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Tom's Guide
12 hours ago
- Business
- Tom's Guide
Jura C8 automatic coffee machine review
Automatic coffee machines are ideal gadgets for time-poor coffee lovers. Some of the best espresso machines are a little too finicky for those who just want to press a button and get a fresh, hot cup of coffee. Luckily, Jura has a whole range of premium automatic coffee machines. The Jura C8 is no different — its £899 price tag surely makes it a premium product. At time of writing, it's not available in the U.S. and there are no concrete plans for it to be released across the pond. Even so, historically, Jura machines have been released in the U.S. around 6 months after the U.K., so we still have hope. However, the Jura C8 is pretty expensive for what it is — it only makes 4 different coffee drinks. If you're a bit of a coffee purist, though, and only want black coffees or cappuccinos, this may not be a concern. Find out the whole info in this Jura C8 automatic coffee machine review. Price £899 Weight 9.5kg Grinder Burr Dimensions 12.8 x 10.2 x 17.2 inches Heating system Thermoblock Pressure 15 bar Water tank capacity 54 ounces / 1.6 liters Accessories Milk pipe At time of writing (June 2025), the Jura C8 is only available in the U.K. and there are no plans for it to come to the U.S.. For U.S. readers, I'd recommend the brand new De'Longhi Rivelia ($1,499) or the reliable classic KitchenAid KF8 ($1,999). In the U.K., the C8 is available for its RRP of £899 at John Lewis, £895 at Coffee Direct, and £769 at Robert Dyas. For a coffee machine that only makes 4 drinks, this is an incredibly steep price. The De'Longhi Rivelia (mentioned above) is just £749 in the U.K. and makes 8 different coffee recipes, with endless customization options — and comes with a milk carafe. I tested the Jura C8 in 'Piano black'. Right now, the machine doesn't seem to come in any other color variations. At a baseline level, the C8 looks great: it has a lovely almost faceted plastic water tank that catches the light beautifully. The ground coffee chute has a magnetic lid that snaps pleasingly into place. The shiny metal drip tray looks modern and attractive. To round it all off, the bean hopper is built into the machine itself so there's no container sticking out of the top. In terms of design practicality, the water tank is 54 fluid ounces (1.6 liters), which, in real terms, meant I only had to refill it about once every 8 drinks and 2 cleaning cycles. Similarly, the grounds drawer is large enough that I only had to empty it about once every 12 drinks. There's also a little dial next to the water tank that reads 'intense' and 'mild'. You can twist this dial to the flavor profile of your choosing: I kept mine on 'mild', the reason for which will soon become clear. As you can see, the C8 has some great design features. However, there are a few things that don't justify its £900 price tag. For starters, the C8 doesn't come with a milk carafe. Jura sells a milk jug for £37 on its website, which is a big ask when the machine itself is £899. In terms of the machine itself, I'm not overly impressed with the screen. Whereas the De'Longhi Rivelia and KitchenAid K8 have interactive, full color touchscreens, the C8 has a dark, analog-looking screen that reminds me of the scientific calculators I used to use at school. You have to press through the menu with buttons that just look way too old to be a competitive product in 2025. I'd like to see a full color touchscreen with graphics of various coffees in future. Just something with a little more pizzazz to justify this £900 price. That's not to say there's no pizzazz, though. The Jura C8 has Wi-Fi connectivity and can link up to your smartphone with the J.O.E app. Yes, my coffee machine has internet. Because why not, right? Sigh. You need to insert the Wi-Fi attachment (it looks like a little white plug) to activate said Wi-Fi. However, my C8 didn't come with the Wi-Fi attachment, so I was unable to test this. You can buy the Wi-Fi attachment for £45 on Jura's website, which I think is a bit of a rip-off. The Jura C8 is an automatic coffee machine. If you're thinking 'What is an automatic coffee machine?', it's basically a coffee machine that makes lattes with just a button press. I'm going to start by saying that automatic coffee machines, by design, cannot make 'technically' perfect espresso. They can't grind, distribute, tap, and tamp like humans, so of course the espresso is going to taste a little different. Here's a photo of an espresso shot made by the Jura C8. This is 45ml of espresso. Unfortunately, as it's a bean-to-cup machine, I have no way of weighing the pre-infusion coffee grounds, so I don't know the ratio of coffee to water. I extracted this on 'mild'. As you can see, the shot looks nicely layered. You can easily discern between the darker heart of the shot and the caramel body and fluffy crema. I used artisanally-roasted Nicaraguan beans for this shot, which usually have a flavor profile of muted chocolate and a subtle hint of spice. However, this shot was incredibly bitter and undrinkable. With milk, though, the espresso was fine. Next, I made myself an oat milk latte macchiato. I'm unsure why the C8 offers a latte macchiato but no latte. A latte macchiato is kind of an upside-down latte, where the espresso goes on top of the milk. A traditional latte has espresso then milk. I experimented with the 'intense' espresso mode next. Again, I pulled 45ml of espresso for this test. As you can see, there isn't much visual difference between the 'mild' and 'intense' espresso shots. However, the second shot tasted much, much more bitter and, yes, intense. This will suit people who like softer or more intense coffee flavors. It's good that there's a variation of espresso flavor, but the overshadowing espresso flavor is just bitter. As I mentioned earlier, the C8 doesn't come with a milk carafe. My sample just came with a silicone-like pipe. I used one of my espresso machine milk jugs to hold the milk during use. There aren't any milk foam settings: it's simply milk. Bizarrely, you can't control the volume of milk used, but just length of time the milk pours for. Here's a photograph of the 'latte macchiato' recipe. As you can see, the milk is quite bubbly. I would say this is too dry for a latte; the milk should be silky smooth like melted ice cream. Conversely, here's a photograph of the 'cappuccino' recipe. The milk is almost identical to the latte macchiato milk. While there's nothing inherently wrong about this, there should at least be a variance in milk texture, especially if a £900 machine is only capable of making two milk drinks. The only difference between the latte macchiato and cappuccino is this: the latte macchiato defaults to 45ml of coffee for 20 seconds of milk, and the cappuccino defaults to 95ml of coffee for 6 seconds of milk. It's basically a latte macchiato and a triple espresso macchiato. Of course you can change the milk dispensing time — I found 22 seconds to fit most of my mugs the best. Also, 95ml of coffee to 6 seconds of milk resulted in an overly-strong drink that my colleague struggled to finish. I tested the C8 with both semi-skimmed and oat milk, and while there weren't any major differences between two textures, the oat milk foam dissipated much faster than cow milk. I'm actually really disappointed by this milk performance — the £749 De'Longhi Rivelia can make beautifully smooth microfoam in seconds, and has a wider range of plant milk capabilities. As the C8 is quite a large machine, I'd recommend making sure you have enough space in your kitchen before purchasing. It's a pretty whopping 17 x 13 x 10 inches. The water tank is on the right side so this would need to be accessible. The drip tray is metal on the outside and plastic on the inside, which was quite easy to clean during testing. The grounds drawer is easy to empty too although coffee grounds did tend to stick to the inside. Jura provides a water filter for the water tank, and has an on-machine setting to select water hardness. I'd recommend doing this ASAP to ensure machine longevity. On its site, Jura sells milk system cleaner for £14 and cleaning tablets for £11. As I've discussed throughout this review, the C8 really pales in comparison to the £150 cheaper De'Longhi Rivelia. The Rivelia has a bigger range of drink recipes (including flat white, my personal favorite coffee), more customization, comes with 2 bean hoppers so you can easily switch out beans, and a milk carafe. I would recommend the Rivelia over the C8 any day. If you seriously want a Jura machine due to the smart home capabilities or the 2-year warranty, the £775 EN4 might be a better choice. It has a more modern appearance and the price is a little more appealing. One of the cheaper automatic coffee machines I've seen is the Philips 3200 Series, which is $775. However, it brews a much weaker coffee than the C8. Even so, I have yet to test this one personally, so from my own experience, I recommend the Rivelia. If the Jura C8 was around £200 cheaper, I'd have given it a little more praise. However, at £900, there's not really much room for error. For £900 I'd expect a semi-premium product that can make consistently delicious and technically accurate coffee. Unfortunately, that's not the Jura C8. It only makes four drinks: espresso, coffee, cappuccino, and latte macchiato. The milk is the same for both cappuccino and latte, which isn't traditionally accepted. On top of that, the espresso tastes overwhelmingly bitter, even with artisan, locally-roasted beans. As a result, I don't think the Jura C8 is worth the money. I'd just go for the trustworthy De'Longhi Rivelia — it performs much, much better than the C8, and will save you £150.
Tom's Guide
23-05-2025
- Business
- Tom's Guide
I tested the brand-new De'Longhi Rivelia — it's like an enthusiastic robot barista has set up shop in my kitchen
The De'Longhi Rivelia is a superautomatic coffee machine, which means it turns button-pressing into coffee in seconds. Yes — completely hands-free. You don't need to do anything. It's perfect for people who want hot, fresh coffee and don't have a lot of time. De'Longhi has a huge range of automatic coffee machines on its roster, starting from just $549/£399, and going up to over $2k. The Rivelia is slap-bang in the middle of its range, at $1,499/£749. Yes — that price discrepancy is wild, I know. If you're a U.K. customer, you're getting a much better deal. A steal, almost. However, is the Rivelia enough to be one of the best espresso machines at this pricepoint? Find out in this De'Longhi Rivelia automatic coffee machine review. Price $1,499 / £749 Weight 21.4 pounds Grinder Have reached out to De'Longhi for confirmation Dimensions 16.9 x 9.7 x 14.6 inches Heating system Have reached out to De'Longhi for confirmation Pressure 15 bar Water tank capacity 47 ounces Accessories 2 bean hoppers, cleaning tablets, milk stopper The De'Longhi Rivelia Automatic Coffee Machine is a massive $1,499 from Amazon U.S., and just £749 from Amazon U.K.. The price is likely different because the Rivelia came out in the U.K. back in 2023, but it's brand new to the U.S. market as of May 2025. Even so, customers in the U.K. are getting a much, much better deal. I don't think this machine is worth $1,499 — $1,000 would be a better price. Automatic coffee machines tend to be pricier than at-home espresso machines, but they don't really make 'proper' espresso. I'll go into that in depth in the 'Espresso' section, but it's worth mentioning here as it's unfair to compare this machine to typical espresso machines. The KitchenAid KF8 is $1,999, which is the priciest automatic coffee machine I've tested. However, that's not the most expensive one I've seen. The Jura J8 is a whopping $3,499, but there's a sub-$1,000 Jura machine in the $999 Jura ENA 4. De'Longhi also makes the $1,299 Magnifica (in the U.K., this starts from just £399) if you really want a superautomatic De'Longhi, but the Rivelia is a little too pricey. In terms of baseline appearance, I think the Rivelia is very attractive. I received the green colorway, which would have been my choice had I been purchasing it myself. De'Longhi also makes the Rivelia in white, black, and gray. In the U.K., you can also get beige and green. The Rivelia is relatively small for a superautomatic espresso machine, at 17 inches tall and 14.6 inches deep. For contrast, the KitchenAid KF8 is 18.5 inches high and 14.3 inches deep. While it's still not compact, it's not as bulky as other espresso machines. My De'Longhi La Specialista Opera is 17.5 inches wide, compared to the Rivelia's just 9.7 inches. The water tank is quite small (could be a worthy sacrifice for this relatively non-bulky machine) at just 47 ounces. The KitchenAid KF8's water tank is a seemingly massive 74 ounces. I found the Rivelia's water tank emptied after around 5 drinks, which was a little frustrating, but I suppose it's good to have fresh water. On the top of the machine is the ground coffee compartment and a scoop. This is also where the milk carafe plug lives in between uses. Then, in front of this hidden compartment, is one of my favorite aspects of the Rivelia: the bright touchscreen. The icons are clear and easy to navigate. The Rivelia alerts you when it's going to rinse, when the carafe needs a clean, and when it's going to heat up. You can scroll through the drinks options (there are 18), which adds great usability for complete beginners. Each drink option has a full-color image, so you're learning which drink is which while brewing too. In general, I'd say that the Rivelia looks fantastic for a superautomatic machine. The colorful LED screen is a nice touch for beginners, and the machine is very easy to use. I would 100% recommend this for complete beginners. I'm going to start by saying that superautomatic espresso machines, by design, do not make 'technically' perfect espresso. They won't be able to dose and tamp like humans, and that's a feature, not a bug. Superautomatic machines are for those who just want coffee, quickly and easily. These types of machines are not for espresso purists. The 'espresso' setting (without customization) doses around 42g of espresso in 21 seconds (including pre-infusion). This is a little outside of the golden window of extraction (1:2 in 25-28 seconds). Afterwards, I customized the espresso to maximum intensity (5) and small size. This dosed 24g of espresso in 17 seconds (including pre-infusion). Again, this is outside the golden window of extraction. Unfortunately, as it's an automatic machine, I have no way of weighing the pre-extraction coffee dose so can't tell you the ratio the Rivelia brews at. As you can see, the shot is quite watery. The crema isn't fluffy, and there's not much weight to the espresso. It'll do the trick, but it won't impress coffee purists. The 'lungo' espresso shot brews a massive 120g. This is much bigger than the generally accepted 1:3 ratio, but I suppose will do the trick if you want a half-espresso-half-Americano beverage. I was a little confused by the 'ice' Americano and 'ice' coffee options. This isn't like the De'Longhi La Specialista Opera ($899, so $600 cheaper than the Rivelia) and De'Longhi La Specialista Maestro ($1,199, so $300 cheaper than the Rivelia) — the Rivelia can't make cold espresso. I pressed 'iced Americano' and it told me to put in 8 cubes of ice (which I did). Then, the Rivelia extracted a hot espresso shot — I thought, okay, no problem, I'll just put more ice in after the water. But then it dosed hot water into my glass. Even though I'd pressed iced Americano. Confused, I did this whole process again — and it brewed another hot Americano. The only difference is that the 'iced' Americano shot is 31g and the 'hot' Americano shot is 41g — I assume as it's going to be watered down by ice. Here's a picture of the 'ice' Americano. I just don't understand why the machine doesn't dispense cold water for iced drinks. Anyway, it's worth noting that if you want an iced Americano, I'd recommend just pulling a regular shot and topping up with cold water. Strangeness regarding iced drinks aside, my interest was extremely piqued by the Rivelia's 'Bean Adapt' feature. This feature basically analyzes your coffee bean and tells you the optimal grind size. Of course, seasoned baristas will be able to navigate grind size without this assistance, but it's nice to have for beginners. The Rivelia told me that my light-roasted Rwandan beans should be ground on number 5 (1-7), which surprised me. I'd been brewing on grind 4 and it tasted fine. However, I gave the Rivelia the benefit of the doubt and followed its advice. When I switched out my light beans for medium-roasted Indonesian beans, the Rivelia recommended setting them on grind size 4. Ever the obedient user, I obliged and ran a few shots through on this setting. As with the shot times I mentioned above, the espresso wasn't technically perfect, but it still tasted good in the drink. I also tried a dark roast. The Rivelia told me it should be extracted on grind setting 4, and with medium temperature (as opposed to light-and-medium roast's high temperature). I made an Americano, a latte macchiato, and two capuccinos with these settings, and the drinks tasted… fine. My colleagues said they enjoyed their beverages, so, again, the Rivelia doesn't make bad coffee, it just won't impress serious espresso lovers. Again, this is a superautomatic machine, so it's not intended to be used by people who necessarily care about crafting technically-perfect coffee with WDT tools and coffee scales. The Rivelia is about quick, easy, and accessible coffee, and it does excel at that. It just isn't the tastiest coffee I've ever had. De'Longhi's 'LatteCrema' system is supposed to 'guarantee ideal milk frothing'. While I think the milk frother is pretty adept, I'm not sure this 'LatteCrema' system is any more than just marketing. Don't get me wrong, the milk frother works, but there's nothing inherently unique about it. It's identical to the milk frothing I've seen on other superautomatics like the KitchenAid KF8. In the standard Rivelia, you can't make cold milk. However, with the 'LatteCrema Cool' addition, you can make cold foam. This is an extra $129. The milk carafe has three settings: low, 'creamy', and high foam. Adjusting these settings is easy with the dial. Some drinks tell you what milk texture to choose, but others don't. It's also completely up to you: you don't have to obey the machine's commands. If you so please, you could make a cappuccino with low foam. Obviously the auto milk frother can't make barista-quality microfoam. The only machine I've used that matches barista-quality is the Subminimal Nanofoamer Gen 2, and the Rivelia in no way matches that. Here's a photograph of milk on the 'creamy' setting. This is a flat white made with Oatly Barista. As you can see, the milk is decent, but it's certainly not barista-quality. There are quite large bubbles, and it was a little watery as I drank more. However, perfection is not the enemy of enjoyment — and I did enjoy it. Next, I made a cappuccino on the 'dense' setting, as directed by the Rivelia. Here's a close up photo of the milk texture so you can really see it. As you can see, the milk is relatively bubbly. There's no velvety microfoam you'd expect from a barista-made drink. However, this is pretty good for a superautomatic machine, and if you don't want to bother yourself with a manual espresso machine, the Rivelia will be more than fine. I just don't think it would replace barista-trained milk-foaming abilities any time soon. The final setting is 'light'. Strangely, De'Longhi's recommended setting for lattes is light foam milk, which I don't necessarily agree with. As you can see, the milk is very wet. This is what I'd describe as a 'wet latte' if I still worked as a barista. This is just my personal tastes, but I would recommend only making drinks with the 'creamy' or 'dense' foam settings. 'Light' made a watery latte. I do like that the Rivelia prompted me to clean the milk frother every two uses, and meant I didn't have to get into the spout with a pipe cleaner. It feels very easy to maintain. On the whole, I think the Rivelia would best suit someone with minimal traditional manual espresso machine experience, who wants consistent coffee every day. In terms of reliability, the Rivelia is a winner. I'm going to say right off the bat that unfortunately I couldn't run my usual grinder tests on the Rivelia due to the machine grinding, dosing, and tamping inside the machine. This meant I couldn't take out the grounds and analyze them. As there's little information regarding the grinder in the user manual and online, I reached out to De'Longhi's representative to request more information about the grinder itself. I'm unsure if it's a conical burr grinder or a blade grinder, although as De'Longhi's Dinamica and Magnifica machines have a conical stainless steel burr, I think we can safely assume the Rivelia follows suit. The grinder has 7 fineness settings. 1 is the finest and 7 is the coarsest. I started off on setting 2 as I was using light roasted beans, but the extraction was way too slow. After using Bean Adapt, I was told to grind on 5 for my light roasted beans and 4 for my medium roasted beans. Obviously a built in grinder is never going to be as adept as a standalone grinder, but I think for a superautomatic machine, the Rivelia's grinder fits the bill perfectly. As I mentioned in the 'Design' section, the Rivelia is pretty compact for a superautomatic. This means you'll be able to keep it out on your counter, like I did during testing. Thankfully, De'Longhi provides you with a water hardness test strip (to know how often to descale). There's an additional coffee maintenance kit on De'Longhi's website for $49 and you can even purchase additional bean hoppers for $29. The drip tray is very easy to remove, but it is quite small. I'd recommend emptying it after every few drinks. The grounds drawer is also quite small — I've been emptying it after every five or so drinks. However, it's easy to clean (initially) as it's mostly plastic. Even so, this raises longevity concerns as sometimes the plastic can look quite tarnished and dirty after a few years, despite proper cleaning. For U.K. customers, the £749 Rivelia is one of the most affordable superautomatic machines on the market today. It's only beaten by something like the De'Longhi Magnifica, which starts from just $599/£399. The Rivelia has 18 preset recipes (all of which can be customized further), whereas the Magnifica Start has just 3, and no auto milk frother. De'Longhi's top-of-the-range PrimaDonna Elite is a massive $2,199 (a more comparable £1,999), and boasts a 67 ounce water tank, a more adept 13-click conical burr grinder. Jura is one of the hottest superautomatic coffee machine brands around right now. Its closest-priced competitor is the $1,599 S8. You can make sweet foam with this machine's built-in syrup attachment, so if you're a sweet-toothed coffee lover, then you might want to check out the Jura S8. The Jura Giga 10 is a massive $4,979. It has 35 drinks options including cold brew and even connects to Wi-Fi. I think it's overkill for the average person, but it does put into perspective that $1,499 isn't as expensive as other superautomatic machines. Still, that doesn't necessarily mean the Rivelia is 100% worth it. On the whole, the Rivelia is a good, compact coffee machine perfect for small homes, but it's not worth its $1,499 price tag. At this price point, you'd expect delicious coffee (and the ability to make iced Americanos when it says it can), but the coffee is merely fine. I think serious coffee lovers need look elsewhere — may I point you in the direction of the Breville Bambino Plus? If you're in the U.K., then this machine is a fantastic deal. Had the U.S. price reflected the U.K. price, I would've awarded the Rivelia 4 stars. However, at $1,499, I think the Rivelia is quite overpriced for what it is. Yes, superautomatic machines are usually more expensive than espresso machines. However, De'Longhi's Magnifica Evo is just $899 and has similar specs — auto milk frother, 7 customizable recipes, and a built-in conical burr grinder. I think that's a much better deal — I'm not sure that the Rivelia's specs justify the $600 price increase. However, that doesn't negate that the Rivelia is a good machine. It makes tasty (but not quite delicious) coffee in seconds, it is easy to switch beans, and it looks good. It's just a touch overpriced for me.
