When I first heard about the launch of De’Longhi’s Rivelia espresso maker, I was uncertain what to expect. Coming from De’Longhi, the beloved home appliance brand and industry leader, I knew this espresso would be nothing short of exceptional (turns out I had no idea what I was in for). It’s safe to say the expectations were high for De’Longhi’s advanced technology. However, I wasn’t quite prepared to become obsessed with this first-of-its-kind machine.
De’Longhi’s Rivelia truly lives up to the attribute of “smart”, exceeding expectations of what a home espresso machine can do. Here’s what it’s like to use the Rivelia at home, and a look at how its innovative technology adapts to your coffee preferences.
Full-touch display
De’Longhi’s Rivelia walks you through every step of the coffee process, from unboxing to cleaning to daily coffee brewing. If you’re like me and get overwhelmed with lengthy instruction manuals, don’t worry. For a machine so intelligent, it’s designed to be unbelievably intuitive and walk you through everything you need on the full-touch display.
The 3.5″ full-touch color display is where you’ll perform every action you need — from setting up a customizable user profile to selecting which drink you’d like to brew. There’s something about the little color icons of each of the 16 drink selections that makes the experience so fun. This coffee maker almost disproves the “coffee snob” reputation, adding a bit of playfulness and fun into making your morning coffee with little touches like addressing you by name and allowing you to select a tiny avatar for your user profile. Before I knew it, I found myself looking forward to more than just my morning cup of coffee; I looked forward to those tiny messages that almost humanized my Rivelia, such as “Emily, your Americano is ready, just the way you like it!”
Bean switch system and bean adapt technology
When I think about the entire De’Longhi Rivelia experience, the bean switch system stands out as one of the valuable features of this smart espresso maker. The maker comes with two bean hoppers, allowing you to switch between different coffee bean varieties quickly. This feature is a game-changer if you love to change things up and try new seasonal coffees.
Some people also use this feature to easily transition between regular coffee and decaf or half-caff coffee in the afternoon. Swapping the bean hoppers out is as simple as popping them in place and telling your Rivelia you’ve switched beans. If you forget, the machine even prompts you to empty the grinder of the current beans when it notices you’ve switched bean hoppers. You can even name the coffee beans on your maker and set up bean adapt technology to ensure the perfect settings for every individual coffee roast.
Bean adapt technology
Part of the beauty of the automatic nature of the Rivelia is thanks to the bean adapt technology, which helps you set your espresso maker specifically for the type of coffee roast you use. When Bean Adapt is on, the machine prompts you through a series of on-screen procedures designed to set the best parameters and make recommendations for the optimal grinding settings based on the type of coffee bean.
From temperature to intensity, the Rivelia customizes every part of the brewing process — resulting in stellar espresso beverages every time. From my morning Americano to De’Longhi’s specialty cappuccino mix drink, every espresso beverage I’ve brewed with this automatic espresso machine tastes as good as my favorite coffee shop. As I said earlier, this machine is really smart.
LatteCrema Hot and LatteCrema Cold technology
Rivelia’s LatteCrema Hot technology (comes with the maker) and LatteCream Cool upgrade set allows you to froth milk for every type of espresso drink imaginable effortlessly.
From lattes to espresso macchiatos to flat whites, there’s nothing you can’t make with this smart machine. You can use any milk to make customizable drinks, too, helping to enhance the personalization of every drink creation (I used Forager Project’s cashew milk here). Since I got this intelligent espresso machine, I found myself craving the experience of making my coffee drinks — and spending less time and money at the coffee shop. As you make any drink, the machine’s automatic guidance allows you to select other ways to customize your drink, such as adding an extra shot of espresso or changing the drink’s intensity level.
One step beyond espresso
