. Freezing a cocktail adds fun and removes shame.

But it’s been replaced. I consider the original Slushi a good value model, but it’s no longer the top of the market. The original Slushi doesn’t slush as well on higher-alcohol slushies as the newer XL and Twist, even for ABV below 16 percent. (Really, with an OG Ninja Slushi, the sweet spot is around 10 to 12 percent ABV if you want good consistency.) Milkshakes/soft-serve are not really feasible on the original Ninja either, always either foamy or ice-gritty.

Which is all to say, buy the Slushi when it’s on a good sale at $250 or less—or when it’s updated with a compressor as good as the one on the XL or Twist.

Other Slushie Machines Tested

Ever since Ninja took slushies to the home market, the Amazon directories have filled with newer brands you’ve likely never heard of and whose names sometimes seem subject to a randomizer engine: Inoviva, Chivalz, Vibofrost, Friwest, Aekda, Syintao, Vischic, Ranvaira, Rinvotio, and the list goes on. Most are available at discounts compared to Ninja or other more recognizable brands.

I’ve tested three such brands: Chivalz, Invoviva, and Vibofrost. All three have had one form of reliability issue or another: basic design defects, inconsistency of performance, or simply disappearing from the market.

Chivalz Slushie Machine (no longer in stock): This was previously WIRED’s budget pick, which my co-tester Kat Merck called, without insult, “a quite respectable Ninja Slushi knockoff.” The device arrived with a welcome digital temp readout and a removable back panel that made cleaning easier on the slush chamber. Performance was comparable to the original Ninja, though the user interface was a bit janky. But since last year, the brand’s slushie machines seem to have disappeared, as the brand’s focus moved to air purifiers and humidifiers.

Vibofrost Slushie Machine ($235, sold out after Prime Day): This Vibofrost, like the Chivalz, freezes slushies comparably to the original Ninja Slushi. And like the Chivalz, it has a somewhat irritating child-lock feature, and a timed feature that seems of limited utility. Though it will slush within around 20 to 30 minutes, the oddly designed spout can spray wildly if there’s any liquid in the machine, the drip tray does not attach securely, and it kinda moans like a dying tauntaun while in operation.

Inoviva Slushie Machine for $120: I tested this Inoviva slushie machine twice. The first time, the device registered much louder than competitors, the drip tray arrived stuck to the machine, and the compressor began to fail after a week’s testing. The second time, it was still loud, and the user interface had a difficult-to-navigate locking feature, but freezing was indeed more consistent. The inconsistency in quality control makes this device difficult to recommend. But maybe you’re willing to brave this for a steeply discounted price. The Inoviva also has one terrific feature: The ability to adjust thickness for each drink setting.

My co-tester Kat Merck (on the now-discontinued Chivalz) and I made so very many slushies with each machine, from dairy to nondairy to coffee slushies to straight-up bottles of wine. Specifically, we tested every version of slush that a machine advertised. If Ninja or GreenPan says a machine can make frappés and milkshakes and frozen juices, we made frappés and milkshakes and frozen juices, tinkering where necessary. I froze orange juice and strawberry juice, slushed a bouquet’s worth of rosé, and made slushies from daiquiri to margarita to whiskey Coke. I slushed tamarind micheladas (an excellent idea) and Twisted Tea (a terrible idea).

Image may contain Cutlery Spoon Indoors Interior Design Cup Jar Floor Flooring Cooking Pan and Cookware

Photograph: Kat Merck

I also raced the freezing capabilities of all three machines by pouring a 16-ounce can of delicious Mango Mike’s Harder Lemonade in each, then seeing which machine was fastest. (For the XL, I used a 24-ounce can.) And I made smooth and dense coconut-lime daiquiris with coconut milk, according to Ninja’s recipe, to test how well each machine’s dispenser handled a genuine dense-textured challenge.

How Do Home Slushie Machines Work?

The tech is pretty simple, almost ingeniously so: A beefy cylindrical freezing core in the center of the drink chamber continually cools any liquid in contact with it. It’s encircled by a plastic spiral auger attached to a motor. The auger mixes the drink, keeps it slushing instead of freezing solid, and also pushes the resulting slush toward the dispenser nozzle so you can have some. The resolute simplicity of this design allowed Ninja and others to scale down the commercial slushie maker for home consumers thirsty for frozen treats.

The main requirement is that the frozen beverage have more than 4 percent sugar—or between 3 percent and 16 percent alcohol—in order to lower the freezing point of the resulting concoction and make slushing possible. Some slushie machine vendors recommend percentages more like 15 percent sugar, for perfect consistency. But I often balk at this. Coca-Cola and orange juice are each around 11 percent sugar—so that’s very sweet. Some hero of the internet has made a slush calculator for easy reference.

A minimum of 16 ounces of liquid is required for most 88-ounce home machines, for simple reasons: The liquid needs to be in physical contact with the core in order to slush up and also to keep ice from forming on the central cylinder’s surface. The Slushi XL requires a 24-ounce minimum, because it’s bigger.

Can You Put Diet Soda in a Slushie Machine?

No and yes. Slushies rely on a helpful property of water: Sugar (or salt) dissolved in water lowers its freezing point below 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Why? Solubles like sugar are chaos agents. Sugar molecules move randomly, refuse to dissolve into ice, and interfere with water’s ability to form hydrogen bonds and turn crystalline. Some water molecules freeze, but sugar water doesn’t. Tada! Slush.

If you try to make a slushie out of sugar-free soda, or sugar-free anything, ice crystals will instead form easily. The stainless steel freezing core will ice over and scrape on the auger, and ice cubes or hunks will gather mass in the slushie machine. The cylinder will start to shake, then the machine will clunk, then eventually you’ll probably break your machine: Low-sugar fail-safes on these devices have not been overly reliable, alas. So don’t try this at home!

This doesn’t mean you’re doomed to massive calories if you want to make a slushie. Not every artificial sweetener lowers the freezing point appropriately, but the one that Ninja recommends for diet slushies is allulose, a rare but naturally occurring sugar that’s 70 percent as sweet as basic sugar but is not metabolized effectively by the human digestive system. This means it’s low in calories and doesn’t cause insulin spikes—but as with a lot of indigestibles, note that side effects can include bloating or GI distress for some.

For easiest use in a slushie, buy liquid allulose. Powdered versions also exist, but to use them, you’ll need to make a simple syrup by heating up the powder in water to help it dissolve, then let it cool. If you just try to drop the allulose powder into your machine with some Diet Coke, it might not dissolve, and you might still get ice formation. Or at least, I definitely still got ice formation when I tried this on the OG Ninja, and had to stop my machine.

How Can You Stop Milkshakes From Getting Foamy in a Slushie Machine?

Bet you didn’t expect a lesson in milk proteins today! But here’s the deal: Milk proteins start to separate when agitated. Churning milk is, in fact, how butter gets made. Proteins separate out, and you get butter on the one side and buttermilk on the other. Both are delicious, but neither is wanted in a milkshake.

Image may contain Cream Dessert Food Ice Cream Soft Serve Ice Cream Frozen Yogurt Baby and Person

Photograph: Matthew Korfhage

If you try to make a milkshake in a churning slushie machine using just milk, you’ll eventually start to see the effects of these milk proteins separating out from buttermilk—which will manifest first as an undesirable foaminess. To avoid this, Ninja recommends also adding heavy cream or half-and-half to any milkshake recipe. The higher fat content will keep things smoother.

Note it’s easiest to use fruit syrups, rather than just juice, and add vanillin, or it’ll be a bit boring: The heavy fat tends to overwhelm any subtle fruit flavors. Another deep secret of the tasty milkshake? Salt. Add a tiiiinny pinch; it’ll help bring out flavor. A 16-ounce McDonald’s milkshake has 260 milligrams of sodium—about 1/16th of a teaspoon of table salt, or approximately the amount that fits between your index finger and your thumb.

But temper your expectations here. None of the slushie machines we tested made a texture comparable to a classic milkshake. On most machines, which don’t have compressors as powerful as the new-model Ninjas that are now our top picks, the texture is often a little ice-gritty and not as richly textured or integrated as the milkshake you’ll get from your local burger joint, let alone the soft serve from the famously broken ice cream machines at McDonald’s. Slushie machines also can’t handle chunks of frozen fruit, often the best part of a milkshake.

On the newer Ninjas, with their more powerful freezing power, I was able to get the smoothness and freeze I wanted. But because most recipes call for a high-fat mix of 2:1 milk and heavy cream in order ot avoid churning foam and butter, the results still weren’t quite a light milkshake. It was more like a dense, rich, quite tasty soft serve.

Now, do I like being able to make 20-minute soft-serve in my home? From milk and heavy cream and sugar and a dash of vanilla? Heck yes, I do.

#Ninja #Quietly #Drastically #Improved #Slushie #Machineskitchen,shopping,household,food and drink,amazon

TL;DR: The LG 27GX790B-B 27-inch UltraGear OLED gaming monitor is on sale for $699.99 at Amazon, down from its $999.99 list price.

$699.99 at Amazon
$999.99 Save $300

OLED gaming monitors are rarely where you go looking for budget upgrades, but Amazon’s latest LG UltraGear deal gives you a pretty serious price cut on one of the fastest 27-inch screens in LG’s current lineup. 

As of June 30, the LG’s 27-inch UltraGear QHD OLED gaming monitor (the 27GX790B-B model) is on sale for only $699.99 at Amazon — with a limited-time deal cutting $300 from its $999.99 list price. 

Shipped and sold by Amazon directly (instead of a third-party seller), free delivery is set for July 5 at the time of writing, or as soon as July 2 for Prime members. Amazon also shows a used “Like New” option for $664.99 through Amazon Resale, if you want to save as much as possible. Anyone wanting the new model directly from Amazon will want to stick with the $699.99 listing. 

This UltraGear is built around a 27-inch QHD OLED panel with a 2560×1440 resolution, giving you a sharper picture than 1080p without asking your PC to push full 4K. If you’re either new to PC gaming or upgrading from a much older rig, this is a very nice middle ground. 

If you’re the type who plays a lot of competitive games, you’ll be a big fan of LG’s Dual Mode: letting you switch between QHD at up to 540Hz or HD at up to 720Hz, depending on whether you care more about sharpness or pure reaction time. Add in the 0.02ms gray-to-gray response time, and games like Counter-Strike 2, Rocket League, Fortnite, and Valorant should feel seriously quick.

The OLED panel should also help with more cinematic games and streaming, with LG listing 335 nits of typical brightness, DisplayHDR True Black 500, UL Verified Perfect Black, and a 1.5M:1 contrast ratio.

That means if you’ll be playing Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced or Grand Theft Auto VI in the future, you’ll be getting richer blacks, stronger contrast, and better detail in darker scenes than you’d expect from a more standard gaming monitor. 

For keeping frames extra smooth, the monitor also supports NVIDIA G-SYNC compatibility and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro. DisplayPort 2.1, dual HDMI 2.1 ports, USB-C, three USB ports, DTS Headphone:X support, and height, tilt, swivel, and pivot adjustments round out the package — so you have all the versatility you need to complete your new immersive setup and then some. 

If you fancy an extra QHD monitor, the 27-inch Odyssey G5 is now only $149.99 at Amazon. As for OLEDs, you can still grab the Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 curved gaming monitor for its lowest-ever price. 

#gaming #monitor #deal #Dual #Mode #27inch #UltraGear #OLED #Amazon">Best gaming monitor deal: Dual Mode 27-inch LG UltraGear OLED is 40% off at Amazon TL;DR: The LG 27GX790B-B 27-inch UltraGear OLED gaming monitor is on sale for 9.99 at Amazon, down from its 9.99 list price. 9.99 at Amazon 9.99 Save 0 OLED gaming monitors are rarely where you go looking for budget upgrades, but Amazon’s latest LG UltraGear deal gives you a pretty serious price cut on one of the fastest 27-inch screens in LG’s current lineup. As of June 30, the LG’s 27-inch UltraGear QHD OLED gaming monitor (the 27GX790B-B model) is on sale for only 9.99 at Amazon — with a limited-time deal cutting 0 from its 9.99 list price. Shipped and sold by Amazon directly (instead of a third-party seller), free delivery is set for July 5 at the time of writing, or as soon as July 2 for Prime members. Amazon also shows a used “Like New” option for 4.99 through Amazon Resale, if you want to save as much as possible. Anyone wanting the new model directly from Amazon will want to stick with the 9.99 listing. This UltraGear is built around a 27-inch QHD OLED panel with a 2560×1440 resolution, giving you a sharper picture than 1080p without asking your PC to push full 4K. If you’re either new to PC gaming or upgrading from a much older rig, this is a very nice middle ground. If you’re the type who plays a lot of competitive games, you’ll be a big fan of LG’s Dual Mode: letting you switch between QHD at up to 540Hz or HD at up to 720Hz, depending on whether you care more about sharpness or pure reaction time. Add in the 0.02ms gray-to-gray response time, and games like Counter-Strike 2, Rocket League, Fortnite, and Valorant should feel seriously quick.The OLED panel should also help with more cinematic games and streaming, with LG listing 335 nits of typical brightness, DisplayHDR True Black 500, UL Verified Perfect Black, and a 1.5M:1 contrast ratio. That means if you’ll be playing Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced or Grand Theft Auto VI in the future, you’ll be getting richer blacks, stronger contrast, and better detail in darker scenes than you’d expect from a more standard gaming monitor.  Mashable Deals By signing up, you agree to receive recurring automated SMS marketing messages from Mashable Deals at the number provided. Msg and data rates may apply. Up to 2 messages/day. Reply STOP to opt out, HELP for help. Consent is not a condition of purchase. See our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. For keeping frames extra smooth, the monitor also supports NVIDIA G-SYNC compatibility and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro. DisplayPort 2.1, dual HDMI 2.1 ports, USB-C, three USB ports, DTS Headphone:X support, and height, tilt, swivel, and pivot adjustments round out the package — so you have all the versatility you need to complete your new immersive setup and then some. If you fancy an extra QHD monitor, the 27-inch Odyssey G5 is now only 9.99 at Amazon. As for OLEDs, you can still grab the Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 curved gaming monitor for its lowest-ever price.  #gaming #monitor #deal #Dual #Mode #27inch #UltraGear #OLED #Amazon

$699.99 at Amazon, down from its $999.99 list price.

$699.99 at Amazon
$999.99 Save $300

OLED gaming monitors are rarely where you go looking for budget upgrades, but Amazon’s latest LG UltraGear deal gives you a pretty serious price cut on one of the fastest 27-inch screens in LG’s current lineup. 

As of June 30, the LG’s 27-inch UltraGear QHD OLED gaming monitor (the 27GX790B-B model) is on sale for only $699.99 at Amazon — with a limited-time deal cutting $300 from its $999.99 list price. 

Shipped and sold by Amazon directly (instead of a third-party seller), free delivery is set for July 5 at the time of writing, or as soon as July 2 for Prime members. Amazon also shows a used “Like New” option for $664.99 through Amazon Resale, if you want to save as much as possible. Anyone wanting the new model directly from Amazon will want to stick with the $699.99 listing. 

This UltraGear is built around a 27-inch QHD OLED panel with a 2560×1440 resolution, giving you a sharper picture than 1080p without asking your PC to push full 4K. If you’re either new to PC gaming or upgrading from a much older rig, this is a very nice middle ground. 

If you’re the type who plays a lot of competitive games, you’ll be a big fan of LG’s Dual Mode: letting you switch between QHD at up to 540Hz or HD at up to 720Hz, depending on whether you care more about sharpness or pure reaction time. Add in the 0.02ms gray-to-gray response time, and games like Counter-Strike 2, Rocket League, Fortnite, and Valorant should feel seriously quick.

The OLED panel should also help with more cinematic games and streaming, with LG listing 335 nits of typical brightness, DisplayHDR True Black 500, UL Verified Perfect Black, and a 1.5M:1 contrast ratio.

That means if you’ll be playing Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced or Grand Theft Auto VI in the future, you’ll be getting richer blacks, stronger contrast, and better detail in darker scenes than you’d expect from a more standard gaming monitor. 

For keeping frames extra smooth, the monitor also supports NVIDIA G-SYNC compatibility and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro. DisplayPort 2.1, dual HDMI 2.1 ports, USB-C, three USB ports, DTS Headphone:X support, and height, tilt, swivel, and pivot adjustments round out the package — so you have all the versatility you need to complete your new immersive setup and then some. 

If you fancy an extra QHD monitor, the 27-inch Odyssey G5 is now only $149.99 at Amazon. As for OLEDs, you can still grab the Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 curved gaming monitor for its lowest-ever price. 

#gaming #monitor #deal #Dual #Mode #27inch #UltraGear #OLED #Amazon">Best gaming monitor deal: Dual Mode 27-inch LG UltraGear OLED is 40% off at Amazon

TL;DR: The LG 27GX790B-B 27-inch UltraGear OLED gaming monitor is on sale for $699.99 at Amazon, down from its $999.99 list price.

$699.99 at Amazon
$999.99 Save $300

OLED gaming monitors are rarely where you go looking for budget upgrades, but Amazon’s latest LG UltraGear deal gives you a pretty serious price cut on one of the fastest 27-inch screens in LG’s current lineup. 

As of June 30, the LG’s 27-inch UltraGear QHD OLED gaming monitor (the 27GX790B-B model) is on sale for only $699.99 at Amazon — with a limited-time deal cutting $300 from its $999.99 list price. 

Shipped and sold by Amazon directly (instead of a third-party seller), free delivery is set for July 5 at the time of writing, or as soon as July 2 for Prime members. Amazon also shows a used “Like New” option for $664.99 through Amazon Resale, if you want to save as much as possible. Anyone wanting the new model directly from Amazon will want to stick with the $699.99 listing. 

This UltraGear is built around a 27-inch QHD OLED panel with a 2560×1440 resolution, giving you a sharper picture than 1080p without asking your PC to push full 4K. If you’re either new to PC gaming or upgrading from a much older rig, this is a very nice middle ground. 

If you’re the type who plays a lot of competitive games, you’ll be a big fan of LG’s Dual Mode: letting you switch between QHD at up to 540Hz or HD at up to 720Hz, depending on whether you care more about sharpness or pure reaction time. Add in the 0.02ms gray-to-gray response time, and games like Counter-Strike 2, Rocket League, Fortnite, and Valorant should feel seriously quick.

The OLED panel should also help with more cinematic games and streaming, with LG listing 335 nits of typical brightness, DisplayHDR True Black 500, UL Verified Perfect Black, and a 1.5M:1 contrast ratio.

That means if you’ll be playing Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced or Grand Theft Auto VI in the future, you’ll be getting richer blacks, stronger contrast, and better detail in darker scenes than you’d expect from a more standard gaming monitor. 

For keeping frames extra smooth, the monitor also supports NVIDIA G-SYNC compatibility and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro. DisplayPort 2.1, dual HDMI 2.1 ports, USB-C, three USB ports, DTS Headphone:X support, and height, tilt, swivel, and pivot adjustments round out the package — so you have all the versatility you need to complete your new immersive setup and then some. 

If you fancy an extra QHD monitor, the 27-inch Odyssey G5 is now only $149.99 at Amazon. As for OLEDs, you can still grab the Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 curved gaming monitor for its lowest-ever price. 

#gaming #monitor #deal #Dual #Mode #27inch #UltraGear #OLED #Amazon

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