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One-minute review
De’Longhi is a well-known name when it comes to coffee makers, particularly espresso machines and automatic coffee machines, however while it may have been running for more than a century, its first coffee makers weren’t released until 1990.
It offers a wide array of models from manual espresso machines, single-serve coffee makers that use pods, and even fully automatic coffee makers. The De’Longhi Dinamica Plus is one of its top-of-the-range automatic coffee makers, which can create your favorite barista-style coffees at the touch of a button.
It covers every step of the process from grinding the beans through to brewing the coffee, frothing milk and even cleaning itself at the end. All you have to do is top up coffee beans, milk and water.
The De’Longhi Dinamica Plus offers a range of adjustable settings including drink size, aroma, and amount of froth. On top of that, these can be saved in user profiles, making it simple to create the perfect drink to suit you every time. However, this high-spec coffee maker comes with a hefty price tag to match.
It’s ideally suited to time-poor coffee connoisseurs who want to create their favorite coffee at home but don’t have the time nor the inclination to grind the beans, manually make espresso, or froth the milk. We found it easy to use and enjoyed the ability to customize drinks, but we had to experiment a bit to get coffees that tasted exactly like the ones from our local coffee shop.
DeLonghi Dinamica Plus price and availabilityList price: $1499.95/ £1199.99/ AUS $1529
The De’Longhi Dinamica Plus Automatic coffee machine (ECAM370.95.T) is available through the De’Longhi website worldwide as well as leading kitchen appliance retailers.
It’s an expensive premium automatic coffee machine and it sits among the top-of-the-range models offered by De’Longhi.
(Image credit: TechRadar)Design3.5-inch color touch displayAutomatic cleaningIntegrated bean grinder
With the De’Longhi Dinamica Plus Automatic coffee machine, you can make coffees just like your local barista, with freshly ground beans and frothy milk, but without having to learn any skills. This stylish appliance comes in a titanium finish and looks like it means business. It’s not small though and depending on your kitchen size, it’ll take up a good chunk of space on your countertop. It measures 13.7 x 9.3 x 16.9 inches / 34.8 x 23.6 x 42.9cm (h x w x d) so while it’s not super wide, it is deep.
It’s a bean to cup machine so takes coffee beans which it grinds to order, the beans container has an 11.5oz/ 300g capacity, but you can also use ground coffee, which is great for people who prefer decaf, but ground coffee can only be added one scoop at a time as required. There’s also a removable 0.47-gallon / 1.8-liter water container that has to be filled manually.
The color touch display walks you through the setup and is very intuitive to use, displaying different beverages with clear images and there’s an accompanying app that allows further control. Drinks can be customized by the amount of coffee, amount and froth level of milk, aroma, and temperature. The grind level of the beans is also adjustable to ensure the perfect espresso. Drinks available include coffee shop favorites like cappuccino, latte, espresso, and flat white, but it can also pour a six-cup coffee pot or dispense just hot water for teas.
The thermal milk jug helps to keep your milk cold but can also be removed and popped in the fridge between uses. The coffee pouring spout height is adjustable and it can take a maximum cup height of 5.3 inches/ 13.5cm but has twin pouring spouts so can also be used to pour two espressos simultaneously. After every use, the machine automatically rinses everything through, so there’s minimal daily cleaning required.
(Image credit: TechRadar)PerformanceEasy to operateThe perfect coffee requires some trial and errorMilk frother creates a thick stable foam
Firstly, with regard to flavor, it must be said that the flavor of your finished coffee depends on the coffee bean you use, grind size, strength selected, temperature, and the coffee to milk ratios, so can vary widely, and with this in mind, it’s great that there are so many customizable settings. We found it easy to change settings, particularly on the app, but it took us a while and several attempts to get a coffee that was brewed exactly as we like it when ordering from the coffee shop. That said, once you get it right and save the settings, you can pour the perfect coffee every time, at the touch of a button.
An espresso took just 30 seconds to pour from first pressing the button and came out at 153 F/ 67 C, which is slightly below the optimum of 195 F / 90 C and 205 F / 96C. The default amount is 40ml but this can easily be adjusted in the app in 5 ml increments. It had a well-rounded flavor that wasn’t burnt or overly bitter, we had to play around with the grind size dial to get the crema right. But with the right adjustments, we produced a crema that was thick and reformed after a spoon of sugar was poured in.
To brew a cappuccino, it took one minute twenty-five seconds from pressing the button to the end of pouring. The silky thick milk foam stays stable until the end of the drink and at 80dB this was the loudest the coffee machine reached during our testing time. This is the equivalent of a truck traveling down the road at 40mph, but as the noise only lasts for a couple of minutes, we think this is acceptable.
The automatic milk frother can produce a mug of hot frothy milk in just under a minute with a temperature of around 133 F/ 56 C, the bubbles are thick and velvety and remain stable for the whole drink. And it works just as effectively with plant-based milk, we tried oat milk with great frothy results.
We like having the ability to add ground coffee but when preparing decaf coffee, on a couple of occasions we found that it didn’t recognize that we had already poured the ground coffee into the chute and prompted us to add it again.
Daily cleaning is easy, it prompts you to turn the milk frother dial to clean after use, it also empties coffee grounds into the bin and rinses the coffee spout automatically. There is additional cleaning required of the water tank and milk frother periodically and when prompted the machine will need descaling using a De’Longhi descaler, but this level of maintenance is standard for a coffee machine.
(Image credit: TechRadar)AppSimple to navigateEasy to customize your favorite beverageGives machine status information
The coffee link app connects to the machine via Bluetooth. It displays each beverage option via clear images and we found it easy to navigate around the different drinks. It allows for additional personalization of drinks that can’t be done via the machine, such as setting coffee quantity in ml and milk quantity by pouring time. We found it much easier to customize drinks through the app than on the machine. You can also prepare drinks via the app, but you still need to be near the machine to make sure there’s a cup under the spout.
The app can be used to switch the machine on, which is useful in the mornings, allowing you to turn it on from your bedroom, so it’s completed the heating up process by the time you get to the kitchen. But if you want to prepare a drink with ground coffee, for decaf drinks for example, we couldn’t find an option in the app to select ground coffee when preparing drinks.
(Image credit: TechRadar)Should I buy the DeLonghi Dinamica Plus ?Buy it if…
You want drinks at the touch of a buttonWith 12 different coffee recipes and automatic milk frothing, this machine takes the hard work out of making your favorite barista-style coffee.
You want to customize drinksIf you’re fussy about milk to coffee ratios, temperature and strength, you can personalize all of these to suit your particular taste.
You want the ability to make decaf coffeePrimarily this is a bean-to-cup machine but it has the option to add ground coffee, so if someone in your house prefers decaf, they can enjoy the machine too.
Don’t buy it if…
You’re on a budgetThis is a very expensive coffee machine that isn’t affordable for most people. Depending on where you live, we calculated that the cost is the equivalent of around 300 large coffees from a coffee chain and that’s before you factor in the cost of coffee beans and milk.
You want the barista experienceThis machine is fully automated, so if you want to manually pour your espresso and froth your own milk this isn’t the machine for you.
You’re short on spaceIt’s quite a bulky machine that will take up a good chunk of space on your countertop.
First reviewed: August 2021
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