DeLonghi Magnifica Plus Bean to Cup Coffee Machine
The DeLonghi Magnifica Plus is the latest in DeLonghi’s Magnifica range, and this may just be my favourite one touch bean to cup machine from DeLonghi so far, and – maybe my favourite one touch bean to cup machine, full stop!
Why? Because it’s a one touch bean to cup machine capable of HOT milk drinks, hotter than any one touch machine I’ve used in the past, and its also capable of bold espresso made with up to 17g doses.
So what this means, is this is a one touch bean to cup machine capable of proper (and hot) flat whites!
The Magnifica Plus impressed me as soon as I saw that it had the same great interface as the Eletta Explore and the Rivelia, as this is a touch screen interface that just works.
Features and Benefits
- 1.8L front accessed water tank
- 250g bean hopper
- 6 one touch coffees
- Strong espresso (doses up to 17g)
- Hot milk frothing (about 65C)
- 13 grind settings
- 1450 Watt thermoblock heater
- One touch carafe frother
- Max cup height: 14cm
- Grinder bypass chute
It’s not an overly flashy or complex interface, it’s just really easy to use, it even has really handy “black coffees” and “Milk coffees” shortcuts on the screen so you can narrow down the choices depending on whether you want to make a milk drink or a black coffee.
But when I started using it, it became apparent that the Magnifica Plus is impressive in many ways, that I wasn’t expecting, to be honest.
I’d usually warn people, when going for a pricier DeLonghi machine, that you’re not really getting any enhanced performance by going further up the range, as they usually use the same components, so you’re just paying for bells & whistles – this definitely isn’t the case with the Magnifica plus.
DeLonghi are really impressing me lately with their automatic bean to cup machines, as they’re actually giving some of their latest machines some really interesting and different features.
The Rivelia, for example, has the dual hoppers with switch mode, making it probably the best automatic bean to cup coffee machine for switching from full caff to decaf coffee beans.
The Eletta Explore comes with a cold “lattecrema” system as well as hot (you can buy this as an optional add on for the Rivelia) and it has a higher quality look and feel to other DeLonghi machines (made in Italy).
The Magnifica Plus, though, is one of Delonghi’s cheapest machines, and it’s one of their best in various areas.
Being able to dose up to about 17g in an automatic brewing unit coffee machine, is rare, there aren’t many others that will do this, in fact this beats most other DeLonghi bean to cup machines, where max dose weight (and therefore max intensity) is concerned.
The lattecrema (milk carafe frother) is just as good as the Eletta explore and the Rivelia, where texture is concerned, and this is very, very good, definitely one of the best for milk texture from a one touch automatic coffee machine.
It’ll even produce good enough texture for Latte art, it’s proper silky micro foam, not the old school 90s cappuccino foam that you’ll get from a lot of one touch milk carafes.
But what really surprised me about the Magnifica plus was the milk temperature, I’ve never had milk drinks this hot from a one touch machine.
OK some people who like cappuccino and latte at the temperature of the earth’s core might not be impressed, but at around 65C, this is the best machine of this kind that I’ve come across for milk temp, and that’s the perfect temperature for milk drinks in my opinion.
If you want hotter than this you’d need to go for a machine with a manual steam wand, but I think a lot of people will be really happy with the temperature of their milk drinks on the Magnifica plus.
Also thanks to the milk texture, and the intense espresso it’ll produce, this relatively inexpensive bean to cup machine will deliver a pretty impressive flat white!
And when I say “pretty impressive”, for a one touch bean to cup machine, that translates to epic, as bean to cup machines don’t really do flat white, usually, they do a small latte that is labelled as flat white on the menu for marketing purposes.
But this is one of the very few one touch machines that actually deserves to have “flat white” on the menu, in my humble opinion.
