There are a lot of clichés around coffee you’ve probably endured on a chalkboard outside your local café. “Don’t talk to me until I’ve had my morning coffee.” “Today’s good mood is sponsored by coffee.” Okay, these are all somewhat painful, but ultimately, at the end of the day, true. And nowhere is that more apparent than in our busy publishing office with multiple weekly deadlines, meetings, and late nights.
A coffee machine has to pull its weight in this fast-paced environment. It’s less of a kitchen addition, more of a valued office member.
So, when the De’Longhi Magnifica Evo Next arrived on our office doorstep, there was intrigue, excitement and… a lot of pressure on this gadget. We’re coffee dependents, after all. But, as we know well here, pressure is integral to both magazine publishing and a good cup of coffee. If you’re a similar coffee-lover, you can purchase the De’Longhi Magnifica Evo Next for just $999 by entering the code ‘YHG999’ at checkout.
The Your Home and Garden team has been putting it through its paces over the last couple of weeks, and here are our thoughts.
What’s so special about the De’Longhi Magnifica Evo Next?
Don’t worry if the closest you’ve come to being a barista is adding milk before hot water to your instant coffee (ooh la la). The Magnifica Evo Next is a fully automatic machine, meaning it does all the hard work for you. You provide the beans, water, and milk; the De’Longhi Magnifica Evo Next provides café-quality coffee.
When I say this machine makes coffee simple, I mean it. It has a variety of coffee styles pre-loaded, which brew automatically at the touch of a button. If you’re so bleary-eyed and in need of caffeine that you can’t read, there are handy pictures of each style, so you don’t end up mistaking your espresso for a doppio.
The touchscreen allows you to scroll through more options before selecting size, bean intensity… basically everything you need to nail your personal coffee order. And without any fear your barista will spit in your cup when you order them around at 7am.
How to use the De’Longhi Magnifica Evo Next
As with all good things, setting up this coffee machine takes time. Don’t rush it; set aside a solid 30–40 minutes. This includes a hard water test and fitting a water filter to get your machine ready for brewing.
Filling the machine
- Beans: Fill the bean hopper with your favourite coffee beans. The Magnifica Evo Next also takes ground coffee (one scoop at a time) in the bypass compartment — great for decaf lovers, or in an emergency run-out-of-beans situation.
- Water & Milk: Fill the water tank with fresh, filtered water and the milk carafe if you plan to make a milky coffee.
Making your drink
Before the first cup of the day, the machine runs a system check, heats up, and flushes hot water to prep. Hot tip: I like to use my coffee cup to catch this hot water and warm my mug before tipping it out, but that’s optional.
Choose your drink from the touchscreen or button panel and customise intensity and quantity. The machine grinds the beans, brews the coffee, and froths the milk for you.
Crucially, once you’re done making your morning brew, the milk carafe and used grounds compartment are dishwasher-safe for easy cleaning.
The Your Home and Garden team’s verdict
Once the Magnifica Evo Next was plugged in and switched on, I sent out an office-wide email announcing its readiness, sat back, and waited for the praise and thanks to roll in.
But as with all new gadgets, there were a couple of teething issues when our office of wannabe baristas went in, mugs blazing. It was a ‘push buttons first, ask questions later’ approach. I called De’Longhi machine expert and coffee enthusiast Joao Pimentel for advice on ensuring our brews were the best they could be.
Joao reassured me that it takes about five cups of coffee for the machine to find its groove. To truly elevate that first sip, he gave some game-changing tips, which I’ve shared below.
How to get the most from your De’Longhi Magnifica Evo Next
On the grind
Using freshly roasted beans is key. We go through about two 2kg bags of beans a week, earning us two big thumbs-up from Joao. For fresh beans, the grinder adjustment wheel in the bean hopper should sit around 3–4. Someone in our office, (no names) had set the grind too fine, making it hard for the water to extract properly. Adjust it while the machine is running, advises Jaoao, and let a few espressos brew for the grind to kick in.
Get intense
For a bold brew worthy of a Kiwi coffee drinker, Joao advises using the buttons below the touchscreen to crank the coffee intensity to level 4 or 5. This leads to a strong, rich, dark pour topped with that honey-coloured crema we all know and love.
Milk it
If you struggle with frothing milk (me too), the carafe handles it all, creating rich, creamy foam that automatically pours into your vessel. The machine detects and uses the exact amount of milk, so you won’t need to store any leftovers.
As we’re using an Italian machine, the standard cappuccino setting preps coffee in a European way, pouring the milk in first, then topping it with coffee. For some, this might conjure memories of Tuscan holidays – la dolce vita and all that. But Joao says Kiwis and Aussies often prefer milk poured over the coffee. This leads to that creamy flat white we all know and love. The ‘Cappuccino Max’ setting has been programmed for us, and does exactly that. Scroll through the extra coffee options, select Cappuccino Max, and choose your size and intensity. From there you can…
… Personalise your brew
Each household member can save their coffee preferences, meaning the machine remembers exactly how you like your brew. Brilliant for a household of coffee drinkers, although not quite so feasible in the office. Happily, we were all in agreement to:
- Set Cappuccino Max as the default milky drink.
- Max out bean intensity for our espressos and long blacks.
For those who like a jumbo, frothy coffee in a BIG MUG™, Doppio+ or Cappuccino will be your go-to. This delivers the biggest, strongest brew we call our “deadline day coffee.”
Now the settings are sorted, the coffee addicts are thrilled, and I’ve finally gotten my praise. And really, that’s what it’s all about.
Are there any cons?
The Magnifica Evo Next is a fairly large machine, so make sure you’ve got enough counter space. And yes, like any grinder-based machine, it makes some noise. That said, it’s much quieter than the (shall remain nameless) machine we previously used, which created such a racket it was known to pause the occasional meeting.
The verdict: Overall, is the De’Longhi Magnifica Evo Next worth it?
Absolutely. This is a foolproof way to get barista-grade coffee at home or in the office. Once you find your perfect settings, just set and forget using your personal profile – no need to worry if your favourite barista is on shift.
Of course, in an office, the cost per use is really quite minimal. But even at home, with café coffees now around $6 a pop, making one coffee a day means you’ve earned your money back in about six months.
And if you’re only drinking one coffee a day… more power to you.
Where to buy De’Longhi Magnifica Evo Next?
The De’Longhi Magnifica Evo Next retails for $1449, but Your Home and Garden readers can exclusively purchase the machine for $999! Head to the De’Longhi website and enter the code ‘YHG999’ at checkout.
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