On the Preparation of Coffee

1) Turn it on!

I, like most users that I interviewed and/or watched, first apprached the knobs on the front of the machine. This seems reasonable, but in fact is incorrect.

2) A Message!

After a while, the machine requested that we change the filter, which is the light blue cylinder in the back of the water tank. We've been filling it with filtered water this whole time and the general consensus is that this is a ploy to get us to give Jura $25 + shipping. Our water is pretty clean (though during training on the ICP-AES with Tim at CSME he hinted otherwise).

It now incessantly flashes "filter," which is obnoxious, but it still works.

3) Fill it up (with water)

Some days I feel like chance and fortune have it in for me and I'm always the one who has to fill the tank. I've talked to other users and they often feel this way too.

4) Rinsing

Again, the machine self rinses after heating up. This rinse occurs without warning and often startles first time users, who have unsuspectingly placed their coffee mug under the spout and now have rinse water to empty.

It rinses on shutdown as well.

5) Fill it up (with beans)

Heavily roasted beans are often too light to enter the grinder and jam, requiring the user to agitate the beans. This can be a hassle and is one of the reasons why dark roasted beans are strongly discouraged. The other reasons why dark roasted beans are strongly discouraged are that they taste terrible and have burned away some of the caffine.

6) Select the style

It appears that Jura and myself have different definitions of the phrase "Extra Strong."

At a minimum I do a serving of "Extra" espresso into a serving of "Extra" coffee. Often times I'll do two espresso servings.

7) Empty Grounds

The used grounds have to go somewhere, and most of them make it into a container that has to ocassionally be emptied.

Slide out the tray and dump them in the garbage. This is pretty easy.

7) Empty Rinse

If you don't have a cup to catch the rinse water this tray fills up fast and get's really nasty. Even if you do have a cup to catch the rinse water the tray fills up fast and get really nasty.

The geometry is terrible for pouring and often you'll spill.

8) Peer into the abyss

Now that you have the tray out, you may be tempted to look into the cavity and see where all the rinse was coming from. Most users just put the tray back.

9) Residue

This is where the used grounds that don't make it into the container go. It's awfully difficult to clean all the way back there.

Here we see an ongoing biology experiment.