
De'Longhi La Specialista Maestro
De'Longhi La Specialista Maestro
Super beautiful machine. A pleasure to look at and operate every morning. But you have to work with it until the coffee is right. So here are my learnings.
The coffee guide has two great overviews/pictures with the suggested settings (100% Robusta and Arabica/Robusta blend). These settings are easy to adopt.
Two personal tips, which in my experience have a significant influence on a good coffee, are:
1. do not adjust the grind too often and intensively.
Only when the grinder is running and only in individual steps. After an adjustment, you need many cups until you can no longer taste the acids etc. in the coffee.
2. the biggest factor, the tamping.
I often pressed all the way down. The coffee then often became acidic. Now I only tamp to the end of the second stroke. Since the tamper is integrated and you don't have any feeling about the contact pressure, you have to test a little. Of course, always in conjunction with the quantity/grinding degree/specified line.
My setting for our medium-dark beans (1x 100% Arabica and also for the blend 80% Arabica, 20% Robusta)
- small sieve
- grind 5
- temperature 2
- quantity 13
- In my opinion, the pressure indicator is negligible.
- And as described, very important! I only tamp until the end of the second stroke. Ideally, the mixture is then evenly pressed, loosely compact and filled up to the predetermined line in the sieve. You have to work with the grind, the quantity and the pressure when tamping.
The coffee now tastes wonderfully intense and balanced. That is a joy!
PS: By the way, the milk system is extremely good. I used to have the Lattego from Philips. It was good too, but this one is even better. Easy to clean, rinses every time you use it and you get a really good foam in 3 stages. It's worth putting an extra bowl underneath for rinsing. (Empty the drip tray less often, clean).
Pro
Contra
Although I have not yet found the right settings etc I find the machine cool. Easy to use, looks good. You need a little space in the kitchen because it is relatively large. Otherwise, I still need time to mei Traumespresso hinzukriegen. But currently I am satisfied.
*****
Update 03.11.2021: I have now taken the machine into the office so that my employees could also test the machine. Meanwhile, we have the settings for a top espresso hingekriegt (grind between 3-4 and quantity 11 and water quantity reduced). I must say, ALL are thrilled with the machine and do not want to give it away. The commissioning is quite simple. You just have to experiment until you find the settings that suit you. The operation is also very easy and intuitive. Too bad that the amount of coffee is not the gr. number is displayed but a guide value. Thus, you do not know how much gr. coffee you grind. A scale or something similar would be TOP. From the Bean Adapt technology I do not feel much. The settings ran with us mainly manually and experimenting. We drink virtually only espresso and therefore the milk frother is not used so often. We have tested it a few times seems to be quite ok. The steam takes a little long to heat up. The milk foaming system we have not yet tried. The machine is also very easy to clean. The descaling has not yet taken place. What we will buy separately is a brush to clean the piston after use. Overall, we are very satisfied with the machine. Makes real fun to make coffee with it.
we were a little skeptical at the beginning regarding the machine and its size, also the design which is partly made of plastic irritated me at the beginning. but we were not disappointed. the strength of the grind can be adjusted as well as the pressure and coffee intensity. our guests are very enthusiastic about the machine and the coffee. we can highly recommend this and will not give it away again so quickly.
Pro
Contra
Pro
I'm a fan of capsule machines, and I became a fan of this new machine after a one week start-up and adaptation period. The design is perfect and brings a lot of charm to my kitchen. Professional and producing an exceptional coffee, I can only recommend
Pro
Contra
Pro
Contra
6 out of 20 reviews