I tried De'Longhi's £800 bean-to-cup coffee machine that promises a 'speciality coffee shop' experience at home

This De'Longhi Specialista Opera review is an in-depth look at this elegant semi-automatic bean-to-cup coffee machine, which I tried in the Ideal Home test kitchen.

Could this make it into our list of the best bean-to-cup coffee machines? I think so.

At a glance

This machine is made for the at-home coffee experts, with options for speciality coffee and customisations easily made through the mechanics of the machine.

It's stainless steel and simply beautiful, with clean lines and great design features to make using it easier. However, using it is more intensive than using an automatic bean-to-cup machine and requires the user to get involved in some aspects of the coffee-making process that aren't present with something like the De'Longhi Magnifica, for example.

It offers the user a chance to customise the pre-infusion period and the grind size, with 15 different options. If that already sounds like you might be off into the deep end with this review, you might want a starter machine before you invest in this one.

The Specialista Opera also comes with a fantastic range of accessories (like no machine I've ever tested before!) including a selection of glasses, a knock box and an air-tight container for keeping beans in. All of these are brilliant additions to the machine and make the very expensive price tag a little more justifiable.

The quality of this machine is outstanding and more important than anything else, the coffee is phenomenally good. If you want a machine you can pore over, then this is a fantastic choice.

De'Longhi La Specialista Opera specs

• Type: bean-to-cup
• Control type: manual
• Water tank capacity: 2 litres
• Bean hopper: 250g hopper
• Pressure: 15 bar
• Dimensions: H36.5 x W27.5 x D40 cm
• Weight: 8.8kg
• Colours available: stainless steel, green, white, yellow
• RRP: £529.99

Design

The first thing I noticed about this machine is the one-armed bandit tamp system on the left-hand side. It's a design feature that I love on my everyday coffee machine, the Sage Barista Express Impress.

There are design similarities to be drawn between the two when there's this much stainless steel involved, and while it's all down to personal preference which one you prefer the look of, this De'Longhi machine is a little larger.

It's also got a fairly cluttered interface, with a lot of buttons. This all adds to the customisable element of the machine, alongside the always-visible pressure gauge.

It's a pretty machine and it feels great to use, with high quality parts. The tamp system I referenced earlier is one of those elements that never gets old to interact with and the increased number of buttons does help to de-mystifying the process of starting out with this machine.

This is a semi-automatic machine and the milk frother, which is well-placed and feels sturdy, is manual. There's also a hot water dispenser, so this machine could become your go-to for your tea-making ventures too.

Making coffee

Espresso

The big test: making an espresso. I started by loading up the beans into the hopper. I used Lost Sheep beans, my favourite, roasted in Whitstable, Kent.

The thing you then need to tweak to make your perfect coffee is the grind size, which you can achieve by turning the dial that is attached to the hopper. Experimenting with the grind size depending on the beans you're using will give you the best-tasting cup of coffee, tailored to you.

So once you've settled on a grind size (and bear in mind this might take a few cups to get perfect), it's time to tamp the ground coffee.

This machine features a 'Smart Tamping Station' which is without a doubt my favourite part of the entire product. What that means is unlike options like the recently released ProCook Barista, the process of tamping is partly done by the machine.

Using the lever on the left of the unit, you get precise tamping with next to no effort. The right pressure (up to 20kgs of it!) is applied for you by the machine, so that when the puck emerges from the machine it looks perfect and you haven't had to fiddle with the portafilter and tamp on your worktop.

It's a very tactile thing to do too, which only adds to the experience.

After all that excitement, all you need to do is plug in the portafilter and allow your espresso to dispense. The coffee that followed was truly delicious and didn't feel overly laborious, though there is plenty of opportunity to tweak more if you're a coffee connoisseur.

That includes the chance to change the pre-infusion temperature which is the period before your espresso dispenses when the puck is gently soaked in order to make sure there is an even saturation of coffee grounds. That means all in all, this machine is straightforward to use, but there's still room to customise it to get the coffee you want.

Long drinks

Next up was a latte to sample the manual milk wand that is attached to the right of the machine. It's easy to manoeuvre around the edge of the machine and is designed to be 'cool-touch', to keep your hands safer.

It was easy to use the wand to create a fine microfoam for the latte and the wand was easy to clean too. There's also a hot water dispenser for tea, if that takes your fancy.

Cold brew

Another feature on this machine is a Cold Brew function, which De'Longhi claim utilises 'Cold Extraction Technology' to give you perfect cold coffee drinks and cocktails, if that's what you fancy.

The process of grinding and tamping when using the Cold Brew setting is the same, the only difference is pressing the cold brew option at the end and filling a suitably tall glass with ice beforehand.

The extraction process is far longer than with an espresso (it took around 5 minutes) but the result is well worth it if you like the taste of cold brew. It was a summery, refreshing drink that isn't as strong as a straight coffee but is ideal for cooling off.

How does the De'Longhi Specialista Opera compare to other coffee machines?

Changing beans with this machine is not as easy as with the (much-adored on the Ideal Home team) De'Longhi Rivelia, which has interchangeable hoppers (so you can fill one with decaf beans if you like). Our expert reviewer gave the Rivelia an easy five star rating and was blown away by how easy it was to use with a fully automated interface. If you want the most straightforward at home coffee experience that uses fresh beans to achieve a great flavour, get the Rivelia.

If you'd prefer to tweak and learn then the Specialista Opera is an excellent choice. If you'd prefer a similar experience with a different design, the Smeg EGF03 is a stunning choice that we loved in our review.

Should you buy the De'Longhi Specialista Opera?

If you want to get into the craft of making espressos at home then this machine is a great, easy-to-use option that looks simply fantastic and still has the customisable elements to keep a pro happy.

It's enjoyable to extract your coffee from, with the tamping features going a long way to improve the experience and has the kind of quality you'd expect from the pricetag. It's gorgeous and makes simply gorgeous coffee too!