Jura Giga 6 review

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Jura, a Swiss company that makes high-end coffee machines, brought the Jura Giga 6 to Australia earlier this year. The Giga 6 is Jura's most premium machine, with a price tag to match.

We put the Jura Giga 6 to the test for the last month to see if it lives up to expectations.

Design

Design

• Has a touch display and a rotary dial
• Includes two automatic adjustable ceramic grinders
• Boxy and bulky

The Jura Giga 6 is a boxy, aluminium machine with black trim and a 4.3-inch touchscreen display and a rotary dial. It weighs 18kg and takes up 32cm by 48cm of counter space. It took up a lot of precious bench space in my small kitchen, and the drip tray stuck out of my shallow countertops. It's also 41.5cm high.

While it's not the most aesthetically pleasing coffee machine, it has a lot to offer. It has two adjustable electronic ceramic burr grinders with airtight storage containers. These self-adjusting grinders can be filled with the same coffee or with different beans, and you can program your coffee to be made from either grinder or from both. For example, if you prefer a dark roast and your partner prefers a medium roast, you can fill each grinder separately and adjust your coffee to use your preferred option so that you don't have to switch the beans in between each coffee.

The water tank holds 2.6 litres and can be refilled without removing the whole thing since it opens from the top. All you have to do is pour water into the top, which comes in handy if you have a shallow sink and can't fit the water tank under your tap.

You can also connect the Jura's Smart Connect system to the back of the Giga 6 to give it Bluetooth capability, which will allow you to make coffees using J.O.E., the Jura mobile app. The water tank uses a smart filtration system that notifies you when it needs to be replaced.

The bottom of the machine holds a drip tray and container for used coffee grounds. Sliding out the drip tray is easy, but I found removing the used coffee grounds container a bit awkward. You have to open the front panel to do so, and it doesn't open enough for the container to slide easily underneath without pulling out the whole drip tray. The used coffee grounds container is still accessible, but for a machine that costs over $6,000, I expected it to be easier to maintain.

The drip tray is dishwasher safe.

Performance

Performance

• Can do just about everything you'd want a coffee machine to do
• The container for used coffee grounds could be bigger
• Live product demos make it easy to set up

Setting up the Giga 6 takes some trial and error. It took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out how to access the power button. If you're having the same problem, you need to slide your fingernail along the right side of the top metal panel surrounding the rotary dial until you find a little notch. You can then pull up the panel by pulling this notch.

Once you've powered on the machine, you'll need to follow step-by-step instructions to test your water hardness. Then you can add your coffee beans and get started. Just about everything you need can be accessed via a combination of the touch screen and rotary dial.

If you need any help setting up or maintaining your coffee machine, Jura offers Jura Live, an online personal advice program featuring product experts and live demonstrations. While setting up my machine, I booked a virtual session and a Jura expert walked me through the process, which I found to be extremely helpful.

If you're paying thousands of dollars for an appliance, you should be able to use the machine to its fullest extent and taking advantage of Jura Live can show you everything you need to know.

The Giga 6 is a next-level automated coffee machine. It can handle every step of the coffee-making process for you (aside from putting your coffee cup in place), but it takes a bit of time to get used to all the settings and figure out how you want your perfect coffee to be made. I actually enjoyed this part of the process a lot and I tried a lot of different styles of coffee.

The Giga 6 makes 28 different programmable drinks and can make two different coffees at a time. You can adjust both the temperature of the milk foam and the coffee strength to 10 different levels.

Most importantly, the coffee tasted amazing. I'm a long black and espresso drinker and I generally find automatic espresso machines leave a lot to be desired in terms of taste, especially when it comes to espressos. The Giga 6 tasted great every time and has forced me to reconsider my take on automated machines.

However, for a machine designed to make a lot of coffee, I had to empty the used coffee grounds container more often than I'd like, especially since removing the container is a bit fiddly.

Also, it sometimes runs out of water or beans while in the middle of making double-shot coffees and doesn't continue the coffee after it's refilled. A machine that costs this much should detect if it runs out before it starts making the coffee or should resume automatically as soon as it's refilled.

The Giga 6 uses artificial intelligence to track your coffee preferences and rearranges the coffee menu so that your preferred coffees are easier to access.

The Jura J.O.E. app allows you to make coffee before you get out of bed – as long as you remember to put a coffee cup in place before you go to bed. It's a fun party trick, but I didn't find it to be that much of a time saver since the machine makes coffee in seconds anyway.

Maintaining the Giga 6 is also mostly automatic. The display will notify you when it needs cleaning and it self-rinses when you power it on and off. However, you'll still need to physically clean some parts, including the drip tray and used coffee grounds container.

Should you buy the Jura Giga 6?

The Jura Giga 6 is an ultra-automatic coffee machine with every bell and whistle you could possibly want. The coffee it makes tastes so great that it's forced me to reconsider my opinion of automated coffee machines in general.

Unfortunately, it also costs $6,490. Unless you have an unlimited budget or are looking for a machine for an office, it's probably not worth the cost. If you're looking for a premium coffee machine for a lower price tag, Jura offers several other automated coffee machines for less than a third of the cost of the Giga 6.

Pricing and availability

Price

RRP: $6,500.00

Where to buy

Check availability at eBay

Check availability at Amazon

Specifications

Images: Sarah Brandon