This gimmicky Ninja buy might seem excessive – but it’s turned into my secret weapon for stress-free hosting

Don't get me wrong, I love to host. But making sure that everyone has a topped-up glass can take up the majority of an evening that's meant to be spent with friends.

That's where my most superfluous appliance comes into its own every single time – my Ninja Slushi MAX (was £359.99, now £259.99), which always makes my guests laugh when they first see it.

As Ideal Home's Kitchen Appliances Editor, my friends are used to me trying out slightly wacky buys at home to see if they live up to the hype – but even I'm aware that a machine purely for frozen drinks is in another realm of silliness.

That's why it might surprise you to hear that the Slushi MAX not only surpassed my expectations, but it is my absolute secret weapon for hosting. It has plenty of features worth shouting about: it makes it easy to create fun, tasty drinks that people can self-serve; it means that I can be present at my own parties; and it has clever tech built in to churn out the perfect consistency. Here's a deep dive into why I'm a Slushi lover for life.

Earlier in the year Ninja announced a slew of new Slushi machines to add to the original machine, which has a fill capacity of 1.9 litres. All of them are bigger and flashier than the OG which make them even better for entertaining. The XL can serve up 10 drinks with one batch while the MAX (which I have) can manage up 12 drinks at once.

When our hard to impress reviewer and home economist Helen McCue tried the Ninja Slushi Twist earlier in the year, she called it 'thoughtfully designed and well made', creating scene-stealing drinks in her review. That totally inspired me to try out the MAX to see if it was substantially better than the original machine.

And in the course of hosting with it, I've found that the increased capacity isn't the only added benefit of upgrading to the more expensive version. The SlushAssist setting is the real standout feature with Ninja kitting out this machine with a clever sensing program that auto-adjusts the settings for you to create the perfect consistency.

All you need to do as the user is turn the dial to the SlushAssist setting and the machine will do the rest: first sensing and identifying the liquid, then detecting the freezing point and adjusting the temperature of the central freezing unit to whip up the most drinkable texture.

I've tried this a few times recently with different recipes for frozen cocktails as we get into hosting season. And I found the results I got from SlushAssist were far better than the levels I had been manually setting, yielding impressively tasty drinks in very quick times (in most cases in 15 minutes flat).

That means that even if you've left sorting out drinks to the last minute, you're all ready with drinks by the time your first guest walks into the door. It's certainly faster than getting your cocktail shaker out and starting from scratch if you're in a pinch.

The ready-to-drink consistency makes it easy for guests to serve themselves too. The dispenser is super easy to use and paired with a tray full of cocktail glasses ready to go, makes for a very stress free welcome drink moment.

Now it's getting towards Christmas, I'm definitely going to be trying out some more festive recipes with the Slushi. I visited the SharkNinja pop-up last week in London at the Outnet and tried out the brand's festive non-alcoholic cranberry slush, which I'm definitely going to be replicating at home.

Now all that's left for me to do is find some festive cocktail glasses to really complete my set-up!