DeLonghi Prima Donna ESAM 6900M Review

DeLonghi has been in the appliance game for decades, making it one of the longest standing brands to sell retail coffee machines worldwide. As with any product development, including the likes of features such as P.E.P from Jura, we see minor, yet far-reaching enhancements coming to light on modern coffee machines.

The DeLonghi Prima Donna 6900M is one of those machines, and wesp’ll be reviewing every aspect of it.

DeLonghi Prima Donna ESAM 6900M

What a mouth full! DeLonghi does not mess around when it comes to naming their machines. As we mentioned in the introduction of our video review of the 6900M, ensure you have the full name of the machine before doing nay further research on it’ some websites only list the numerical model (e.g. – 6900M), whilst others only use the model name (e.g. – ESAM 6900).

The ESAM 6900M is a beautiful looking coffee machine and would be excellently suited to any home or small office which needs to have the following criteria met:

Fresh milk and freshly ground bean to cup solution
– Easy to sue and easy to maintain; this is evident in the colour display of the ESAM 6900M. Pre-selected buttons make first time user experience a breeze, and the self-cleaning milk circuit patented to DeLonghi make maintenance – especially with milk – a pleasure to deal with.

There are 5 self-explanatory drunk-selection buttons, and another 8 “functional” buttons; these 8 functional buttons use pictures to depict their purpose:

One the left side of the screen, two coffee beans are shown. This is used to adjust your coffee strength from mild to strong. Another button to the left depicts one half-full cup, and another slightly fuller cup – indicating the ability of the user to adjust water amounts per cup.
The square-shaped functional buttons located on the left and right sides of the screen display are “dispensing adjustment” buttons- which are used to stop the dispensing of either milk, water or coffee into your cup.
To the right side of the colour display screen we find two more images – one of a single coffee cup and another of two coffee cups side by side. This allows the user to choose whether the machine dispenses a single or a double of their desired drink.

The brushed chrome finishings lend an aire of build quality assurance and a modern appeal; the built-in milk carafe has a window level;-indicator, to make sure you never accidentally brew a latter without sufficient milk present.

The technical specifications of the ESAM 6900M include a 1.4l water tank and a 250g bean hopper – again gearing it for suitability towards a home or small office space.

So, apart from its looks and ease of use, what sets this machine apart?

It has a dedicated hot chocolate jug.

Yes, you read that right, please remain calm and seated! Bean to Cup coffee machines have always had this one major shortfall in that they cannot make hot chocolate. Well, this one can!

How does this work? Watch the video here.

It’s quite easy; firstly – it is an entirely separate jug – it is NOT your milk carafe. The spout is located inside the jig; the pipe sand mixer needs to be inserted into your jug before any milk or chocolate powder is added.

Once the stirrer and pipe are attached, add the desired amount of milk to your chocolate jug, and then the chocolate powder. Please, never ever use solid chocolate or chocolate syrup inside this device as it can and WILL severely damage your precious Prima Donna!

Once you’ve added your ingredients, attach the lid and insert the jig where your milk carafe would normally go. Press in your “Hot Chocolate” button and play around with the consistency settings, by using the adjustment buttons we previously spoke about. Pressing the “Hot Chocolate” button again will now begin the dispensing process of your favourite Winter drink.

Having said all this, this machine sounds like a magical and mythical hot chocolate and fresh bean coffee dispensing portal, but it might actually be a bad idea to invest in one if you say yes to any of the below:

You are a large office (this machine does not have capacity to cater more than about 20 cups per day safely and comfortable).
You prefer your plain coffee drinks; too many features of the ESAM 6900M would go to waste while you could simply get a simpler, cheaper and less feature-filled machine for a lower cost.
You are looking to save money. Bean to cup machines are already a rather costly coffee solution when compared to other types, like Instant Vending or Drip Coffee Makers. Adding a whole new hot chocolate feature will surely sky-rocket your monthly coffee spend if you introduce this machine into a budget conscious environment.