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

There’s no girl math in the world that can make the Breville Oracle Jet make sense for me, but boy is it nice to use.

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

The Jet is an update to Breville’s high-end Oracle superautomatic machine. It’s kind of a sibling to my Breville Barista Express, but only in the sense of an older sibling who left their modest hometown and got a high-powered job in the big city. I’ve been testing it for the past couple of weeks, but more importantly, so has my husband.

I’m convinced that in every relationship there’s one person in charge of the coffee machine and one person who chooses not to learn how to use it. In my family, I am the coffee person, and my husband does not engage with the Barista Express. I’ve tried to convince him that making an Americano is straightforward, but he remains intimidated, and unless I’m around to make him a coffee, he insists that he can “just make a Keurig” and that it’s “fine.” Hardly.

The basic mechanics of the Oracle Jet are the same as my machine — they both grind coffee beans into a portafilter and brew them to make espresso. But like Breville’s other superautomatic machines, the Oracle Jet’s grinder also tamps the grinds, removing a manual step from the process. The graphical interface also guides you through the steps of making your drink. It makes a complex process less intimidating, or at least it did for my husband. After a tutorial, he was making Americanos successfully on demand.

As for me, a moderately knowledgeable coffee nerd, the Oracle Jet feels like beautiful overkill. I had a surprisingly easy time letting go of some of the process; a machine is probably more consistent at tamping, or pressing down on the grinds just before brewing, anyway. It’s just so nice, too. There’s a light so you can see what you’re doing. The drip tray is bigger, so I can make more drinks before I have to dump it out. You can also add water to the tank from the front of the machine; on the Barista Express, I have to scoot the machine forward so I can reach the reservoir at the back.

Being a control freak, I didn’t love turning over other jobs to the machine. For one, it’s a pain in the butt to change the amount of ground espresso the Oracle Jet adds to the portafilter, or the “dose.” Technically, you can, but it’s imprecise, and dialing in espresso shots is already a trial-and-error process. To keep things simple, Breville just has you adjust your grind coarser or finer to control your shots.

I tinkered with the dose a little but gave up and resigned to using a very coarse grind for my espresso; a finer grind and smaller dose probably would have given me better, more consistent shots. It worked alright, but with more patience and beans to commit to the effort, I could have gotten better results.