DeLonghi La Specialista Arte Evo Review

Introduction

The DeLonghi La Specialista Arte Evo is a manual coffee machine with a compact frame, great-tasting espresso, and superb milk frothing. It is ideal for the budding barista in your life.

This is a manual bean-to-cup machine with an integrated conical burr grinder, steam wand, and with this Evo model, the addition of a cold brew function that DeLonghi has spent quite some time researching. No pressure then.

A $699.95 / £549.99 price tag makes this more of a premium machine, and DeLonghi’s candidate will have to do a lot to topple options such as the Sage Barista Express and the new five-star Ninja Luxe Cafe Premiere Series ES601UK.

Design & Features

• Compact chassis
• Good range of accessories included
• Entirely manual user experience

The La Specialista Arte Evo is quite a compact machine, with reasonable dimensions of 285 x 365 x 400mm. It doesn’t take up too much space on my kitchen counter, where space is usually quite the premium. With this in mind, the 9.3kg weight gives this coffee machine a hefty feel, and means it is a bit difficult to move around. However, I suspect most folks will plonk it down on the counter and leave it there.

It’s quite the looker, too, with a generally brushed metal finish and plastic on the sides. Put it against the Ninja Luxe Cafe, and its array of dials on the control panel also give it a bit of a retro look against the plate-glass, cutting-edge feel of Ninja’s coffee machine.

The top of the La Specialista Arte Evo is home to its bean hopper, which is plastic, and fixed in place. A removable hopper would have been pleasant if you’re someone who swaps out coffee beans a lot, but for most folks, it’s fine to be fixed. Below the hopper is a tactile knob for selecting the grind level, which requires some effort to move at first.

The right side of the top also has a small compartment that houses the accessories. You get quite the array of accessories, only some of which will fit in the compartment. There’s a metal tamper, tamping mat and guide and a pair of filter baskets, one for single shot and the other for double shot measures. It’s pleasant that DeLonghi has provided everything you need to get started for virtually any type of coffee you wish to make.

There is also a plastic support for smaller cups included, which feels a little cheap in comparison to the rest of the La Specialista Arte Evo. It’s also a bit of a pain to manoeuvre into place as it needs to sit exactly right on the drip tray’s grill to be locked in place.

The grille is metal-effect plastic, and can be removed to reveal the large drip tray contained in the base of the machine. This is removable for ease of cleaning, and has a red indicator so you know when it’s time to pour the waste away. I didn’t find too much drip when pulling espresso and creating longer drinks, although you may want to keep an eye on it and empty regularly. 

Around the back is a removable water tank, which has a 1.7-litre capacity. For reference, both the Luxe Cafe and Barista Express’ tanks can hold 2 litres of water. The tank is easy to remove and easily manoeuvrable to be filled up without much trouble.

On the face of it, the La Specialista Arte Evo has a sensible control layout, working from left to right to make your cup of coffee. You’ve got dials for selecting the dose level and the type of drink you wish to make, as well as tactile buttons for toggling single or double shot and the extraction temperature. 

In addition, there’s a small extraction area underneath the drink selector dial where the coffee comes out from, next to which sits the steam wand. This neatly protrudes out the right-hand side of the La Specialista Arte Evo and is easy to move to where you want it to be. It’s also far enough off the kitchen worktop that makes it easy to get the included metal jug under for frothing milk up in a jiffy.

The drinks available to you on the La Specialista Arte Evo are a standard espresso, americano (or Long Black, as labelled), and Cold Brew. It can also work as a hot water dispenser for a single cup, too. The Cold Brew function is exclusive to this Evo model, while the standard La Specialist Arte misses out. It’s an entirely manual experience, against the assisted nature of the Ninja Luxe Cafe. For first-timers, it’s quite a daunting experience, and it can take quite some practice to consistently get good drinks out of it.

Coffee Quality

• Quality espresso can require some practice
• Tamping accessories make life easier
• Cold brew not that impressive

Over my few weeks with the La Specialista Arte Evo, I managed to get some excellent shots of espresso out of this coffee machine.

I found that I needed to adjust the grind setting. There is some guidance that gives rough guidelines for the grind level based on how dark or light of a roast your beans are. For beginners, this is fine to deal with, although there’s still quite a bit of manual experimentation.

Once you’re happy with the grind level and dosage based on what type of beans you’re using, it’s a case of slotting the plastic guide onto the top of the portafilter, which attaches with a small click and placing the portafilter under the spout for the grinder. The grind process is automatic and takes only a few seconds, depending on your selected settings.

The addition of the tamping mat, complete with cut-out for the portafilter and the clip-on guide makes tamping easier than doing it fully manually, while DeLonghi’s instruction manual also provides a guide for what the correct dosage should look like, as well as what the temperature of extraction should be based on the type of beans used. For instance, arabica beans tend to prefer a higher temperature, while robusta beans need a lower temperature.

After playing around with the grind level and temperature settings and settling on Grind Level 6 and the coolest extraction temperature, I pulled a single espresso with the Grind House Blend beans, largely recommended as some of the better beans out there. It came out with a darker body, but with thick, golden crema that stayed around. On placing a temperature probe inside, the espresso was at the requisite 65°C. The espresso itself carries a sweeter flavour, although comes with some acidity and bitterness in the aftertaste, as this particular coffee tends to.

This coffee machine also worked well with a longer black coffee with both the Grind beans, and some more conventional Lavazza options I had, although with a slightly finer grind setting. In addition, double shot espresso using some other artisanal beans worked beautifully, if a little strong.

DeLonghi also has a cold brew setting on the La Specialista Arte Evo. For this mode, the La Specialista Arte Evo uses cold water with the grounds in the portafilter, as opposed to using hot water with traditional hot coffee. It takes around four minutes for it to drip out of the spouts. The final drink doesn’t have the bitterness that hot coffee poured over ice has, although there’s not quite the same depth that proper cold brew has.

Milk Frothing

• Excellent microfoam
• Steam wand has a small learning curve

DeLonghi’s machine has a traditional steam wand, and while there is a bit of a learning curve to creating optimal microfoam, the end result is excellent. Either with whole or semi-skimmed milk, the steam wand yielded milk with a shiny finish, smooth consistency and excellent microfoam. It even allowed me to create lattes with vaguely passable latte art, such as with a makeshift heart on a couple of occasions.

Maintenance

• Descaling mode for easy cleaning
• Included tool for purging steam wand
• Filters are difficult to remove from the portafilter

The La Specialista Arte Evo comes with its own descaling mode and includes descaling solution to flush the system out properly and to keep coffee tasting as it should. It also comes with a small tool for cleaning out the steam wand to prevent any milk residue from quickly drying, while DeLonghi also recommends you purge the steam wand after each use to clean it out that way.

In addition, the portafilter requires cleaning out to remove any grounds left in the filter basket, and they can be stubborn to come out without a forceful tap into a nearby bin. In addition, the filter baskets themselves are tight in the portafilter itself, and need prizing out with either your fingers or a blunt implement so you can clean out any coffee grounds left.

Should you buy it?