As much as 98% of your coffee is made up of water, so it makes perfect sense to suggest that a truly great cuppa requires a pure, high-quality water base. Using natural materials like granular carbon and resin, this water filter helps you get rid of unwanted aromas and flavours by purifying the water you’re using. The machine is easy to use thanks to an intuitive control panel with a two-line text display. The touch-sensitive control panel is soft, making it extremely pleasant to the touch. Repeat this process at least three times, but without the extra cleaning tablet. It’s crucial to clean the system from chemicals properly.

It not like TV’s where it goes from HD to 4K screen resolution and so the standard HD becomes less desirable, the coffee that this machine produces is in our opinion as good as ones that are much more expensive and with the same features and level of personalisation. Ease of use 10/10 Get the beans from a specialist coffee shop if you can and completely ignore the use-by date. Look for the roasting date or production date and try and get beans that have been roasted in the last month. One of the narrowest bean-to-cup coffee machines on the market (only 19.5-cm wide), De’Longhi “Autentica ETAM 29.660” offers an authentic coffee experience. With a single touch, not only will you prepare traditional Italian espresso or cappuccino from freshly ground coffee beans or pre-ground coffee, but you’ll also be able to enjoy double espresso, slow-brewed long coffee (perfect for fans of filter brews!), a trendy flat white or a three-layered macchiato. The coffee machine is extremely simple to operate with a text display and control panel that are a pleasure to use. Automated maintenance programs allow you to focus all your attention on enjoying coffee.Perhaps the most notable element of the De’Longhi Autentica Plus is its shape. This is a slimline machine, one that doesn’t command too much space on your work surface. It’s something we’re very grateful of in the somewhat-dinky kitchen we use to test these machines. Before you read the full review, this model provides full automation with a milk carafe that will deliver the milk for you. If you prefer to heat the milk yourself in a jug using a steam wand then the ETAM 29.510B is a little cheaper and still does a tremendous job. The De’Longhi Autentica Cappuccino ETAM 29.660 is a one-stop shop for coffee making. In essence, it is a bean to cup coffee machine with a large hopper for storing beans and an onboard burr grinder to crush them to your desired ground size on demand. Customise the prepared servings according to your taste: choose from five levels of coffee strength, four temperature levels, and program your preferred portion size. A few of the additional features are a Doppio+ button that gives you a nice strong double espresso with just one touch instead of having to mess around with the personalisation functions. You also have a “long coffee button” on this model that provides a one-touch Americano. You get rapid steam on the 29.660 and not on the 23.460 making heating and frothing much easier and more effective on this model and also Delonghi’s cappuccino system for the perfect frothing which you don’t get on the 23.460. So at the same price or a few pounds more this one is definitely better.

The quality of the De’Longhi Autentica Plus’s milky drinks largely depends on whether you have the technique down or not. What it takes responsibility for is plain coffee – and that’s it. It’s all about the coffee. With a machine as good as this you can replicate what you get in a coffee shop BUT only if you use good coffee. The universal descaler “For Better Coffee”. Made of natural, high-quality ingredients, this descaler efficiently removes limescale and ensures smooth operation of your coffee machine.

Preparable recipes

If you have fairly limited space to work with, the De’Longhi Autentica Plus is a bit of a star. However, if you have plenty of the stuff, there are some cheaper models in the Philips Saeco range to consider. Verdict The machine can also make two cups of coffee at once – which saves time an effort when there is a rush on the coffee. Usability and performance

Behind the absolute majority of coffee machine malfunctions is the underlying cause of limescale deposits. A water filter prevents limescale from developing and accumulating within the system, hence extending the service life of your coffee machine in the process. To put this coffee machine into context one of Delonghi’s flagship top of the range bean to cup coffee machines is the Prima Donna S When you are spending a lot of money on the indulgence of a bean to cup coffee machine you want to make sure that the one you buy does everything you want it to at the best possible price. If you follow these guidelines and pay a bit more for the best beans then don’t be surprised if you enjoy the coffee that this machine produces MORE than what you get at one of the big chains and for a fraction of the price. Value For Money 9/10

Frequently Asked Questions

Bean to cup coffee machines of this type were until recently out of the reach of most people’s budget. If your coffee machine is equipped with an integrated milk system cleaning program, simply follow the required procedure. If there’s no integrated milk system cleaning program in your appliance, see the following instructions.