De’Longhi Rivelia Espresso Machine Review (2025): A Fine Froth

Easy-to-use touchscreen with adjuvant guidance for each idiosyncratic and bean, and a wealthiness of options. Lets you easy swap retired 2 legume hoppers. Milk frother is easy, fast, and intuitive—with existent microfoam.

Bean-to-cup machines ne'er rather marque café-style espresso. A spot splattery. Myriad java options tin beryllium a small confusing. Loves to astonishment you with h2o purges. “Cold brew” is simply a enarthrosis shrug.

There are maybe 2 schools of location espresso people. Some privation it perfect, classic, possibly adjacent a small difficult. They privation to instrumentality their hands successful the gears and marque good adjustments, until the java is the astir beauteous look of its legume and its roaster. Some privation it bully and easy, with possibly a small frothy beverage successful the bargain.

The caller bean-to-cup Rivelia instrumentality from Italian java titan De'Longhi, which arrived successful the United States this month, is squarely meant for those who privation it easy. Indeed, the Rivelia instantly ranks among the astir modern, impressive, and susceptible super-automatic espresso machines I've seen—the benignant that has you dump a half-bag of beans into a hopper, and volition grind, brew, past froth up beverage for a level achromatic with the property of a button.

The Rivelia's crisply minimalist plan and slim profile—less than 10 inches across—belies a full batch of functionality. This includes an unholy array of 18 espresso and latte and iced-coffee portion options, a button-press beverage frother that makes existent microfoam, and legume guidance that allows you to optimize your spot and grind for each bean. And yet contempt the analyzable options, the happening is beauteous elemental to use. I hardly needed the manual.

Like Breville's fantabulous Oracle Jet ($2,000), a much accepted pressurized-basket espresso instrumentality that I've besides been testing, the Rivelia is simply a instrumentality seemingly made for the procreation that grew up with tablets and screens. About the lone accepted fastener you'll really request is the connected switch. Pretty overmuch everything other happens connected a touchscreen that remains blessedly impervious to a small h2o spillage.

The Rivelia is self-consciously designed to beryllium a affable small machine, close down to the occasional uncanny usage of the archetypal person. “I'll usage immoderate blistery h2o to vigor everything up,” reads the surface arsenic you crook the instrumentality on, moments earlier duplicate jets of h2o spurt into the drip tray.

The onboard machine volition prevention profiles for up to six java beans, which mostly means you won't person to memorize which of the 14 grinder settings you chose for your Indonesian oregon Peruvian beans erstwhile swapping them out. Drinks see a dizzying array of latte, cappuccino, cortado, level white, espresso, long, lungo, and thing conscionable called “coffee.” Basically, you conscionable swipe near oregon close done a small show of pictogrammed portion possibilities. Press the representation of the portion of your dreams, and the instrumentality does astir of the rest, assuming you've already got your grinder acceptable however you similar it.

It's hardly perfect, of course. The espresso from bean-to-cup machines is not the aforesaid substance you'd get from an espresso instrumentality with a pressurized portafilter. And the $1,500 terms tag is besides thing to sneeze at. But the Rivelia besides feels similar a large leap guardant for De'Longhi's bean-to-cup machines.

Hop to It

One of the astir invited and distinctive features connected the Rivelia is the quality to swap beans backmost and distant astatine will. In theory, it shouldn't beryllium hard to swap retired 1 java legume for different connected thousand-dollar espresso machines whose full constituent is that they're casual to use. But dissimilar single-dose espresso machines with abstracted grinders, bean-to-cup machines gully from ample hoppers afloat of beans. Swapping them retired earlier the hopper's bare tin beryllium a hassle.

The problem, connected astir machines with built-in grinders, is retention. Even if you scope successful your grubby fingers to scoop retired 1 acceptable of beans from a hopper and determination successful the caller bag, a spot of beans ever stays trapped successful the gears. You're stuck dealing with these beans somehow. This means making a weird diluted half-drink, mixing your beans, oregon blasting retired fractional a portafilter's worthy of legume grounds earlier making a caller cup. It's thing you privation to bash daily—and it makes it a spot of a process to power to decaf successful the afternoon.

The Rivelia has a nifty small legume swap strategy that lets you uncork 1 hopper afloat of beans and swap successful a second, with minimal fuss and nary mixing of beans. It works similar this: When you crook the legume hopper to the unlock position, the Rivelia's surface volition simply inquire you what you privation to bash with the excess beanage, which amounts to astir 5 grams, oregon fractional a shot.

You tin take to get a mini-drink from the excess, oregon inquire the Rivelia to dispose of your small legume problem, show unseen and nary questions asked. Then, conscionable swap retired 1 color-coded legume hopper for the other, and present you are drinking decaf alternatively of your greeting rocket fuel.

The legume swap is simply a elemental and deft solution to an irritating occupation that has dogged bean-to-cup machines since their inception. It's besides indicative of the thoughtfulness of this instrumentality overall.

Easy, Button-Press Customization

Swapping retired beans is each good and good, but how's the coffee? The reply isn't straightforward. Bean-to-cup machines similar the Rivelia, and different De'Longhi models similar the Magnifica Evo ($650) and Dinamica ($1,300), exert conscionable arsenic overmuch unit arsenic a accepted espresso machine. But they besides thin to grind a small little finely than espresso made with a pressurized portafilter.

This coarser grind makes the resulting cupful a full batch little finicky, and little apt to beryllium overbitter oregon profoundly acidic, but besides little intense. It's a creaseless cup, with immoderate of the edges shaved off. It's cleanable for those who'd similar to conscionable property a fastener and beryllium ensured a frothy cappuccino without looking astatine unit gauges oregon worrying they'll botch a changeable completely.

And truthful the Rivelia won't rival a much difficult, fussier portafilter machine. But it does marque cups arsenic bully arsenic immoderate bean-to-cup shaper I've tried, successful portion due to the fact that of its adjuvant “bean adapt” function. The instrumentality tin beryllium programmed with up to six antithetic legume profiles. When you privation to adhd a caller bean, the instrumentality volition person you enactment it done the paces.

To acceptable the close temperature, the instrumentality volition simply inquire you whether you've got arabica oregon robusta beans, and whether the roast is light, dark, oregon medium. Then, you'll marque a illustration espresso shot, and the Rivelia volition inquire you however you similar the strength. Based connected the espresso's travel rate, the Rivelia volition besides suggest a caller grinder mounting oregon archer you yours is already perfect.

Generally, the Rivelia volition suggest a grind mounting 1 up oregon 1 down from the 1 you conscionable used, which whitethorn oregon whitethorn not get you each the mode there. You'll person to usage your ain sensation buds to determine whether you request to “refine” yet again until your grind mounting is correct. Once you settee connected the result, the instrumentality volition retrieve the strength and close grind mounting for each bean. Each clip you swap beans, the surface volition inquire you to determination your grinder dial to the due setting. The results, to my sensation buds, person been beauteous accurate: I've not improved the sensation by deviating.

Choosing among assorted types of drinks is besides rather easy, though you whitethorn not easy parse the quality among immoderate options similar long, lungo, and “coffee” — each a saltation connected a agelong espresso shot. The “coffee" setting, I tin vouch, is fundamentally a European cafe crema. This amounts to a frothily crema-topped and somewhat much full-flavored portion than the Americano. It's besides my favourite non-milked portion connected the machine.

Just don't interest overmuch astir the iced options. Each makes a stronger mentation of the aforesaid espresso oregon “coffee” you'd different make, but present the instrumentality tells you however galore crystal cubes to enactment into your waiting cupful to dilute and fast-chill the coffee. Some acold drinks telephone for 8 crystal cubes successful your cup. Some telephone for six. This is each oddly specific, fixed that the size of these cubes is unspecified. The happening mightiness arsenic good conscionable play “Ice, Ice, Baby.”

Anyway, arsenic with a batch of iced blistery java drinks, the effect fares amended with milk. Otherwise, it tin beryllium a spot bitter.

A Fine Froth

The past large selling constituent for the Rivelia is the beverage frothing system: It's easy. You don't request method oregon skill. You don't request to deliberation astir however acold to dip a steaming wand. And you besides don't request to interest astir wasting milk, due to the fact that dissimilar a classical steaming wand, lone the beverage that gets utilized successful your portion gets heated.

The separable beverage frothing instrumentality is lightweight plastic, and astatine archetypal feels a small rinky-dink. But basically, if you enactment a spot of beverage astatine the bottommost and plug the frother into the Rivelia, the instrumentality volition suck up acold beverage done the tube, and froth and steam and vigor fundamentally wrong the steaming wand itself.

This won't pb to enormously blistery milk, but the strategy is suprisingly bully astatine making silky microfoam. If you bare your beverage into a abstracted jug alternatively of letting it determination straight into your java mug, you whitethorn adjacent beryllium capable to marque credible latte art, if you already cognize however to marque latte art.

Note that the beverage strategy is simply a spot of a carnivore to afloat clean, erstwhile each week oregon so. This involves taking isolated a clump of small integrative things and soaking oregon dishwashering the beverage residue retired of them, past remembering however to enactment them backmost together. And the Rivelia tin beryllium a spot spattery successful general, particularly erstwhile blistery steam goes barreling into your milky waiting mug.

Depending connected the portion you've selected, you'll either person the heavy and airy froth of a cappuccino, oregon the overmuch denser microfoam suitable for a level achromatic oregon latte. Usually, you'll person a batch of it. This is simply a instrumentality that's truly geared to beverage lovers.

Which is good, due to the fact that again, it's not a profoundly nuanced oregon aggravated cupful of espresso. The Rivelia is geared toward ease, speed, simplicity, and smoothness, with a large removable h2o reservoir that's casual to capable and beans that are casual to swap. It's a button-press instrumentality that is, successful fact, what a ample fig of radical privation retired of a location espresso device. These see my ain mother, who's agelong been a instrumentality of bean-to-cup De'Longhi devices for each of these reasons, and has kept her Magnifica XS ($600) successful bully repair for a decade.

The Rivelia conscionable happens to beryllium easier, much versatile, and much awesome than immoderate De'Longhi bean-to-cup I've yet tried. If you're already a instrumentality of those, you'll apt beryllium an adjacent bigger instrumentality of this.