Want Mr Whippy on tap? I put the viral Ninja Creami Scoop and Swirl ice-cream maker to the test

For me, ice-cream isn’t only for summer. It’s my dessert of choice all year round, and a good ice-cream maker ensures it’s always readily available. When I put more than a dozen models through their paces earlier this year, one thing became clear: the most important feature in any machine is ease of use.

On that front, the Ninja Creami really scored highly for me. I’ve used the original NC300 model for a few years, and I like its simplicity and that it’s easy to clean. Nowadays, though, we expect our appliances to do a little more – and when it comes to ice-cream, the current craze is soft serve.

Homemade Mr Whippy has become hugely popular over the past year or so, both on social media and in restaurants, and it’s now a feature on several slushie machines (another appliance having a moment). The Ninja Scoop and Swirl ice-cream maker takes a slightly different approach. Rather than using a compressor to chill the mixture in real time, it combines the classic freeze-first method of the original Creami with a mechanism that transforms the frozen mixture into soft serve.

Easier to clean than a slushie machine and packed with impressive functionality, the Ninja Creami Scoop and Swirl promises the best of both worlds when it comes to homemade ice-cream. If you’re a regular social media user, you may well have come across one of the many thousands of videos posted about it this summer. But is it any good?

How I tested

The Scoop and Swirl is a little more feature-rich than your average ice-cream maker, so alongside my usual tests, I also gave the machine’s more unusual features a (s)whirl.

My standard tests include making a batch of Felicity Cloake’s perfect vanilla ice-cream and lemon sorbet. I also made Ninja’s own soft-serve recipe, a lower-calorie ice-cream from the booklet and a dairy-free option, putting its claim to do it all to the test. I assessed each recipe as soon as it came out of the machine, and returned to them after a couple of days in the freezer to see how well they held up.

I also considered ease of use and cleaning – after all, too much post-churn faff, and you might as well just buy premade ice-cream. As well as noting whether it was easy to disassemble and the parts were dishwasher-safe, I measured noise levels with a decibel meter – this style of ice-cream maker is notoriously noisy.

What you need to know

The Ninja Scoop and Swirl is a clear response to an ever-growing appetite for homemade soft serve, but to call it simply a soft-serve model would be a disservice to this weird and wacky machine. It’s very much aimed at those of us who’d rather experiment than settle for traditional ice-cream – although, of course, you can still make that if you want to.

Think “healthier” frozen treats using semi-skimmed milk, protein-packed fro-yo or sugar alternatives, alongside all the classics. This is evident in the included recipe book, which offers plenty of ways to customise your ice-cream to better suit a healthier lifestyle. To some, that might sound a little boring, but I think it gives people the freedom to enjoy a dessert without worrying quite so much about the fat or sugar.

The Scoop and Swirl works in two distinct stages. First, a classic blade-churning mechanism takes your frozen mixture and processes it into smooth ice-cream – if you’ve used Ninja’s Creami machines before, this will be familiar to you. Then there’s the new soft-serve attachment, which pushes the churned mixture through a silicone nozzle, via the rather fun dispensing handle on the side. This means you can enjoy it straight from the bowl or take it one step further for that classic soft, swirly texture.

Ten functions create different frozen desserts, including classics such as gelato, ice-cream and sorbet, alongside some rather Ninja-esque additions such as CreamiFit, for protein-based recipes, and Lite Ice Cream for lower-fat and lower-sugar options. You can even make milkshakes, which is a fun addition. Each setting churns at varying speeds and times – between three and five minutes – to give you the right texture for each style of ice-cream.

In addition to those main ice-cream functions, there is an option to re-spin your ice-cream if it has lost its creamy texture from being in the freezer a while. Plus, there’s a Mix-In button that gives your mixture a slower, secondary pass to add extras such as chocolate chips.

Ninja Creami Scoop and Swirl specifications

Dimensions: 25.5 x 48.5 x 44.5cm (WDH)
Maximum capacity: 480ml to max fill line
Modes: Ice Cream, Gelato, Soft-serve Gelato, Sorbet, Lite Ice Cream, Fruiti, CreamiFit, Frozen Yoghurt, Milkshake, Mix-In
Machine type: freeze-first
Spare parts: available from SharkNinja’s website
Weight: 9.45kg

What we love

Like all new kitchen tech, ice-cream makers – particularly those that offer soft serve – come with a bit of a learning curve. Yet the Ninja Scoop and Swirl makes the whole process almost suspiciously easy.

Having used the original Ninja Creami for years, I wasn’t too concerned about getting to grips with the Scoop and Swirl. But unboxing it and seeing the new design and containers did trigger what I call “overcomplication concern” – that tendency for kitchen tech to make simple things unnecessarily complex with features nobody asked for. Thankfully, I needn’t have worried: the instructions are clear, and I quickly felt at ease with the machine.

The Scoop and Swirl comes with two 480ml tubs, so my initial tests focused on making Felicity Cloake’s classic vanilla ice-cream and sorbet. Each setting adjusts the churn speed and time to suit the consistency of the type of frozen treat. Using the respective settings yielded fairly good results, but it’s worth keeping expectations realistic: this machine uses a different method from traditional churners, so its results won’t be identical to, say, a compressor model.

Having said that, the vanilla ice-cream came out very creamy. I felt the sorbet needed a bit of manual mixing to finesse the texture, although achieving perfectly smooth results with any machine is tricky, so I wouldn’t consider this a huge red flag. The sorbet was still perfectly good to serve – and I can’t imagine you’d get many complaints around the table.

I was also super impressed by the soft serve the Scoop and Swirl produced. Since the mixture is already frozen when you process it, the texture is much firmer than the softer consistency of a slushie-style compressor machine.

What’s more, Ninja’s provided recipe uses a 1/4 teaspoon of xanthan gum, which significantly improves the stability and shape of the soft serve. This was certainly true of both the dairy and vegan versions I made. Most dairy-free milks and creams already contain thickeners, so there’s no need to add extra xanthan gum. You can also make the dairy version without it; just don’t expect it to hold its shape for long in a wafer cone.

I really liked the lighter ice-cream options in the recipe booklet, too. The texture is a little icier than traditional ice-cream, as fat and sugar help prevent the formation of ice crystals. But it still tasted like ice-cream and scratched the same itch, just with fewer calories.

The Scoop and Swirl is also surprisingly easy to clean, despite appearing to have lots of nooks and crannies in which ice-cream could hide. It’s clear Ninja has thought about this because I found it easy to flush through the containers and soft-serve chambers with soapy water. Dried-on ice-cream may need a bit of a soak first, though. The tubs can be popped in the dishwasher, while the rest of the machine stays relatively ice-cream-free and can simply be wiped over with a damp cloth.

What we don’t love

As much as I enjoyed using this machine, it’s not perfect. I think the biggest and most obvious concern for many people will be the price. At its full price of £369.99, it’s one of the priciest ice-cream makers I’ve tested. It’s also one of the best in terms of functionality and ease of use, but that’s still a sizeable investment. And if you already own the original Ninja Creami or similar and are happy with it, I’m not sure that the soft-serve function will add all that much to your life.

Another thing that struck me was the tub size. At 480ml, the Scoop and Swirl’s tubs are a similar size as those of the original Creami, but that feels stingy for a machine designed to serve soft ice-cream.

I think of soft serve as something to wheel out at larger gatherings, and when I did, the two tubs were able to fill just six small ice-cream cones. Both tubs also left a small amount of unprocessed soft serve in the bottom that I had to laboriously scoop out with a spoon. Much like the Creami XL, which comes with 710ml tubs as standard, I’d have liked to see an XL option for the Scoop and Swirl.

As a final note, I can’t ignore how noisy this machine is. In my tests, it measured between 80 and 90dB (the top end of which is similar to a power tool) depending on the setting, and that’s at a consistent level for about three to five minutes. Unfortunately, it’s an unavoidable side-effect of this type of blade-based machine – one you’ll have to stomach for the sake of your ice-cream.

Warranty and repairability

Ninja offers a two-year warranty on the Scoop and Swirl if you register, which covers free repairs or replacements. This doesn’t include expected wear and tear, misuse of parts or breakages caused by third-party repairs. You can also buy additional tubs and accessories via the SharkNinja website.

Ninja Creami Scoop and Swirl: should I buy it?

If you like the idea of an ice-cream maker that does more than produce traditional ice-cream, the Ninja Scoop and Swirl is a worthwhile investment. Most good-quality compressor models cost well over £200 and aren’t as generous in terms of features. The thought and time that have gone into making the Creami machines are clear, and they’re particularly beginner-friendly, with plenty of tried-and-tested recipes to get you started. The Scoop and Swirl is also a great choice for those of us who love a regular sweet treat but want their indulgences to be lighter, lower-sugar or dairy-free.

I wouldn’t say this is a necessary upgrade if you already have an ice-cream machine – unless it’s on its last legs. It’s too expensive for that. But if you’re in the market for your first ice-cream maker and love soft serve, then the Scoop and Swirl is a very competent, well-thought-out and easy-to-use machine.

For more, read the best (and worst) chef’s knives and the best blenders for smoothies, soups and frozen desserts

Danielle Amato is a consumer reviews journalist with almost a decade of experience covering kitchen and home appliances. She’s an avid ice-cream and pasta enthusiast (not at the same time, though she wouldn’t judge) and loves nothing more than getting stuck into a new recipe or appliance in her unofficial test kitchen