Mike, absolutely it is possible. And no, you don’t need to reinstall CF to upgrade the JVM version. It’s much easier than that. I’ll tell you how to do it in a moment.
First, note that you do need to make sure you have first installed the update (to CF) that permits it to run with that java version you want to run. In the case of CF10, you’d need to be on at least update 14. Adobe has a blog post explaining that (what version of CF supports what version of Java):
http://blogs.coldfusion.com/post.cfm/which-jdk-is-supported-with-coldfusion-9-10-and-11
As for how to do it, you really just need to download and install the right JVM (a JDK is preferable though not always required). Then you tell CF to use that. It’s a 2 minute job, but there are some ins and outs to beware of. Your best bet is to watch the 13 minute video Pete Freitag has done on it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzC31EAlZ8Y
Check out also some comments I add there for some problems people may hit, especially in the move to 8 in particular.
Finally, when you’re about to do the upgrade, while it is a 2-minute job, and more likely to be successful if you watch that video and read those comments, there are still other problems you could hit, which I cover here:
http://www.carehart.org/blog/client/index.cfm/2014/12/11/help_I_updated_CFs_JVM_and_it_wont_start
If you’re the careful type, you’ll want to read it first. If you’re more of the “I’ll cross that bridge when I get there” type, you’ll want to at least have it open and at the ready to help you recover quickly. 
Hope that’s helpful.
/charlie