The De’Longhi Eletta Explore coffee machine is too expensive – here’s why it still gets my vote

De’Longhi has proved time and time again it can make a great bean-to-cup coffee machine. We’ve positively reviewed and recommended many of the brand’s models, including the luxurious PrimaDonna Soul and the more affordable Magnifica Evo One Touch. The Eletta Explore takes a lot of what the PrimaDonna does well and expands on it with a plethora of interesting cold brew options.

The Eletta Explore is expensive, though, and I’d argue that for most people, the addition of extra hot drinks and the newer cold brew features aren’t enough to justify the cost. That being said, if you do have some money burning a hole in your pocket and you fancy having 28 different drink options to choose from at the touch of a button, the Eletta Explore does make a delicious cup of coffee.

De’Longhi Eletta Explore coffee machine review: What you need to know

The Eletta Explore is a premium, fully automatic bean-to-cup coffee machine that costs £1,000 for the version I’m reviewing. If you choose to opt for the version with the coffee pot, rather than the to-go mug, then it will set you back around £970. It looks similar to a lot of De’Longhi’s bean-to-cup machines in that it’s very big, very square and follows a fairly typical black and stainless steel colour scheme. At 260 x 450 x 385mm (WDH), you’re going to need a lot of worktop space for this one; it’s heavy, too, at a chunky 11.3kg.

Design-wise there’s nothing out of the ordinary. It has a 3.5in colour touchscreen that’s nice and responsive, with touch-sensitive colour shortcut “buttons” either side of it for quickly launching into a list of cold, hot, to-go drinks or your favourites. The bean hopper can hold up to 300g of your chosen coffee beans and this also houses the adjustable grinder, which has 13 settings. There’s also a separate section inside that will take a single dose of ground coffee. The brew head is height-adjustable and can accommodate a cup up to 17cm tall.

It comes with bundles of accessories; too many, perhaps. These include: a cold and hot milk carafe, a removable spout for hot water, a scoop for single dose ground coffee, an ice-cube tray, a large to-go insulated cup, a water filter, cleaning solution, cleaning brush and a water hardness test strip. That’s a lot of extra stuff to store and you might already have a lot of it.

When it comes to drink choice, there are 28 to choose from, including cold brew, cold milk drinks, hot milk drinks, black coffee and more. Almost every drink is customisable by strength and length and you’re able to save your favourites to your profile once you’ve crafted your perfect shot or milk drink. You can set up to four profiles in total, which is ideal for a multi-person household.

De’Longhi Eletta Explore coffee machine review: What’s it like to use?

After a few seconds of heating-up and a quick self-rinse, the Eletta Explore is ready to brew – the whole process from switching it on to producing an espresso takes just over 60 seconds, which is really quick. It’s a simple machine to use, too. The machine will guide you through every step of the process, which is great if all you want to do is brew a quick cup without thinking about it, and it will also prompt you to clean your milk carafe and empty the grounds/water tray when necessary.

If you want to dig into the details more and customise your drinks, you will need to dig a bit deeper into the settings. To do this, I found the instruction manual wasn’t very helpful, the touchscreen on the app, however, offered more guidance. You can also use De’Longhi’s Bean Adapt setting on the app to help simplify the process of dialling in the machine for espresso. It works by prompting you to make a shot, then taste it, answer a few questions, adjust the grind size and go again until it tastes right for you.

I also really like the fact that you’re able to access help and advice via the touchscreen, as well as do things like set your water hardness and get stats on how many and which types of coffees you’ve brewed.

De’Longhi Eletta Explore coffee machine review: How does the coffee taste?

The default settings for espresso on the De’Longhi didn’t really impress me. I use Curve Coffee Roasters house beans to test and have a fairly good basis for what the espresso should taste like, as I drink it often. They also happen to have a cafe local to me.

The initial shots were too long and watery and didn’t offer the well-rounded flavour I expect from these beans. However, after using De’Longhi’s Bean Adapt function, reducing the grind size and the amount of water being pulled through, I was able to get pretty close to the espresso they serve in-house.

I had to waste a fair few beans to get there, but it did leave me with an espresso I’d be happy to drink again and again. The shots went from mediocre to very good by the time I got to the end of the process. While the espresso shots aren’t going to be as good as you can get from a manual machine, they’re good enough and don’t require you to spend lots of time learning too many new tricks and techniques.

Once I’d adjusted my settings for a decent espresso, it was time to try out the machine’s huge variety of milk drinks. The machine has two milk carafes, one for hot milk and one for cold, and the screen prompts you to change the dial on the top for a finer or thicker foam, depending on the drink you’re making. Flat whites, cappuccinos and lattes all impressed me and while the milk frothing isn’t quite as good as using a manual wand, the carafe does a decent enough job of producing a silky smooth texture that’s pleasant to sip.

The Eletta Explore’s USP, however, is its cold drink options and, more specifically, cold brew. While classic cold brew made at home would take around 24 hours, the Eletta aims to recreate this in just a couple of minutes – and it does so fairly well. The cold brew produced by the machine had a smooth, balanced flavour with little bitterness, very similar to cold brew I’ve made myself or ordered from a coffee shop. Of course, good quality beans help but the machine does a great job of replicating something that usually takes a day or more.

It’s worth noting that while the machine does reduce the temperature of the cold brew coffee to 28ºC in cup (vs 64ºC for an espresso measured in cup), it doesn’t come out freezing cold. This means it’s still advisable to add ice to any of the ‘cold’ drinks you make with the machine. It can, however, do cold milk frothing using its dedicated carafe.

The De’Longhi Eletta Explore doesn’t have any major weakness but, at this price, you’d hope that would be the case. In fact, you’d hope it would run pretty much perfectly. Alas, that’s never how these things go and I do have a few minor quibbles that I think are worth taking note of if you’re seriously considering this machine.

My first gripe concerns the milk carafes. These work as intended but they’re irritating to clean. The parts are dishwasher safe, but I found they often came out needing an additional scrub to free all the nooks and crannies of accumulated milk. In fact, after a week or so I went back to using my Dualit milk frother because the good milk texture produced by the De’Longhi’s carafes wasn’t enough to override my hatred for cleaning them. If you hate scrubbing, you have been warned.

My other issue is that this machine dumps out a lot of water during start-up, as well as when cleaning the milk carafe and when you switch it off. This means the tank drains fast and the drip tray fills up even faster. I found myself needing to refill the water tank regularly – every five to nine coffees or so – depending on what I was drinking. That might be fine if you’re a solo drinker, but it’s not ideal in a busy household.

This is made worse by the fact that the machine doesn’t let you get very low on water before prompting you to refill. I found it would alert me to refill with 450 to 500ml still in the tank and it won’t let you continue until you’ve heeded its command.

De’Longhi Eletta Explore coffee machine review: Should you buy it?

Despite the introduction of cold brew options, it’s hard for me to recommend this over some of De’Longhi’s more affordable options, such as the Magnifica Evo One Touch. While the cold drinks and expansion of hot options are a fun addition, I’m not convinced they’re worth the extra premium.

That being said, it is still a very good automatic coffee machine. With a few guided tweaks, it makes a great espresso and its cold brew is pretty convincing as well. Most importantly, you don’t need a lot of time or to be a coffee whizz to use it. If you’re the kind of person that wants loads of drink options at the touch of a button, the Eletta Explore delivers and it offers a broader choice of drinks than De’Longhi’s budget options.