The full story
By the Espresso Rated editors · Published Nov 13, 2026
The Rivelia is De'Longhi's compact one-touch automatic, built around two swappable bean hoppers, a touchscreen and the LatteCrema Hot milk carafe. The praise centers on the coffee, the bean switching and how little cleaning it demands. The complaints are about milk temperature, the flat screen, the small tank and what it costs.
Rich, balanced espresso with good crema, and iced settings to ignore7.2/10
The espresso is the reason to buy this machine, and it is widely liked. Shots come out rich and balanced under a lasting crema, leaning toward the darker, chocolatey side of the beans. Coffee Kev puts it plainly: "Where bean to cup espresso is concerned, I believe this is up there with the best I’ve tasted".1
Part of the credit goes to Bean Adapt, which asks about your beans, sets the brew temperature and tells you which way to move the grind if a shot runs too fast or too slow. It works only for straight espresso, not for milk drinks. The coffee also arrives properly hot in the cup.
The ceiling is the usual one for an automatic. Wired calls the result smooth but "not a deeply nuanced or intense cup of espresso", and a portafilter machine still goes deeper once dialed in.2 Only espresso can be ordered as a double.
The iced coffee options are the weak spot. They brew hot coffee over ice, and almost no one has a good word for the result.
“It’ll then proceed to brew very hot coffee over your ice cubes, to produce lukewarm coffee.”
Hoppers that swap in seconds, under a screen you must lean over5.7/10
The bean switch is the Rivelia's signature and its most praised feature. The two hoppers lift off with a twist and trade places in seconds, beans still inside. Wired calls it "a simple and deft solution to an irritating problem".3
The swap is not free. A few grams of the old beans are still in the grinder, and the machine asks you to brew them as one last cup or purge them. Either way some coffee is used up, and you cannot choose the strength of that final cup.4
The touchscreen is bright, responsive and easy to read: tap the picture of the drink and it starts. Saved profiles let each person in the house keep their own settings. Versus Lab still describes a first week spent finding where everything lives.
Where the screen sits is the common complaint. It lies flat on top of the machine, so on a high counter or under cabinets it is awkward to see. ECS Coffee says, "I kind of have to stand like right over top of the machine".5
Smaller frictions add up. The tank holds 1.4L and automatic rinses draw on it, so a busy household refills it often. Tall travel mugs do not fit under the spout, the body has no side handles for moving it, and the ground-coffee chute jammed or made undrinkable coffee in one account.
Fine microfoam from the carafe in most kitchens, warm milk in all of them6.2/10
The milk system divides opinion more than anything else on the machine. At its best, the LatteCrema carafe makes true microfoam, which carafe systems rarely manage. Coffeeblog.co.uk calls the Rivelia "the best machine I’ve ever used where milk texture is concerned".6
A dial on the carafe picks hot milk, soft foam or dense foam, and the middle of its range gets the most praise. The densest setting is where the trouble starts. Espresso Rabbit Hole found it large-bubbled and airy, and Gabe's coffee stuff reports, "if I select the dense froth level it splatters out it doesn't come out smoothly".7
The milk you pour in matters too. Shopportunities tried several without getting a good froth and was told by customer service that it "works best with like regular 2% milk".8
Two limits apply to everyone. The milk comes out warm, not hot, as with most one-touch systems, which suits some drinkers and leaves others wanting more heat. And the box holds only the Automatic LatteCrema Hot carafe, so cold foam needs a separate carafe bought on top. The plastic carafe itself feels light and a little flimsy.
A brew unit that rinses under the tap, and a milk carafe with several parts to wash7.3/10
Routine upkeep is simple, and it is widely liked. Espresso Rabbit Hole rates the brew unit among the easiest to rinse.9 The machine rinses itself, offers to flush the milk circuit after every milk drink, and prompts each chore on screen with symbols and tutorials.
The milk carafe comes apart and goes in the dishwasher, and it stores in the fridge between uses. Taking it apart properly is the one job that draws complaints. Wired calls the milk system "a bit of a bear to fully clean", a job that comes round about once a week.10
All that automatic rinsing fills the small drip tray quickly, so expect to empty it and the grounds container often. The spout can also spatter milk onto the surfaces around the cup. Descaling uses De'Longhi's own product, and none is supplied in the box.
Compact and dense in the hand, with plastic that shows at this price6.5/10
The build suits some and not others. In several accounts the Rivelia is compact, heavy for its size and tightly assembled, with the look and feel of a premium product.11 At 9.6 inches wide it fits kitchens that larger automatics cannot.
The other view is that it is mostly plastic, and that you notice. Espresso Rabbit Hole says so directly: "you can notice the plastic too much".12 The hoppers and drip tray feel the least solid, and Cafelista found it less sturdy than De'Longhi's own Magnifica Evo and Eletta Explore.
A few details irritate. The hoppers are not airtight, so they will not do for storing beans long term, and Tom's Coffee Corner calls one part that drops unless you hold it a design miscue. Noise splits as well: quiet for a bean-to-cup machine in most accounts, grating in tone to Coffeeness.
Evidence on the long run is thin. One buyer had a unit replaced free of charge by customer service, and no account here covers years of use.
Worth $999.95 to a household that uses the profiles and both hoppers5.9/10
Value divides opinion, and it comes down to how much of the machine you will use. For one-touch drinks with this standard of espresso and foam, Coffeeblog.co.uk calls it "hard to beat".13 Home Coffee Solutions sets it well below rivals with a similar feature list.
The case against is that you pay for customization, not for better espresso. Versus Lab advises against paying up if only one person uses the machine the same way every morning.14 Tom's Coffee Corner finds it highly priced for its size, and Espresso Rabbit Hole prefers a rival at the same money.
Then come the extras. The cold carafe is sold separately, and Coffee Kev thinks the charge for it is too high.15 Descaler is an ongoing cost as well. Dule Rabbit recommends the machine but would look for an open-box or used unit before paying full price.
Our verdict
Buy the Rivelia if several people share one machine and want different beans and drinks at the touch of a picture, with good espresso and little cleaning. Skip it if you are a household of one with a fixed order, want very hot milk, or have nowhere to stand it below eye level. Before you pay $999.95, check that you can read the top screen where the machine will sit, and that your usual cup fits under the spout. If iced lattes are the plan, add the cold carafe to the bill.
10 sources quoted in this story (15 notes)
- 1Coffee Kev · 5:01 “Where bean to cup espresso is concerned, I believe this is up there with the best I’ve tasted”
- 2wired.com · written review “But it does make cups as good as any bean-to-cup maker I've tried, in part because of its helpful “bean adapt” function.” but “Which is good, because again, it's not a deeply nuanced or intense cup of espresso.”
- 3wired.com · written review “The bean swap is a simple and deft solution to an irritating problem that has dogged bean-to-cup machines since their inception.”
- 4Tom's Coffee Corner · 6:22 “so you're going to be us wasting beans either way but it is a cool idea”
- 5ECS COFFEE Espresso & Coffee Gear · 33:35 “navigation of the screen is great. D Longi does a really good job at making their navigations very easy” but “And I do find it a little uncomfortable to select my beverage. I feel like I kind of have to stand like right over top of the machine.”
- 6coffeeblog.co.uk · written review “in a nutshell this is the best machine I’ve ever used where milk texture is concerned, particularly for micro foam texture.”
- 7Gabe’s coffee stuff · 0:24 “I like the fact that I have full control of the frothiness but that's about the only thing good about it” but “if I select the dense froth level it splatters out it doesn't come out smoothly”
- 8Shopportunities · 11:57 “customer service said, "Oh, it works best with like regular 2% milk."”
- 9espressorabbithole.com · written review “The De’Longhi brew unit is one of the easiest to rinse, and in general, the brand’s coffee machines require little maintenance and are easy to clean”
- 10wired.com · written review “Note that the milk system is a bit of a bear to fully clean, once every week or so.”
- 11Chris Stead · 4:17 “it's really just so dense and just wonderfully designed and wonderfully engineered experience here”
- 12espressorabbithole.com · written review “It is not a very solid build, for my taste you can notice the plastic too much”
- 13coffeeblog.co.uk · written review “So, I think for a bean-to-cup machine at this kind of price, if you’re looking for one-touch, and you’re not looking for super hot milkies (most one-touch machines won’t do that anyway), this is hard to beat.”
- 14Versus Lab · 4:50 “Don't pay up for the Revillia if only one person uses it the same way every morning.”
- 15Coffee Kev · 10:52 “I wish it came bundled with the cold frother. It’s a brilliant feature, but I think charging a hundred quid for it as an addon, is too much.”
