Bonavita

Photo by Bonavita

With super-premium small-batch coffees like Ceremony in Annapolis selling for $15 for 12 ounces, I realized it was time to move on from my dinky little Mr. Coffee coffeemaker. I've been so happy with my Capresso conical burr grinder after a Sur La Table sales assistant recommended it, I decided to follow their advice on the coffeemaker as well and plunked down the hefty purchase price for Bonavita.

This German-engineered appliance gets a lot of praise on the Web as well. It heats the water a little hotter, getting it in the 195-05-degree range considered ideal for making coffee. It has a great spray nozzle that covers the whole filter. One of my problems with the Mr. Coffee was that it wasn't reaching all of the coffee, which was simply too expensive for that kind of neglect. I've found that I use much less coffee with the Bonavita, and of course it tastes much, much better.

Other features I like are that the thermal carafe is lined with glass -- which conserves the heat much better than the all-metal thermal carafe in my old Krups. Also, the carafe has no lid during the brewing process. One of my issues with the Krups was the brewed coffee had to go through the little opening created by the pressure of the lid against the filter bottom, and I felt it got gummed up with old coffee that affected the taste.

So there's no drip-stop function to take the pot out earlier if you're in a hurry, but the whole brewing process is just 6 to 8 minutes. Bonavita is serious in other respects, too. There's no timer. Serious coffee drinkers don't load up their coffee the night before so it can get stale overnight and be there when the timer goes off.

Truly serious coffee drinkers don't believe in any automatic coffeemaker. They insist on pour-over or French press (or Turkish). I've had experience with all these, including the Chemex pour-over. I will probably get a small porcelain filter-holder and kettle to brew individual cups of coffee in the afternoon. Bonavita wants you to make at least 6 cups to get the best result and I don't want two 6-cup pots of coffee a day.