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DeLonghi’s La Specialista espresso machine line keeps expanding with more impressive design and features so you can make your favorite coffee recipes at home, and this time, with a touch of a button!
You might be familiar with other La Specialista models: Arte, Prestigio and Maestro. Now, we have the La Specialista Touch, featuring a nice touch screen and a full menu of preset coffee recipes to choose from!
Features of DeLonghi La Specialista Touch
- Crafted by You. Perfected with Guidance: The La Specialista Touch semi-automatic espresso machine grinds, doses, brews, and froths your favorite coffee drinks at home, offering real-time guidance so you can enjoy hands-on espresso making with confidence.
- 10 Preset Drink Recipes + Endless Customization: 10 preset recipes including espresso, americano, long black, cold brew, cappuccino, latte, latte macchiato, flat white, hot milk and hot water – all customizable to your preferences.
- Interactive Guided Experience to Dial In Your Machine: Our innovative Bean Adapt technology assists you in setting the ideal grind, dose level, pre-infusion, and brewing temperature with a visual, interactive guide. With helpful tips, recommended adjustments, and immediate feedback, achieve the ideal extraction, and explore different bean and roast varieties with ease.
- Conical Burr Grinder for Freshly Brewed Coffee Every Time: The Italian-made conical burr grinder delivers a precise, consistent dose of freshly ground coffee for a single or double espresso and cold brew drinks. With 15 grind settings, explore your favorite bean varieties and prepare them for optimal extraction.
- Automatic Milk Frothing: The automatic steam wand adjusts between 5 froth levels and 4 temperature settings based on your drink selection and milk preference (dairy or plant-based) to create velvety smooth microfoam. The additional manual setting allows you to master your hands-on frothing to achieve the perfect microtextured milk foam for creating latte art.
This espresso machines comes packed with everything you need to start making coffee recipes. Even if you are a beginner, the addition or preset recipes and the touch screen make the process quick and easy for you.
Video Review
The Touch Screen
The La Specialista Touch has no physical buttons other than the power button. Everything else is done through the touch screen.
The colored screen has 10 preset recipes including espresso, Americano, long black, cold brew, cappuccino, latte, latte macchiato, flat white, hot milk and hot water. Each of these recipes can be customized by you and then saved for later use.
The customization in each recipe are the coffee grind dose, the espresso dose (single or double) and the milk temperature.
The Milk Frother
One of the many daunting tasks of preparing a milk based coffee drink as a beginner is steaming milk. Getting the right temperature and texture is always a learning curve, but not with this espresso machine.
La Specialista Touch has a unique steam wand with an attached temperature prop. It can automatically froth the milk to your desired temperature and to the correct texture for your recipe without any work on your part.
But if you wish to do things manually, you have the option to do so, too.
The Grinder
One of the most important parts of creating the perfect espresso shot is the coffee grind. And with the built-in grinder of the La Specialista, you are guaranteed the right grind and dose for your espresso shot.
The grinder has 15 grind settings, all of them perfectly tuned for espresso brewing. But since each coffee bean roast or blend can vary, you’ll have to tune it based on what beans you are using.
The settings are changed by hand from a dial on the grinder, but the dose (amount of coffee grind) is selected based on recipe using the touch screen.
The Cold Brew Technology
Like many of DeLonghi’s newer espresso machine, this La Specialista is equipped with their Cold Brew Extraction technology which can bypass the thermoblock and slowly extract coffee at a very low temperature for a cup of cold brew coffee.
This extraction method takes around 5 minutes and gives you a bold cup of coffee that will not melt down the ice when mixed together.
The Included Accessories
Your purchase of La Specialista will include everything you need to get started:
- A pressurized portafilter which is designed to create a great shot of espresso out of the box. But you can always upgrade to a bottomless portafilter when you are ready.
- A stainless steel milk jug.
- A tamper with a tamping and dosing ring.
- a tamping mat.
- and a cleaning brush.
La Specialista Touch Compared to Other La Specialista Models
I have written a comprehensive guide on other La Specialista models. But here are the two things that set this model apart from the others:
The touch screen is the obvious advantage here over other models. Not only does it have preset coffee recipes, but it also gives you access to settings, customization and guides. This makes the process of brewing coffee, especially as a beginner, quick and easy with guaranteed good results.
The other advantage is the automatic milk frother. Now, even though the La Specialista Maestro has an automatic frother, it is a stainless jug style that’s rather bulky. The Touch model uses the steam wand paired with a thermostat stick to froth directly in the stainless steel jug. It’s much simpler process and a cleaner design.
Who Should Buy It?
If you want a complete barista at home experience without all the hard work, La Specialista Touch is for you. Even though you get a set of preset recipes, you still have control over aspects like amount of espresso and milk temperature, which are the cornerstone of any coffee recipe. It also includes everything you need to get started accessories, so you don’t have to worry about buying extra accessories.
