Ninja Coffee Bar Single-Serve System w/ Auto-iQ, CF112

Date of purchase: 02/03/2017. Date of review: 02/08/2017. Price paid: $111 at Bed, Bath and Beyond (on sale for $129 and then used a 20% coupon). I have been drinking coffee for about 23 years. I started out way back in the day with McDonalds coffee, then donut shop coffees (actual donut shops - remember those?!), Village Inn coffee and then in my early 20s, specialty drinks like mochas. When I got my own place in 1998, I had a little four-cup coffeemaker and even tried out one of the early pod models - a Black and Decker machine. I took the B&D machine back because of the horrible plastic smell. For most of my 20s, I just drank coffee from my four-cup Mr. Coffee and I liked it. I am by no means a coffee snob or aficionado; I don't grind my own beans, I drank Folgers and liked it and I didn't know the difference between roasts. In my 30s, we got a Keurig in the office and I. Was. Hooked. Got one for home and never looked back. The Keurig was perfect for me since at that time, I only drank one cup of coffee per day. I'm now up to three cups a day, but anywho... Kcups have typically cost between 45 - 60 cents per each for me. I often buy store brand Kcups to save money. I still drink "foofy" drinks, too: mochas, lattes, cold brew coffee. However, I have finally reached a point where I'm tired of paying $4.65 for a small specialty latte.I rarely buy iced mochas or lattes anymore, as I feel they are even more of a rip-off. I was at Bed, Bath and Beyond a few weeks ago and saw the display and infomercial for the Ninja Coffee Bar. I was intrigued. I went home and researched. Heavily. Within a week. I brought home the single serve Ninja Coffee Bar with frother. Woo and hoo! Setup was pretty easy, though you really do need to make sure you run that cleaning cycle through - twice. First thing I noticed was that the Ninja was a lot slower than the Keurig. It also seems to take more time to heat up before it's ready to brew. Neither one of these points cause an issue for me. I dove straight in to making a specialty coffee, the honey lavender something-or-other from the recipe book. I used Dunkin Donuts ground coffee and followed the recipe to a T. It *looked* amazing, but it tasted like crap. I couldn't figure out if it was the coffee or the creamer I'd frothed. I eventually isolated the problem - the frother. The frother is a plastic piece with a metal wire whisk down the middle that snaps on to the Ninja. Being that I have a particularly sensitive sniffer, I asked my SO to smell the frother piece - he definitely noticed the smell. I Googled around and sure enough, there are a number of people who have issues with the frother. What's weird to me is how the smell of the plastic (or metal) could transfer to the milk/creamer. But it definitely smelled funny. I contacted Ninja via Facebook and they told me to call their 800#. Called the next day and the rep said it would be easiest to just return the machine and get another one. I would have thought maybe sending me a non-toxic frother would be a better solution, but I packed the thing up and exchanged it that night. The frother on the new machine has a slight odor to it, but doesn't seem to be transferring the smell to the milk I am frothing. If I notice it again, I'll just take the whole thing back and be done with it. But, for now, things taste OK, but I'm just trying to get used to non-Keurig-tasting coffee! I eventually wrote Ninja via email and asked for them to send me another frother, which they did. This one (the 3rd one I've had) does not have a smell to it. But, neither frother (the 2nd one that came with the machine or the 3rd one that was sent to me) is transferring any smell to the frothed liquids, so we're good, even though one of them still smells funny. I've made several drinks now and used all of the settings except for the 8oz. "forte" setting. The basic lattes and iced coffees are EXCELLENT. I was very skeptical that this machine could produce a good iced coffee or latte. Despite it brewing 4oz. of hot coffee over ice, it does an amazing job. And the "lattes" even though you're not using espresso, are amazing! I've made them for my family and friends and they agree that they taste better than what you can get in a coffeeshop. I can happily say I haven't paid for a single latte or iced coffee since I got this machine! I have estimated that each latte I've made costs about 75 cents or less. I'm using Folgers Colombian blend and have decided I like that blend quite a bit. I'm even now doing regular coffee in the Ninja and my Keurig is starting to collect dust. Pros: Features (rich brew, classic brew, forte, over ice, specialty) Sizes (cup, travel, XL) Frother - it's built in and easy to use Drip stop feature for us impatient types Handy scoop that attaches to the side of the machine Enough space for larger travel mugs under the machine. Also has a little nifty pop-out shelf for shorter mugs. Taste is excellent, esp if you try out the recipes in the included book! The recipe book is really handy and can help de-mystify this complexity of this machine. Makes a great iced coffee (this one surprised me) No plastic Kcups to clog landfills Cons: Cheap, plastic construction. It doesn't feel like a well-made machine at all. It feels flimsy. Frother does not heat milk. It just froths. I think Ninja is a little mis-leading about this feature. Check your frother - it might smell and be transferring that smell to your milk when you froth it. No auto shut-off. Neutral, but worth noting: Water reservoir is on the small side. Ninja takes longer to heat up than Keurig (not a deal-breaker for me) Ninja takes longer to brew than Keurig (not an issue for me) Cleanup is more cumbersome than Keurig (frother, used grounds in basket vs. just throwing out a Kcup)