Review - DeLonghi ESAM3300 Magnifica Espresso Machine

Amazing Drinks at the Push of a Button with the DeLonghi ESAM3300 Magnifica

Some people are complete espresso machine geeks. Like my brother. He has to have just the right machine to make a shot of espresso: big and complicated with a lot of dials and knobs sticking out all over it, looking like a cross between a warp engine and an explosion in a pipe fitting factory.

Oh, and it costs a few grand. So, when he came over the other day and I showed him my DeLonghi ESAM3300 Magnifica he was his typical snobby self. “Oh, so it grinds the beans for you? It doesn’t have a removable portafilter?

How …. quaint.” Then I made him a latte. That shut him up.

Smart espresso making with DeLonghi ESAM3300 Magnifica Super-Automatic Espresso maker

is just that good, and comes with:

Removable 60 oz. water tank and 7.1 oz. bean hopper

Instantly reheats

Integrated conical burr grinder

Adjustable height coffee spigots

1150 watts

Cup warming tray

I’m not a morning person. I don’t want to have to fiddle around with grinding and dosing beans when I can barely open my eyes. The DeLonghi ESAM3300 Magnifica understands that about me. The front panel has easy to use controls, so I can simply turn a dial and call forth a tall or a short shot, weak or strong. It adjusts the ratio of coffee to water automatically.

With the Direct-To-Brew system, I get the aroma of fresh coffee in each cup. The burr grinder prepares the beans to just the right grind, so there’s no guesswork involved for me. All the waste and spent grounds are deposited in a removable tray, making clean-up a breeze.

Making foam for the perfect cappuccino is also a snap with the DeLonghi Magnifica. The patented set-up it uses rotates 180 degrees and allows me to use any size pitcher or container to steam milk in. The foam is rich and thick, and fairly easy to produce. Something else my DeLonghi Magnifica has is adjustable height spigots for the coffee. I can set anything from a tall latte mug to small espresso shot cups under it and move the spigot up and down accordingly.

My brother was begrudgingly impressed with another feature of my DeLonghi: it instantly (or so close to “instantly” as to not make a difference) reheats, so I don’t have a lag time between cups of coffee. I made his latte right after I made one for me, and the espresso came out at just the right temperature. I don’t know exactly how the machine does that. Something about it having the most compact boiler on the market and the smallest removable system, I would imagine. That also makes light work of cleaning the machine. I can get all up inside of it and get to areas that my brother has to send his machine away to a specialist to get to.

Speaking of which, my espresso machine also lets me know when it’s time to decalcify it. I wouldn’t wait. Calcium build-up is the enemy of pretty much any espresso machine, as the small diameter pipes and hoses can get clogged up pretty fast. I have had good experiences with it so far, but I have read of people with particularly hard water who ignored the decalcify alert, to their own shame and peril.

So, to sum up: the DeLonghi ESAM3300 Magnifica grinds, doses, adjusts and brews coffee to my exact specifications at the push of a button. It allows me to make perfect cappuccino foam, first time, and every time. Did I mention that it automatically shuts itself off if it hasn’t been used for three hours? And how awesome the little warming tray is? No, well, there it is. Also, it left my brother speechless, which is a miracle in and of itself.