Elite Beyond Recognition: De’Longhi Prima Donna

You don’t need it, and damn sure can’t afford it. While you gaze upon the showcase here, you can hear your checkbook crying wherever it is — that’s for sure. We don’t care. We’re just waving flashy stuff around that we can’t afford either. Welcome to your tour of the unnecessary and elite.

A $4,000 coffee maker? Damn straight. The Prima Donna is a home espresso machine, taking all of the complicated parts of making the perfect cup of espresso and stuffing them inside the machine, so that you don’t have to deal with them.

For many people, coffee is a major part of their daily ritual, so investing in a high quality machine might be worth it to them. But it would probably be cheaper just to get Starbucks for a few years than it would be to buy the Prima Donna.

According to the Amazon page for the machine:

All aspects of a typical professional pump espresso machine…are found working inside the PrimaDonna, De’Longhi has simply redesigned, compacted and hidden them inside the machine. Instead of grappling with filter holders and fiddly cappuccino steam pipes, PrimaDonna expertly performs all of these functions at the touch of a single button.

There are probably plenty of people who are willing to pay good money in order to have a one-touch espresso machine, but few can actually afford it. This machine had better make some damn good espresso too, since it costs so much. Almost all of the reviews on Amazon and a few others from around the web are positive, so maybe this is the first time a product featured in this column is actually worth the money?

It’s possible, but it doesn’t seem to do anything special. It just seems to be able to make really good coffee.