The Breville Oracle Jet is a $2,000 computer that also makes coffee

There’s no feminine math in the world that can help me understand the Breville Oracle Jet, but it’s a real pleasure to use.

Like most gadgets I’ve tested, the $1,999.95 coffee maker has a touchscreen. It connects to a wireless network and receives software updates that way. But unlike most gadgets I’ve tested, the Jet is designed to shoot hot water at high pressure and turn it into coffee.

Jet is an improved version of Breville’s super-automatic Oracle espresso machine. It’s sort of a brother to my Breville Barista Express, but only in the sense of an older brother who left his humble hometown for a high-paying job in a big city. I’ve been testing it for a few weeks now, but more importantly, so has my husband.

I’m a firm believer that in every relationship there’s one person who is responsible for the coffee machine and one who doesn’t want to learn how to use it. In my family, I’m the coffee person, and my husband doesn’t use the Barista Express. I’ve tried to convince him that making an Americano is easy, but he remains intimidated, and if I’m not around to make him coffee, he insists that he can “just make a Keurig” and that it’s “fine.” Probably not.

The basic mechanics of the Oracle Jet are the same as my espresso machine—both grind coffee beans in a portafilter and brew them to make an espresso. But like Breville’s other super-automatic machines, the Oracle Jet grinder also tamps the ground beans, eliminating a manual step from the process. The graphical interface also walks you through the steps to make the drink. This makes the complicated process less intimidating, at least for my husband. After the tutorial, he successfully made an Americano on demand.

To me, a moderately knowledgeable coffee nerd, the Oracle Jet seems like beautiful overkill. It was surprisingly easy for me to let go of some of the process; the machine is probably more consistent in tamping or pressing the grounds just before brewing. It’s just so Pretty, too. There’s a light, so you can see what you’re doing. The drip tray is larger, so I can make more drinks before I have to pour it out. You can also add water to the reservoir at the front of the machine; with the Barista Express, I have to move the machine forward so I can reach the reservoir at the back.

As someone who likes control, I didn’t like to delegate other tasks to the machine. For one thing, changing the amount of ground espresso the Oracle Jet adds to the portafilter, or “dose,” is a real headache. Technically, you can do it, but it’s not very precise, and dialing in the espresso dose is a bit of a trial-and-error process. To keep things simple, Breville simply lets you adjust the grind size to control the dose.

I tinkered with the dosage a bit, but gave up and gave up on using a very coarse grind for my espresso; a finer grind and lower dosage would probably give me better, more consistent shots. It worked okay, but with more patience and beans to devote to the effort, I could have gotten better results.

Oracle Jet also introduces a new feature: cold espresso. This is not Cold, exactly — “None of these products on the market, including ours, have the ability to chill water,” Breville product manager Matthew Davis explained to me. Instead, the Oracle Jet takes room-temperature water from a reservoir, applies a little heat, lowers the temperature, and applies pressure to brew room-temperature shots. Having less ice melting in an iced latte makes for a more robust drink, which is something I appreciate at 3 p.m. on an 85-degree day.

Still—and this is definitely my problem—I don’t think I like the computer-ness of the Oracle Jet over my Barista Express. Using my coffee maker is one of the few times during the day when I can take a break from computers. The touchscreen is fine, but I’m still a staunch advocate of physical buttons. I’ve also seen this coffee maker download a software update over Wi-Fi, which is just crazy.

Connectivity has its advantages. This is Breville’s first Wi-Fi-enabled machine, and the company is just beginning to explore how it can use sensor data for remote troubleshooting diagnostics. But like any other computer, some repairs require access and skill, and that’s where things get a little more complicated.

I discovered that several local coffee machine repair shops in my Seattle area don’t service Breville machines—Espresso Repair Experts claims the company doesn’t make enough parts or technical documentation publicly available.

Davis says Breville’s approach focuses on building machines with the best long-term durability possible, while also making it easy to replace parts that wear out. That philosophy has kept my Barista Express running well so far, now a few years out of warranty. But it’s another factor to consider, and my machine’s replacement cost is $700, not $2,000.

Still, for someone who doesn’t mind using a computer in the middle of the day, it’s a hell of a machine. And boy, oh boy, can you spend more than $2,000 on a coffee machine? I probably won’t be switching to the Oracle Jet anytime soon, but if nothing else, testing it out has given me a better idea of ​​how involved I want to be when I make coffee. I don’t think I mind tamping my own grounds, which is probably a good thing—my Barista Express still works great, after all.

Photos by Allison Johnson/The Verge