Jura ENA Micro 1 vs Jura A1 – The Best Friend Of Small-Usage Coffee Purists

There seems to be three main schools of home coffee drinkers; those who enjoy the regular Instant Coffee and (now and then) a sachet of Creamy Instant Cappuccino. Then we have our mid-level coffee drinker who makes use of perhaps a coffee plunger, or invests in a little Capsule Coffee Machine. Then we have our big-league coffee drinkers, who expect café-quality coffee, 24/7.

There is no shame in falling into any of those categories – or one we shudder to mention – the “Non coffee drinkers” (are you really out there?) But for those who fall in to the latter category of café-quality-coffee-loving, and even more refined in taste to be classified as a coffee purist- we have a treat for you.

Jura has launched the A1 as their gift to us for January. Let’s weigh it up against it’s predecessor – the ENA Micro 1 – to see what has been improved on, changed – and what has stayed the same.

Jura ENA Micro 1

We’ve got our full review on the Jura ENA Micro 1 located right here, but to summarise:

The ENA Micro 1 is a coffee purists side-kick, with a single bean hopper reaching capacity at 125grams. It’s accompanied by a 1.1 litre water tank and is capable of making Espresso, Ristretto and regular coffee.

It has a basic symbol display for ease of use- no fancy bells and whistles. The ENA Micro 1 ensures great extraction with the Aroma+ grinder. Where does she fall short? There is no programmable switch-off time, so you ultimately run the risk of wasting electricity if you forget to turn the machine off.

Jura A1

Again, you can find our full-length review of the Jura A1 right here, but if we take every feature I mentioned about the ENA Micro 1 and add two stand-out, additional features, we can accurately compare these machines as “apples against apples”.

The Jura A1 has improved on the ENA Micro1 with the introduction of Jura’s key-technology – P.E.P (Pulse Extraction Process) – which means that this machine is even better geared towards its specific target market. A coffee purist will love the pact that their coffee is now extracted with the technology Jura has introduced only into its higher-end machines – until now.

Also, the grinder has improved tenfold. The introduction of the Aroma G3 Grinder means your beans don’t get the chance to lose any aroma, as they are ground twice as fast as the conventional Aroma + grinder ever could

Jura ENA Micro 1 vs Jura A1

In short:

The Verdict – Jura ENA MIcro 1 vs Jura A1

As we can see – there are literally three major differentiating factors between these two machines:

1. The grinder. If your palette is refined to the point of being able to detect the subtleties and nuances of how fresh a bean is, this may be a deciding factor.
2. The P.E.P technology. Again, if this is a technology you have found brings better quality to your coffee, consider the absence and presence respectively.
3. Pricing – a thousand rand difference between he two machines. It’s really up to you, the aesthetic is almost identical.