You asked, what's the best espresso machine for beginners? Here's our barista's answer

It’s really hard to make coffee that’s as good as a barista’s. It’s largely down to skill and years of experience, but I would also say that there’s a good dose of having someone else make it for you that makes it taste so good. The only thing that might leave a less delicious taste in your mouth is the price tag.

So, what if you could make your own coffee, that tastes as good as a barista’s, without having to leave home or do a master's in coffee. In other words, what if you owned the De’Longhi La Specialista Maestro?

I’ve tested over 200 of the best coffee machines on the market and this is the one that I chose to spend my precious pennies on. It gives you all the lovely barista theatrics, but with the stabilisers that prevent you from making big mistakes with grinding, tamping, and brewing. So, if you're looking for the best espresso machine for beginners, look no further.

I’ve had this in my kitchen for over a year now and I’ve made some incredible coffee with cheap and expensive beans. Here’s all you need to know about its espressos, Americanos, cappuccinos, and cold brews.

Specifications

Unboxing

A well-built, durable espresso machine that comes with an integrated grinder, tamper, and milk steamer comes with some inevitable extra weight. I’ve come to expect this over the years, but when you combine that with the big box that this comes in, you won’t want to do much lifting with it. So much so, I ended up unboxing this on the floor. 

You can see that it looks every part the barista-ey, speciality machine that I’ve gushed about, but I would really recommend having a spare pair of hands or a strong lifting mindset ready for when you need to unbox this. 

De’Longhi includes lots of luxurious extras — very helpful for getting started straight away — including a water filter, water hardness test strips, a milk jug (yes, these aren’t guaranteed), and small cleaning brushes and alternative portafilter baskets. Essentially, De’Longhi gives you the complete set of everything you could possibly need to start making some delicious coffee. You just need to bring the beans (and even then, this can get by with less than perfect blends).

Who would it suit?

What is it like to use?

Espresso machines can be tricky to get the hang of, but De’Longhi has designed this with beginners in mind. The machine walks you through the whole set-up process, from grind size to tamping pressure. It won’t do anything until it’s happy that you also know what you’re doing, which makes for a wonderfully low stress experience. I would always recommend putting some cheaper beans in your coffee machine when you’re testing it out, because lots of these will want you to make 5-10 coffees before they’re working. This will only be the first time that you turn it on, don’t worry.

The grinder is easy to adjust, you lock the portafilter in your automatically set it, and the machine will dose you with how much coffee it thinks you need. Then, there’s a lever at the side that you can use to push, or tamp, the coffee grounds down for brewing. 

Once that’s done, you can twist the far dial to select the kind of coffee that you want, lock your portafilter into place, and you’re ready to go. It’s as simple as that. I have a few tests that give you more specifics, so that you can get a good idea of what living with one of these actually looks like. The first is making an espresso.

Test 1: espresso

The first coffee I make with any coffee machine is an espresso, because you won’t get far in the world of coffee without one of these. It’s like trying to make a pizza without a bread base and tomato sauce. Madness. 

The espresso is a concentrated flavour profile that demonstrates how well your machine can extract the coffee oils from your beans. Thankfully, De’Longhi has mastered it. 

I tested both a double and single shot espresso here, because you can select them from the main coffee menu. You can also make cold espressos, which I have done too. It’s a versatile offering. 

The average time this takes to make an espresso is 18 seconds, which is pretty perfect. All of mine are extracted with a nice, thick crema, a well-balanced flavour profile, and they come out hot, but drinkable. You can already tell from the colour that this makes good espressos, but I beg you to taste one too. Even when I was setting this up and using cheap beans, I was surprised at the body and clarity that was coming through.  There’s a little tray that you can pull out to sit your espresso cups closer to the brew head to avoid any mess and splattering, which is a useful touch. 

The double espressos are just as good. You’ll get great consistency across the size, flavour, temperature, and extraction. Just as you would expect from your local barista, this is coffee that you can rely on.

Test 2: Americano

Americanos are black coffees: an espresso mixed with water. This might sound like a very similar test to my espresso test, but the addition of water is a crucial measure of how well a machine manages temperatures and pressure. Every time you use hot water, the pressure of your espresso machines boilers fluctuate, so it needs to stabilise that, whilst not overheating the water. If your water is too hot (or too cold) it will make your coffee taste bitter, because it will have burnt or cooled your coffee unnaturally. There’s actually a very fine window of heat and brewing that a coffee machine needs to fall into if it wants to make a good Americano. So there you have it. That’s why I always run a test on Americanos. 

When making an Americano with the De’Longhi La Specialista Maestro, you’ll notice that the dial gives you a choice between an Americano and a long black, which is probably a bit confusing for the average coffee drinker. The difference between the two is simply the order in which you brew your espresso and hot water. Most people can’t tell the difference, as long as it’s nice coffee, right?

I tested out both versions, so that I could give you an idea of how each performs and they were nothing short of perfect. My favourite coffee has these gorgeously delicate floral notes that get burnt and pressed out of kilter by most machines. However, this had the skill to delicately tease out and extract every beautiful note, leaving me with a delicious, well-balanced cup. It comes out hot, but not boiling and it’s easy to adjust shot size and water quantity to suit your preferences. My partner is an extra hot 2/3 shot kind of guy and he loves this machine. 

Test 3: cappuccino

So this has perfected the flavour (espresso), the temperature (Americano), now it has another test: steaming milk. Here is where most people slip up, because it’s where your barista will be pretty faultless. The steam wand in this is nice to use, easy to angle, and it’s very manageable. You will want to practice your milk texturing skills, because the La Specialista Maestro won’t automatically steam milk for you, but it’s still something that I think you could pick up. I use a lot of alternative milks in my coffee, so I’ve steamed almond milk and oat milk with as much ease as normal, dairy milk, which is impressive. Non-dairy milks can be really temperamental, so you need a steam wand that’s responsive to subtle changes that you might require. 

I can imagine a coffee move struggling to get silky smooth milk on their first try, but I don’t think it’ll be long before you’re making some silky milks in this. 

When I made a cappuccino with normal milk, I got a wonderful, gentle sweetness from the milk. It blended nicely with my espresso, creating a really delicious cup of coffee. So, all in all, it’s good, but you’ll just need some practice.

Test 4: cold brew

Formally, that’s the end of my standard tests, because you know everything that you need to about the basics of this machine. However, I couldn’t resist testing the cold brew function. When cold brew coffee took off, lots of companies launched cold brew functionalities on their machines, claiming to be able to make a smooth cup of cold brew in a few minutes, when it should take 24 hours (cold brew is an 18- hour process that uses cold, filtered water to slowly extract flavour from your grounds). With all my coffee snobbery to hand, I made a cup of cold brew. Whilst this had a slightly more acidic note than my normal artisan cold brew, I have to give it to La Specialista Maestro. It did a decent job. I’ve certainly had worse cold brews served to me in expensive shops, so I was pretty pleased overall. 

Cleaning and maintenance

The De’Longhi La Specialista Maestro takes care of lots of cleaning by itself. It’ll clear the steam wand and flash up with icons that request a rinse cycle or descaling run. So, whilst it’s good practice to know how to clean a coffee machine, this will also give you a helping hand when it’s needed. 

I’d recommend giving this a daily rinse to get rid of any excess coffee grounds that might be in the system. If you know that you can’t do that, aim for a weekly rinse, where you clear out the drip tray too. I’m pretty hot when it comes to cleaning my espresso machine because I know what good (or bad) maintenance can do for the lifespan of one of these. However, if you need some reassurance, my dad was inspired to buy this after using mine. He rarely cleans his machine — to my horror — and it still looks and works pretty well. 

How does it compare?

I can easily say that this is one of the best espresso machines on the market, but I’m also not blind to the fact that other people might need some small tweaks before this becomes their perfect machine.

One of the biggest sticking points that I’ve seen people struggle with is the milk steaming. If you know that this will be you too, I have an alternative. The Sage Oracle Jet is the crème de la creme of espresso machines. It takes things one further step on from La Specialista Maestro when it comes to automation. This will steam your milk for you — dairy, almond, oat, soya. You can set what you want, the froth, the temperature, and everything in between and this’ll do it. Some people also prefer the fact that this uses a screen instead of dials. It makes life very easy and brings this much closer to feeling like a super-automatic espresso machine that does everything for you, except that you get a little bit of input when you move the portafilter from the grinder over to the brew head. In the flip slide, for those who want more of a barista experience, the De’Longhi is a better option. Both machines are on a par technically and La Specialista Maestro is a fair bit cheaper. It just depends on your needs.

If you like the sound of the De’Longhi La Specialista Maestro, but not the price tag, there are some other options out there. To save a little bit of money, it’s worth looking at Sage’s Bambino Espresso Machine. This doesn’t come with a grinder, so you’ll need to own a separate model (or buy pre-ground beans) but it does a great job of making delicious coffee. You have to steam milk yourself (although the Bambino Plus can auto steam) and you won’t get the same nuanced control over your coffee, but if you want a technically good espresso machine and you don’t need frills, this is actually the model that a fair few baristas own. 

Should you buy it?

If you love the idea of bringing some barista skills into your kitchen, but you don’t quite have the know-how, this is perfect. It’s really hard to make anything but delicious coffee with the De’Longhi La Specialista Maestro, because it auto grinds, doses, and tanks your coffee. Then you can set the brewing style and strength. The only place where things could go wrong is with texturing milk and this still has plenty of measures in place to protect against that. 

How we test

At woman&home, how we test coffee machines is a rigorous and thorough process. I like to give you the most holistic view possible. I make everything from espresso through to cold brews and cappuccinos to give you a good idea of the coffee flavours. I make notes on the brew time, temperature, and tastes that the coffee machine can deliver, but that's not it. I like to let you know about cleaning, maintenance, and aesthetics. In essence, you should know everything that you could possibly want to know about the espresso machine before you buy it. If you don't, feel free to email me with any questions that you have.