When comparing Delonghi La Specialista vs Breville Barista Touch, I instantly found the Barista Touch to be the better option. In this article, I will review the details and compare the features so you can make the right choice.
Breville Barista Touch is highly recommended by many baristas and professionals. It is able to reach the optimum extraction temperature in 3 seconds. This espresso machine also features pre-programmed beverages, automatic milk frothing, and an intuitive touch screen display. You’ll feel like a real barista in your own home, even if you are a beginner. Also, If you’re looking to start making latte art, you can begin by practicing with this home latte machine.
As a runner-up, Delonghi La Specialista comes with some great features as well. La Specialista has a smart tamper, which helps pack your grounds perfectly, and a pressure gauge you can monitor to ensure you’re making the perfect cup. It also has an adjustable steam wand that can be used for flat or foamy milk. Two separate heating systems allow brewing coffee and steaming milk at the same time.
Delonghi La Specialista vs Breville Barista Touch: Comparision Chart
Last update on 2023-11-29 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
Delonghi La Specialista vs Breville Barista Touch: Differences
After comparing the differences between the two machines, I found that the Barista Touch easily wins out. It beats the Delonghi La Specialista 4-0 in terms of flavor, easy to use, milk system and value for money. Delonghi also brews coffee and froth milk very well, but Breville does better.
1. Flavor
The winner: Breville Barista Touch
Portafilter
The brand let me down because the espresso extracted from La Specailista was not as good as advertised. They have claimed that their espresso maker is “professionally-inspired” but this machine only comes with 51mm pressurized filter basket, the same as on the lower end or super-automatic machines.
The pressurized basket has the advantage of being able to get espresso easier and allows us to use pre-ground coffee. they tend to produce espresso that is thin, watery, lacks body, and does not have velvety smooth crema. My first few pulls were incredibly weak flavor with almost no crema. If the machine is marketed as semi-professional, it really should offer a non-pressurized option.
On the other hand, Breville Barista Touch goes with both non-pressurized and pressurized baskets to meet your preference. Non-pressurized basket can produce the true, high-quality, perfect espresso.
The taste and flavor of espresso extracted from the Breville has its limits compared to commercial-grade machines but is much better than from the Delonghi anyway. For true connoisseurs of coffee, the taste of espresso itself isn’t extraordinary. But for its price, I was incredibly impressed—and it’s hard to find anything better.
Grinder
On the Breville machine, there are two main settings for the grinder: the amount of time that it grinds for (that determines the amount of grinded coffee) and grind size. We can adjust the grind size of the machine in 30 steps by adjusting the wheel which is on the left side of the machine.
As for the Delonghi, it only has 6 grind settings ranging from fine to coarse. Additionally, you get to decide how much grinding is going to be done with these machines.
Typically if you’re using the same coffee maybe you do not need to worry about how many settings there are. But as you change coffees and you each kind of change your drinks you may have to adjust it slightly. Thus, having more choices will enable you to adjust to suit different types of coffee more easily.
Heating System
At first glance, I was impressed because the Delonghi had a dual boiler as I can almost guarantee that no machine under $ 1,000 on the market has, at least for now. The advantage of machines with two boilers is that you can pull your shot and steam your milk simultaneously or you do not need to wait time between two progress.
However, I think a dual boiler system is unnecessary. Although the Breville machine has a single boiler, it is equipped with Quick-heating System so it can heat super fast water and doesn’t take a long time to start pulling a shot and steaming milk. Honestly, I never thought I need a second boiler.
Tamping
I love the integrated tamping system on the La Specialista, which means zero mess. After inserting the portafilter, all we have to do is pull down the lever on the side of the machine to tamp the coffee grounds.
Barista Express is more traditional, with a basic manual tamper so it can get a little messy. But this isn’t the fault of the machine, it’s just a fact of espresso. This can be difficult for beginners. But it’s also easy to get used to.
2. Easy to use
The winner: Breville Barista Touch
Pre-programmable Drinks
The Barista Touch doesn’t require skills to make consistently excellent barista-quality drinks. I’ve been super impressed because it’s really easy to make a really good-quality espresso without really knowing at all what you’re doing.
It’s great for beginners because it comes with 5 pre-programmed drinks, which include espresso, latte, cappuccino, flat white, and Americano. Once you have selected your drink, simply follow the three steps presented on the display: Grind, Brew, and Milk.
The machine takes you step by step and will do all for you. The only manual part of the process is tamping down the grinds before brewing the espresso. It is an easy task.
Despite a lot of automation, this machine can be operated manually as well, making it an ideal machine for coffee drinkers of all levels.
For Delonghi La Specialista, it has 3 pre-programmed beverages which are coffee, Americano, espresso.
Personalized coffees
Breville: Once you’ve created a beverage that tastes right for you, name it and add it to the menu. You can add up to eight personalized drinks so that you can easily reproduce your favorites whenever you want. Or in case your family has many people, each person can save your own favorite beverage.
On the Delonghi, you can press the “My” button to personalize your favourite recipe. Unlike the Breville, you can only customize the amount of extracted coffee, can’t customize the amount of beans, or temperature of the milk. Press the button again to save this drink setting and La Specialista will remember this every time that means you don’t have many profiles to save your drink.
3. Blending power – Milk System
The winner: Breville Barista Touch
To achieve good frothing, you must practice a lot but with the Barrista Touch, automatic barista-quality frothing is quickly and easily accomplished. You choose the temperature of the and froth level, press the milk button and the machine is going to do the rest. When set to a lower froth level, the automatic frother creates incredible microfoam that is good enough to pour latte art.
The traditional steam wand on the Breville is both manual and automatic.
Customers are hoping for latte art, which is something that is a little hard to achieve with a Panarello wand on the Delonghi.
4. Value for money
The winner: Breville Barista Touch
Although Breville Barista Touch is more expensive than Delonghi La Specialista, it comes with many great utilities. These utilities absolutely work in a great way, not that brand only tries to add them to hype prices. It works almost perfectly as well as what the brand has advertised.
Delonghi has a lot of interesting features: a smart tamping station, two separate boiling systems, an analog pressure gauge, 19-bar pump pressure,… However, I feel like the brand was adding these luxury features so that the machine seemed high-end because some of the features didn’t prove to be useful or necessary during my experience.
Delonghi La Specialista vs Breville Barista Touch: Similarities
Both of these two machines are recommended a lot on coffee forums, and that’s right, they have some similarities to brew excellent espresso.
In terms of design, they are made from stainless steel so it looks very durable. Their size are not too different. Breville Barista Touch has width, length, height respectively is 12.7x 15.5x 16 inches. And that of the Delonghi La Specialista is 14.48 x 15 x 17.5 inches.
Both come with built-in conical burr grinders so you don’t need to buy a separate grinder. It doesn’t only bring convenience but also avoids mess on the counter. For making Americanos or dispensing water for hot tea, there is a separate hot water spout.
About ease of cleaning, both brands have models with self-cleaning features and removable reservoirs, drip trays that make cleaning easy. Both brands have machines that automatically rinse themselves.
Quick Rundown Of Delonghi La Specialista
- Please refer to user guide or user manual or user guide (provided below in PDF) before first use
Last update on 2023-11-29 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
Quick Rundown Of Breville Barista Touch
- Please refer to user guide or user manual or user guide (provided below in PDF) before first use
Last update on 2023-11-29 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
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References:
- Breville Barista Touch: https://www.breville.com/us/en/products/espresso/bes880.html
- Delonghi La Specialista: https://www.delonghi.com/en-us/la-specialista-espresso-machine-with-sensor-grinder-and-dual-heating-system-stainless-steel-ec9335m/p/EC9335M
Felix Hendricks is a skilled barista with over 12 years of experience. He excels in crafting coffee and has a strong foundation in coffee machine mechanics. Felix holds a Coffee Machine Maintenance Certification from the Coffee Equipment Technical Institute, showcasing his ability to diagnose and repair coffee machines. He’s also worked as a quality control specialist, selecting premium coffee beans for optimal flavor. Felix has a diverse work history, including stints at renowned coffee spots like Café Euphoria & Starbucks. His expertise in both brewing and machine maintenance makes him a respected figure in the coffee industry.