DeLonghi adds an LCD to Nespresso to make espresso really easy

Like most Australians, our love affair with coffee is a constant one, and partially thanks to the caffeine injection we just had, we’re buzzing about a new Nespresso machine DeLonghi has engineered.

Called the Lattissma Pro, the model is basically a refresh of one of the flagships in the Nespresso range, updating the Lattissima Plus automatic espresso machine with a cleaner look, a bigger water tank (1.3 litres compared to the older 0.9 litres), and an LCD screen aimed at making it even easier to make instant espresso.

The included screen isn’t a touchscreen, but you do get a small pad of buttons to press, helping to make six pre-programmed coffee styles, including everybody’s favourite “cappuccino,” with the coffee able to be programmed by anyone else (volume amount, with a menu option to start off the procedure when you’re defining how to make the coffee variety).

Like other Nespresso machines, there are some similarities, such as the 19 bar pump and quick heat up time from the Thermoblock heating system, with 25 seconds for the coffee and 40 seconds for the milk, but that milk feature is one that is unique to DeLonghi’s machines, with an “Instant Frothing Device” built into the milk tank, capable of making textured milk quickly and easily.

The milk tank even supports an auto cleaning function, which will push steam and water through the nozzle, with the machine prompting you to do it after you’ve prepared a coffee, making it easy to make sure you never have a clogged or unhygienic milk preparation system.

Even better, the milk tank and frother can be removed, making it possible to store the milk in the fridge, keeping it fresh (or at least fresher than sitting out in the open). If one type of milk isn’t quite what your household calls for, we’re told you’ll be able to buy extra milk tanks, making it easy to plug in say a small tank of soy milk when that person in the family or the office prefers soy to regular milk.

Hands-on with the Lattissima Pro, and it’s a rather cute little unit, providing everything a milk coffee drinker needs in a rather well designed box of a package.

It’s totally different from the Nespresso machines we’re used to where the milk is made separately from the coffee, because in this machine, there’s an automated system texturing the milk for you and literally preparing cafe style coffee for you.

The timing of the milk and coffee pouring looked pretty good to us, and every cup we saw — and tried (buzz, buzz) — appeared better than we could create ourself with the combination of a Nespresso coffee maker and one of the Aeroccino frothers that generally accompany the machines.

Tea drinkers will even be satisfied here, with a spout able to be plugged into the unit making it easy to expel hot water.

That said, if you do buy a Lattissima Pro for tea, you are probably buying just about the most expensive kettle we’ve seen, with a recommended retail price of $899 bringing a higher price point to the Nespresso automatic range.

It won’t be for every coffee drinker, that said, and it’s a completely different style of machine compared to the other other flagship, the Nespresso Maestria, because while the Lattissima Pro is all about simplicity and convenience, the Maestria is more about control, with more knobs and longer coffees available with less controls.

Nespresso’s Lattissima Pro is manufactured only by DeLonghi, and will be available in stores across Australia this month for $899, available in a brushed aluminium finish.