The Impressa E8 is a true mainstay in the Jura Capresso family. Equipped with an LED digital display system, the Impressa E8 grinds, tamps, brews and steams milk for delicious cappuccinos and lattes. The Jura Capresso Impressa E8 has user-friendly programmable buttons that brew from 1 to 16 oz of delicious espresso in seconds. Its Thermoblock boiler allows you to alternate between brewing and steaming thanks to its rapid high-pressure heating system. The Impressa E8 also has a conical burr grinder with 6 settings, dual position frother, pre-infusion system, bypass doser and removable 64 oz water reservoir, making this an ideal super automatic machine for those looking for quality brewed espresso at a reasonable price.
Getting Familiar
On the front of the machine, the brewing control panel is mounted to the left of the silver coffee spouts.
At the top of the control panel is the LED display, which sits above two columns of buttons and one silver dial. In the left column you’ll find the on/off switch as well as your main brewing controls: the one-cup and two-cup brewing buttons, and a liquid volume selection knob. Pressing the one-cup button gives you three levels of coffee strength – press once for mild coffee, twice for normal strength, and three times for a strong result. The liquid volume selection knob also offers a variety of options, allowing you to choose between 1 and 8 oz of output, and when used in conjunction with the 2-cup button, allows for brewing up to 16 oz at a time.
The right column bears buttons that control the hot water and steaming functions, as well as the bypass button and the “P” (programming) button. The “P” button provides one-touch access to 8 system options such as language display, programmable auto shut-off between 30 minutes and 9 hours, and water hardness and filtration setup. This menu and your brewing options are navigated through the use of the liquid selection knob; as you turn it, the options available are cycled through on the LED display. In addition, the knob is also used to control the volume of water (between 1 and 16 oz) and the length of time steam will be emitted from the steam wand (from 3 to 120 seconds). These are released from the machine by turning the steam knob from the upright brewing position to the left steaming/hot water position.
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Getting Ready
The first step on your way to brewing with the Jura E8 is to fill the bean hopper and water reservoir.
Just pour your beans in the hopper and either fill the reservoir in its place, or under the faucet by removing it with the handle tucked just inside the lid. Before brewing with the machine for the first time, you will need to prime it – a process that simply involves opening the steam knob and pulling water through the machine. It will also be necessary to set up your water options after you’ve finished the priming process. If you won’t be using the Clearyl filtration system, you will want to use the included water hardness test strip to test the water you’ll usually be using to brew. The result of this test is entered in the “Hardness” option of the menu system, and indicates to the machine how much water can go through the internal system before it will need to be decalcified. However, if you do decide to use the Clearyl system, you will need to put the filter into the machine and turn on the filter option in the menu options instead.
For the best brewing results, you will also want to preheat your cups using either the passive cup warmer on the top of the machine, or by dispensing hot water into the cup and dumping it before brewing. This may seem like a small step, but temperature so dramatically affects the flavor of espresso that it is rather necessary.
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Making Your Drink
The brewing process starts with the liquid volume selection knob.
Pressing the knob will cause the LED to display the last amount that was dispensed, which can be changed by turning the dial to a different selection. If you’re using the whole beans that are in the bean hopper, the next step in the process is to press either the one-cup button or the two-cup button. The one-cup button features strength option controls that affect the amount of ground coffee that is used in the brewing process. Press the button once for mild, twice for normal, or three times for strong. If you simply hold the button down, it will cycle through these options on the LED display. Just release the button when it reaches your selection and your choice will be confirmed. The two-cup button does not have any strength option, and will automatically grind to the strongest setting. Depending on what drink you’re making, you may also want to adjust the grind fineness on the solid steel conical burr grinder. For instance, Café Crème (Café Crema) is pressure brewed using about 8 oz of water, so it’s necessary to use a coarser grind setting than you would for espresso. Turning the knob toward the smaller dots will result in a finer grind and vice versa. If you’ve got a guest with a craving for something different, or if you’re just in the mood for a decaf drink, you can brew using preground coffee in the bypass doser. Just fill the doser and press the bypass button, which pictures a coffee scoop, before choosing your liquid volume with the selection knob. Then, press either the one or two-cup button, and brewing will begin immediately.
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Topping it Off: Frothing & Steaming
A straight shot of espresso is great, but let’s face it – it’s not for everyone.
So the E8, like all other espresso machines, is equipped with a hot water/steam wand that makes your possibilities endless: cappuccino, latte, macchiato – you name it, you’ve got it. But, there is a little bit of work that needs to be done first, starting with heating the machine up to steaming temperature. To do this, simply press the steam button in the main control panel, and you’ll have about a 15 second wait before the LED display indicates that the machine is ready. The selection dial will light up at this point, and by turning it you can choose length of time you would like steam to be emitted. If you don’t select a different length of time, the machine will default to what you chose the last time you steamed or frothed your milk. Then place your full frothing pitcher under the dual position steam wand and turn the steam knob counter-clockwise to the steam icon. If the frothing attachment is in the up position, it will produce steamed milk, and if it is down the result will be frothed milk. To stop the steam flow at any time, even if you’ve selected a longer time from the menu, simply turn the knob clockwise. If you’d rather have hot water for Americanos, tea, or hot chocolate, you can just open the steam knob while the machine is in brew mode without pressing the steam button.
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Shut Down
Every time the Capresso E8 shuts down, it will run an automatic rinse cycle.
This cycle runs hot water through the machine and afterward, deposits it in the drip tray. The manufacturer cautions not to shut the machine down immediately after brewing because the rinse cycle is more effective when the E8 has had a chance to cool. You can wait for a bit and turn of the machine manually, or you can just walk away since there is an automatic shut off option. This setting is preset from the manufacturer at a 2-hour auto shut off, but it can be adjusted to turn of anytime between a half an hour and 9 hours after you turned it on. You can also turn off the auto shut-off option altogether if you prefer.
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A Word About Care and Maintenance
The LED display will let you know when to perform most maintenance procedures, except for emptying the drip tray and cleaning the frothing wand, both of which should be performed after every use.
(To clean the frothing wand, just reopen the wand after use to expel any milk inside and wipe any off the outside with a damp cloth.) Based on the water hardness level you programmed into the machine upon start up, the machine will calculate when a decalcification cycle should be run and alert you to this on the display. However, decalcification can be avoided altogether by using the Clearyl* Water Filtration system that is included with the Capresso Impressa E8. By placing a Clearyl* filter in the reservoir and turning the filter option on in the menu system, the machine will indicate to you when the filter needs to be changed and not that it needs descaling. The LED display will also let you know when the dump box should be emptied or a cleaning cycle needs to be run. The dump box can be removed from the front of the machine by sliding it out with the drip tray, and a cleaning cycle is as simple as dropping a Jura Cleaning Tablet into the bypass doser and following the directions on the LED display. The E8 will tell you to run a cleaning cycle after roughly 200 drinks are made.
*Please Note—The Clearyl Water Filtration is different from the Claris system and is NOT compatible with Claris water filters. The Clearyl system will reduce water hardness up to 75%, as well as removing large percentages of chlorine, lead, copper and aluminum from you water if they are present.
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