Jura Impressa Z7
Thursday, May 05 2011
I thought it was about time I wrote an article on the Jura Impressa Z7 that has been in the house for a while now.
The machine is beautifully built - Swiss design with hints of commercial ruggedness, this is a home device though, so the drip tray and grounds collection device are aptly sized.
The machine has all the standard elements of a premium super-automatic coffee machine, multiple drinks available at one touch of a button and self-cleaning etc. It does have a few tricks up its sleeve too... The ability to make cappuccino and latte drinks just by pressing a button - it will even steam and froth the milk for you! Another great feature of the Z7 is the ability to adjust the main coffee & milk spout up and down from an espresso size cup to a tall latte macchiato glass.
This is the top of the line home machine range from Jura and it has all their signature features built-in including intelligent preheating, two colour cup illumination (amber for espresso based drinks and white for milk based drinks) and an interactive graphic display from which to configure all of its many functions.
Now importantly - what is the coffee like from it??
It is superb, the drinks are effortlessly easy to prepare, no more fiddling with bean grinders, tamping and generally fussing around. Just press the button and away you go. The espresso is rich and flavoursome - it tamps it and pressing a little water in before pulling the espresso to enhance the flavour, you can select the strength before each cup and set you favorites to individual buttons. It really is customizable to your preferences. The milk frothing offers a dial to select between hot milk and froth. This is the only manual change required when switching between latte and cappuccino. The milk is light and fluffy and perfectly frothed.
This also makes cleaning up a cinch too as it has cleaning cycles to rinse its milk frother, coffee spouts, internal circuits and an intensive cleaning program that is run every few months or so. It will even remind you of when to do each of them with helpful hints and counters to track maintenance progress!
There is only one slight flaw of this great machines ability to deliver fantastic coffee, to enjoy your drinks at their best i find that it is best to preheat your cups to ensure your drink is as hot as you like it. Sometimes, depending on the drink (mainly milk based) if you don't preheat the cup, the coffee can get cold quickly and hamper the flavour. Although preheating of the cups is good practice, I feel I should mention this for completeness. The Z7 does offer temperature settings for both the steamed milk and the espresso coffee if you so desire to change this.
Overall, the machine is great. It looks fantastic in the kitchen, it makes excellent coffee and is easy to clean and live with. If you are looking for a premium super-automatic coffee machine it is definitely worth considering, as long as you don't mind investing the best part of £2K on it... :)