De’Longhi Eletta Ultra bean-to-cup coffee machine review

Convenience is a given with automatic bean-to-cup coffee machines but the De’Longhi Eletta Ultra, which is one of the most premium appliances of its type you can buy, elevates the user experience to the next level.

With a huge price tag over £1000, this is no budget bean-to-cup coffee machine, but it is unbelievably impressive. Here’s what I’ve loved about testing it.

In a nutshell

The Eletta Ultra is (somehow) a step up from the already hugely impressive Eletta Explore, which our expert home economist Helen McCue awarded 5 stars to in her review.

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Its top line selling points include a huge drinks menu, two milk carafes (one for hot drinks, one for iced), a large touch screen and personalised coffee profiles with the machine suggesting a drink based on your previous choices.

Its upgraded from the Ultra with its new quieter tech, faster heat-up times and dedicated storage slots and user features.

After using it every day for months now, I can see why those looking to spend an awful lot on a coffee machine would be bowled over by this pick from De’Longhi. I can no longer imagine my mornings without – it’s a total breeze to use. The things I don’t love about it are minimal, but if I was to spend my money on it I would be looking for another finish. The stainless steel is a little bit of a fingerprint magnet to me.

Unboxing, setting up and first impressions

This isn’t the kind of coffee machine that’s going to neatly fit under your kitchen cupboards in a corner. It’s big, bulky and also quite long (at 45cm). But given what it can do, this may be a small price to pay if you have the space to give over to it.

There’s no need to build this machine out of the box – you pretty much can plug it in and go, which is what you’d expect at this premium price point. To get it going, you’ll need to run the usual programs which walk you through water hardness and inserting the water filter and run a rinse cycle but this is all very easily done thanks to the hugely intuitive touch screens.

Another stand out thing with this machine is the use of an app to get into the technical settings. You can do this with the help of the materials that come with the machine and then get into the weeds of the coffee making process, if that’s your cup of tea.

If you’d rather manually adjust the machine, then there’s a dial situated within the bean hopper that you can tweak to get the taste you want.

I can’t think of another coffee machine I’ve tried that has a more enticing user interface. The huge touch screen, which extends across the top of the machine, is in full colour. It also pings you for all sorts of reasons, such as reminding you to clean the milk carafe or add more beans, all of which are very helpful for making a better cup of a coffee.

The user profiles are a stroke of genius too. It’s not just that you can set up the machine to remember your favourite drinks, but the tech will also recommend you drinks depending on your previous habits. So if you’re prone to an iced coffee in the afternoons, the machine will be one step ahead of you in the process.

Even if you don’t download the app, there are plenty of tweaks you can make on the interface of the machine itself. You can change the strength, length and milk quantity of any given drinks as well as how icy you want your cold versions. You can also tweak the level of froth on your drinks by turning the dial on either milk carafe.

The one niggle I have with the user-facing part of this machine is that the coffee spout doesn’t quite go high enough for my liking. I have a specific set of glasses I’d like to use for iced coffee that don’t fit, so I have to do a bit of pouring over if I want to use them. If you have large travel cups I imagine you’ll run into the same problem.

Overall, this machine is astonishingly sleek. It has built-in storage for accessories for ground coffee in the top, as well as a slot for the hot water spout and the water tank fits so effectively on one side that you’d barely notice it was there. I also like how there’s an opening at the front of the tank so that you can pour water straight in from your filter jug.

What is it like to use?

As with all of the processes on this app, starting it up is guided by the intuitive touchscreen. You’ll be directed to add water, after which the screen will tell you it’s warming through. This takes 30-45 seconds, in my experience, and is relatively quiet compared to the other bean-to-cup models I’ve tried. Obviously it does emit some noise, but nothing too overwhelming.

I would advise that you don’t pop your clean cup under the spout straight away as the machine turns on as you’ll end up with the rinsing liquid in there. If you can, the best thing to do is have a catch cup under the spouts at all times when you’re not making a fresh cup.

Hot drinks

All in all, there are 23 hot drinks to take your pick from with this machine. It’s fun to get a taste of all of them when you first get hold of the machine, but I imagine you’ll settle on your favourites day to day.

In my household, Americanos are the black coffee drink of choice. I’ve really enjoyed how seamless making this drink is with this machine, especially when compared to a semi-manual machine on a busy morning. Just one touch of a button and your perfectly hot Americano is ready to go. When I’m making these for my partner to take on his commute, the ‘To-Go’ setting is also really useful, as it makes a longer version for a carry cup.

The other drinks on heavy rotation with this machine are the caffe lattes and the cappuccinos. This is where the hot milk carafe comes in, which you simply fill and attach to the front of the machine. On the top of it there’s a dial with three froth settings. For the caffe latte, it’s the medium level of froth while the cappuccino ramps things up with more foam.

I have quite large mugs, so I sometimes top up the cappuccino even further by using the hot milk setting on the menu. This can be done in under 30 seconds as it’s very easy to go from one drink to the next. This is also a total godsend when hosting as you’re trying to get everyone a drink in their hands. I also like how the temperature of the drinks is hot but not so hot that the cups you give out aren’t immeadiately drinkable.

If I’m being picky, I am slightly icked out by the floppy tube you need to insert into the hot drinks carafe. I think I’m particularly sensitive about cleanliness so I am always giving all of the parts of the milk system a deeper clean than they probably need, but the built-in rinse does help to soothe my worries about milk build-up.

Cold drinks

It’s been hot already this summer, so I’ve made good use of the iced drinks options on this machine. In order to make iced milky drinks you need to attach the cold carafe, which again is very easily done. You’ll then be asked exactly how cold you want your drink and be directed to add a specific number of ice cubes to your glass.

All of the iced options I’ve tried have been delectable, but my favourite has to be the iced cappuccino which is delectably foamy. It’s

The drinks are very smooth and stay cold well, so you won’t be needing to add more iced cubes after the brew process is complete. And the cold frothed foam is such a welcome change to just adding cold milk to a shot of coffee – especially considering that is often what you get in coffee shops with iced drinks! I much prefer using this machine over getting an iced coffee out for this reason.

What’s it like to clean?

A lot of people are put off buying a bean-to-cup machine because of the excess cleaning. But if you’re paying the big bucks for this machine the good news is that most of those cleaning processes are automated. And even the parts that are not automatically carried out, like the rinse process, are easy to manage thanks to the on-screen prompts.

The cleaning feature I found most useful was the rinse feature on those milk carafes, which cleans the lines without emptying the container of its spare milk. As with all machines, you’ll need to remember to empty the grounds container and drip tray but you’ll be reminded of this by the features on the machine.

How does it compare to similar coffee machines?

There are so many bestselling De’Longhi coffee machines to compare this product to, but the two I think are most valuable are the Rivelia and the Explore.

I think the Rivelia (which our reviewer fell in love with way back in 2024) is an incredible machine for its price tag and will suit most people well, as long as they’re not desperate for those extra iced settings. If you want to save hundreds and still bag an amazing bean-to-cup machine, I urge you to check it out.

Because the Explore came out a few years ago now, it’s a little less expensive than the Ultra but offers lots of the same amazing features. It’s worth weighing up the differences before you splash the cash.

Should you buy the De’Longhi Eletta Explore?

De’Longhi’s offering of automatic bean-to-cup machines are unrivalled in terms of their convenience and the Ultra might just be the pinnacle of that. It’s so easy to use and with it, you can whip up delicious drinks that are fine tuned just right with the help of the in-built technology. It’s a huge amount to pay for anything, granted, but if you can afford its price tag you won’t regret it.