Bean Adapt technology in latest Delonghi PrimaDonna Soul coffee machines Review

Fierce competition between coffee machine manufacturers forces companies to actively develop and implement innovative technologies. Wherein, the rapid development of digital technologies has become an excellent basis for expanding, above all, smart functionality. This trend has dominated all flagships in recent years, including Delonghi ECAM 650, Melitta Caffeo Barista,
Siemens-EQ.9, Jura Z6 Impressa, Philips Saeco Xelsis series, etc.

Additionally, virtually all industry leaders periodically update platforms of their lineups. Of course, Delonghi is among the leaders in this trend. In the summer of 2019, the company introduced its flagship premium DeLonghi EPAM 960.75. GLM Maestosa on a new platform.

Unfortunately, the price of around $ 5,000 has severely limited its popularity. But a year later, the company introduced its budget version Delonghi PrimaDonna Soul on a similar platform, complementing the new series of innovative Bean Adapt technology.

Bean Adapt technology

New Bean Adapt technology automatically adapts the grinding, dose and temperature parameters based on the specific coffee type.

In PrimaDonna Soul the Bean Adapt system switches grain profiles using a button on the screen. But creating and editing them requires the Delonghi Coffee Link app.

The coffee machine supports up to 6 grain profiles. Of course, the coffee machine must be connected to a Wi-Fi access point with a working Internet connection, for example, via AWS (Amazon Web Services).

When adding a new bean profile, the app requires information about the type of coffee beans (pure arabica or a mixture with robusta) and their roasting degree (information on the package or visually by color).

For reference, today producers only grow two varieties of coffee, including Arabica and Robusta. Arabica has a rich flavor and aroma. But it’s more expensive. Robusta has a high caffeine content, which provides coffee strength and crema when using an espresso machine. In particular, the caffeine content of Robusta is 2-3 times higher compared to Arabik. Therefore, coffee made from pure robusta is strong, bitter, and does not have a pronounced taste. It’s easy to grow and significantly cheaper.

Today, manufacturers most often offer mixtures of these varieties. For example, classic Italian blends contain 20% Robusta and 80% Arabica.

Moreover, the company supplies a special stand (colorator) with 4 color shades for visual determination of the coffee roast level (“light roasted”, “medium roasted”, “dark roasted” and “medium dark roasted”).

Operation principle

After answering these queries, Bean Adapt sets the optimum grind and temperature settings.

Based on 8 response combinations, Bean Adapt offers two profiles:

– light or medium Arabica or mixture – high temperature, grind “medium roast”. Then the program selects 1, 2 or 3,4, 5, or 6, 7 coffee grinding mode;

– medium dark and dark roasted arabica or mixture – medium temperature, grind “medium roast”.

After this setting, Bean Adapt offers finer customization with Espresso Soul. In this mode, the machine makes 5-6 coffee to fully complete the setting optimization for you coffee beans profile. In fact, Coffee Link provides a customization option in the memory cell of corresponding bean profile.

In this case, Bean Adapt goes into an interactive Quiz (short online survey), offering to launch a reference “Espresso Soul” drink for evaluating the foam color (Nut colour crema, Light and poor crema, Crema too dark). The “I” button activates hints. The second question relates to the espresso taste – watery / weak, balanced, bitter / strong.

As known, in the case of too fine coffee grind, water passes too slowly causing over extraction, and coffee will taste bitter and thin. On the other hand, in case of too coarse coffee grind, water will pass too quickly and coffee will taste flat and weak. Taking these factors into account, Bean Adapt generates 9 final pairs.

Of course, Espresso Soul is much more variable compared to first stage of setup with two profiles. During setup, Bean Adapt lowers / increases the coffee grind level and temperature, optimizing the recipe. Ultimately, the bean profile is perfectly set and further the machine uses these settings. For convenience, each bean profile can be supplied with a name or photo.

Features of using Bean Adapt technology

Probably, the Bean Adapt system can hardly be positioned as a revolution, because it does not change the coffee making process. But it’s really useful for beginners when choosing the optimal grind and temperature. In fact, the company was the first to figure out how to use interactive technology for making coffee, creating something like Delonghi’s Quiz. Considering the development trends of modern consumer electronics, it has excellent prospects. Moreover, Bean Adapt technology is in perfect harmony with the concept of the Delonghi Coffee Lounge project, which is already present in Australia and New Zealand.

Importantly, the Bean Adapt can be easily turned off, which is convenient for experienced coffee lovers who do not need to brew 5 cups of ‘experimental’ coffee to select the grind. In addition, it’s not very convenient when buying every new coffee package. Moreover, any change to the settings in this process will reset the portion counter, and the coffee machine will start counting the next 5 cups. But in general, the technology will speed up the process of teaching the user this simple skill.

Conclusions

In principle, the idea of optimizing the making coffee depending on its type and degree of roast is quite obvious. It directly increases the automation degree, which is the main function of any modern coffee machine. Today Delonghi was the first to implement it. In fact, innovative Bean Adapt technology in latest Delonghi PrimaDonna Soul series provides optimal grinding and brewing parameters to execute the perfect coffee extraction according to the beans you choose. For this purpose, technology uses a short and simple Quiz (short online survey). Maybe this option is not really needed for coffee lovers with a lot of experience using a coffee machine. Perhaps, many will be too lazy to make 5-6 coffee in Espresso Soul mode. But it will be very convenient for many beginners. Either way, Delonghi is setting a new standard for modern espresso machines, and other companies will soon have to develop similar technologies.

Today the DeLonghi PrimaDonna Soul series has great prospects. In fact, it can be positioned as a budget version of the very expensive premium flagship DeLonghi EPAM 960.75. GLM Maestosa, which was presented in the summer of 2019 on a new platform. Given the almost 3-fold difference in price and Bean Adapt technology, PrimaDonna Soul is quite rightly generating huge interest in the consumer market.

This video contains detailed instructions for using Bean Adapt Technology in PrimaDonna Soul ECAM 610.75.MB.