I broke all my barista rules with this coffee machine - it's every coffee snob's dream

When you're a barista, you're taught that it's all about noticing and responding to coffee with your own knowledge and intuition. It's a great principle for authentic, delicious coffee making, but the De'Longhi Primadonna Aromatic Coffee Machine made me break my rules. All I have to do is press a button and the machine does the rest. And I'm not ashamed to say that I love it.

De’Longhi has long been my best barista’s secret. I think the brand makes some of the best coffee machines that you can buy. They programme their machines with levels of coffee capabilities that even an Italian would be impressed with. In turn, this means that you're not in danger of sending your coffee off into the acidic, bitter, or worse, grainy direction. This means you can enjoy fancy, speciality coffee without any skills.

Now, I've long resisted machines like this, because I've been trained to believe I'm better than any machine, but the Primadonna Aromatic is special. It remembers your coffee habits and prepares recipes for the times that you normally drink them; it can make a cold brew in minutes (rather than days); and has an extensive range of impressive coffees. I planned on only testing this coffee machine for a month, but I’m reluctant to go back to my old brewer now.

De'Longhi Primadonna Aromatic Coffee Machine review

The Primadonna Aromatic is a super automatic espresso machine, which means the brewing process is extremely hands-off. The screen offers up over 35 different types of coffee, which you can set to be made at different quantities, temperatures, and strengths. There’s a hot and cold milk frother that can also texture plant-based milk and the machine can brew water at different temperatures for tea.

De'Longhi Primadonna Aromatic Coffee Machine Specifications

Unboxing the De'Longhi Primadonna Aromatic Coffee Machine

De’Longhi knows how to make a machine feel premium and the Primadonna Aromatic is the perfect example. It’s packed with extras, from an ice cube tray for your iced coffee and cold brew, through to two containers (in fridge-door friendly sizes) for texturing milk. They also supply water hardness testers, a filter, cleaning tools, and a scoop. All in all, this is would cost you at least £50 and a lot of hassle, which is why I labelled this the luxury experience.

Whilst the box is big and heavy, this isn’t unusual for a coffee machine. Once you’ve unpacked it and used your muscle to get the coffee machine on the counter, there’s little else to do. Most of the packaging is recyclable (big tick from me) and the accessories that De’Longhi throw in can be stored neatly under a hatch on the top of the machine. It’s seriously neat.

Who would the De'Longhi Primadonna Aromatic Coffee Machine suit?

The Primadonna Aromatic is ideal for anyone who wants café-quality coffee without the effort. As a fully automatic machine, it takes care of everything at the touch of a button, offering over 35 drink options that can be customised by strength, size, and temperature. It also has a hot and cold milk frother that works with plant-based alternatives, and adjustable water temperatures for tea.

It’s a brilliant choice for beginners thanks to the way each drink option comes with an explanation of what you’re making, so you learn as you go while still enjoying consistently good results. For households, the versatility is a real bonus, everyone can save their own personalised settings and get their favourite drink instantly, without fiddling with grind or brew settings.

The only caveat is its size. It’s sleek and impressive, but it does take up a lot of counter space. For true coffee lovers, that’s a worthwhile trade-off; for smaller kitchens, it’s worth considering carefully.

What is the De'Longhi Primadonna Aromatic Coffee Machine like to use?

Setting up the De'Longhi Primadonna Aromatic Coffee Machine is also simple. The screen walks you through adding water, beans, and all the basics. It’ll also help you run a water hardness test, use your filter, and set up your user profile. There wasn’t one point at which I felt overwhelmed or confused. Can you tell that I love it?

As a self-confessed coffee geek, I was eager to get testing, so without further ado, here’s how it all went.

Test 1: espresso

This telling test reveals a lot about the pressure, extraction capacity, and accuracy of the coffee machine. Essentially, it’s a way to check that the essence, or the concentrate of your coffee will be good, so you can see why it’s an important one.

I adjusted the brew head to sit slightly above my espresso cup, so that I wouldn’t get splatters on the back of the machine, but it’s a really smooth pour, so I’m not too worried that it would splash if you forgot to adjust the brew head.

I played around with various versions of the espresso, making single, double, 2/3 shots, iced, and extra hot variations on the classic. The De’Longhi Primadonna Aromatic was perfect on all the metrics that I look for: my espressos came out in between 12 and 14 seconds, they were 90-96°C, which is easy to drink without cooling too much too quickly.

Each time I switched one of my variables, the Primadonna Aromatic made it clear that there was a change. My double espresso was a definite double (60 ml) and my iced espresso was definitely brewed to be a little cooler, so that it would have a smoother flavour when poured over ice (really hot coffee goes very acidic.)

One of the best indicators that my espresso was good though, is the crema. This is the foam that sits on top of the espresso and it shows you how well the coffee oils have been extracted. The more crema, the fresher and better the coffee is.

I think my picture speaks a thousand compliments for how well this extracted my coffee oils and flavours. That’s the kind of crema that I expect a fully-trained barista to deliver.

Flavour wise, I like coffee beans with caramel notes and they were extracted beautifully. Each shot that I sipped had the perfect balance of caramel and nuttiness. It’s nothing short of perfection.

Test 2: Americano (black coffee)

The next test that I run is making an Americano. This is a great way to look at how the coffee machine handles hot water and coffee. If it’s too hot, all your oils will burn and the coffee will taste acidic. If it’s too cold, the coffee will cool down too quickly and taste bitter. So, ideally you want the perfect temperature (85°C).

I use the Americano to test the hot water and coffee blend, but there are other settings that offer variations on this kind of coffee, including black coffee, long black, and lots of other Italian names. You can click on the button to find out how they differ from each other and I fact checked them all with an Italian barista friend of mine. He approved of each one, so we know the Primadonna Aromatic has it perfectly.

I made multiple versions of black coffee and all of them were consistently good. The Primadonna Aromatic didn’t fall into a trap of warming itself up too much when making coffees on repeat: it kept a cool head, treating me to Americanos that tasted smooth, really well-balanced and drinkable too. The average temperature was 86°C and it brewed in under one minute. I can’t complain about any of that.

Test 3: cappuccino

The final core aspect of coffee brewing that I needed to test was texturing milk. The Primadonna Aromatic can handle both hot and cold milk frothing, which is impressive in and of itself. The machine gives you cleaning and maintenance advice to make sure you’re never using sour milk and there’s a setting for your plant-based milks too.

On top of each carafe, you can twist the dial to choose your foam quantity, but the machine will also show you which ones suit different types of coffee.

I made my way through all the classics: flat white, cappuccino, and latte, initially opting for the suggestions made by the Primadonna Aromatic. Again, I would say that it was textbook perfect with the quantity of foam produced for each drink. My dairy milk was really silkily frothed, perhaps not as perfect as the micro bubbles that a professional barista can achieve, but it’s much better than your average milk steamer or hand frother.

I was particularly impressed with how well this textured oat and almond milk. My cold coffee drinks had perhaps more bubbles in them than the warm coffee drinks, which were silky smooth, but it was an overall, overwhelming success.

Test 4: cold brew

Now, we can get into the clever extras on offer with the De'Longhi Primadonna Aromatica, of which there are many. My favourite is the cold brew. This is like a smoother, more mellow version of iced coffee. Without a machine like this, it takes 24 hours to make, which is a pretty intense, involved process. With the De’Longhi, it takes me one minute and twenty seconds.

I put their cold brew up against my homemade, slow brew version and the difference was so slight, I would absolutely take the compromise. And I’m a qualified barista, coffee snob. This was smooth, mellow, sweet and delicious over ice. I really can't fault it.

In fact, I like cold brew so much that I’ve taken to batch brewing mine, another setting on the De’Longhi. All I have to do is select the cold brew coffee pot, and I can brew up to six drinks in one. What’s most impressive though is that I get a crema on my cold brew. That’s incredibly rare and really seriously impressive. The flavours are sweet and smooth, like any good cold brew should be. I use mine every day and that’s no exaggeration.

Test 5: tea

If you’re a house with tea drinkers, you’ve also got the option to brew a tea pot of tea as well as green tea and oolong. Essentially, this doubles up as your kettle as well as your coffee machine, which makes a great case for the size of this. You can save on appliances.

My partner drinks a lot of tea and he likes to switch between black and herbal teas, so I've been testing this with him. He says that the gentle, lower temperatures are perfect. He felt that the hot water for his black tea was a little too cool, but he drinks his tea very slowly, so we often have to use boiling hot water on his classic tea bags.

Test 6: hot chocolate

I also have an undeniable sweet tooth, so I’ve been treating this as my hot and cold chocolate machine. I use the hot water to melt my chocolate, the milk steamer to froth my milk, and mix it all together to make something that a velvetiser would be jealous of. The water is hot enough to melt my chocolate and we’ve already established that the milk steamer is great. Can you see why I don’t want to get rid of this?

Cleaning De'Longhi Primadonna Aromatic Coffee Machine

With a month of near-constant use, I’ve been really impressed with how low maintenance the De’Longhi Primadonna Aromatic is. Even if you're familiar with how to clean a coffee machine, this self cleans at the end of every brew and will notify you when you need to empty the grounds container, drip tray, or refill the water.

The grounds container has enough capacity for about eight to ten coffees, which is perfect. If you left your coffee grounds for a long time in there, you’d end up with mouldy coffee.

I’ve just done my first deeper clean with the De’Longhi and it gave me step by step instructions and was done in less than ten minutes. Again, in my books, that’s a great, very easy cleaning session.

How does the De'Longhi Primadonna Aromatic Coffee Machine compare?

As far as other super automatic coffee machines go, this is the crème de la crème, or, as De’Longhi might say, the Primadonna. You won’t find another machine that works as hard as this or that makes coffee better than this around the same price point. My best recommendation if you need to save some money is to take a look at the Eletta Explore which offers lots of different coffee flavours as well as cold brew. It boasts 50 different coffee types (although I struggled to spot the ones the Primadonna is missing) and it's £600 cheaper. Whilst the Eletta is definitely smaller and a little slower, I think that's a pretty good saving.

If you know this is far beyond what you’ve budgeted for, the Philips LatteGo is a reasonable alternative. This offers just six coffees, but does a really decent job of steaming milk and brewing espresso. To the refined palette, your coffees might taste a little more blunt, but if you enjoy pod coffee as much as a cup from your local café, I actually don’t think you’ll taste the difference. And it's only £650.

Should you buy the De'Longhi Primadonna Aromatic Coffee Machine?

If you’re after an all-singing, all dancing coffee machine, this is nothing short of perfect. I can be really snobby about how I make and enjoy my coffee, but this has stolen the top spot on my counter. If you're a cold brew coffee drinker, I'd pencil this down for your next Christmas or big treat.

How we test coffee machines

I run all of our coffee machine tests at woman&home, because I am a qualified barista and self-professed coffee snob. I always make sure to test an espresso, which says a lot about a coffee's flavours. I'll also test an Americano, which trials what the coffee machine is like at heating water to add to espressos. And finally, to see what the milk frothing is like, I'll make a cappuccino. I run these tests time and time again. In the case of the De'Longhi Primadonna Aromatic Coffee Machine, I run other tests, such as making tea, hot chocolates, and lots of different coffee drinks. That way, I get a really good idea of what a machine is like to use.

I'll also talk about the price, size, and maintenance of the machine, so that you can get a really good, holistic idea of what this is like to use. If you still have questions after reading my review, don't hesitate to email me. I'm always happy to chat about all things coffee.

You can find out more about how we test coffee machines here.