DeLonghis bean-to-cup coffee machine makes a cornucopia of coffees but, having tested it, Ive found its hot and cold drinks are decent rather than exceptional

Date:
Fri, 12 Jun 2026 18:00:00 +0000

Description:
DeLonghis bean-to-cup coffee machine helped me whip up a huge variety of personalized coffees with ease. But its drinks unfortunately fall just a few inches short of greatness.

FULL STORY ======================================================================DeLonghi
Eletta Ultra: two-minute review The DeLonghi Eletta Ultra is a fully automatic bean-to-cup coffee machine. Not only does it offer a range of more than 50 drink presets, it's capable of cold extraction, enabling it to
produce cold brew in just a few minutes. And with up to four user profiles, you can save your drink preferences for the morning, lunch or afternoon, ensuring your coffee is tailored to your taste at different times of day.

Not only is its 3.82 x 2.20 inch / 97 x 56mm touchscreen bright and crisp,
its incredibly easy to navigate, making selecting your coffee a cinch. Thanks to its 1.9 quart / 1.8 liter water tank and 8.82oz / 250g bean hopper you can brew a fair few drinks before needing to top it up. Its design is a little boxy for my tastes but its clean lines and brushed metal finish means it will look relatively unobtrusive in most kitchens. One of the first things that struck me about the Eletta Ultra is that it has an impressive array of features. First off, it has 52 different drinks presets, which is truly wild: that includes everything from a ristretto through a babyccino to cold extracted coffees like cold brew. It even offers regional specialities Ive
not seen from some of the best bean-to-cup coffee makers like the Portuguese galo or the heart-hammering black eye. Latest Videos From Watch full video here:

The vast majority of these presets are also customizable, allowing you to tweak things like their length, intensity or even add an extra shot, then
save it to one of four personal profiles. Not only that but should you prefer a stronger coffee in the morning or a little bit less intensity in the afternoon the Eletta Ultra lets you save custom preferences to each profile for Morning, Lunchtime and Later in the Day. Thats an impressive level of personalization available.

But how does the DeLonghi Eletta Ultra perform? Well, its certainly got a decent engine under that hood. I found its boiler usually warms up in the morning within around 30 seconds, which is faster than a lot of bean-to-cup machines and a fraction of the time many prosumer devices take. And unlike some coffee makers, it doesnt make an absolute din when in use; using a sound level meter, I clocked it at about 58dB, which is honestly very quiet
compared to most of the competition. (Image credit: Future) De'Longhi Eletta Ultra (Black) at Amazon for 1,149.99 Despite how easy the Eletta is to use on paper, it honestly took me quite a while to dial in the right settings the machine felt a little mercurial at first, flipping straight from underextracting to overextracting as I refined the grind. Eventually though,
I hit on the right grind size, intensity and length to start pulling consistent shots and the resulting espresso was certainly satisfying enough, albeit lacking a bit in some of the richness and full body Id expect from a machine at this price.

Im not an expert milk frother, Ill readily admit, so I definitely appreciate how simple the Eletta Ultra makes steaming the white stuff. To whip up milky coffees, all I had to do was hook up the hot or cold carafe to match the
drink I was making, set it to Light, Creamy or Thick and the machine did the rest. But while this made whipping up cappuccinos and lattes for my
colleagues a snap, the resultant foam wasnt quite as velvety smooth as from some machines, leaving some larger air bubbles intact. Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

One of the big draws of the Eletta Ultra for me is that cold extraction functionality. As someone who regularly has to spend an interminable 18 hours waiting for my home-made cold brew to steep, discovering I can make cold brew on demand is like a cat learning how a can opener works. But while the cold brew this machine extracts looks delightful, its far too watery for my
tastes, lacking the complex fruitiness and natural sweetness Ive come to expect from a great cold brew.

Fundamentally, if youre looking for convenience or a cornucopia of different kinds of coffees, the DeLonghi Eletta Ultra is an appealing package. You can dial up your preferred take on a whole host of drinks in seconds and trust that youll get a pleasurable beverage out of it. But if you have exacting standards for your coffee, you might find it falls just a few inches short of the wonderfully extracted espresso a machine like the Breville Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction (known under the brand name Sage in the UK) can offer. DeLonghi Eletta Ultra review: price & availability Launched on
February 26, 2026 Available in the UK but not yet in US or Australia List price of 1,149.99 (around $1,550 / AU$2,260) The DeLonghi Eletta Ultra in the UK on February 26, 2026 its not yet available in either the US or Australia but given other Eletta models are available in those regions, its probably safe to assume it will make it there eventually.

Currently you can pick it up for a list price of 1,149.99 (around $1,550 / AU$2,260). As far as bean-to-cup machines go, thats definitely up the pricier end of the market but its not excessive given its feature set. The similarly full-featured Breville Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction retails
from $1,499.95 / 1,199.95 / AU$1,999, while the fully automatic Siemens EQ900 Plus has a list price of 2,199 (about $2,800 / AU$4,300). So the Eletta Ultra is roughly what Id expect to pay for a machine of this spec. (Image credit: Future) DeLonghi Eletta Ultra review: specs Swipe to scroll horizontally

Category

Specification

Type

Fully automatic bean-to-cup espresso machine

Dimensions

14.96 x 9.25 x 17.91 inches / 380 x 235 x 455mm

Weight

24.14 lbs / 10.95 kg

Water tank capacity

1.9 quarts / 1.8 liters

Steam wand

No (Includes automatic LatteCrema Hot & Cool milk carafes / Hot water spout)

Max pressure

19 bar (Image credit: Future) DeLonghi Eletta Ultra review: design 52 drink presets that can be customised across four profiles Bright, easy-to-navigate touchscreen display Fairly unremarkable looks The DeLonghi Eletta Ultra is a big machine without necessarily being hulking at a size of 9.25 x 17.91 x 14.96 inches / 235 x 455 x 380mm, Id say it appears slap bang in the middle
of the best bean-to-cup coffee makers. And its similarly average in terms of its capacity: you can fit up to 1.9 quarts / 1.8 liters into the Eletta
Ultras water tank, meaning you should get a fair few brews out of it before you have to refill it.

Meanwhile, loading its hopper could not be easier you can squeeze up to 8.82oz / 250g of beans into it just by pouring them into the top of the machine. My only slight reservation here is I generally like to mix and match my beans from day to day and these kinds of integrated hoppers are almost impossible to empty, which stands in sharp contrast to machines with a screw-in hopper like the Breville Oracle Touch . You can at least add a dose of grounds in the chute at the front of the hopper should you fancy a one-off taste of something different.

When it comes to aesthetics, I find the Eletta Ultra clean and sharp, if a
bit bland. On the one hand, its 3.82 x 2.20 inch / 97 x 56mm touchscreen display is impressively bright and detailed, making swiping through settings and drinks profiles a breeze, while its metallic finish certainly would fit
in well with most kitchens. However, its looks are a little boxy for my taste and I prefer the more traditional barista-style look offered by something
like the Breville Oracle Touch or Ninja Luxe Caf . (Image credit: Future) As this is a fully automatic bean-to-cup machine, theres not really a huge
number of additional accessories you need the huge toolkit of portafilters, tamps and brushes that manual machines ship with doesnt really apply.
However, the Eletta Ultra does come with warm and cold milk-steaming carafes, ensuring your hot drinks stay piping hot and your cold drinks dont come out lukewarm.

One thing the DeLonghi Eletta Ultra does have in spades, however, is
features. It offers an almost overwhelming selection of drinks, with 52 available in total whether you fancy classics like an espresso or a flat white, regional specialties like milchkaffee or cafe con leche or even cold drinks like cold brew or iced cappuccino, you should find your ideal tipple here. And, as is increasingly common with automatic machines, each of these
is fully customizable, allowing you to set your ideal length and intensity
and save them to one of four personalized profiles. (Image credit: Future)
But the smart features dont stop there. DeLonghis Bean Sense feature is designed to help you get the best out of your beans; dial in whether youre using Arabica or a blend, your bean roast level, current grinder level and
the Eletta Ultra will pour a test espresso, before tweaking its boiler temperature and suggesting the ideal grind to tailor extraction to your coffee. Additionally, each personalized profile allows you to tweak your settings for three different times of day you can save different preferences for individual drinks for Morning, Lunchtime and Later in the Day.

I definitely appreciated being able to tailor my coffee this way. My tastes tend bolder for most drinks, so I liked being able to set the intensity and boiler temperature a little higher for my personalised versions, while theres no version of me throughout the multiverse that would drink a cold brew in
any size that isnt large. While my biggest shift from AM to PM the fact I switch from caffeine to decaf isnt something a machine without dual or interchangeable hoppers can cater to, I can see for a lot of people it would be useful to add extra shots earlier or dial down the intensity later. So all-in-all, Ive got a lot of praise for the DeLonghis feature set. Design score: 4.5 / 5 (Image credit: Future) DeLonghi Eletta Ultra review: performance Heats up fast and runs quiet Produces competent but not exceptional coffee Super easy to use and clean Producing your favorite
coffees using the DeLonghi Eletta Ultra is an absolute breeze. Punching in your preferences and selecting your brew really only requires a few taps and swipes, which is fantastically convenient when youre in a hurry. And the
range of drinks available is impressive. But I do think some of this breadth comes at the expense of producing core coffees with substantial depth of flavor.

Heating up the Eletta Ultras boiler for the first time took around 30
seconds. Thats pretty fast, all told, with many machines of its ilk taking closer to a minute, although some would argue its worth allowing these machines a little longer to fully warm their components. DeLonghi has also made a lot of noise (ironically) about how much quieter the Eletta Ultra is than other machines and it is not wrong. Using a sound level meter, I
clocked it at roughly 58dB, which is a fair margin quieter than a lot of machines Ive tested.

Quick though the machine is to run, it can take a little longer to optimize its output. Im used to a bit of dialling in when first getting used to the quirks of a coffee machine but I did find the Eletta Ultra more idiosyncratic than even the most eccentric barista.

The first shot I poured was massively underextracted: it had a beige crema
and I could see the bottom of the mug, which does not scream rich espresso to me. After refining the grind in stages, I managed to get it from Miller Lite flavorlessness to the level of gas station coffee, where it was running a little too fast and still not quite hitting enough pressure to eke out more robust flavors. But when I upped the intensity and dropped the length of the shot to 30ml, it started dribbling out then stalled entirely. The only way I could get it to extract properly again was slowly increasing the coarseness
of the grind until I ended up back where I started. (Image credit: Future) Weirdly, at this point, the Eletta Ultra began extracting pretty decent coffee. Even with a relatively cheap supermarket brand of beans, it started pouring rich, consistent espresso with that nice buff-color crema Im used to. Trying it out with some mid-range beans, Pacts Decaf Casa Loma, the resultant espresso was a pleasant caramel flavor with a velvety mouthfeel. Dont get me wrong its not quite the powerful punch Ive come to expect from some manual machines but its not bad either.

Milk-based drinks were a similar story. I whipped up a range of drinks for some of my colleagues down at TechRadars testing labs, including a
cappuccino, a macchiato and a flat white. The process could not be more straightforward: once youve selected your drink profile, all you need to do
is set the hot or cold milk carafe to either Light, Creamy or Thick and it will pump out frothy milk to order. But the general reception to these drinks was good rather than great for example, the cappuccino foam landed slightly on the frothy side, with slightly too large bubbles to create a beautifully smooth foam.

As a big cold brew drinker, I was most excited about trying out the Eletta Ultras cold extraction presets. And it does produce some absolutely gorgeous-looking cold brew pumping out a little at a time, it produces a subtle gradient from light to dense toward the bottom of the glass. But when
I made my first batch, the ice was fully melted by the time the machine had finished pouring, suggesting its more lukewarm brew than truly cold. And I honestly wasnt wowed by the finished product Ill admit that my standards for cold brew are Gordon-Ramsey-esque so it is a high bar to clear but, even on intense mode, it lacked the smooth, fruity potency Ive come to expect from my cold coffee. (Image credit: Future) As someone who spends half his time tweaking variables to get the best out of his beans, I could definitely see the allure of the Eletta Ultras Bean Sense tech. However, I sometimes found
in practice that, far from improving the coffee, the settings it selected marred its flavor. For example, because I was using a relatively dark roast, the Bean Sense process automatically set the boiler temperature to medium and recommended I used a coarser grind but this just led the coffee to taste
weak and underextracted. Im sure it sometimes offers useful insights but if you have a specific flavor profile in mind, you may find yourself overruling it as much as you do following its guidance.

Keeping the Eletta Ultra clean is a breeze, although a full, internal clean
is a slightly more involved process. In regular use, you really only need to remember to empty its purged coffee grounds box each day and it automatically purges its steam wand after every use. For a more thorough clean, its drip tray and milk carafes can be disassembled and washed by hand or in a dishwasher, while the water tank requires cleaning by hand. Deep cleaning requires cleaning tabs but the machine will provide a QR code for ordering them and guide you through the steps on screen.

All told, I think the Eletta Ultras approach to coffee is workmanlike, rather than artisanal. Its able to produce a fantastic array of drinks with very little fuss and itll knock you up a well-constructed coffee without an enormous investment on your part. But youre getting a townhouse, not the Guggenheim, and so you need to set your expectations accordingly. Performance score: 3.5 / 5 (Image credit: Future) Should I buy the DeLonghi Eletta Ultra? Swipe to scroll horizontally

Attribute

Notes

Score

Value

The DeLonghi Eletta Ultra isnt exactly cheap but, for a fully automatic bean-to-cup machine with cold extraction, its price is pretty reasonable.

4/5

Design

Huge variety of drink presets, personalised profiles, hot and cold
extraction, smart features, medium capacity. Not the most stylish design but its also pretty inoffensive.

4.5/5

Performance

Super easy to use. Extracted coffee good rather than great; not the smoothest milk foam; cold brew a little on the weak side. Warms up fast, runs quiet. Easy to keep clean.

3.5/5 Buy it if You want a huge array of personalised drinks With 52
different drink presets that you can tailor your way for different times of the day, theres a staggering range of drinks available to you at the tap of a screen. You value convenience above all else Using the Eletta Ultra is simplicity itself. Even your most technologically averse relative can easily chuck some milk in the carafe, tap their preferred beverage and be enjoying their fave coffee in around a minute. Dont buy it if You want the best coffee for your buck Convenient though the Eletta Ultra is, youll likely get a more flavor-packed coffee if you either switch to a similarly priced
semi-automatic machine or invest more cash in a higher-grade fully automatic machine. Youre a cold-brew fan Okay, the cold brew the Eletta Ultra produces takes two minutes, rather than 24 hours. But honestly the low and slow method can achieve better results, meaning it still might be the best route to the natural sweetness youre looking for. DeLonghi Eletta Ultra review: also consider Swipe to scroll horizontally



DeLonghi Eletta Ultra

Breville Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction

Smeg BCC13

Type

Fully automatic bean-to-cup espresso machine

Semi-automatic espresso machine

Fully automatic bean-to-cup espresso machine

Dimensions

14.96 x 9.25 x 17.91 inches / 380 x 235 x 455mm

13.4 x 14.2 x 16.3 inches / 340 x 360 x 415mm

13.2 x 7 x 17 inches / 336 x 180 x 433mm

Weight

24.14 lbs / 10.95kg

24.18 lbs / 10.97kg

20 lbs / 9kg

Water tank capacity

1.9 quarts / 1.8 liters

2.1 quarts / 2 liters

1.48 quarts / 1.4 liters

Steam wand

No (Includes automatic LatteCrema Hot & Cool milk carafes / Hot water spout)

Yes (Automatic and manual AutoMilq steam wand)

No (Includes automatic milk carafe system via removable milk tube)

Max pressure

19 bar

9 bar

19 bar Breville Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction While the Breville Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction isnt fully automatic, it makes every step of the process significantly easier with its lever-operated
tamping system and AutoMilq system. It also guides you through the dosing of your coffee and picking the perfect grind size, helping you gradually improve your coffee-making skills no wonder its currently sat at the top of our
guide to the best coffee makers. Read our full Breville Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction review . Smeg BCC13 If you have zero interest in how the sausage coffee is made and just want well-extracted coffee on demand, the
Smeg BCC13 is a much more affordable option. Theres absolutely zero variables to tweak you dont even need to worry about dialling in the right grind size. You literally just tap your desired drink and off you go. Its automated milk steaming isnt great at handling plant milks though, so if anyone in your household prefers a cow-free coffee, this machine might not be for you. Read our full Smeg BCC13 review . (Image credit: Future) How I tested the DeLonghi Eletta Ultra review Tested it over several weeks Created and customized a range of drinks Tried it out with a range of different beans I tested the DeLonghi Eletta Ultra over a period of several weeks. After calibrating the machines boiler temperature and grind size by extracting multiple shots of espresso, I tested out its capabilities by brewing a wide range of drinks, including espressos, Americanos, lattes, cappuccinos and cold brew. I also tried it with a range of beans, from mass-market supermarket beans to higher-quality microlot coffee.

On top of this, I tested many of its smart features. Not only did I
experiment with creating personalized settings for each drink, changing its length, intensity and number of shots, but I also tried out the DeLonghis
Bean Sense feature to see how it impacted multiple different drinks. Finally, I measured the Eletta Ultras noise output when extracting coffee with a sound level meter.

In terms of my own experience, Ive been a daily coffee drinker for more than 20 years. Ive experimented with countless different brewing methods during that time, whether thats manual espresso, a stove-top moka pot, an Aeropress or cold brewed in mason jars. When it comes to testing experience, Ive been reviewing and writing about tech for over a decade. First reviewed: June 2026 For more details, see how we test, review, and rate products at TechRadar . De'Longhi Eletta Ultra: Price Comparison 1,149.99 View 1,149.99 View We check over 250 million products every day for the best prices powered by



======================================================================
Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/home/coffee-machines/delonghis-bean-to-cup-coffee-ma chine-makes-a-cornucopia-of-coffees-but-having-tested-it-ive-found-its-hot-and -cold-drinks-are-decent-rather-than-exceptional


--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 (Linux/64)
* Origin: tqwNet Technology News (1337:1/100)