De'Longhi La Specialista Touch review

Smooth, soft shots on darker beans, from a grinder that stops short of light roasts7.0/10

The espresso is widely liked: smooth, balanced and easy to drink. Trusted Reviews rates the machine "up there with the best that I have tested"1, and ECS Coffee, tasting it beside a Breville, preferred the De'Longhi and described the shot as "so so so soft"2. Coffealover found it well balanced and not too bitter, though with a very light crema.

There is real control behind that. Brew temperature, pre-infusion, dose time and grind are all adjustable from the screen, and the thermoblock is PID-controlled. Once a bean is dialed in, the timed grinder repeats the result reliably.

The limit is the grinder's range. Alex Hitt points out that with "only 15 macro steps available"3, a shot can pour too fast at one setting and choke the pump at the next. Home Coffee Expert found it cannot grind fine enough for light roasts and warns that trying is likely to jam the machine.4 Coffee Kev did exactly that.

“I tried this out using a light to medium roast high-grown coffee, and this happened. And now, this machine is goosed, unless I strip it all down and take the burrs out”

So the advice is simple. Traditional darker roasts and supermarket beans suit this machine well. Freshly roasted, lighter specialty coffee asks for more precision than it has.

A screen that coaches each step, and a shot you cannot stop once it starts6.9/10

The guidance is the reason to pick this machine, and it works for beginners. The touchscreen explains grinding, tamping and brewing as you go, the tamper carries markings that show whether the dose is right, and after a fast shot the machine suggests a finer setting. Trusted Reviews reports: "I got a perfect shot of espresso on my second pour"5.

Ease still divides opinion, because the coaching has gaps. Nothing watches the shot as it pours, there is no sensor to confirm the dose in the portafilter, and when the hopper runs empty the grinder simply spins. Coffee Kev's irritation is that a shot cannot be stopped mid-pour.6 He also found Bean Adapt does little beyond changing the brew temperature.

This is a semi-automatic with help, and you still learn what a good shot looks like. BrewViant puts the warning plainly: "don't buy the touch expecting super-automatic convenience"7. Smaller gripes include fiddly menus, a cramped work area, a cup stand that gets in the way of the milk jug and under-tray storage too small for all the accessories.

The 57.48 oz tank is generous for the class and the machine tells you when it needs refilling.

Hands-free foam that runs a little stiff and a little hot7.1/10

Automatic frothing is widely liked. You choose a temperature and a foam level, set the jug down, and a sensor stops the wand when the milk is ready. Tom's Coffee Corner found it better than the automatic systems on other machines he has tested, and quiet with it.8 It adjusts for dairy and plant-based milks, and a manual mode shows the milk temperature on screen while you steam.

The texture is the reservation. Coffee Kev has never had what he would call true microfoam from this wand and calls the result "a bit stiff"9; Home Coffee Expert says the same of the automatic mode. Both measured the milk a few degrees hotter than the setting. Seattle Coffee Gear's view is that a practiced hand will still do better manually.

There are outliers. Coffealover found the frothing particularly noisy, the opposite of Tom's experience, and Before Buying collected reports of hot milk instead of foam and of a frother that failed.

A wand that rinses itself, and burrs sealed inside the machine5.7/10

Day to day, this is a tidy machine. The wand purges and cleans itself after use10, the tamping setup keeps grounds off the counter, the drip tray lifts out, and the screen tells you when to descale and walks you through it.

The trouble is deeper in. The hopper and burrs cannot be removed without stripping the machine down, and Coffee Kev notes that the oily dark roasts this grinder favors are the ones most likely to clog burrs you cannot reach.11 That is why cleaning divides opinion despite the easy daily routine.

The bigger cleaning jobs take time. Home Coffee Expert spent the better part of an hour on the full routine and files it as "not for doing on the fly"12. There is no place for a water filter in the tank, and De'Longhi specifies its own descaler without putting a bottle in the box.

22.93 lb of stainless steel and well-fitted plastic, with early faults on record6.4/10

On the counter it feels like a proper machine. The body is mainly stainless steel, the plastic parts fit well and do not feel cheap, and at 22.93 lb it has some heft. Tom's Coffee Corner found the pump quieter than the previous generation's.

Longer-term confidence is where opinion splits. Before Buying's survey of buyer feedback turned up early functional problems, among them pump or priming issues and leaks, along with inconsistent grinders and friction over returns and replacements after defects.13 Add the jam Coffee Kev suffered and the sealed grinder looks like the part to treat with care.

A minor complaint: the cup warmer on top does not heat evenly.

Hot almost at once, with the shot and the milk taken in turn8.0/10

Heat-up is the most consistently praised thing about the machine. Coffee Kev timed it at "about 20 seconds, nice and fast"14, and Coffealover noticed no warm-up wait at all when switching on.

The single thermoblock sets the pace after that. You cannot brew and steam at the same time15, and the block has to cool down after steaming before the next shot. Alex Hitt's complaint is that the espresso sits while the milk is done, so the crema settles and the shot cools before the drink is finished.

For a cup or a pair of cups that is a small delay. For a round of lattes it adds up.

Everything in the box at $799.95, with Breville as the case against7.0/10

Value is widely liked, mostly because nothing else needs buying. The grinder is built in and the accessory kit, including a tamper and guide ring that earn specific praise, is complete enough to make a first drink on day one. Trusted Reviews calls it "a brilliant value manual espresso machine"16.

The counter-argument comes from Home Coffee Expert, which grants that De'Longhi's tools are more useful than Breville's at the same money and still concludes Breville makes the better machine.17 Seattle Coffee Gear, a store that sells it, recommends it for a first machine while suggesting that performance-minded buyers look elsewhere at this price.

Two limits matter if you expect to grow into the hobby. The portafilter is not the standard commercial size, so precision baskets and specialist tools are not available for it. And if the grinder becomes the weak point, you cannot swap it out without changing how the whole machine is used.

Our verdict

Buy the La Specialista Touch if you are new to espresso, drink medium or dark roasts and want milk drinks without learning to steam. Skip it if light roasts are your coffee, if you already own a grinder, or if a grinder you cannot open and clean would worry you. Keep to beans it can handle and do not force the grind finer than they need. Before buying, check the return terms, since early faults are on record.