For many coffee lovers, there’s no other type of coffee machine they would consider outside of a bean to cup machine. These give you the freshest coffee possible out of the various types of coffee making machines available for the home.

The De’Longhi Autentica Plus doesn’t try to fool you into thinking you’re playing barista by using this machine. It’s mostly about pressing a button and getting a drink. In terms of strength selection, the Autentica comes with a dial that will let you go from minimum strength (extra mild) through to maximum (extra strong). In terms of quantity of coffee in a cup, the Autentica has the option of changing the standard amount delivered in a short or long coffee. A fully-loaded bean-to-cup machine that tries its best to be compact is always going to have some compromises: this is one of the main ones, and there aren’t many others.Thanks to the innovative Doppio+ brewing process from De'Longhi, you can get more than a double sized espresso, complete with extra aroma and an extra boost of energy. Ideal for those mornings when a regular won’t do! The ‘Long coffee’ feature reproduces the taste and size of the Drip Filter Coffee through slow and low-pressure brewing all from a touch of a button The De’Longhi Autentica Plus is a bean-to-cup machine that’s easy to use while still giving you the flexibility to deal with all kinds of drinks. Where some restrict you to certain kinds of coffee, here you can make cappuccinos and espressos as well as tea, hot chocolate. Even bovril. The size of any appliance to be added to the kitchen counter is always important particularly if you are tight on space. This is the same with coffee machines and bean to cup makers can sometimes be on the larger side due to the functions they can incorporate into their unit and the addition of a grinder in comparison to pod and ground machines.

There are reasons why hardline coffee snobs might consider this a somewhat ‘basic’ model. However, as a lifestyle machine that gets you coffee shop-grade drinks with none of the fiddle and little of the clean-up, it’s perfect. When it comes to milk frothers both the Delonghi Eletta and Delonghi Autentica come equipped with one. If you’re going to be making cappuccinos and flat whites rather than dunking cold semi skimmed into your espresso, you have to get ever-so-slightly hands-on. A button on the De’Longhi Autentica Plus’s front turns the steam output on, and you manually operate this to heat your milk, and create any froth. There’s a risk of scalding your milk if you’re a novice (or if you’re not), but as with learning how to tie a bowtie or the perfect way to apply mascara: YouTube is there to help out. If you’re a fan of beans but your partner loves ground coffee, you can both be happy with the Autentica plus coffee maker as you can use either to make your favourite beverages.With customisation features available a coffee machine will sometimes allow the user to choose the strength of their coffee, as well as quantity and in the case of bean to cup machines, grind level. In addition, there are some that will allow a user to create a program with specific preferences so that they do not have to keep re-entering the same combination each time they want that specific coffee. 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. Something else that seems to impress a significant number of users is how well put together the pre-set drinks are though some do note that the flat whites do not always come out as well as the other milk-based drinks. If you’re a fan of milk-based drinks such as a cappuccino, latte, or macchiato then a milk frother will be something you want to look out for in any coffee machine you go for. These are typically either automatic or manually operated (sometimes with a steam wand).

The Eletta will take up more space on your kitchen counter than the Autentica but you’ll get more water and bean capacity for it meaning you’ll need to intervene less. Quite helpfully the Eletta also has its water container on the side of the machine as opposed to the Autentica’s rear placement. In addition, the Autentica also has a function that will allow you to choose the temperature of the water used to brew your coffee. Delonghi Eletta vs Autentica: Size & Capacity When it comes to the choices of coffee you can make with the Delonghi Eletta vs Autentica both have a number of automatic selections though the Eletta has more options including several milk-based drinks. Delonghi Eletta vs Autentica: Milk FrotherFor a lot of people, the variety in choices of coffee from a machine is a critical factor in how they make their decision. This is particularly important if you are specifically looking for those bean to cup machines that can produce your favoured choice of coffee at the touch of a button in automatic fashion. Automatic milk heating and frothing carafes designed by De'Longhi will heat the milk to a temperature that optimally preserves the flavour and aroma of the milk and therefore the entire coffee drink. When milk is over-heated it degrades the “fresh” properties of the natural fats and proteins. This results in a UHT-milk flavour and aroma that is considered undesirable when fresh milk is used. The milk heating and frothing is created by accurately channelling steam from the machine and air being mixed with refrigerated (4-5°C) milk. As coffee is delivered at a higher temperature to the frothed milk you can change the temperature of your coffee in the following manner: