Perhaps you are like me and like your coffee strong. The factory setting of your Delonghi coffee machine is just not enough. Or you don’t know how to make your coffee stronger with a manual Delonghi espresso machine.
In this article, you’ll learn all about how to make your coffee stronger with a DeLonghi machine.
How To Make Delonghi Coffee Stronger?
You can make your DeLonghi coffee stronger by brewing your coffee with more ground coffee and less water. What can also help is to use a finer grind and a different roast.
Now, let’s dive deeper and explain exactly how to do those things.
How To Make Coffee Stronger With Delonghi Automatic Espresso Machines?
The following few tips are mostly only applicable to automatic espresso machines models like the Magnifica, Maestosa, Dinamica, Eletta, and PrimaDonna.
With the automatic Delonghi espresso machine models, there are a few things you can do to make your coffee stronger.
Change The Coffee And Water Dose
The amount of coffee and water you use has the most effect on the strength of your coffee. This is called the ratio. More ground coffee and less water equal stronger coffee.
How to Change The Coffee And Water Dose On The Delonghi Magnifica:
- To increase the coffee dose, simply turn the dial in the middle of the machine clockwise.
- To Change the water dose, First put a cup on the tray.
- Hold down the button of your preferred drink until the quantity light flashes (the light with a little spoon as an icon) and it starts brewing a coffee.
- Press the same button again when your preferred amount is reached, to memorize the new amount.
How to Change The Coffee And Water Dose On The Delonghi Dinamica:
- Go to the settings menu and press “Customize profile”.
- To change the quantity of coffee used, press the coffee bean icon. If you want a stronger coffee change the setting to one step more.
- To change the quantity of water used, press the coffee cup icon. If you want a stronger coffee change the setting to one step less.
How to Change The Coffee And Water Dose On The Delonghi Maestosa:
- Press the “+” below your favorite drink.
- Change the “Quantity” to one step lower than the current level. So the machine uses a bit less water.
- Change the “Aroma” to one step higher than the current level. So the machine uses a bit more ground coffee.
You can play around with these settings until you find the setting that you like.
Adjust The Grind Size Setting
By changing the grind size on the automatic Delonghi espresso machines to a finer setting, the water flows through the coffee more slowly, resulting in more extraction and thus a stronger-tasting coffee.
How To Adjust the Grind Size Setting On The DeLonghi Magnifica, Dinamica, and Eletta:
With the DeLonghi Magnifica, Dinamica, and Eletta, there is a grind-size dial inside the coffee beans container. To change this dial you want to:
- Press the brew button.
- While the machine is brewing a coffee, turn the dial anti-clockwise.
- Setting 1 is the finest grind and setting 7 is the most coarse grind.
- Try out a different setting until your preferred taste.
How To Adjust the Grind Size Setting On The DeLonghi Maestosa:
With the DeLonghi Maestosa, changing the grind setting is a bit different from the other models.
- Go to “Machine Settings”
- Then go to “Adjust Mill”
- You can change the grind size from 1 to 6.
- Setting 1 is the finest grind and setting 6 is the most coarse grind.
Use a Different Roast
You can buy K-cups with a variety of roasts. Usually the darker the roast the stronger the taste of the coffee you get.
- Light roast: It tastes more acidic and contains the highest amount of caffeine.
- Medium roast: Tastes well-rounded.
- Dark roast: Tastes the most intense and strong but contains the least amount of caffeine.
I recommend buying a Coffee Beans Variety Pack, to figure out which coffee roast you like best.
How To Make Coffee Stronger With DeLonghi Manual Espresso Machines?
The next few tips are mostly only applicable to manual espresso machines models like the Dedica, Icona, Stilosa, and La Specialista.
Use More Ground Coffee And Less Water
Using too little ground coffee can cause the water to flow through the portafilter too quickly, resulting in a sour espresso. Using too much ground coffee can cause the water to flow through the portafilter too slowly, resulting in an espresso that is too bitter.
You should try a few different ratios to find out what you like best. But if you find that the coffee tastes watery and sour, you should probably use a little more ground coffee and less water.
Use a Finer Grind Size
If the coffee grind size is too coarse the water can run through easily, so your machine doesn’t have to use a lot of pressure and you won’t get a good shot of espresso.
When using ground size to coarse the espresso pours too fast and you get an espresso with a lot of crema on it but it won’t be a strong espresso and it will likely be very sour.
A good analogy is to think about it like sand and rocks. If you have a bucket of big rocks and you pour water on it, the water will flow right through.
But if you have a bucket of sand and you pour water on it the water will just sit on top of the sand. It would take a lot of pressure to get the water through.
Tamp The Coffee In Portafilter
When you tamp the coffee firmly, the water can’t flow through it as easily, resulting in a longer extraction time, thus a stronger-tasting coffee.
Make sure you use evenly ground coffee. If there are coffee particles of different sizes, you can tamp as much as you want, but the water will just find the path of least resistance. Resulting in under-extracted coffee.
To get evenly ground coffee you need to use an espresso coffee grinder.
Use a Pressurised Basket
A pressurized basket restricts the water flow a little more. With a pressurized basket, coffee grind size and tamping are not as important.
You have a little more room for error to still make a good espresso, even if you didn’t tamp or use the right grind.
A downside of using a pressurized basket is that your machine can choke on it faster, resulting in no coffee coming out.
Change The Temperature Setting
A good rule of thumb is, that the higher the temperature of the water the more flavor it will extract from the coffee. This also means that the espresso will taste less sour and more bitter/strong.
Here is how you change the temperature on the DeLonghi Dedica:
You can do this by holding the steam button for 10 seconds until the buttons blink in sequence. Then press the one-shot button once, and the buttons will blink in sequence again. Now you can change the temperature by pressing one of the three buttons.
Single shot button = low temperature
Double shot button = medium temperature
Steam button = high temperature
When you press one of the buttons it will flash, indicating that the temperature setting has been saved.
Pre-Heat Your Coffee Cup
Another easy hack to get your coffee just a bit warmer is to preheat your cup. This will also keep your coffee warmer when you’re drinking it.
When I first let the water run through the machine to preheat it, I just put my cup already under it to let that water pre-heat the cup. Then you can throw the water in the sink and brew espresso.
What Is The Best Temperature To Use For An Espresso Shot?
A lot comes down to personal preference when deciding what the best temperature is for you.
Although the ratio between the amount of coffee and water used has the most impact on the flavor of espresso. Just like the water pressure in your Delonghi, the temperature in your machine also has some impact on the taste.
A good rule of thumb is, that the higher the temperature of the water the more flavor it will extract from the coffee.
Most people would therefore like an espresso that is a bit hotter, as it will be a bit stronger that way. But it could also be that the espresso will then be a bit too strong and bitter for your liking.
Depending On The Kind of Roast You Use
A lot of it also comes down to the kind of coffee bean you use. In general, if you use dark roast coffee beans you want the temperature to be anywhere from 185 to 195 degrees Fahrenheit.
For medium-roast coffee beans, I would go somewhere between 190 to 200 degrees. For lighter espresso roasts I would go up to anywhere from 195 to 205 degrees.
Of course, these are all ballpark numbers. You can only figure this out by trying out some different temperatures on your DeLonghi espresso machine.
If your coffee is still not stronger after all these tips, something may be wrong and you need to troubleshoot your DeLonghi machine.
Conclusion
Here are the things you can do to make your DeLonghi coffee stronger in a nutshell:
- Change the coffee-to-water ratio.
- Adjust the grind size setting.
- Use a different roast.
- Tamp the coffee.
- Use a pressurized basket.
- Change the temperature setting.
I hope that this article helped you with making your DeLonghi coffee stronger!
Thanks for reading!