De’Longhi TrueBrew Review

By Mike Szostech Last updated August, 2023

We were provided a sample of the TrueBrew for this De’Longhi all in one coffee maker review. At the time of publication, the machine was available for $599.

Who doesn’t like the idea of making a morning coffee with only the touch of a button? It’s possible with this De’longhi TrueBrew fully automatic drip coffee maker. There’s nothing quite like the aroma of freshly ground coffee beans and fresh brewed coffee (not to mention the slightly startling noise of a coffee grinder) to wake you up in the morning!

TrueBrew Review Quick Summary

In short, we love it! This is a great automatic coffee machine that does it all for you, with just the press of a button. From grinding the beans and brewing the coffee, to cleaning up with simply dumping and rinsing the compost bin, this is as easy as at-home coffee making gets.

We were impressed by the flavor of coffee and the crema that came out with the espresso shot, and there were even some cool memory features that seemed to remember our daily coffee habits. However, cleanup isn’t quite as easy as it’s touted to be as sometimes there are grounds and water that escape the catch bins. Read more about our findings below.

The TrueBrew coffee maker is new offering in 2023 from the long-time De’Longhi company. Based in Treviso, Italy (the country where espresso was invented), what better place to design and build high quality coffee makers? Plus every time I sit down to sip my coffee I feel like Brad Pitt – after all, he’s the official spokesperson for the brand and is featured in the TrueBrew commercial.

Unboxing the De’Longhi TrueBrew

Unboxing and setup is pretty simple. This is a big machine that comes in a big box, so you’ll need a good chunk of counter space for the unit. The coffee machine is a little heavy, but it’s as simple as lifting it out of the box, unwrapping the packaging material, and plugging it in.

De’Longhi provides you with a quick start guide for the TrueBrew coffee maker. In it, they lay out instructions for the first use. After removing all stickers, clean all accessories with warm water and mild detergent, and dry them.

Once the pieces of the machine are clean, connect the machine to a power outlet. The water tank warning light should be on, and the brew button will blink. Add water up to the maximum level in the water tank, and place a container under the coffee spout that can hold at least 7 ounces of hot water. Next, press the brew button.

After it’s run through the cycles, you can set the time by pressings the settings button. The AM light will turn on, and then press the scroll button (little arrows in a circle) and the settings button (the gear) to select the hours and minutes.

That’s it! You’re now ready to load up some beans and brew your first coffee!

How does it make the coffee?

The TrueBrew drip coffee maker uses a proprietary Bean Extract technology and automatically grinds, doses, and brews each cup with “precision and satisfying perfection”. The grinder is a built-in conical burr grinder to produce repeatable and predictable results each time you push a button to request your freshly brewed cup.

Based on the presets you select, the machine automatically grinds the correct dosage of coffee, and then drips hot water through it until the desired coffee size is reached. There are 6 different brew sizes, but in our testing we found that the amount of coffee ground each time is basically the same. This resulted in stronger coffee the smaller the brew size that was selected.

For cleanup, the machine automatically moves and tips the portafilter-style brewing area to sweep the grounds off and rinses it with fresh water, cleaning it in preparation for your next cup. When the compost bucket is full, the machine signals you to pull out and dump the compost bin. De’Longhi compares the ease of this system to the messy and wasteful cleanup of plastic pods or filters.

De’Longhi TrueBrew Review – We love it!

Our first impressions were that this machine makes good coffee. After a while of using the machine, we realized that our first impressions are still correct! The TrueBrew makes good coffee.

As we’ve used the machine daily to make our morning coffees, and then again later in the day to make decaf coffees from coffee grounds (via the pre-ground coffee funnel), we’ve never had a bad coffee.

We’ve even noticed some interesting features of the machine. For example, after making an ice coffee in the afternoon, when I turned the machine on the next morning I expected the TrueBrew to still have the ice coffee option selected. Instead, it defaulted back to my morning coffee settings!

The TrueBrew really does make great tasting coffee, but if you’re a weak-coffee lover, be warned that even the ‘light’ setting might be too strong for you. We wouldn’t say the coffee is any stronger than what you’d get at Tim Horton’s or Starbucks or McDonald’s, it’s just that in our experience people typically make weaker drip coffee at home then the coffee you buy at a coffee shop.

For our personal tastes, even the ‘light’ coffee strength setting was too bold for us using our typical morning beans. This is probably because I have been in the habit of making a large weak pot of coffee to help me justify the fact that I drink 3 or 4 cups before breakfast time!

We decided to look into how many grounds were used to make the coffeee so we made a coffee in each of the different settings and then weighed the grounds in the compost bin. While this isn’t a great measurement (because the grounds were wet), it did allow us to compare the relative strength of the different coffee sizes.

Coffee Size	Strength Setting	Coffee Grounds Weight	Amount of water used in cleaning process
16 oz	light	34 grams	41 ml
12 oz	light	31 grams	23 ml
8 oz	light	20 grams	16 ml

What we don’t like about the De’Longhi TrueBrew

The grinder is loud. I guess we expected this, as burr grinders typically make a fair amount of noise. And, in reality, it’s quieter than our other standalone coffee grinder. It’s just that we’re used to grinding the night before and pre-loading our drip coffee maker, so the built-in burr grinder seems quite startling in our early morning grogginess. The grinder does seem to be a less abrupt noise and it doesn’t wake up my kids upstairs so it’s something I can live with (it does freak out the cat though!).

The side water reservoir on the TrueBrew isn’t very big. Since the machine uses water to make the coffee as well as clean and purge the coffee infuser, the water doesn’t last more than 4 or 5 coffees. That means you’re refilling the reservoir more often, but it also means the water will be fresh. We also found that the reservoir lid seems to have a magnetic desire to fall into the water rather than sit on top. After dropping it in once or twice, I’m more careful and it doesn’t happen anymore.

The self-cleaning infuser and then the easy-to-empty compost bin is a pretty cool setup. We did find that coffee grinds don’t all fall into the hopper every time, and some spill over the edge. The same goes with the water that is used to clean the infuser head. When we pull out the tray to empty the bins, there is often coffee grounds and water beside the bins which sometimes runs out of the machine onto the counter.

Overall, cleaning the TrueBrew coffee maker is still really quick and simple – even if we have to wipe the counter every once and a while. We just dump the coffee pucks into the compost bin, rinse out the flushing container, wipe the counter, and the machine is ready to go for more coffee enjoyment.

De’Longhi TrueBrew Specifications

On the DeLonghi website, the technical data listed says that the machine can hold 1.8 liters of water, and hold 250 grams of coffee beans.

• Dimensions (width x depht x height): 393mm X 305 mm X 406mm
• Rated voltage/Frequency (V~Hz)120~60
• Input power (W)1500
• Coffee maker weight: 8.64 kg
• Water container capacity: 1.8 liters
• Bean Container Capacity: 250 grams
• Pre-grounds Container Capacity: 26 grams

The TrueBrew coffee maker is highly customizable and can make coffees in 3 different temperature levels, 6 different coffee sizes (8 oz, 12 oz, 16 oz, 24 oz, and 3 oz espresso) CONFIRM, and 5 different coffee styles: light, gold, bold, over ice, and espresso style.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is DeLonghi?

Founded in 1902 by the De'Longhi family, they started out producing heaters and air conditioners, the company now makes products for nearly every category of small appliances. It's under the same parent company that makes Braun branded small appliances and owns the NutriBullet brand. As a publicly traded company on the Italian stock exchange, they release earnings reports. Total earnings for 2022 was approximately 3.16 billion euros.

Is a DeLonghi coffee maker worth it?

DeLonghi has a reputation for making reasonably priced and well-made prodcts. Their coffee machines are built for ease of use, and made to produce great tasting coffee each and every time.

Does the TrueBrew make good espresso?

While the machine has 6 different coffee settings, it actually makes a pretty good espresso. The infuser head seems to provide sufficient pressure to the ground beans to even provide a good amount of crema on top!

Who manufactures De'Longhi?

De'Longhi S.p.A. (Italian pronunciation: [deˈloŋɡi]; stylized as DēLonghi) is an Italian small appliance manufacturer based in Treviso, Italy. They started in 1902, and coffee machines are still the heart of the brand.

When was the DeLonghi TrueBrew released?

DeLonghi released the TrueBrew automatic coffee machine in 2023.