How To Make Better Coffee on Home Espresso Machine: DeLonghi Dedica EC685 Tutorial

Learn how to make coffee at home with the DeLonghi Dedica espresso machine. We will share how to make espresso, steam milk, and latte art for a cappuccino. We start with a simple routine using pre-ground coffee but then move to more advanced barista techniques to brew tasty coffee using specialty coffee beans.

-- FEATURED COFFEE TOOLS --
(When available, we use affiliate links and may earn a commission!)

** OUR SPONSORS **

** STAY IN TOUCH **

Timestamps:
0:00 Better Coffee on Cheap Home Espresso Machine
0:25 DeLonghi Dedica EC685 Overview
1:30 Espresso workflow with pre-ground coffee
2:02 Espresso workflow with specialty coffee
7:38 How to steam milk on DeLonghi Dedica
10:26 Better espresso with bottomless portafilter
12:30 Better latte art and milk steaming
14:26 Final thoughts on DeLonghi Dedica EC685

[EuropeanCoffeeTrip]

Do you make espresso at home? What are your tips for better coffee with cheaper home espresso machines?

[RakanWD]

This was my first espresso maker.
When using naked portafilter with non pressurized basket, and steaming with the rubber wand, and pairing it with a nice grinder,
It gives you amazing lattes, it's so good that I stopped going to coffee shops. Highly recommend the upgrades!

[thefreestylefrEaK]

150 Euro?! I've been wanting an expresso maker lately and was at my local thrift store browsing when the employee brought out a cart of new items and on it was this DeLonghi expresso maker. I was thrilled and snatched it up! It looked brand new and virtually unused. It was complete with handle, tamper, two filters, and steamer. Tested it in-store and it's working! Paid $30 Canadian which translates to about 20 Euro. I'm excited to start making my own expresso and thank you for the tutorial in this video!

[warken]

One thing i've noticed with this machine is if you have a very finely ground coffee compound, you need to ease off on the compressing in the filter basket otherwise the machine struggles with pressure. The thicker the coffee ground, the tighter you can pack it. I love this machine - budget friendly way to make great coffee at home for my wife and I.

[lexy]

I can’t tell you enough how helpful this video was to me as a complete beginner. Excellently explained!!!

[cwilliams]

Wow! I have been using a home espresso machine for a year and I learned more fine detail in this short video than any other I have watched plus I got to learn about the Dedica. I'm off to buy one for camping.

[amincherif]

That moment when you realise his grinder costs more than the machine, coffee, tamper combined 😔

[fapmashina]

We've just ordered this machine and this tutorial will be very helpful to us as the home espresso beginners!
Thanks a lot for the very convinient and easy explanations and advices!

[constantin]

Switching from pre-grinded coffee to grinding it yourself is probably the best and most noticeable coffee taste upgrade. Switching from a $20 french press to whatever espresso machine is less of an upgrade and might not even be necessary, specially if milk frother is not used.

[nirolevy]

I recommend securitng the rubber steam wand with some kind of strap so it wont shoot out while steaming

[memento]

And this is it, I wake up on 5 o'clock and arrived late to work again.
But...what a coffee

[chryseass.]

Just ordered my machine so this video is a straightforward tutorial- thank you!

[KwaddyK]

This helped me make my mind up to purchase this machine. Great video.

[peterjs]

I've used a Dedica for years and it extracts a good coffee. I'm keen to try a non pressurised portafilter.

[ZY]

I was about to buy the Dedica machine, but the notion that to get the most out of it I need accessories that cost much more than the machine itself has made me reconsider.

For the same total price I can get a fully automatic machine by De Longhi, such as the Magnifica Start.

[whoamiy]

As a budget home espresso machine user since the start of the pandemic i have some tips:
1. Most home espresso machine can be upgraded to a non-pressurized basket and you should upgrade it if you have a decent grinder.
2. While you can theoretically pull good looking shots with the non-pressurized basket, most of budget home espresso machine don't have high enough heat to extract coffee properly, so you either need to use darker roast or longer extraction time.
3. If you're planning to buy budget home espresso machine, pay attention to the group head shower screen design, try to find a machine with one screw in the middle (if that makes any sense?) because you could maybe upgrade it to a compatible shower screen like IMS and it's usually better at dispersing water evenly because the water stream gets 'break' before it hits the shower screen, unlike mine that is so bad at dispersing water evenly because the stream of water hits the middle of the shower screen and the pressure is concentrated at the middle of the puck.
4. Always use contact shower screen / puck screen, it helps ALOT in extracting the coffee evenly, although you gotta preheat it first like dipping it in a bowl of hot water, also there's a neat little trick where after you put your puck screen, you pour hotter water to 'pre-infuse' it, maybe it can help raise the initial heat.
5. If im not wrong if you have a steam knob you could potentially control the amount of pressure you're extracting with(?) I haven't tested it because mine doesn't come with a separate steam knob, but i think you do it like when you're extracting, you turn the steam knob a little bit so it can open and release a small amount of pressure while you're pulling a shot, but i honestly don't know cause i read this from a comment in another video.

[hawksights]

Thanks for the tip to use the steam wand without the pipe. It popped off and milk squirted all over the place. I can't recommend this technique unless you want to enjoy your cappuccino outside of your cup

[Chakka_Lakka]

Wow thank you for your advices on this machine !! I was wondering why my coffee was not so tasty. I will follow your advices an look how I can improve my coffee

[HaekalAlchatieb]

Grinder is best investment in coffee equipment 😁👌

[blizzbee]

I would say the EC685 is a decent machine and when u own one, your coffee quality will be as good as your grinder and beans.