An espresso machine that makes cold foam at the touch of a button has convinced a reviewer who spent years working behind coffee bars, from a library kiosk to Starbucks, to give up the queue. The De’Longhi Rivelia, an all-in-one machine, was put through weeks of household use, including its cold foam upgrade, for a Taste of Home review.
The machine fits into roughly a quarter of the space of the reviewer’s previous set-up, which frees the counter for everything else. A grinder sits on top, a dedicated spout pulls the espresso, and a swappable carafe slot handles milk, with a water reservoir at the back. Despite the compact footprint, it produces a complete espresso drink within seconds.
Operation follows the single-button logic the reviewer remembers from high-street chains. One touch delivers cappuccinos, espressos, lattes, iced flat whites, flat blacks, cortados and iced coffees, and users can save a profile so each drink lands pre-personalised. A hot carafe comes with the machine; the LatteCrema Cold Upgrade is bought separately for foam drinks.
The touch screen guides the whole process from switch-on, including a reminder to rinse the carafe after each use, which the reviewer found hard to get wrong. Fitting the cold set was equally simple: fill it with milk, clip it on and keep it in the fridge. The machine recommends plant-based or skim milks for the best foam, steering the reviewer from 2% towards oat.
As a self-confessed cold foam drinker, she judged the result close to the café version, frothed by the machine with no whisking required. It is not the match of a manual barista wand, she concedes, but the trade of control for convenience looks worth it. The full De’Longhi Rivelia review covers day-to-day running. For shoppers weighing the alternatives, our testers ranked the best automatic espresso machines.