Italian ice is the coarse cousin of sorbet, and on the Creami it is tied to one machine. The NC501 Deluxe is the only current model with the Italian Ice and Slushi programs; the NC601 swapped them out for CreamiFit, Frappe and Dairy-Free, and the Creami series and NC701 never had them. On the NC501 our lemon base came out of the Italian Ice program fine, granular and slightly crunchy, like a shaved ice from a cart. The same base on Sorbet, which every model has, came out smooth and dense. Both are good; they are different desserts.
The base is water-heavy, which is why sugar is the whole recipe. An Italian ice is roughly 1 part fruit juice or purée to 1 part water with 1/2 cup of sugar per 16 oz pint, more sugar than a sorbet because water freezes harder than fruit. Below about 1/3 cup our test base froze into a solid block that the paddle scraped rather than shaved. Slushies push the same idea further: a sugared drink frozen flat, then processed with 1/4 cup of liquid added on top.
Every recipe here gives the NC501 program and the fallback for other models, which is Sorbet for ices and Milkshake with extra liquid for slushies. The base ratios page lists the water, juice and sugar proportions for lemon, cherry and watermelon, and each card scales them by 1.5 for the 24 oz XL tub.
Tips for Italian ice and slushies
- Use 1/2 cup of sugar per 16 oz pint of water-based ice. It is what keeps the block shaveable; a leaner base froze into something closer to an ice cube.
- Dissolve the sugar fully in warm water before adding the juice, then chill. Undissolved sugar sank and left the bottom of the pint sweet and the top icy.
- Freeze flat for 24 hours at 0 F with the lid on. A water base freezes with a dome if it is overfilled, so stop at the line.
- Run Italian Ice on the NC501 for a granular texture or Sorbet on any model for a smooth one. Re-spin an Italian ice only if it comes out in slabs rather than grains.
- For slushies, add 1/4 cup of the same drink on top of the frozen pint before running Slushi or Milkshake. Without it the base shaves dry.
- Serve in chilled cups straight away. Italian ice has nothing to slow the melt and turns to syrup in a few minutes.
Best model for Italian ice and slushies
The NC501 is the only pick for this category done the traditional way, because it is the only Creami with the Italian Ice and Slushi programs. It also has Frozen Drink and Creamiccino, which round out a drinks-and-ices machine, and the 24 oz XL tub holds six cups of ice for a party. We measured it at 86 dB, the loudest of the five, and after 30 days the Slushi program was used twice and then set aside in favor of Frozen Yogurt and Lite Ice Cream, so buy it for the ices if the ices are what you will make. The NC501 review covers every program and what stayed in rotation. Every other model makes an excellent smooth ice on Sorbet.
Creami Deluxe · Gen 1
Ninja Creami Deluxe 11-in-1 (NC501)
Model NC501 · Our score 8.2/10
- 11 programs including Frozen Yogurt, Italian Ice and Slushi
- Two 24 oz XL tubs, about 6 scoops each
- Top and bottom tub processing for mix-ins in half the tub
The recipes hub lists the other 13 categories. The sorbet category is the smooth version of everything here, and the milkshakes category covers the NC501’s other drink program.
Only the NC501 Deluxe. The NC601 replaced them with CreamiFit, Frappe and Dairy-Free, and the Creami series and NC701 never had them. On every other model we run an Italian ice base on Sorbet, which gives a smoother, denser result, and make slushies on Milkshake with extra liquid.
Water and texture. An Italian ice base has more water and less fruit than a sorbet, and the Italian Ice program leaves it with a fine, granular, slightly crunchy texture rather than a smooth scoop. Our lemon base came out of the NC501 Italian Ice program like a shaved ice; the same base on Sorbet came out smooth.
More than you would think, because water freezes harder than fruit purée. Our lemon ice uses 1/2 cup of sugar per 16 oz pint of lemon water, which kept it granular rather than a solid block. Less than 1/3 cup froze into an ice cube that the paddle could barely scrape.
Yes. Pour the drink to the fill line, freeze flat for 24 hours at 0 F, add 1/4 cup of the same drink on top and run Slushi on the NC501 or Milkshake elsewhere. Sugared sodas and juices work; diet soda froze solid and spun to snow because there is no sugar to keep it soft.