I Spent £1.5K A Year On Takeaway Coffee – Then This Machine Changed Everything
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I've managed to kick social smoking for good. Lately, you're lucky if I have more than a couple of drinks a week. This year, after 25 years, I quit biting my nails.
But if there's one thing I sure as hell will not give up, it's coffee.
My coffee habit, specifically takeaway cups, was one that snuck quietly into my life when I got my dog four years ago.
Grabbing a £3.90 latte (yikes) every morning from the indie coffee shop I walk past on my dog walk just made sense. Early morning + tired = not very nice.
Add a coffee into the mix and the result is... WOW I FEEL BETTER.
But then, if I pop out to the shops at lunch or to an appointment – or even just to the nearest postage lockers to send a couple of Vinted parcels – well... if I'm at the main street, where's the harm in grabbing another coffee? It's from a different coffee shop so I'm supporting two local businesses that day. Well done me.
And then my bloody Year In Monzo landed and the data it sent me had me hyperventilating. I'd spent how much on takeaway coffees?! I'm a single-income household so needless to say, £1.5k a year on takeaway coffee is, quite frankly, outrageous. Here's me ranting about how ridiculous the idea that millennials can't buy houses because of avocado toast is, while being this much of a hypocrite. My working class roots are appalled.
As if they'd heard my screams from afar, an incredibly well timed email landed in my inbox from De'Longhi, asking if I'd like to review one of their bean to cup coffee machines.
Now, here's the kicker (which makes my spending habits all the more embarrassing). I've had a coffee machine at home all along. I know, I know – but the coffee has never quite hit like one made from a proper machine (mine was a cheapy bought in a Black Friday sale on Amazon many moons ago and was on its last legs). I've tried pod machine coffees, too, in the past, but I need a coffee that's so strong it makes me taste colours.
Enter the De'Longhi La Specialista Touch – a new manual coffee machine with a touch screen, combining convenience (because honestly 99% of my issue is laziness) with coffee craft.
Alongside making you feel like you live in the future, the La Specialista Touch machine has a 3.5-inch touchscreen that guides you through every step of your coffee making, from selecting the perfect grind to mastering milk textures for what they promise are 'cafe-quality results'.
The machine shows you how to adjust for your beans with 15 grind settings (all done automatically) and three different brewing temperatures. Now, I'm terrible when it comes to tech and it couldn't have been more straightforward. The machine effectively susses out what your beans need and just... applies it.
You can manually heat your milk to your liking with the steam wand, or you can choose the type of milk texture you'd like and it'll do it automatically.
To make things even easier (at this point I was expecting a hand to come out the machine and pour the coffee down my throat for me, things were so convenient), there are also pre-programmed coffees (latte, cappuccino, etc) that you can simply select and make.
The machine is De'Longhi's smallest bean to cup appliance, slotting neatly onto any kitchen counter at 445mm x 380mm x 370mm.
As for the coffee itself? It's nigh impossible to tell the difference between that and my local – and I can still support them by buying my beans from there.
Although a coffee machine is a pricey purchase, the math absolutely maths. When you figure out how much a coffee costs out and then figure out your spending habit – a one-off purchase that'll last you for years is well worth the savings in the long run.
And if I'm making them at home I can have three a day! Right? Anyone?
De'Longhi
£599 (Was £699)
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