Jura vs Breville: which premium espresso machine is worth it?

Jura vs Breville at a glance

Head to head

The better result in each row is marked, based on my testing of two machines from each brand and the manufacturer specs. Rows where the brands are level have no winner.

Keep in mind that the tally is not my verdict. Some rows matter far more than others, and which ones matter depends on whether you want to make coffee or just drink it.

The four machines I tested

Brand comparisons are only useful if you compare like with like. So I picked two machines from each brand at two levels: an easier, lower-priced model and a flagship.

From Jura, the Jura E8 and the Jura S8. From Breville, the Barista Touch Impress and the Oracle Touch.

My overall scores

Overall scores from my single reviews of each machine.

The pattern was clear from the first week. At the flagship level, both brands scored 8.8, so neither is simply better. At the lower level, the Breville scored higher, but it also asks for more of your time.

The Barista Touch Impress guides you through every step on its touchscreen.

How they brew

This is the most important difference, and it explains almost everything else in this comparison.

A Jura is a fully automatic✕Fully automatic (super-automatic)A machine that grinds, doses, tamps, brews and ejects the used coffee by itself. You press one button and it does everything inside. machine. Beans go into a hopper, and a sealed brew unit grinds, compresses and brews them using Jura’s Pulse Extraction Process✕Pulse Extraction Process (P.E.P.)Instead of pushing water through the coffee in one steady stream, the machine sends it in short, rapid pulses. It helps short drinks like espresso extract more evenly., then drops the used puck into a drawer.

A Breville is a semi-automatic✕Semi-automaticA machine where you handle the portafilter: it grinds into it, you lock it into the group head, and you start and stop the shot. Many steps can be assisted, but you stay involved. machine. Coffee is ground into a portafilter✕PortafilterThe handle with a metal basket that holds the ground coffee. You lock it into the machine, and water is pushed through it to make espresso., tamped, locked into the group head and brewed, just like in a café.

The Breville approach brings real advantages. A portafilter basket holds more coffee than a Jura brew unit, the water path is short and hot, and you can see and change every variable.

The Jura approach brings a different set. Nothing to tamp, nothing to knock out, nothing on the counter, and every drink comes out the same whoever presses the button.

Our tip: Decide how many steps you will happily do at 7 a.m. before you compare specs, because that decides which brand you will actually enjoy.

Design and size

The Jura machines are tall, narrow boxes. Both the E8 and S8 are about 11 inches wide, 13.8 inches tall and 17.3 to 17.6 inches deep, and they weigh about 21 to 22 pounds.

The Breville machines are wider and, at the top end, much heavier. The Barista Touch Impress is about 14.2 inches wide and 24 pounds, and the Oracle Touch is about 14.5 inches wide, 17.6 inches tall and roughly 35 pounds.

Both Jura models are made with real attention to finish. The S8 is made in Switzerland, with a clean front and a bright touchscreen, while the E8 is made in Portugal with buttons around its display.

The Oracle Touch is a big, heavy machine, with two boilers inside.

Width on the counter

Measured at the widest point.

Don’t forget the space you need around a Breville. You need room in front to work with the portafilter and the milk jug, and somewhere close by for a knock box.

Our tip: Measure the height under your wall cabinets before you buy an Oracle Touch, because at 17.6 inches it is a tight fit in many kitchens.

Espresso quality

This is where the Breville approach pays off.

With the same medium-dark beans, the Oracle Touch pulled a thick, syrupy espresso with a heavy body and a long finish. It tasted like espresso from a good café, because it is made the same way: a full dose in a 58 mm basket, two boilers and stable temperature.

The Jura S8 came very close. Its 16-gram brew unit and ten strength levels gave real body, and on its strongest setting the espresso was rich and smooth with fine crema✕CremaThe golden, foamy layer on top of a fresh espresso. It forms when pressure pushes oils and gases out of the coffee..

My espresso ratings

My scores out of 10 for body, crema, flavor and consistency.

The E8 was the weak spot. Its espresso was smooth with lovely crema, but a touch light in body, and lighter roasts ran a little fast on its finest grind setting.

The Barista Touch Impress was the surprise. Its lever tamping and on-screen dose feedback gave me balanced, chocolatey shots from the first week, close to the flagship machines.

The S8’s 16-gram brew unit and ten strength levels gave real body.

Milk drinks

Both brands make excellent milk drinks, but in very different ways.

Jura: one touch, from a hose

Jura machines draw milk through a thin hose from a carton or container. In the frothing head, steam creates suction through the Venturi effect✕Venturi effectWhen steam rushes through a narrow channel, it creates suction. Jura frothers use it to pull milk up the hose and mix in air. and mixes in air.

The S8’s milk spout has a simple lever. One way gives silky latte milk, the other gives airy cappuccino foam, and its cappuccino pours milk first so the foam keeps the drink hot.

The E8 made dense, silky microfoam✕MicrofoamMilk foam with bubbles so small you can barely see them. It feels silky and glossy, which is what a good flat white needs., but my frothed milk measured about 50°C, or 122°F. That is pleasant to sip straight away, but cooler than many people expect.

Breville: a real steam wand, with help

Breville machines steam milk in a stainless steel jug with a wand. On the Oracle Touch and Barista Touch Impress, the wand can do it hands-free: a sensor in the tip stops at the temperature and foam level you set.

The Oracle Touch steams while it brews, thanks to its second boiler. Its hands-free milk was silky and hit the same temperature every time, and the Barista Touch Impress offered eight foam levels plus a fully manual mode for latte art.

Set the foam level and temperature, and the Breville wand stops on its own.

My milk drink ratings

My scores out of 10 for foam texture, temperature and taste.

Our tip: Pre-warm your cup with hot water before every milk drink on a Jura, because cool milk loses heat fast in a cold cup.

Drinks and controls

Jura wins on drink count. The E8 has 17 one-touch drinks, from ristretto-style shots and flat whites to latte macchiatos, and the S8 has 15, with ten strength levels and three temperatures.

Breville wins on control. The Oracle Touch has five café presets plus eight saved drinks, and the Barista Touch Impress also saves up to eight custom drinks, but every one of them can be tuned for grind, dose, temperature and milk.

One-touch or saved drinks

Counted from each machine’s menu.

The S8’s 4.3-inch touchscreen was one of the clearest I have used.

Hot water and tea

If anyone in your home drinks tea, this matters.

The Jura E8’s hot water topped out around 176 to 185°F in my tests, which suits green and white tea but is a little cool for strong black tea. The S8 offers three temperatures, which covers more teas.

Both Breville machines have a dedicated hot water outlet fed by the same heaters that brew espresso. The water was hot enough for black and herbal tea in my tests, and on the Oracle Touch you can pour it while you steam.

Time per drink

Here is what the workflow difference means in practice.

On the Jura S8, a cappuccino is one tap, and I could walk away while it made it. A latte macchiato for a guest took no more effort than an espresso.

On the Oracle Touch, a cappuccino means swiping, letting it grind and tamp, moving the portafilter to the group head, filling the jug, placing it under the wand and knocking out the puck afterwards. It is quick for what it does, but it is a routine, not a button.

Hands-on steps for one cappuccino

Counted from my routine, not including cleanup.

The Oracle Touch’s two boilers also take a few minutes to heat from cold, so plan to switch it on before you shower. The Barista Touch Impress, with its ThermoJet, was ready in about three seconds.

Our tip: Set a timer or smart plug for a dual-boiler Breville, so it is hot when you walk into the kitchen.

Cleaning and upkeep

This is Jura’s strongest argument.

Jura machines rinse their coffee path when they switch on and off, count brews and tell you when to empty the grounds drawer. The brew unit✕Brew unitThe part that compresses the ground coffee, holds it while water passes through and then ejects the used puck. is sealed, so you clean it by dropping a tablet in when the machine asks.

On the milk side, you rinse the frother after milk drinks and run a deeper clean weekly. The E8’s frother parts come apart without tools, and the milk hose needs replacing about every three months.

Breville machines ask for more, every day. You knock out and rinse the portafilter after each shot, purge and wipe the steam wand after each milk drink, empty the drip tray and wipe the group head, and run a backflush✕BackflushRunning water and a cleaning tablet backward through the group head with a blind basket. It clears coffee oil from the valve and shower screen. when prompted.

A Jura keeps everything inside the machine, so there is nothing on the counter to wipe.

My daily hands-on cleaning time

My estimate of hands-on time per day for two people, not counting automatic rinses.

Both brands make compact pucks that are easy to compost. On a Jura they collect in a drawer of about 16 servings; on a Breville they go into a knock box after every shot.

Our tip: Leave Jura frother parts to air-dry on a clean towel overnight after rinsing, so no moisture sits in the tiny air channels.

Noise

Neither brand is silent, but they are loud at different moments.

On the Jura E8, the grinder was quick, but the gears that move the brew unit made a noticeable clunk during preparation and again when the puck dropped. The S8 was more refined, and it draws no power in standby.

On the Breville machines, the grinder is the loudest moment, and the Barista Touch Impress took about 20 seconds to grind a double. Steaming makes the familiar hiss, which is quieter than grinding.

How loud each felt, my ranking

Relative loudness from side-by-side use. Shorter bars are quieter.

Is the extra effort worth it?

This is the real question behind every Jura vs Breville decision, and it is not about money.

A Breville gives you better espresso and better milk at the top end, but only if you are there to make it. A Jura gives you very good espresso and milk every single time, no matter who presses the button.

In my house, the Jura S8 made more coffee overall, because guests and family used it without asking me. The Oracle Touch made the best coffee, but mostly when I made it.

Brewing and steaming at once made the Oracle Touch fast for a hands-on machine.

Beans, water and filters

Both brands use filtered water and branded cleaning supplies. Jura uses CLEARYL filter cartridges, which the E8 and S8 detect automatically, plus cleaning tablets and milk system cleaner.

Breville uses a charcoal water filter in the tank, replaced every two to three months, plus cleaning tablets for backflushing. The Oracle Touch has the biggest tank of the four at about 84 ounces.

Water tank size

Bigger tanks mean fewer refills, but Breville machines also use water for flushing.

Medium and medium-dark beans worked best on the Juras. The Brevilles handled every roast, and their adjustable temperature made light roasts taste sweet instead of sour.

On either brand, a double espresso is a meaningful share of the roughly 400 milligrams of caffeine a day the FDA cites as generally safe for most adults, so keep count if you love a second flat white.

Our tip: Buy a bag of beans you can finish in two or three weeks, because both brands show off fresh coffee far better than stale.

A month with each brand

A machine can feel very different on day one and day thirty, so here is how my view of each brand changed over four weeks.

With the Juras, the first day was the best day. I filled the tank, set the water hardness and made a cappuccino within minutes, and nothing about the routine changed after that. By week four, the S8 had simply become part of the kitchen, like the kettle.

With the Brevilles, the first week was the hardest. On the Barista Touch Impress, the on-screen guidance and lever tamping helped a lot, but I still spent a few mornings adjusting the grind. On the Oracle Touch, the automation got me close on day one, and a couple of grind changes made the shots excellent.

The biggest surprise was who used each machine. My family and guests made far more drinks on the Juras without asking me anything, while the Brevilles mostly made coffee when I was standing next to them.

That is not a flaw in Breville’s design. It is the honest trade of a portafilter machine, and it is worth thinking about before you buy for a busy household.

Our tip: Give a Breville a full week before you judge it, because the grind and dose settle in as the burrs and the basket bed in.

Real-life scenarios

Specs only go so far. These are the situations where one brand clearly pulled ahead during my testing.

In a busy household, the Jura S8 was the machine nobody needed help with.

My scorecard

These are my own scores out of 10 for each brand’s flagship. The first four come from my single reviews, and I added convenience and footprint because they decide this matchup.

Jura S8

Breville Oracle Touch

Both flagships scored 8.8 overall in my single reviews. The Jura S8 is the more convenient machine to live with; the Oracle Touch makes the slightly better cup when you are the one making it.

Which one should you buy?

It comes down to one question: do you want to drink great coffee, or make it? Answer that honestly and the choice makes itself. If none of these is quite right for you, my guide to cheaper Jura alternatives covers the rest of the range I’ve tested.

If you lean Jura, my top five Jura picks and Jura comparison chart show every model side by side. If you lean Breville, start with my Breville espresso machine comparison or my guide to the best Breville espresso machines.

For the best flat white at home, the Oracle Touch earns its counter space.

On a smaller budget, the same logic holds one level down. The Jura E8 is the easier machine with the bigger menu, while the Barista Touch Impress makes the better espresso and teaches you as you go.

Jura vs Breville specifications

From manufacturer specifications and my own testing.

How I tested and compared them

I used each of the four machines as my everyday coffee maker for four weeks: the Jura E8 and S8, and the Breville Barista Touch Impress and Oracle Touch, making espresso, long coffee, americanos, cappuccinos, flat whites and lattes on all of them.

I tasted the same medium-dark beans on every machine, measured milk and hot water temperatures with a probe thermometer, counted the hands-on steps for each drink and timed my daily cleaning.

I ran every cleaning routine, including tablet cycles on the Juras and backflushes on the Brevilles, and then compared my notes with Jura and Breville specifications, owner documentation and published test data.

• Coffee: dose, crema, body and consistency.
• Milk: texture, temperature and control.
• Workflow: steps per drink, menus and daily routine.
• Ownership: cleaning, noise, water care and footprint.