Coffee Blog » Delonghi Rivelia, Kev’s 2024 Review. DeLonghi’s Best Yet?

Delonghi Rivelia, Kev’s 2024 Review. DeLonghi’s Best Yet?

By: Kev | Updated On: Updated On: September 16, 2024 at 1:08 pm

So you’re looking for a review of the DeLonghi Rivelia, you’re wondering if it’s really as good as DeLonghi say it is, and you were hoping to find a review from someone who says it exactly how it is and knows at least a little bit about coffee machines?

You’re in luck! ;-).

I have the De’Longhi Rivelia sitting right behind me in my studio. I’ve been using it for the past few days, I’ve figured out it’s pros and cons, what’s AMAZING about it, and what’s not quite so amazing, and I’m about to share it with you, no catches.

By the way, in case you haven’t noticed already – this blog is different from a lot of the blogs you’ll land on these days. You’ll see there aren’t ads all over the screen for example.

In fact the only things you’ll see that look remotely like ads, are simply sharing info about the latest monthly giveaway, my coffee beans at cworks, my “Brew Time” mailing list, and discount codes that coffee & coffee machine brands have shared with me for coffeeblog readers (you’ll get all of these in the first email if you join my mailing list).

You’ll also see when you start reading my review of the DeLonghi Rivelia, if you’ve not read my content in the past, that I write 100% honest reviews, and I work on making them as helpful as I possibly can.

For example, I spent over an hour testing just to figure out what amount of coffee in grams each intensity level actually relates to, and what weight in beans you’ll end up using for your coffee if you brew in switch mode in between swapping the hoppers.

You’ll know if you’ve read my other posts or watched any of my videos, if I think something is crap I’ll say it.

More commonly, if I think there’s a particular thing about a machine that’s rubbish, and other things that aren’t so rubbish, I’ll point them all out, so my readers and viewers can use this info to figure out if the machine in question might be the best option for them, or not.

I thought it was important to just make sure you know this, so that when you see how amazed I am by the Rivelia, you don’t mistake me for a sales person who is always going to rave about every coffee machine they “review”.

De'Longhi Rivelia Review

Features:

Two Fast Swap Bean Hoppers (with switch mode)
Fully Interactive & Instructional Touch Screen Interface
Two Distinct Sections For Black Coffees & Milk Coffees
Twelve One Touch Coffees
A Further Nine One Touch Cold Froth Milkies With Optional Add On
Bean Adapt (assisted dialling in)
14 Grind Settings (finer than most bean to cup machines)
Extra Shot Function (true double shot possible)
4 Custom Profiles
1.4 Litre Front Accessed Water Tank
Dreg Drawer Capacity: 10 Coffees
Maximum Cup Height: 14 cm
Dimensions (WxDxH): 24.5 x 43 x 39 cm

My Observations:

My first thoughts from looking at what De’Longhi have said about this machine was “Have DeLonghi not only made their best ever bean to cup machine, but also finally solved the “what to do about decaf” conundrum?”

I wasn’t expecting to actually conclude that the above was the case, I’m used to being disappointed by the actual thing after reading the marketing burb – but, I have to say, I do think the above is the case, after spending a couple of weeks putting the Rivelia through its paces.

So, I may be about to save you a lot of time in searching for your perfect one touch bean to cup coffee machine.

Are you looking for a one touch bean to cup coffee machine that will produce latte, cappuccino, espresso, Americano and so from just touching the screen?
Is milk texture important to you? In other words, do you care about being able to produce silky smooth milk texture, for velvety flat white & latte?
Do you value simplicity & intuitiveness?
Do you like to switch from one coffee to the other quite regularly. For example, make a full caffeine coffee and then switch to decaf, and then back again?
Does the ability to make cold frothed milkies, such as Frappuccino & iced latte, sound like something that might be cool (pun intended, sorry).
Do you like “normal” temperature milkies? You're not one of those people who like their cappuccino at the temperature of the earth's core?

If you answered yes to most of the above, I’m fairly confident the DeLonghi Rivelia is the best machine for you.

The only real sticking point that I think may be significant with some people, is the last point above. This is a one touch milk carafe system, and like most of this kind of machine, they don’t produce very hot milk.

For me, the milk temperature it produces, just above 60C, is perfect, but some people do like very hot milkies. If you do, this probably isn’t for you, although I don’t know of any one touch carafe frothers that will go hotter.

Unlike most other carafe frothers, though, this one produces real micro foam.

I was stunned by that, I spoke to Tom from Tom’s Coffee Corner about this, and he told me the same is true of the DeLonghi Eletta Explore, which I’ve not used as of yet, which is a few hundred quid more than the Rivelia.

So, some idiot called Coffee Kev ;-), once said that one touch milk frothers don’t really produced micro foam, and this was the case with all of the one touch carafes I’ve used in the past, but this appears to not be true now, some one touch frothers at least, are capable of this kind of texture.

Anyway, this is a mid priced one touch bean to cup machine that is capable of true micro foam.

I knew the first time I saw it hitting the espresso, so I quickly grabbed my milk jug, set it to the “creamy” setting, tapped the “hot milk” option, and poured this.

This is with Momma Oat milk, in case you’re wondering.

This is more of a modern cappuccino (cappuccino made with slightly stiffer micro foam than with flat white), it was very nice, but I prefer slightly wetter texture for my flatties.

So I turned the texture down slightly below the “creamy” icon, and made this:

The machine didn’t create the latte art, of course, but the only difference between doing it the way I have here, frothing into the jug then pouring into the espresso vs just allowing the machine to do it, is the latte art, the texture and taste isn’t any different.

OK, so that’s the milk texture, and as you can see, it’s mega – the only thing to keep in mind is that it won’t produce scalding hot milk, which is great if like me, you like your milkies to be at drinking temp.

If you do like ultra hot milkies, this is probably going to be the one thing that would turn you off. If you want very hot milkies, you’d be better with a standard panarello wand machine or a machine with a pro steam wand. For loads of other options, see:

What about the espresso?

Home bean to cup coffee machines don’t quite produce the same kind of espresso as traditional espresso machines.

Usually I’d say its more like small volume cafe crema, which is a longer espresso made with a more coarse grind size.

You can get closer to “true” espresso with bean to cup machines by grinding towards the finest setting, using the most intense setting for the biggest dose, and setting the volume to the minimum.

This still won’t quite produce the same espresso you’ll get from a traditional espresso machine when dialled in. So if you’re looking for as perfect as possible “true” espresso, see:

But bean to cup machines are very convenient, and for a lot of people the espresso they’ll make is more than acceptable, especially when they’re going to be adding milk and/or other stuff anyway.

The espresso from the Rivelia is up there with the espresso I’ve experienced from any home bean to cup coffee machine.

It actually tastes slightly better than I remember tasting from any of the Delonghi Magnifica bean to cup range, but I’m going from memory so I’ll have to do blind tasting to be sure.

One thing that did surprise me is I managed to choke the machine, which means I ground too fine (at setting 3) to the point that no espresso would flow.

This was with my cworks Chocolate Brownie Blend, a medium/dark roast which usually requires a relatively fine grind with traditional espresso machines.

I also tasted over extraction while trying to establish the right grind size, which I’m not accustomed to tasting with bean to cup machines.

Under extraction is something I’d expect to experience with bean to cup machines, but not so much over extraction.

So as I’ve said, this is a bean to cup coffee machine, it uses an internal grinder and brewing unit, it’s not going to produce quite the shot quality that traditional espresso machines will once you’re dialled in.

But, I’m impressed with the espresso it produces, given that it’s a bean to cup machine.

Dual Hoppers With Switch Mode

This is smart, and it works!

One of the most common quandaries is how to deal with switching to and from different coffee beans, the most common one is switching to and from decaf.

Up until now, I don’t think any brand has found a valid solution.

DeLonghi and Siemens have both approached this with dual grinder machines (other brands have done this with commercial bean to cup coffee machines, but not with home machines), but this is a very expensive approach. The Maestosa for example is just shy of two grand.

Melitta has approached this with the TS Smart, with a dual hopper, which is about as much use as a chocolate fireguard. Sorry Melitta, separating one hopper into two halves, both feeding one set of burrs, isn’t a great approach in my humble opinion.

Home baristas using traditional espresso machines usually deal with this by single dosing, meaning to just weigh out the beans you’re about to use, and then grind these. You could do this with bean to cup machines, but it defeats the object.

Most people using bean to cup machines just want to load the hopper, walk up to the machine when they need coffee, press the button, wander off with a coffee and a grin.

So how do you deal with quickly making a decaf, or a single origin instead of your usual blend?

The norm is to use the grinder bypass chute, with pre-ground coffee, and to that I reply no, just no.

I say this for a few reasons. For one, the staling process accelerates, a LOT, the second coffee is ground.

Oxidation is able to happen at a much more rapid rate once so much more of the surface area of each bean is exposed to air.

Also when you use a pre-ground chute, they’re really difficult to keep clean, and due to the moisture that ends up in there, they can often get mouldy if they’re not really kept on top of.

Plus, if you use pre-ground, you can’t tweak the grind size.

For me, a dual hopper system is the perfect approach, at least for bean to cup, and especially if there’s a solution for dealing with the beans that are already sitting in the burrs when you unlock the hopper.

The switch mode DeLonghi has come up with, is really impressive.

When you unlock the hopper, it goes into switch mode, and asks do you want to grind and dump (purge) the beans that have already left the hopper at that point, or do you want to make one last coffee with them? Once you’ve either purged the beans that were already in the burrs, or used them to make a coffee, you just switch the hoppers over.

Not only can you easily switch from one bean to another, but you can switch to a different bean just for one coffee too.

For example, lets say you have your full caffeine beans in your machine, but someone comes round who only drinks decaf.

You get your cworks Chocolate & Caramel Decaf Honduras from your sealed bag or air tight container (which, by the way, your guest probably won’t believe is decaf!) and load some of it into the spare hopper.

You turn the hopper that is already installed, into the unlocked position, which puts the machine into switch mode, and you make your coffee with the beans that remain in the hopper.

You then insert the hopper containing the decaf, lock the hopper in and then unlock it straight away, and select to make your guest a coffee with the beans that have already fallen into the burrs when you unlocked the hopper (roughly 9 grams).

There may be a very small amount of retained grounds in the chute, so if it’s important to know that there’s literally no full caffeine grounds at all used for your guest’s decaf (for example if they’re sticking to decaf for medical reasons), just make sure you’ve put at least 20g of beans (roughly one large handful) into the hopper, lock it then unlock it, and choose to grind and dump the first dose.

This means about 9 grams of beans will be purged, then do the same again, lock and unlock the hopper to put it in switch mode, but this time instead of purging, choose to make a coffee with the beans that are now in the burrs, choose the coffee your guest has requested, and then swap the hoppers back over.

The only downside to this is you can’t tweak the strength, it just grinds for long enough to use up all the beans left in the burrs, but this is roughly 9 grams, which is the fourth intensity setting out of five, so it’ll be fine for most people.

If it didn’t sound like it ground all the beans (you can tell by the sound it makes), there may be one or two beans still in there, if you’re bothered about that just go into the settings and tell it to grind out all the beans.

Bean Adapt

If you tap the bean icon, the machine will go into “bean adapt” mode, in which it’ll ask you a few questions so it can tweak the settings slightly in order to try to improve the extraction.

First, it suggests that you make at least three coffees with the beans before starting the bean adapt procedure.

Then, it asks you if it’s 100% Arabica or a Robusta blend, it asks you to choose from four roast levels, light, medium, dark, extra dark, and it asks you to let it know what position the grinder is currently set to.

It’ll then tweak the brew temp according to the roast level, and it’ll tell you if it thinks your grind level is right or if it needs changing, and if it does need changing it’ll suggest a grind size adjustment.

You can then name these beans, and whenever you’re using them in the future, you’ll automatically be using these settings.

If you’re not happy with them, you can go back in and click “refine” to do more jiggery & pokery with the extraction, in which case it’ll prompt you to brew another shot and then ask you to taste it, and tell it if it was either balanced, watery & weak, or too strong.

Based on your answer, it’ll either keep the settings the same or tweak them slightly.

Interactive User Interface

The user interface on the Rivelia is really quite something.

The only time I’ve experienced a user interface with this kind of interactivity in the past has been with Sage coffee machines, for example the Barista Touch, Touch Impress & Oracle Touch have very intuitive & interactive user interfaces.

But, reminding ourselves that this is a mid priced one touch bean to cup coffee machine, it’s really impressive to have a UI this good.

Literally from the second you turn the machine on for the first time, the interface guides you through every step of the setup, and thereafter through every step of making each coffee, with a really personable, almost AI like interaction.

The priming & setup is very straightforward as a result, and every time you turn the machine on and use it, the way it talks the user through every step is very impressive.

The settings menu is also similarly intuitive, you just click on settings, and swipe though, with each window being very clearly labelled, and the stuff you can do in the settings menu is impressive, too, including setting the Auto off with four options from 15 mins to 3 hours, water hardness, rinsing, descaling, turning the beeps on/off, milk carafe cleaning and extraction temperature.

Up To 21 One Touch Coffees

There are 12 one touch options on the main menu, which are separated with two icons that sit either side of the touch screen, so you can just tap “coffee” to see all the black coffees, and click “milk” to see all the milk options.

The one touch milk coffee options are:

Latte. Cappuccino. Flat White. Espresso Macchiato. Latte Macchiato. Cappuccino Mix. Cortado. There’s also a stand alone hot milk option for hot chocolate, hot breakfast cereal etc.

The one touch black coffee options are:

Espresso. Americano. Long. Coffee. Cool Americano. Lungo. Double Espresso. Cool Coffee. Cool Espresso.

If you’re wondering what “coffee” is, it’s basically a longer lungo, more like a cafe crema – and “long” is a stronger coffee it produces using a double shot (two grinding cycles) with water pulsed through the coffee in short intervals.

The cool options, I’m not sold on to be honest. It asks you if you want it cool or extra cool, and just instructs you how many ice cubes to add. I assumed it would brew slightly cooler, but the coffee hitting the cup using the cool settings was just under 80C, not what I’d call cold.

Cold Milk Froth

If you buy the cool lattecrema carafe, when you insert this, it opens up a new menu of cold froth drinks, all the one touch milk drinks but with cold milk froth.

If you’ve never tasted cold frothed milk, you’re in for a surprise, it somehow tricks your brain (mine, at least) into thinking you’re drinking something a lot more luxurious than just milk or milk alternative.

So not only is this great for making breakfast cereal feel way more substantial, for example, but it makes iced lattes, cappuccinos & flat whites much more special.

If you have a blender, try putting crushed ice in there too on a hot sunny day, mega!

DeLonghi Rivelia – Questions

OK so that’s the bulk of the review, in a nutshell this is the best machine I’ve ever used where milk texture is concerned, particularly for micro foam texture.

I’m very impressed with the espresso from a bean to cup machine, the dual hoppers I think is a great approach to switching to and from different beans, and the cool milk carafe option for cool foam I think is great.

So, I think for a bean to cup machine at this kind of price, if you’re looking for one touch, and you’re not looking for super hot milkies (most one touch machines won’t do that anyway), this is hard to beat.

But you probably have questions, as I would, so here are what I think are the most obvious ones, with my answers:

What dosage does each intensity relate to?

This is something I wish DeLonghi would tell us (to save me the trouble of figuring it out). I know it’s not going to be exact as it depends on the roast level and the grind size, but a rough idea would be helpful.

Anyway, I’ve sussed it out using a different method than I usually would, because they’ve thrown me a curve ball with this one ;-).

Usually when it comes to Gaggia bean to cup machines I can have a look at the ground coffee by tricking the machine into thinking the brewing unit is in place, and getting it to grind into a cup.

With Delonghi machines I’ve never been able to do that, but instead I usually just stop the process as soon as the grinding is finished, and put a small cup at the back of the waste tray to collect the drips, so I can then just access the ground coffee.

With the Rivelia, though, they’ve set it up to add a small amount of water into the grounds even when you cancel the shot, presumably so it creates some form of puck for easier internal disposal.

So I had to do it by weighing the beans in the hopper and subtracting how much drops into the burrs when unlocked.

So the first thing to say is that when you unlock the hopper, approx. 9 grams of beans enter the burrs. So when it comes to making a coffee in switch mode, you’re going to be using about 9 grams, which is about equal to intensity level 4.

Intensity 1 is about 5 grams, 2 is about 7 grams, 3 is roughly 8 grams, 4 is about 9 grams and 5 is about 10 grams.

So if you’re coming from using a Nespresso original line pod machine, for example, intensity level 1 is about equal to the amount of ground coffee in a single pod, and the max intensity is equal to roughly two pods.

Does the Rivelia do a true double shot?

Yes. I’ve tested this, and if you choose a double shot or “2 x espresso” as it appears in the menu, it’ll grind the weight of beans corresponding to whatever intensity you choose, it’ll then pull the shot, and repeat the process for a true double shot.

This is interesting as this is something that most of the other entry to mid level DeLonghi bean to cup machines don’t do, usually if you want a true double shot, meaning double the espresso from double the ground coffee, you have to press the shot button, wait for the shot to be delivered, and then repeat.

You can also choose to add an extra shot to any drink on the menu.

What is the “Long” option in the menu?

This is a new one on me. Long coffee is what we’d usually use to refer to a lungo, unless we’re talking about long black, but this is neither.

It’s a long (bigger extraction) double shot, with a pulsed brew. So if you choose intensity 5, for example, it’ll grind about 10g of coffee, it’ll then slowly pulse brew a lungo sized extraction, then it’ll repeat the process.

So if you want a big mug of strong coffee, give this a try.

What are the iced coffees on the menu?

I’m really not quite sure. To me they would appear to be exactly the same as the usual version of those drinks but with the instruction to add ice cubes, which seems odd.

They don’t appear to be any cooler, so producing one of these over ice will produce a coffee at around room temperature, so I’m not sure what the intention is here, I find it a bit weird.

If you really do want iced coffees, my advice would be to just pull an espresso over ice, and add cold water.

Is the cool latte crema system worth it?

If you like cold milk drinks, Frappuccino type coffees, then I’d say yes, absolutely.

To me, cold milk froth is a revelation, I remember being amazed the first time I tried it, at how it makes cold milk taste so much better!

You can also use it for more interesting breakfast cereal on warm days, and even for using for deserts, for a less calorific version of cream, just using milk or milk alternative.

Is the Delonghi Rivelia the best bean to cup machine on the market?

There’s a lot of choice out there these days, and there’s no one machine that is going to be the best for everyone, but I think the Rivelia is going to be the best option for a LOT of people.

If the following statements are true for you:

You want a true bean to cup machine, you’re not interested in the idea of using a more traditional portafilter machine.
You want a one touch experience, just press a button once, walk off with your cappuccino, flat white, Americano or whatever the case may be.
You like modern cappuccino & flat white texture, micro foam rather than old school stiff cappuccino foam.
You’re not to fussed about your milkies being very hot.
You want a proper, practical solution for switching in between different coffee beans, for example switching to and from decaf.
You want a really easy to use machine with friendly machine prompts.
Then, I think the Rivelia is the machine for you.
If you’re not too fussed about the dual hoppers & switch mode, the Eletta Explore has similar capabilities, but it’s a few hundred quid more.
If you’re not bothered about the one touch side of things, and you’d prefer the option to steam your milk as hot as you want, then some of the Gaggia bean to cup machines with steam wands, such as the Anima Barista Plus, Magenta Plus or Cadorna Barista might be worth looking at

If you’re more fussy about cup quality, in particular when it comes to espresso quality, and you really want true espresso and aren’t willing to compromise on that, then you may be better off looking at one of the Sage espresso machines that are commonly sold as bean to cup machines, such as the Barista Express or Barista Pro.

Does the Rivelia make hot cappuccino & latte?

Yes and no, it depends on what you mean by hot. In my opinion, the perfect milk temperature in terms of being drinking temp straight away and not burning the milk & making the coffee taste a bit weird, is 60-65C.

For oat, which is my usual milk alternative since moo juice starting making me feel a bit weird, I’d usually go to just a tad over 60C, maybe 62 or 63 ish – and I only know this from testing the temp of the milkies I make, as I’m used to just stopping steaming when it feels about right.

All of the milkies I’ve tested on the Rivelia have been at about 61-62C, which I think is about right. Some people on the other hand will call this luke warm. If I gave my dad a flat white using the Rivelia, he’d probably want it putting in the microwave! ;-).

Does the Rivelia make hot espresso & black coffees?

Yes. Espresso and hot water both tend to hit the cup at around 78 – 82C. You’ll not get much hotter coffee from a bean to cup coffee machine.

Where is the DeLonghi Rivelia made?

DeLonghi are an Italian company, and they’re huge, they have manufacturing facilities in various countries, including China and Italy.

If you Google where are Delonghi machines made, you’ll find people jumping to conclusions, some people assuming that as they’re an Italian company they’ll have their manufacturing in Italy, some assume that as they’re home machines they’ll be made in China.

The Rivelia is manufactured in Romania, or at least the one that I have is, as I know from the “manufactured in Romania” sticker on the bottom of the machine.

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