Jura F90 Review

Overall Rating

Perfect coffee just the way you like it. A very stylish machine.

Awesomely expensive.

The Swiss made Jura F90 coffee & espresso machine is that rarity, a complex piece of kit that is beautifully simple to use. Its sleek silver and black lines look stylish without being obtrusive, and would fit in with most designs of kitchen. On one side is a reservoir, into which you put tap water. On the other side, a hopper for coffee beans. On top, a hatch for ground coffee, if you want to alternate between caffeinated and decaff. Press a button, out comes perfect coffee, with excellent cream. One can adjust the grind of the coffee, the strength of the brew, the temperature of the water, and the cup size dispensed, and the machine then treats this as the default until adjusted again. The reservoir, which is large and easy to refill, has a place for a filter cartridge, which stops the machine scaling up and improves the taste of the coffee. Filters cost around £10 and last a couple of months. The F90 has a nozzle which dispenses steam or hot water for instant drinks, and to froth milk for cappuccino. The clean lines of the machine illustrate its excellent design - it's easy to empty and wash - a pull-out drip tray houses a dish for used grounds, which just lifts out and can be tipped into the bin.

The foolproof aspect of it is that the machine display tells you when you need to change the filter, empty the drip tray or grounds, and even when you need to clean or descale it. Cleaning is just a matter of dropping a special tablet in and following on-screen prompts. If you use the filter cartridges it doesn't even need descaling. The machine even has an internet port (I am not kidding) for extra fancy personalisation.

The only downsides of this machine are that if you are making coffee for a large number of people one has to make it a cup at a time, that the default coffee temperature is optimal for black coffee drinkers - otherwise it's best to heat the milk - and that the F90 costs around £950. (it was £800 when we got ours 3 years ago). On the other hand, this machine is like a genie which quickly hands you perfect coffee, no mess, no fuss, whenever you want it.