Bonavita BV-1800 Automatic Coffee Brewer - First Look (Part 1)

What is the big deal about water temperature - if you brew coffee with water that is too hot you just have to wait longer for it to cool down, right? Wrong - you use water that is too cool and you miss the full extraction potential.  Not as big a deal with darker roasts, but drop some change on a Cup of Excellence that really is excellent (another topic for another blog on another day) and light roasted and you will beg for 200+ degree water to milk those pricey strings of molecular goodness that create the flavor so sought after by us cafficianado's.

The reason why pour over can create a beautiful cup rests in several variables, and great high temperature control is one of these key variables.  Today I enjoyed a pot of coffee brewed on a Technivorm 741 MoccaMaster.  This brewer will climb to 200 degrees and settle in above 200 for the entire brewing process. Combine this with a nice cone filter and you have an efficient automation of the Melitta pour over #4 filter cone.  Not much in the coffee maker world can pull this off.  There is another one though.

Technivorm was born in 1969 from what I could gather on the internets. Melitta beat them to market by four years - the Model 120 auto drip was introduced in 1965 and was capable of Technivorm like performance before there was a Technivorm. This design evolved into the Model 132 Deluxe and later in the 1970's shrunk to create the still available Aromaboy 4 cup brewer. Where is this machine now? Not in America, that's where...

Till now.

The Melitta name is licensed to Hamilton Beach in the USA so unfortunately the Melitta Aroma Excellence has been unavailable in this country even though it enjoys great popularity in other regions of the planet. Enter Bonavita - this brewer is new to our market but the Bonavita Automatic Brewer is in essence a 110v Melitta Aroma Excellence - which is a very good thing to be.  I have the chance tomorrow to test this brewer against the new kid on the block - 1960's style - it will go head to head with the Technivorm and I will make sure to fill everyone in on the results.