Jura ENA 8 coffee machine review

Automatic coffee machines are a great investment both for the sake of convenience and for saving money long term. However, for those of us who tend to be a little snobby with our coffee, it is hard to find a machine that delivers the same coffee experience as nipping down to your favourite cafe.

Enter the Jura ENA 8. A simple, one-cup machine, the ENA 8 not only offers freshly ground coffee with the touch of a screen, it also allows you complete control over both the strength of your coffee and the volume of milk released. The result? A coffee made to please even the fussiest of caffeine addicts.

What would you like to know?

How does it work?

The Jura ENA 8 is simple enough to use, simply turn it on and pop the receptacle underneath the spout while the machine completes an automatic rinse and it's ready to go. All selections are made from the touch screen, making it easy to scroll through the coffee options, make your pick and then adjust both the coffee strength and milk volume accordingly.

The ENA 8 regularly displays messages on screen asking you to fill the water tank, empty the grounds and drip trays and complete cleaning processes, making proper maintenance a breeze too.

The Signature model also comes with a Bluetooth Smart Connect module which enables your Android or iOS device to wirelessly operate and program the machine with J.O.E. (Jura Operating Experience). I didn't have the opportunity to trial this particular model, though I can imagine that making coffee from the comfort of your bed would be quite a nifty feature.

Why you'll love it

I don't have a huge amount of bench space, meaning that capsule machines are typically the only ones that can fit comfortably in my kitchen. Measuring at 27.1cm wide, 32.3cm high and 44.5cm deep, though, the ENA 8 actually fit quite snugly into my kitchen corner. With the touch-activated TFT colour display giving easy access to 10 coffee types that are ground, not capsuled, I also felt as though I got a cafe-like experience without ever even having to change out of my pyjamas.

As another bonus, the ENA 8 also offers complete control over your coffee preferences. After selecting your coffee type, five coffee beans appear on screen, indicating the strength of the coffee it's about to make. When they appear, you can simply touch the screen to decrease or increase the strength to suit your personal preference. If you have selected a coffee that requires milk, you will also be given the option to increase or decrease the milk volume deployed. These features helped me to make a coffee that suited my personal preferences enough that I actually stopped buying my coffee every day, which was a huge sigh of relief for my bank account.

Like all Jura models, the ENA 8 also features energy-saving modes to help reduce the environmental impact of your caffeine habit, which I also thought was a nice addition. These functions include the standard Energy Saving Mode, programmable switch-off time and a Zero Energy power switch.

Finally, I found that the sleek aesthetic of the Nordic White model easily fit into my kitchen decor as it isn't especially attention-grabbing. You can also choose from Metropolitan Black or Sunset Red for the standard version or a solid aluminium for the Signature model, if those hues are more your style.

Any downsides?

Aside from only being able to make one cup of coffee at a time, my biggest gripe with the ENA 8 probably came down to my own laziness. The coffee machine prompts you to clean it every time you hit the off button which, while probably not much different from most on the market, did take away from the convenience of having a machine in the first place.

As well as emptying the coffee grounds container, rinsing the drip tray and rinsing the water tank, the ENA 8 also prompts you to clean the milk system every time you turn it off. This requires you to add cleaner to the receptacle, fill it up with water, place it under the dual spout and connect the milk pipe. Once it has completed its first rinse (which takes several minutes), you must then refill the receptacle with fresh water, reconnect the milk pipe and wait for it to rinse again.

While I am a self-confessed clean freak and am grateful for the machine's valiant attempts at guarding me from day-old milk chunks, the entire process is a little tiring to complete after every cup of coffee. In all fairness, you can opt to skip the majority of the cleaning process when turning the machine off and simply leave the receptacle underneath the spout as it automatically completes a quick rinse. In this sense, you can actually get away with making several cups a day and just complete the cleaning process each night to no real consequence.

My only other issue with ENA 8 is the water tank is a little on the small side, meaning that prompts to refill it were more often than I would have liked. But overall, this was not a big deal.

Pricing and affordability

Automatic coffee machines that use beans rather than pods are never going to come cheap. However, at $1,899, the ENA 8 is definitely a pricey option compared to other one-cup machines on the market.

If like me, though, you struggle to face the day without picking up a good old cup of joe, the ENA 8 is a pretty great investment. Given that the average price of a regular cup of coffee in Australia is around $3.50, a coffee a day will see you fork out approximately $1,277.50 per year. Suddenly, that one-time purchase of $1,899 doesn't seem quite so expensive. In fact, after a year, it will have almost paid for itself (minus the coffee bean and cleaner cost) and will continue to save you money every year after.

If the cost is too high though, there are plenty of cheaper options on the market if you're willing to forego fancy technology and extra features.

The verdict

As someone who is basically unable to function without a shot of caffeine to the system each morning, I consider a quality automatic coffee machine to be a worthwhile investment. The ENA 8 certainly falls under that category, thanks to its control capabilities over my coffee preferences with the touch of a screen. I especially appreciated the ability to choose the strength and volume of milk during the process, as it allowed me to make coffee that was good enough to stop splashing money on a barista-made brew.

While the cleaning process is a little cumbersome and the price range a little high, it is still a worthwhile investment for those who drink coffee regularly and are particular about how they like it.

Where you can buy it

You can buy the Jura ENA 8 coffee machine range at David Jones, Betta Home Living and Bing Lee, among other stores. The standard models retail for $1,899, while the signature model with Bluetooth capability will set you back $2,699.

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