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De’Longhi Primadonna Aromatic: two-minute review
The De’Longhi Primadonna Aromatic is a premium bean-to-cup espresso machine that’s a pleasure to use, brewing exceptionally well-balanced coffee and giving you a huge array of ways to enjoy it.
Once you’ve tailored your espresso to your liking, the Primadonna Aromatic presents you with an enormous menu of hot and cold drink options so you can enjoy it any way you like. You don’t need to worry about being blinded by choice, though, because the machine will ‘learn’ what drinks you enjoy and when, and will bump them to the front of the queue depending on the time of day.
The interface is thoughtfully designed, with a chatty tone, step-by-step instructions, and diagrams and animations to walk you through everything from brewing a macchiato to cleaning the brew unit.
For me, there are only two drawbacks. The first is the Primadonna Aromatic’s sheer size. I’ve tested some big coffee makers over the past few years, but this is definitely one of the largest.
Width isn’t much of an issue because the water tank can be removed from the front, making it possible to push the machine up against a wall and only move it out for occasional cleaning. The problem is the height. At 16in / 46.3cm this is a seriously tall appliance, and if you position it on a counter under a wall cabinet, you might struggle to open the bean hopper on top when it’s time for a refill. Make sure you measure your space carefully before investing.
The second issue is the price. This is one of the best bean-to-cup coffee machines I’ve ever tested, but also one of the most expensive. In fact, only the Jura J10 is pricier. You’ll need a household of coffee lovers with varied tastes to get the most out of the Primadonna Aromatic.
De’Longhi Primadonna Aromatic: price and availability
- Costs £1,549.99 (about $2,100 / AU$3,300)
- Launched in the UK in April 2025
- Not yet available in the US (but likely to arrive soon)
The De’Longhi Primadonna Aromatic launched in the UK in April 2025, priced at £1,549.99 (about $2,100 / AU$3,300). At the time of writing, it’s not yet available in the US, but I anticipate a wider release soon.
It’s one of the more expensive coffee machines in De’Longhi’s fully automatic series, sitting between the De’Longhi Primadonna Soul (which only brews hot beverages) and the top-end De’Longhi Maestosa (which has dual bean hoppers and a special milk carafe that can combine ingredients like cocoa powder).
The Primadonna Aromatic is definitely at the upper end of the price scale when it comes to home coffee makers. However, if you’re a fan of chilled espresso-based drinks, it’s a more affordable option than the Jura J10, which is also great for hot and cold drinks, but has an eye-watering price tag of £1,795 / AU$3,990 (about $2,300).
The Primadonna Aromatic is easily one of the best coffee makers I’ve tested this year, but there’s no avoiding the fact that its price will be beyond the budget of many coffee aficionados.
De’Longhi Primadonna Aromatic: specifications
|
Name |
De’Longhi Primadonna Aromatic |
|
Type |
Automatic bean-to-cup |
|
Dimensions (W x H x D) |
10.3 x 16 x 18.2in / 26.2 x 40.7 x 46.3cm |
|
Weight |
28.7lbs / 13kg |
|
Water reservoir capacity |
2.3 quarts / 2.2 liters |
|
Milk frother |
Automatic, hot and cold |
|
Bars of pressure |
19 |
|
User profiles |
4 |
De’Longhi Primadonna Aromatic: design
- Very large, but stylish
- Five-inch touchscreen and intuitive interface
- Two-carafe system for hot and cold milk foam
- Easy to clean with dishwasher-safe components
The De’Longhi Primadonna Aromatic is a large but stylish espresso machine, with a brushed metal finish and black accents. Its most striking feature is a 5in color touchscreen that displays the menu options (there are 35 customizable hot and cold drinks to choose from), which is supplemented by four buttons: power, profile selection, hot drinks, and cold drinks.
The coffee dispenser on the front can be moved up and down to accommodate different-sized cups and has a magnetic cover that’s easy to remove when you want to clean the nozzles.
The Primadonna Aromatic comes with two milk carafes – one for hot milk and one for cold – that push into a connector on the left of the coffee dispenser. Each carafe has a dial on top that allows you to pick from three foam textures, from creamy to thick. Turning the dial all the way to the right will select cleaning mode, which you should run before returning the carafe to the fridge (the machine will remind you to do this if you forget).
Both carafes have lids to keep the milk fresh while it’s refrigerated. When it’s time to give them a deep clean, they can be easily disassembled and cleaned in the top drawer of a dishwasher, or left to soak in hot, soapy water for 30 minutes and rinsed.
The water tank is also nicely designed. It has a generous 2.3 quart / 2.2 liter capacity, and unlike some others, it’s large enough to get your hand inside when you want to clean and dry it. There’s also a lid with a funnel-shaped hole for mess-free filling, and the machine comes with a water hardness testing strip that helps you set it up correctly, plus a water filter that screws inside.
The Primadonna Aromatic will alert you when it’s time to replace the filter. New ones can be purchased directly from De’Longhi for £15.99 (about $20 / AU$35), but at the time of writing, they are discounted to £8.54 (about $10 / AU$20).
In addition to the main hopper, the Primadonna Aromatic has a chute you can use to add a scoop of pre-ground coffee when you want to drink something different from your usual beans. It’s a great feature that you’ll find on most De’Longhi machines, and is ideal if you want to switch to decaf in the afternoon.
My only real issue with the Primadonna Aromatic’s design is its height. This mighty machine stands an imposing 16in / 407mm tall, which means there’s not much headroom between its lid and my wall cabinets. That usually wasn’t a problem, but it made refilling the bean hopper trickier than I’d like. I was just about able to remove the lid (which has a soft seal to keep your beans fresh) and slip scoops of coffee inside. It’s well worth measuring the space you have available to make sure this impressive machine will fit.
The good news is that you don’t need much room on the sides. The water tank is located on the right, but slides out from the front of the machine. If you position the Primadonna Aromatic right against a wall or cabinet (as I did), you’ll only need to move it out approximately once a month to clean the brew unit.
De’Longhi Primadonna Aromatic: performance
- Produces well-extracted, balanced espresso
- Hot and cold milk frothing both work very well
- User profiles provide smart recommendations for multiple users
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The De’Longhi Primadonna Aromatic is a joy to use, and manages to nail both the fundamentals and the details.
First (and most importantly), it can brew an excellent espresso. The machine’s standard settings appear to be configured for medium roast arabica beans, because it produced a delicious, sweet, well-rounded espresso first time using my preferred beans. If the taste isn’t quite to your liking, you can delve into the Bean Adapt tool, which is accessible via a link above the main drinks menu.
Just select the type of beans you’re using, either through the machine’s touchscreen or De’Longhi’s Coffee Link mobile app, and the machine will automatically adjust its brewing settings accordingly, including the grind size. If the resulting espresso doesn’t meet your expectations, you can tinker with the options manually to achieve the optimum extraction.
Once you’ve perfected your espresso, you can take your pick from a selection of hot and cold drinks.
One of the Primadonna Aromatic’s main selling points is its ability to ‘learn’ which drinks you like at different times of day. This excellent feature helps you avoid scrolling through the vast menu every time you want to make a beverage, and is great for households with more than one coffee drinker.
User profiles for coffee machines sometimes feel a bit superfluous (after all, who’s actually replacing all the beans in the hopper when they want to brew a drink for themselves?), but with the Primadonna Aromatic, profiles are an integral part of the experience. When you first set up the machine, you’ll be asked to provide names for all the people who’ll be using it, and given the option to set different-colored profile icons. I set one for myself, and a second for my husband. You can switch between these profiles at the press of a button, and the menu will rearrange itself with that person’s preferred drinks listed first for quick selection. I test new coffee machines every month for TechRadar, and this is the first time I’ve found user profiles in an espresso maker genuinely useful.
The LatteCrema hot milk frothing system is excellent and produces some of the best results I’ve seen from an automatic espresso machine. De’Longhi advises that you’ll get the best results with whole dairy milk or plant milk, and during my tests, I found that dairy and oat produced the thickest, most stable foam. Push the milk carafe into place, tilt the dispenser so the nozzle is positioned over your cup, turn the dial to the position described on the machine’s screen, and you’re ready to begin.
Another of the Primadonna Aromatic’s key features is its ability to make tasty cold-brewed drinks. These aren’t a tacked-on extra, and are given just as much prominence in the menu as hot beverages. There are even quick-access buttons beside the touchscreen that let you filter the drink menu by temperature.
The machine comes with a silicone ice cube tray, and after selecting a cold drink, you’ll be prompted to add a certain number of cubes to your cup or glass (at least six for an iced latte macchiato, for example). For milk-based drinks, you’ll then be asked to connect the cold carafe (the one with the white lid), which should be filled with either skimmed dairy milk or a plant-based alternative for the best results.
One of the biggest drawbacks of most automatic espresso machines is the cleanup, which sometimes takes so long that I think I’d be better off making my coffee manually. The De’Longhi Primadonna Aromatic is different. It rinses itself automatically after brewing and prompts you to rinse the milk carafe, but both processes only take a couple of seconds and seem to require very little water. I tested the machine for several weeks and never noticed any change in the taste of my drinks, so this system clearly works.
When it’s time to give the machine a deep clean, the Primadonna Aromatic provides step-by-step instructions to help you disassemble and wash the coffee dispenser components, and remove and rinse the brew unit. I found a small build-up of coffee grounds in the hatch containing the brew unit, but these were easy to wipe up with a damp cloth.
I was a little nervous about cleaning the plastic milk carafe components in the dishwasher, but they came out sparkling. Washing by hand is fine too, but it’s reassuring to know they’ve been cleaned at a high temperature to remove residue that might harbor bacteria.
Should you buy the De’Longhi Primadonna Aromatic?
|
Attribute |
Notes |
Score |
|---|---|---|
|
Value |
It’s a brilliant machine, but there’s no escaping the fact that the Primadonna Aromatic will be beyond the budget of many coffee lovers. |
4/5 |
|
Design |
Smart and stylish, with a super-intuitive interface and dishwasher-safe components to make maintenance a breeze. |
5/5 |
|
Performance |
Brews consistently well-balanced and tasty espresso. Both hot and cold milk foaming work well, and user profiles that ‘learn’ your preferences are extremely handy. |
5/5 |
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De’Longhi Primadonna Aromatic: also consider
How I tested the De’Longhi Primadonna Aromatic
I used the De’Longhi Primadonna Aromatic for two weeks in place of my usual coffee machine, and brewed coffee using a blend of freshly roasted Brazilian and Colombian arabica beans. I set up a separate user profile for my partner to test the smart recommendations, and we both used the machine to brew a variety of hot and cold drinks throughout each day.
I tested the hot milk frother with whole dairy milk and oat milk and used the cold milk frother with skimmed dairy milk and oat milk, as instructed by De’Longhi. All milk was bought fresh and used cold from the fridge.
First reviewed May 2025.
