Well, this coffee machine is absolutely brilliant! It makes fantastic coffee (both espresso and a massive coffee for non-coffee drinkers), absolutely brilliant foam (flat white, cappuccino, espresso macchiato), and is a joy to use (the coffee machine tells you step by step what to do, which knobs to turn, and so on). ), it’s easy to clean (once again, it guides you step by step on what to do) and, on top of that, it looks great and, despite its slightly plastic appearance, feels really solid. The initial set-up is incredibly easy – you’re given a test strip to measure the water hardness (you pour some water into a glass, dip the strip in for a second and wait to see how many lines turn red), switch on the coffee machine and it tells you in the simplest possible terms: “top up the water here”, “put this over there”, “now wait, I’ll do this”, “now turn this like this and wait a moment”. In short, even a complete klutz can manage it. I then fine-tuned the coffee itself using Gemini – I took a glass espresso cup, filmed the coffee as it flowed, uploaded the video to Gemini and, with its help, gradually adjusted the grinder settings, the coffee strength and so on, until the coffee started flowing just like in a café. ❤️ Sure, you’ll probably end up pouring out about 15 cups of coffee in the process (you’ll have to pour out at least the first 5 cups anyway, as the coffee machine is calibrating the grinder, the brew head and the whole unit). The milk jug itself is brilliant. It has several settings for the fineness of the grind, and the coffee machine will tell you which setting to use for the carafe every time you make a coffee. And anyway – the Flat White is absolutely perfect, just like the other types of coffee with foam. You can then simply take the whole carafe apart, rinse it out with water, or pop all the parts in the dishwasher. Oh, and please do pour fresh, full-fat milk into it, otherwise the coffee god will curse you to the third generation! The coffee machine is the easiest to use I’ve ever seen. The touchscreen has icons that are a bit of a faff – when you want to set up a drink, you just set the size and strength; once the drink’s made, the coffee machine asks if you want to save the settings permanently, and that’s it. In the settings, you’ll also find statistics, so you’ll know exactly how much coffee you’ve downed and whether you’re turning into a bit of a caffeine addict. Oh, and when something needs cleaning, the coffee machine will tell you itself and even show you, using animations, what to do and how to do it. My tip from a professional amateur – get yourself some proper ground coffee for this, not that rubbish from Tesco or Lidl. You’ve got a coffee machine that makes the best coffee at home, haven’t you! And you don’t have to go straight for small roasters – Julius Meinl, Tchibo and Renovality, for example, all have excellent single-origin coffees. I was originally torn between this coffee machine and the Philips LatteGo. The LatteGo simply doesn’t make very good foam, and what’s more, it only grinds 8.5g of coffee instead of the 14g that this DeLonghi grinds. And you can tell. A must-see! I’d highly recommend it!
