Jura ENA 8 Review (2025): Overpriced or Worth It?

I would not recommend the Jura ENA 8. Despite its attractive, compact design, the machine’s limited functionalities—especially its single milk texture option and lack of a double-shot feature for milk drinks—do not justify its high price. Alternatives like the Jura E6 offer nearly identical performance at roughly $400 less.

Jura markets the ENA 8 as a more compact alternative to their mid-market Jura E8.

In this Jura ENA 8 review, I’m going to answer the following questions:

• Whether the Jura ENA 8 is significantly more compact than similar super-automatic espresso machines?
• If the Jura ENA 8 can justify its large price tag even though it has a limited number of drink options?
• Whether there are any cheaper (and at least as good) alternatives to the Jura ENA 8.

Let’s get started.

Should I Get the Jura ENA 8 (Quick Verdict)?

After careful consideration, the answer is No. Here’s why:

• Overpriced: At $1,599, it lacks double-shot options for milk drinks and only offers one milk texture (foam).
• Minimal Size Advantage: Just 1” shorter and 0.1” narrower than the $1,199 Jura E6—hardly a space-saving breakthrough.
• Limited Customization: Only 10 drink options vs. 16 on the E6.

Despite being advertised as a compact machine, it is barely smaller than other Jura E series and S series models like the Jura E6, Jura E8, and Jura S8.

Jura ENA 8 Rating

• Quality of Espresso: 7/10
• Quality of Milk Drinks: 7/10
• Functionalities: 6/10
• Ease of Use and Cleaning: 7/10
• Design and Build Quality: 9/10
• Value for Money: 5/10

Jura ENA 8

The Jura ENA 8 is overpriced considering its lack of menu items and is not significantly more compact than the Jura E series.

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I’d instead get the Jura E6 over the Jura ENA 8.

The Jura E6 is around $400 cheaper than the ENA 8 and can make milk-based drinks with double shots of espresso automatically, something that the ENA 8 cannot do.

The Jura E6 is only one inch taller and 0.3 inches wider than the ENA 8. This is a tiny difference in size and to me disproves Jura’s claim that the Jura ENA 8 is better than the Jura E6 for people with limited countertop space.

Jura E6

The Jura E6 makes as good an espresso as super-automatic espresso machines twice its price.

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Overview of Jura ENA 8

The Jura ENA 8 is a super-automatic machine. All you need to do to make espresso is fill it up with whole coffee beans and water and select the drink that you want. 

The machine will dose out your ground coffee, pull your shot, and steam your milk for you.

The machine has an automatic milk steamer that attaches to an external milk container via a silicone tube. The silicone tube comes with the machine, but an external milk container does not.

The Jura ENA 8 has 10 menu items and it allows you to customize your coffee’s strength, size, brewing temperature, and amount of milk foam used in it.

It is operated by a button-controlled LCD screen. 

The Jura ENA 8 has a conical burr grinder that sits atop it which has seven grind settings and a bypass doser to allow you to brew with pre-ground coffee.

It has a tall, cylindrical water tank that holds 37 oz of water. This is enough water to brew 24 espressos on the machine’s default settings.

Although the ENA 8’s water tank has a crystal pattern on its outside, it’s made out of plastic.

You can find a table of the Jura ENA 8’s specifications below:

Jura ENA 8 Pros

• Sleek, premium design with 4 color options.
• Consistently rich espresso and milk foam quality.
• Compacter than bulkier super-automatics (but see cons).

Jura ENA 8 Cons

• No double shots for milk drinks—limits customization.
• Single milk texture (foam only; no flat milk or latte options).
• Deep 17.5” depth still demands significant counter space.
• Tiny drip tray requires daily emptying.

What Drinks Can the Jura ENA 8 Make?

The Jura ENA 8 can make the following drinks:

• Ristretto
• Espresso
• Filter coffee
• Espresso Doppio (double espresso)
• Macchiato
• Cappuccino
• Flat white
• Latte macchiato
• Portion of milk foam
• Hot water

Since the Jura ENA uses an HP1 milk-steaming system (as opposed to the HP3 milk-steaming system used by more premium Jura models), it can only steam milk to one texture.

There is therefore little difference between the Jura ENA 8’s cappuccino, flat white, and macchiato. The only difference between them is the volume of milk used (this is adjustable anyway) and whether your milk or coffee is dispensed first.

Latte macchiato is a bit different because the machine pauses between dispensing your milk and your coffee. 

This allows the milk to settle before the coffee is added to create a layered drink. The video below shows someone making a latte macchiato with the Jura ENA 8 (watch from 16:15 – 17:15).

How Does the Jura ENA 8 Let You Customize Your Drinks?

The Jura ENA 8 allows you to customize your drinks in the following ways:

• Coffee strength: You get ten available coffee strength settings. This determines how much ground coffee your drink is brewed with. The lowest strength setting is 6 grams and the highest is 10 grams of coffee per shot.
• Coffee brewing temperature: You get three available coffee brewing temperatures (labeled low, medium, and high). This is useful if you like to experiment with different beans, as lighter roasts tend to need higher brewing temperatures than darker roasts.
• Coffee size: Your coffee’s volume is adjustable to the nearest half ounce. Ristretto and espresso sizes range from 0.5 oz to 2.5 oz, and filter coffee ranges from 0.5 oz to 8.0 oz
• Volume of milk: Milk foam quantity is measured by seconds of dispensing time. Available milk volume ranges from 3 seconds to 60 seconds of dispensing time.
• Interval (Latte macchiato only): Interval refers to how long the machine waits between dispensing your milk and dispensing your coffee when making a latte macchiato. The longer you set the interval the more definition there will be between the layers of milk and coffee in your drink. Interval can be set from 3-20 seconds.

In addition to this the Jura ENA 8’s grinder has seven grind size settings which can also change your espresso’s flavor.

Although this is a nice level of customization, if you are into your milk-based espresso drinks, then you’d really benefit from a machine that can customize your milk’s temperature and texture.

It’s a shame that the Jura ENA 8 does not allow you to do this. 

The best Jura espresso machine for milk drinks is the Jura Z10. For more information on this coffee machine please see my Jura Z10 review.

Jura ENA 8 Review: Feature Breakdown

I’m now going to run through the Jura ENA 8’s key features, as well as give my thoughts on how these features affect the machine’s overall performance.

I’ll start with features unique to the Jura ENA 8 and then move on to features that all Jura coffee machines have in common.

Unique Feature: Compact Design

Although the Jura ENA 8 is slightly smaller than other machines in Jura’s “E series” and “S series”, I don’t think that this is enough of a difference in size to make the Jura ENA 8 any more space-efficient than other Jura machines.

The Jura ENA 8 measures up at 10.7” wide, 17.7” deep, and 12.7” high.

Compare this to the Jura E6, Jura E8, and Jura S8 which are all 11” wide, 17.6” deep, and 13.8 inches high.

So the Jura ENA 8 is only 1 inch shorter, 0.3 inches slimmer, and 0.1 inches less deep than Jura’s other, similar espresso machines.

I really don’t think that this is enough of a difference to warrant calling the Jura ENA 8 a more compact alternative to Jura’s E and S series (as Jura insists on doing).

Height really is not that important when it comes to how much countertop space an espresso machine takes up (unless you have low cabinets).

It’s rather a width and depth that matters and a concession of 0.3 inches and 0.1 inches just is not going to take a machine from fitting nicely on your counter to dominating it.

The fact that Jura tries to use the ENA 8’s compactness to justify charging a premium for the machine compared to others with similar functionalities (like the Jura E6) is, quite frankly, outrageous.

Unique Feature: Range of Colors

The Jura ENA 8 comes in four available colors. They are:

• Metropolitan black
• Nordic white
• Massive aluminum
• Sunset red

The images below show what the right-hand side of the machine would look like in each of its colors (the crystal pattern water tank is also shown).

Your chosen color is only present on the sides and the back of the machine.

The machine’s front face will always be a brushed silver color.

Since the Jura ENA 8 is the only Jura espresso machine available in these colors, I’d only recommend the machine if you are particularly wedded to these colors and they’re a dealbreaker for you.

Unique Feature: Cylindrical Water Tank with Crystal Pattern

The Jura ENA 8’s cylindrical water tank looks cool and I like the fact that you can carry it with one hand.

Its tall, slim design means that you can carry it around when full without water sloshing everywhere.

Although the crystal pattern is impressive and gives the machine a luxurious look, it’s made out of plastic and this is very obvious when you touch it.

The Jura ENA 8’s water tank only holds 37 oz which is close to half the size of other similarly priced Jura espresso machines.

Non-Unique Feature: Button-Controlled LCD Screen User Interface 

The Jura ENA 8 is controlled by an LCD screen operated by buttons on either side of it.

It has a bit of a strange navigation system. Out of the two buttons on either side of the screen:

• The top buttons are “selector” buttons which select an option on the screen.
• The bottom buttons are “navigational” buttons which will toggle to the next option on the screen.

You can see someone navigating through the Jura ENA 8’s control panel below (watch from 1:28 – 2:20).

My Jura E8 uses basically the same control panel as the Jura ENA 8. 

While I needed to watch a couple of instructional videos to work out how to access all of the machine’s functionalities, I could completely navigate through the machine’s features after about 30 minutes of playing around with it.

I particularly like how all the options are labeled in plain English, rather than in symbols. It leaves you under no illusions about what each of the machine’s functions does.

Non-Unique Feature: Pulse Extraction Process

All Jura coffee machines use Jura’s patented Pulse Extraction Process when brewing espresso.

This means that Juras brew pumps your brewing water through your puck of coffee in pulses rather than in one steady flow.

Since super-automatic espresso machines cannot tamp your puck with great accuracy, brewing water tends to run too fast through them which creates a bland final drink.

Jura’s Pulse Extraction Process slows down brewing and allows Jura espresso machines to make better-tasting espresso than other super-automatic espresso machines.

In short, the two main consequences of Jura’s Pulse Extraction Process are:

• Jura super-automatic espresso machines make better-tasting espresso than all other super-automatic espresso machines
• All Jura models make basically the same quality of espresso.

Non-Unique Feature: HP1 Milk Steaming System

The Jura ENA 8 uses an HP1 automatic milk steaming system.

This allows the machine to make really good frothed milk (again, better than all non-Jura super-automatic espresso machines) but limits the machine to only being able to make one texture of milk.

This makes the ENA 8’s milk-based drinks all quite the same. 

If you want more variation in your milk-based drinks then you’d have to go for a machine with an HP3 milk-steaming system like the Jura E8 or S8.

I also don’t really like the overall design of the machine’s milk-steaming system.

It has to connect to an external milk tank with a silicone tube. 

Not only does this take up a lot of space (thereby negating the machine’s compact design even further) but it also can get very messy when you remove the milk tube from the external container as milk will invariably dribble from the tube onto your counter.

Non-Unique Feature: Intelligent Water System and CLARIS Filters

When you first start the JURA ENA 8 the machine will tell you to take a water hardness test (a test strip comes with the machine). 

The machine uses CLARIS water filters and will tell you when to change these filters based on your water hardness.

If you change the filters when prompted then you do not need to descale the machine (this prompting, and not needing to descale, is what Jura refers to by “Intelligent Water System”).

While not having to descale your machine is a nice idea, I don’t think it’s as big of a benefit as Jura makes it out to be.

Firstly, Jura machines have a dedicated descale mode which makes descaling the machine no more effort than running a rinse cycle with descaling tablets in the machine. You need to run regular rinse cycles anyway, so descaling once every few months doesn’t really add to the effort of maintaining the machine.

Secondly, these CLARIS water filters are around $10 a pop, whereas a descaling tablet is around $1.50 a pop.

You generally need to replace CLARIS water filters as often as you would otherwise have to descale the machine, so using the filters instead of descaling adds significantly to the machine’s lifetime cost.

Although the JURA ENA 8 can still be descaled, Jura advises that you don’t use the machine without filters, so I’m not sure if you can avoid this extra cost.

Non-Unique Feature: Aroma G3 Grinder

The Jura ENA uses a conical burr grinder with seven grind size settings. It also has a bypass chute which allows you to brew with pre-ground coffee.

The Jura ENA 8’s grinder is about on par with other premium super-automatic espresso machines. While there’s certainly nothing wrong with the grinder, it’s not the highlight of the machine either.

It’s adequate for what you need (a super-automatic espresso machine can only brew with a small window of grind sizes anyway).

I do like how the machine’s bean hopper’s lid is tinted and sealed on the outside. This allows you to keep whole coffee beans in the bean hopper without any risk of their flavor deteriorating due to exposure to sunlight or air. 

Non-Unique Feature: Automated Cleaning and Descaling

The Jura ENA 8 has automatic procedures for:

• Rinsing out its brewing system and milk cleaning system
• Running deep cleans of the whole machine
• Descaling (if you aren’t using CLARIS filters)

You can see a video that outlines the machine’s deep cleaning procedure below:

The ENA 8 will rinse out its espresso brewing system automatically after you make a coffee and will prompt you to run its deep clean and descale cycles when it requires it. 

It will not prompt you to rinse out its milk system, so you need to attach its milk system cleaning tray and navigate to this option manually after every milky drink that you make.

This level of cleaning automation is the same across all Jura models.

Non-Unique Feature: Bluetooth App Connectivity

The Jura ENA 8 can connect to the JURA app on your phone via Bluetooth.

You can then use the app to control the machine’s menu from your phone. 

While you can theoretically make a coffee remotely using this connectivity, you still need to be present to put your cup under the machine’s spout. This is why I always think that “smart” features are a bit wasted on a coffee machine.

Unfortunately, the Jura ENA 8 requires an additional “smart connect” plug for you to connect to it via Bluetooth. This retails at around $50.

I really don’t think it’s worth spending an extra $50 on this.

Now that I’ve run through the Jura ENA 8’s basic features, I’m going to assess the coffee machine across the following criteria:

• Quality of espresso
• Quality of milk drinks
• Functionalities
• Ease of use and cleaning
• Design and build quality
• Value for money

Quality of Espresso

The Jura ENA 8 makes a good espresso by super-automatic machine standards. Its small brewing unit means it cannot make larger espressos as well as more premium Jura models.

Jura machines make the best espresso of all super-automatic espresso machines thanks to their use of Jura’s Pulse Extraction Process.

This slows down Jura’s espresso brewing and helps overcome issues caused by super automatic’s inability to tamp your coffee properly.

Even though the Jura ENA 8 makes better espresso than all other super automatics, its espresso is still nowhere near as good as you can make with a high-quality portafilter-driven espresso machine.

The Jura ENA 8 also has a smaller capacity brewing unit than other more premium Jura models (including the Jura E6, Jura E8, Jura S8, and Jura Z series).

This means that the machine’s filter coffee will not be as good as those machines as it cannot brew enough ground coffee to make longer drinks with a sufficient ground coffee-to-water ratio. 

Quality of Espresso Rating: 7/10

Quality of Milk Drinks

The Jura ENA can froth milk really well, but the fact that it can only create one milk texture means there is little variation between its milk drinks.

Jura espresso machines make the best milk foam of all super-automatic espresso machines (there’s a reason why they’re so expensive).

This was confirmed by barista and coffee Youtuber James Hoffmann in his roundup of the best bean-to-cup machines. You can see his thoughts on the Jura Z10 (which uses the same milk-steaming system as the ENA 8) below (watch from 22:20 – 24:10):

While Jura ENA 8’s frothed milk is excellent, it’s disappointing that the machine can only make one milk texture due to its HP1 (rather than HP3) milk frothing system.

This leads to a massive lack of variation in the machine’s milk drinks. If you want to play around with making lots of different milk-based drinks, then the ENA 8 will leave you disappointed.

Quality of Milk Drinks: 7/10

Functionalities

The Jura ENA 8 does not have a huge menu, and being able to produce only one texture of milk foam makes many of its menu items very similar.

The Jura ENA 8 has a reduced menu compared to other similarly priced super automatics. 

I also don’t like how you cannot automatically make milk-based drinks with a double shot of espresso (that’s how I always like to take my milk drinks).

As I said earlier, the machine’s ability to only make one milk texture also puts a low ceiling on the varieties of coffee it can make.

You’re basically just restricted to espresso, Americano, a generic (but perfectly nice) milky coffee, and latte macchiato. 

If you are happy with that then the ENA 8 will be great for you, but if you want more variety in your drink options then you will have to look elsewhere.

Functionalities Rating: 6/10

Ease of Use and Cleaning

The Jura ENA 8’s self-explanatory LCD screen control panel makes it easy to use. Cleaning its milk system after every milk drink you make is a bit of a pain, but this is a problem that all super-automatic espresso machines with milk steaming capabilities have.

The Jura ENA 8’s button-operated control panel screen walks you through every aspect of operating the machine. 

Although you will likely need to go through the ENA 8’s instruction manual to learn how to access all its features (some functionalities can only be accessed by holding down certain buttons for example, and this is not immediately obvious), once you know how to access all these features then the machine is really simple to use.

The Jura ENA 8 automates as many of its cleaning processes as possible, however, you still need to put some work into cleaning its milk system after every milk-based drink that you make.

You can see a video of the Jura ENA 8’s milk system cleaning process below:

As you can see, this isn’t a quick process considering that you have to do it after every milk-based drink that you make. 

It’s certainly far more time and effort-consuming than purging and wiping down a steam wand, however, it’s less effort than having to clean out the attached milk tanks found on Delonghi’s and Philips’ range of super-automatic espresso machines.

The only other part of the machine that you need to be really diligent about keeping clean is its used coffee grounds container.

Although the machine can theoretically hold up to ten coffee pucks, in reality, if you do not clean this container out every few days it will get really moldy. I’d recommend cleaning out this container every few days if you don’t want to risk a mold outbreak.

In short, the Jura ENA 8 is really easy to use. Although there is some work involved in keeping it clean, this is just part of the deal with super-automatic espresso machines.

Ease of Use and Cleaning Rating: 7/10

Design and Build Quality

The Jura ENA is really well built and should last you many years without technical fault if you clean it as directed. This is true of all Jura coffee machines, however, not just the ENA 8.

Jura espresso machines cost more than other brands mainly due to their exceptionally high build quality and durability and their Pulse Extraction Process.

Everything on the Jura ENA 8 feels like it is well-built:

• Its LCD screen is high-quality and responsive
• None of its exterior parts feel flimsy
• Its preset doses are accurate (you’ll be surprised how rare this is)
• It rarely succumbs to technical faults

The only annoying thing about Jura espresso machines’ design is that their brew group is non-removable.

Most super-automatic espresso machines need to have their brew group removed to be cleaned and lubricated in order to keep the machine performing optimally.

Since you cannot remove Jura machines’ brew group, you want to take it to a Jura technician every couple of years so they can open it up and clean and lubricate the brew group.

This is another expense to add to the Jura ENA 8’s total lifetime cost – a particularly annoying one as it’s not hard to allow the machine to be opened up so you can do this maintenance yourself.

Still, if you get your Jura ENA 8 maintained in this way it should last you many years, if not decades.

Design and Build Quality Rating: 9/10

Value For Money

The Jura ENA 8 does not offer great value for money, especially compared to other Jura models.

I think that the Jura ENA 8 is one of the worst value-for-money Jura coffee machines on the market right now.

It has fewer available coffee types than the Jura E6, despite costing around $400 more than it.

Jura seems to try and justify the Jura ENA 8’s relatively high cost by saying that it is more compact than their other machines. However, as I explained earlier, the machine is only 0.3” slimmer and 0.1” less deep than the Jura E6 and Jura E8.

This is not enough of a size reduction to justify a difference in price between these machines.

The Jura ENA 8’s only “advantage” over relatively cheaper machines is that it comes in a wider range of colors. I think that Jura’s base black color looks good already, so again I don’t think that paying a premium for the Jura ENA 8 is worth it.

Value for Money Rating 5/10

Product Alternatives: Jura E6 and Jura E8

If you are mainly going to be drinking black espresso drinks then I’d recommend the Jura E6 over the Jura ENA 8. If you are primarily going to be drinking milk-based espresso drinks then I’d recommend the Jura E8 over the Jura ENA 8.

Jura E6 – Cheaper and With a Bigger Menu Than the Jura ENA 8

The Jura E6 is around $400 cheaper than the Jura ENA 8 and can allow you to make milk-based drinks with a double shot of espresso, something that the ENA 8 cannot do.

Jura E6

The Jura E6 makes as good an espresso as super-automatic espresso machines twice its price.

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The only “downside” that the Jura E6 has compared to the ENA 8 is that it is slightly larger than it.

As I’ve said multiple times now, this difference in size is really insignificant. If you cannot fit the Jura E6 on your kitchen counter, then you are very unlikely to fit the ENA 8 in there.

I, therefore, don’t see a reason why you should spend $400 extra on the Jura ENA 8 compared to the Jura E6.

Jura E8 – Much Better Milk Functionalities than the Jura ENA 8

The Jura E8 uses an HP3 milk-steaming system (the ENA 8 uses an HP1 system). This allows it to make fine steamed milk as well as thicker milk foam.

Jura E8

The Jura E8 can steam milk to a wider variety of textures meaning that there is more variety in its milk-based drinks than the Jura ENA 8.

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Although the Jura E8 does not offer more milk-based drinks on its menu (its larger menu is because it offers single and double-shot options for all its milk-based drinks), there will be a greater difference between each of its milk-based drinks because of its ability to steam milk to varying textures.

The Jura ENA 8’s flat white, cappuccino and macchiato are all basically the same.

With the Jura E8, these drinks all have a different consistency of milk so are noticeably different from each other. 

You can make specialty milk drinks far closer to what you’d get in a coffee shop with the Jura E8 compared to the Jura ENA 8.

For more information on the Jura E8 please see my Jura E8 review.

Jura ENA 8 Review: Final Thoughts

While the Jura ENA 8 is by no means a bad espresso machine, I think that it is overpriced, especially compared to Jura’s other machines.

I therefore would not recommend the Jura ENA 8.

I’d recommend the Jura E6 as an alternative to the Jura ENA 8. The Jura E6 is around $400 cheaper than the ENA 8 and also has a larger menu than it.