Let us guess—one of the first thoughts that cross your mind when you wake up is, when am I going to drink my first cup of Joe? With over half [1] of American adults consuming coffee each day, coffee culture isn’t going away anytime soon.
As much as you may love your local coffee shop, purchasing coffee every day adds up, so it might have you thinking about buying your own coffee brewer. However, with so many coffee makers on the market, sorting through them all can feel overwhelming.
If the Bonavita Connoisseur has been on your mind, you’ve come to the right place. Our Bonavita BV1901TS review will help you determine whether it’s the right fit for you. It’s also on our best drip coffee makers list.
Before we dive into the nitty-gritty details of this Bonavita BV1900TS review, let’s cover a few essential facts about this drip coffee machine.
Pros:
- Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) certified
- Pour-over brewing method
- Quick brewing, it makes 8 cups of coffee in around 6 minutes
- Simple design with a one-touch brew button
Cons:
- Coffee doesn’t stay hot for long if you brew in smaller batches
Now that we’ve covered the basics let’s look at the many wonderful features (as well as a couple of not-so-great aspects) that the Bonavita Connoisseur offers.
Design
The sleek Bonavita Connoisseur has a minimalistic design, making it a great addition to contemporary kitchens. There isn’t anything flashy about it; its neutral silver and black colors mean that it blends well with most décor.
At just over 12 inches long and 12 inches high, this isn’t the most compact coffee maker on the market. However, it produces a stunning eight cups of coffee and is only 6.8 inches deep, so it won’t take up endless space on your kitchen counter.
Designers created the Bonavita Connoisseur coffee maker with simplicity in mind. It has a one-touch switch and doesn’t come with countless bells and whistles—just hot coffee you can rely on brew after brew. While we’re on the topic of hot coffee, the stainless steel thermal carafe will keep your cup of Joe steaming for up to two hours.
Brew Capacity
The Bonavita BV1901TS makes an impressive eight cups of coffee in only around six minutes. The exact length of the brew will depend on your voltage, as six minutes assumes that you have a voltage of 120V. However, places like California and the Northeast can have voltages as low as 104V, so don’t worry if your coffee takes a bit over six minutes to brew.
It has an 8-gallon capacity water tank, and the stainless steel thermal carafe holds 1.3 liters (about one-third of a gallon).
To make your life easier during early mornings, you can brew a smaller batch of coffee. However, since the carafe lid has to remain off during the brewing cycle, and the Bonavita Connoisseur relies on an 8-cup batch of coffee for better heat retention, you may find that your coffee cools down quicker.
For this reason, we recommend the Bonavita Connoisseur coffee brewer for people who regularly need to brew multiple cups of coffee.
Brew Performance
Bonavita Connoisseur brews high-quality coffee that meets the Specialty Coffee Association’s (SCA) Golden Cup Standard. The highly regarded Golden Cup coffee involves ensuring that coffee has a total dissolved solids between 11.5 – 13.5 grams per liter. Those numbers translate to a soluble extraction yield anywhere from 18 – 22%. It may sound like a lot of technical jargon, but we guarantee that your tastebuds know the difference!
By using a pour-over brewing method, you’ll feel like you’re brewing an artisan cup of coffee from your home. Below are some other must-know facts about this coffee brewer.
Brewing temperature
It brews the coffee at 195°- 205°F (91°-96°C), which is the coffee industry’s standard for the brewing temperature. Thanks to a powerful 1500-watt heater, it can retain this carefully balanced temperature range during the brewing process.
Brew time
The Bonavita coffee maker is very quick, allowing you to brew 8 cups in around only 6 minutes.
Additional features for making better coffee
Bonavita features the pre-infusion mode. By doing so, your coffee maker will temporarily stop the water flow. That way, it allows time for the coffee grounds to absorb the water, which helps foster a richer tasting brew. It’s the same as the blooming process we use in the manual pour-over brewing methods. By using a showerhead design, the coffee grounds will have an even saturation. That, in conjunction with a flat-bottom brew basket, ensures that the coffee grounds undergo a uniform flavor extraction.
Ease of Use
Ease of use is at the forefront of Bonavita’s mission. They know that coffee lovers want quick, easy access to coffee when they first wake up or when they’re looking for a pick-me-up when pulling an all-nighter to hand in an assignment.
One-touch brewing and an audible signal when your coffee is ready make this coffee maker a breeze to use. You can easily fill up the coffee maker with water by flipping open the tank cover and pouring water into the wide mouth. It uses the common basket-style coffee filters that you can easily find in grocery stores or supermarkets.
You can’t pre-set this drip coffee maker, but that’s a good thing for people wanting simplicity. There’s a single button to turn it on. If you’d like to take advantage of the pre-infusion setting, simply hold the switch down for five seconds.
When you want to clean your coffee machine, there aren’t many parts you’ll need to fuss over; just toss the plastic carafe lid, filter basket, and showerhead in the dishwasher.
To keep the coffee machine in the best condition, you are suggested to descale the machine once every three months. The descaling process is also easy, just pour the cleaning powder to the water reservoir and brew, then repeat twice with fresh water.
Durability
The Bonavita Connoisseur one-touch coffee maker has a stainless steel construction, so you can expect it to last you a long time, provided you perform occasional cleaning maintenance. It has a 1-year limited warranty that covers issues such as water leakages, water not following into the filter, and vacuum seal problems.
In today’s throwaway culture, you’ll be happy to know that you can purchase a replacement part if a portion of your coffee maker breaks instead of you having to buy a brand new one. You can buy the part through their official website. If you can’t find what you need there, Bonavita invites you to email their customer support team.
Speaking of customer support, you can contact them via email or one of two phone numbers they have for their North American clients. It’s also possible to message them directly via a form on their website.
Value for Money
Compared to other drip coffee makers, the Bonavita BV1901TS is priced in the middle range. Usually, the price tag will be higher for the SCA-certified drip coffee makers, since they really make better coffee.
Thanks to its simplistic design, it’s perfect for someone who doesn’t want to pay for all the bells and whistles of a coffee maker with tons of settings. However, it still offers high-quality brewing with a pour-over brewing method that’s often a feature in higher-priced coffee makers.
If you’re wanting a coffee maker that can produce quick cups of coffee for up to eight people at once, and don’t mind that it doesn’t have lots of extra features, then the Bonavita Connoisseur might be an excellent fit for you.
Additional Features
Bonavita Connoisseur knows that consumers are more health-conscious now than ever before. For this reason, they’ve created their plastic carafe lid, filter basket, and shower head to be free of BPA.
In previous models, consumers complained that the Bonavita Connoisseur didn’t retain enough heat after it brewed the coffee. Bonavita heard them out and produced the BV1901TS, which retains heat better thanks to a stainless steel thermal carafe. That said, if you brew less than a full pot of coffee or if you live in a high-altitude area, long heat retention isn’t a guarantee.
If you’re the type that prefers the look of a glass carafe, you’re in luck. Bonavita offers the option to purchase a double-walled glass carafe with a warming plate instead of the standard stainless steel variety.
Bonavita understands that consumers have different needs, so they designed their Connoisseur coffee brewers to fit two different interests. Before making the buying decision, you may want to know the differences between these two models. The BV1901TS is a newer version, but both versions are the same in most features except for the following two notable differences.
- The BV1901TS lets you slide the filter basket in the showerhead. On the other hand, with the 1900TS, you place the filter basket on top of the carafe.
- BV1901TS has a carafe capacity of 1.3 liters, while BV1900TS has a larger carafe capacity of 1.7 liters.
If you’re unsure of which to choose, know that both are excellent machines. You can choose either of them with confidence that you’ll be receiving coffee brewed to Golden Cup Standard.
The Verdict – One Of The Best Performance Drip Coffee Makers
The Bonavita 8-cup coffee maker is a coffee powerhouse wrapped up in a simple design. It’s great for coffee lovers who want an SCA-certified drip coffee maker to have a better quality cup of coffee straight from their home.
It’s no secret that coffee has health benefits when consumed in moderation. Since drinking as much as four cups of coffee per day can reduce your risk of getting type 2 diabetes by 25% [2], you might not need a large family or party gathering to justify bringing home an 8-cup Bonavita Connoisseur coffee maker.
References:
[1] https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/multimedia-article/benefits/
[2] https://www.coffeeandhealth.org/hcp-resources/type2diabetes-4/
