There is something seductive about being able to push a few buttons and go from whole beans to a cup of coffee in just a few seconds. But passion can cool quickly, and that’s when you have to think about whether or not you want to get into a relationship with this new superautomatic coffee maker.
We spent a month making a host of hot and iced coffee drinks to see how the all-in-one coffee maker performed and whether or not it’s worth a spot on your kitchen counter.
The easy-to-use De'Longhi TrueBrew starts with whole beans and does it all for you, producing a single cup or a whole pot of coffee at the touch of a button. But it's expensive, and we got better-tasting coffee from dedicated pour-over coffee or espresso setups
The De’Longhi TrueBrew is a “superautomatic” machine, which means it does it all. Superautomatic machines grind beans (meaning you don’t need to purchase a separate grinder to use fresh whole beans), measure grinds and brew coffee. (Some of them — though not the De’Longhi — even steam milk.) They typically include a self-cleaning cycle, essential since they are more complex and fiddly than other varieties. And given all this, they can cost more than manual or automatic machines, which require you to do more of the work.
We looked at some superautomatic espresso machines in our review of the best espresso machines overall, but the TrueBrew isn’t an espresso machine — it can turn out an espresso-style 3-ounce shot, but it’s more akin to the familiar machines we looked at in our review of the best drip coffee makers. Think of it as having the efficiency of a pod-based single-serve coffee maker like a Keurig or Nespresso, but without the hassle and waste of pods, plus the ability to serve up a whole pot of coffee.
The main selling point of the De’Longhi TrueBrew — and of most superautomatic machines — is convenience. You can go from whole beans to a cup of coffee in under a minute, without doing more than pushing a couple of buttons. Plus you can program the coffee to brew you a specific drink, from a short espresso-style shot to a long drip-style brewed mug, and have it ready for you whenever you like. Though if you want that coffee ready first thing in the morning you will need to remember to put a cup under the dispenser the night before — they aren’t that advanced yet.
What we liked about it
It’s easy to set up and use
The black and stainless De’Longhi TrueBrew is simple to assemble and set up, and the settings and interface are easy to understand. You can be brewing coffee as soon as you’ve given the water tank and catch basins a good rinse and dry (and added some beans to the grinder’s hopper, of course). The machine even comes with test strips that help you determine the hardness (concentration of dissolved minerals) of your water so you can then adjust the machine to compensate accordingly, along with a descaling kit.
The TrueBrew earns points for giving lots of options — enough to serve a house full of coffee drinkers with different tastes. It can brew 3-, 8-, 12- and 24-ounce cups or 40 ounces of coffee for the carafe that comes with the machine. It also has three grind settings (light, gold and bold), three temperature settings and an option to dispense coffee over ice.
A small flip-down shelf below the dispenser keeps coffee from splashing if you’re using an espresso cup or a smaller mug.
You’re not locked into using the grinder, by the way. If you feel like using different coffee for a single drink (say you’ve got regular beans in the hopper but somebody wants to make a cup of decaf), you can skip the built-in coffee grinder and add pre-ground coffee directly to the filter basket. There’s even an included scoop for the purpose.
Care and maintenance are simple
Red indicator lights let you know when you need to do anything more involved than pushing a button, like adding beans, adding water or cleaning out the grounds and excess water. The machine also alerts you when it needs to be descaled to clean out mineral buildup. Conveniently, you can use the included kit to do this, on an automatic cycle that takes roughly 30 minutes.
After using the TrueBrew for a month, however, we’d recommend proactively emptying before the filter clean light comes on, as leftover grounds and the water used to flush the system tend to slosh over the catch basins when pulled out of the machine. Even if you do make a mess, though, with a bit of wiping-up duty, this machine was easy to clean and put back together.
Once it’s grinding and brewing you a cup, the TrueBrew is louder than a drip coffee maker, but the volume isn’t any more intrusive than a pod-based single-serve coffee maker. The self-cleaning function is perhaps slightly noisier than the brew cycle, but it’s relatively quick and won’t stop you from having a conversation.
What we didn’t like about it
The results don’t compare with dedicated machines
De’Longhi’s TrueBrew is easy to use and offers a wide range of options, but if you don’t like any of the drinks it makes, you don’t have enough control to tailor your coffee to your preferred taste.
While the three grind settings — light, gold and bold — did produce cups of noticeably different strengths, toggling between them and the three temperature settings failed to bring out the subtle notes we expected from lighter and darker roasts of coffee. We didn’t think the settings gave us fine-grained enough control over our grind or the amount of grinds dispensed. The brewed coffee overall — regardless of setting — didn’t compare with what we got from the best drip coffee machines we’ve tested.
You can add grounds manually to try and fine-tune the flavor; and it’s nice to have the option to do so, but resorting to our standalone coffee grinder to get an acceptably flavorful cup feels like it defeats the purpose of buying a superautomatic coffee maker.
The hottest temperature setting produced a hot mug of coffee, but if you prefer to sip and add a splash of milk, you might be thinking about microwaving your coffee before you’ve finished it. Coffee in the carafe also cooled too quickly if you were looking to enjoy it over a lazy weekend morning.
As for the 3-ounce espresso style shot, which the TrueBrew finishes with a layer of light brown crema, our shots often had a slightly bitter edge, tasting like espresso shots that have been over-extracted. Again, we didn’t think the shots were comparable to the output from the best espresso machines, even those built by De’Longhi, like the affordable Stilosa.
The iced coffee setting, on the other hand, gave us drinks that tasted watered-down. However, we did find a workaround. When we treated the 3-ounce coffee like a coffee concentrate and combined it with three ounces of water, we could make a robust iced coffee by adding it alongside some milk or cream and ice to a cocktail shaker. The shakerato, ready after 20 or 30 seconds of shaking, was a dynamite iced coffee.
It doesn’t make milk drinks
At this price point, we started to think about what the machine doesn’t offer, and the lack of a milk frother is something to consider if you regularly drink cappuccino. A standalone milk frother isn’t expensive — this Zulay model typically costs around $12 — but it is another step you’ll have to think about if you want foamed milk in your coffee.
The TrueBrew is very expensive
At $500 to start and $600 as tested (with the thermal carafe), the TrueBrew is a pricey machine, costing considerably more than our favorite drip coffee makers, several of which are also programmable enough to have a fresh carafe and even considering the cost of the grinder come in at hundreds less overall. So unless you really demand convenience and you’re really happy with the coffee the TrueBrew makes, it may not be a good investment.
Bottom line
All that aside, if you aren’t a coffee aficionado, you don’t want to think too hard about your morning cup beyond getting in your dose of caffeine and you regularly add sugar or milk (and aren’t worried about steaming milk) to your coffee, and you are willing to pay top dollar for convenience, the De’Longhi TrueBrew deserves a look.
It is really easy to use, and it makes it easy to make a few coffees in a range of different sizes. It’s nice to be able to make a travel mug to take to soccer games or to get you through your commute and on into the workday afternoon. And you don’t have to worry about purchasing pods or disposing of them as you would with single-serve coffee makers.
But serious coffee drinkers or those looking to tweak their morning cup until they find the right flavor profile will be better served by investing in a separate coffee grinder and pour-over coffee setup.