Jura Impressa A9 One Touch Review

Touch Screen Display

On the A9, instead of buttons, drinks are selected using a color touchscreen display. It’s like smartphone control of your own personal cafe. So you or your guests make a drink by pressing a picture of it. Not quite “Hey Siri... make me a cappuccino” but almost as good. The pictures are very helpful when entertaining at home or in business settings. It’s a perfect conference room machine. Drink names can be a little confusing for the uninitiated but with this machine even an espresso newbie can walk right up and select their drink by picture. Speaking of business environments, this machine fits right in with a sleek and modern design. A good fit for boardrooms to upscale homes with the high-gloss piano black finish on the front panel. Beyond selecting drinks, the touchscreen provides other information and control. It lets you know when it’s time to empty the drip tray and add beans or water. And, it gives access to various cleaning cycles, maintenance items and power saving settings.

Brewing on the Jura A9

So let’s talk the basics. The A9 is a bean to cup machine. From intense ristretto to espresso and regular coffee, beans are ground fresh right before brewing. The revolutionary Aroma+ grinder uses high quality conical burrs engineered to grind fast. The grinder is adjustable to match the bean type, roast level and beverage being made. Typically, you’d set it finer for espresso and coarser for longer coffees. Up top there’s a bypass doser for pre-ground coffee. Most people will keep some pre-ground decaf around for guests who prefer that. After a specialty coffee is selected and during grinding you can change the coffee strength by touching the display. The next time you prepare the same product, that strength setting is used. During preparation you can change the amount brewed using the arrows on the touch screen. That affects only the volume brewed for that cup and is not saved. To permanently change the amount brewed, press and hold a drink for about 2 seconds until “Enough Coffee?” appears. Once you have the amount you want touch “Save” and it’s stored for that beverage. Following coffee brewing, spent grounds are ejected into an internal box which sits on top of a large drip tray. The box has a capacity to hold the grounds from about 10 brewing cycles. The 37 ounce water tank has the capacity for at least 15 espressos. But for heavy use situations, you’ll want the A9 near a water source for easy refilling. As for maintenance, Jura makes it easier than most. Use the included water filter and no descaling is required. The machine performs automatic rinsing of coffee and milk circuits. Now Jura does suggest hand cleaning of internal milk components after use for best performance.

Milk Based Drinks

Where the Impressa A9 really shines is with milk based drinks. The machines height adjustable dual spouts go from 2.2 inches for espresso cups up to 5.4 inches for taller latte glasses. For milk, the A9 uses a pick-up tube system. Now you can just place the tube into a milk container, but we suggest either Jura’s optional thermal milk container or their cool control milk cooler. Cold milk produces better froth, and it should be kept chilled for sanitary reasons as well. The thermal container works with double insulation and is good for a few hours while the cool control is refrigerated so it keeps milk cold indefinitely. Milk is frothed using Jura’s state-of-the-art fine foam technology. It’s silky, rich and heated to a proper temperature which enhances milk’s sweetness and final beverage quality. Place a glass and touch the screen for a cappuccino or a latte and that’s it. Milk is frothed into your glass. For latte macchiattos, a short programmable delay between milk and coffee results in a beautiful layered drink. Just like coffee only beverages, milk-based drink sizes are programmable. Touch and hold, when you’ve got the amount of milk you want touch save. Do the same for the espresso and your drink is programmed. Now when you want it a little stronger, there are doppio versions of the milk drinks on the menu which double up the amount of espresso in each. After making a milk based drink another can be made immediately. Or, if it’s going to be a little while, a short rinse can be started right from the touchscreen to keep things clean. So overall, what could be easier? Anyone can walk up, place a glass and select a drink by picture - with no cafe experience needed. Just set out cups appropriate for the drinks and you’re ready to go. Paired up with one of Jura’s milk containers, there’s no messing around, always ready to go for hours of entertaining or a long business meeting. Sleek, modern and so easy to use, that’s the Jura Impressa A9.