Bonavita 5 Cup Coffee Maker: One-Touch Pour Over Brewing with Thermal Carafe for Delicious, Hot Coffee Every Time

Lynda Denier: Love it!!!!!!

Canada on Jul 19, 2023

Ethan DeckerEthan Decker: The machine's generally great. Simple. Quiet. Brews at the right temp. All that jazz.
But the carafe! Oy vey it's terrible. The worst part of the bad carafe design is that the plastic top section traps liquid in the carafe, so you can a) never pour out all the coffee and b) never drip-dry it completely (I use a towel to sop up the last bit). Who thunk that up?
Anyway, I have a SOLUTION to the BAD CARAFE DESIGN: The Adorever Milk Frothing Pitcher, 32oz: https://tinyurl.com/bdcnfj9t
Other similar ones (like the Zowie King) are just 0.2 in too high to fit. But this one fits perfect. And brews the max amount of water too.
So ditch the carafe & get a 32 oz/900ml 5.2in Adorever milk frothing pitcher.

United States on Jul 10, 2023

Randomroyalty: I have a Moccamaster KBG but now I'm the only one in the house drinking coffee. I only make 500ml, so there is a fair amount of babysitting with the Moccamaster when it comes to making smaller batches. You have to preheat the machine and leave the carafe out for 60-90 seconds to let the coffee steep, which results in an optimal brew time of about 3:30 to 4 minutes. Results are pretty outstanding but It is almost as much effort as manual pour over.

So I wanted a machine that could make smaller batches without a lot of effort (grind coffee, rinse filter, put in water and press start).

The Bonavita 5 cup certainly fit the bill on paper, but no matter what I do, the coffee is bitter. Coarser grind, less coffee to the point of underextraction, it doesn't matter. I am using fresh, lighter roast beans that has fruity notes but in this machine it tastes like Tim Hortons dark roast that has been sitting on the hot plate for way too long. Yuck. I suspect the brew temperature is too high.

On the positive side, it takes No 4 filters so if you have a larger capacity coffee maker you don't need to stock different types. Coffee comes out piping hot.

The machine itself...

Canada on Mar 14, 2021

Johnnie Neptune: I previously owned the 8 cup version and rarely used all 8 cups. If you are making coffee for more than one person, this 5 cup unit may not be enough. For me it is perfect. Bonavita is a high quality unit with no bells and whistles - no timers, keep warm functions, etc. It IS about getting the coffee to the higher temperature when brewing for delicious infused coffee. The latter is what is most important to me. I set it up at night so in the morning, all I have to do is push the button and wait 5 minutes. That is enough convenience - for me, it is all about the quality and that is why this gets 5 stars.

Canada on Oct 19, 2020

Gabriel: I have seen reviews claiming that it wasn't certified by the sca and that it was doing "bad coffee". This is incorrect. While this product did not recieve the certification that the 8 cup got, it brews at the exact same temperature using a 1 100 watt heating element. It consumes less electricity but still brews between 195-205f, i know, i tested the temperature. And for those who don't know, it wasn't certified because it only brews 25oz of coffee, the sca only certifies batch brewers that do 32oz and more.

The coffee maker is very simple to use and intuitive. You only have an on switch to push, that's it. The design of the way it brews is where it is considered a shortcoming: you have to place the basket on top of the open carafe and let the machine do its work. Then you should proceed to manually screw the lid and fine somewhere to drop the basket and let it cool down. Other than this weird design choice, it's an incredibly intuitive machine to use.

It brews excellent coffee, provided you have a quality burr grinder, a precise scale and quality beans and by quality, i mean those more expensive beans selling at around $21,50 the 300g. As long as you invest in...

Canada on Jun 16, 2020

John: My last coffee maker lasted 20 years (RIP Cara Mia). At first I was not so impressed with this new machine: too finicky, too messy. Finally I realized my grumbles had more to do with me having to retrain my body to make coffee while still half asleep. Now after a week I'm happy; I have the little dance: rinse and warm the pot, this much water, this much grounds, this is how you pour...

First the little quibbles, minor things really:
- How to get water into the reservoir? What to do with the dripping basket when you screw the lid on? My answer is a wide mouth jar that measures the perfect amount of water, and on which the drippy coffee basket sits nicely. (Thank you Adams peanut butter)
- Five cups, to me, is an odd number. I drink exactly two mugs in the morning, about 870 ml or 30 fl oz. Happily I've found I can over-fill the reservoir to the proper 6 cups/2 mugs without problems.
- Like every coffee machine ever made the carafe drips when you pour. The answer is patience (pour slower) and technique (hold your wrist like this).
- The cord is too short. I've had to rearrange my counter-top for this. (grrr)

<EDIT> After using this for a while, two...

Canada on Sep 10, 2018

Paul Rako: I am not a coffee snob. I drink it with milk. I use Folgers decaf. I refuse to grind my own beans. I prefer to let billion-dollar multinational corporations do the grinding for me. I used to plop three heaping tablespoons of Folgers into a cut-open plastic jug and pour my reverse-osmosis filtered water over it. Then I put it my microwave for 14 minutes. I drained the coffee through a Brawny paper towel into a 30oz Balfor thermal mug I got on Amazon. OK, so a bit savage and feral, but I didn't want to be a total suburbanite with a coffee machine. The Bonavita BV1500TS brews in one-third the time. I bought one of those gold-tone permanent filters so no drinking paper residue. I was delighted to see Bonavita is thoughtful enough to put a 4-pack of filters in the box, so I didn't have to wait for the permanent filter to arrive. I was sure my low-temperature microwave method would be less bitter, but it was the exact opposite. The Bonavita made perfect coffee, and it was my goofy old method that made the coffee taste bad.

There is a review on CNET, "Bonavita BV1500TS review: A high-end brand's step-down coffeemaker brews with bitter results," by Brian Bennett. He claims this...

United States on Oct 14, 2017

Clinton Webb: I got this on an "open box" deal for $66, and for that price it's impossible to beat. For the list price it's still quite good but possibly more difficult to justify. I would say for what I paid, it's a five star product. For the over $100 list price, it's closer to four stars. Read on for my detailed thoughts.

I've worked at a few coffee shops, done cuppings with roasters, tried many different brewing techniques, roasted my own beans, etc, so I've definitely tried plenty of good coffee. This coffee is good. When you pay more for a drip machine, you're essentially buying consistency -- water temperature, volume, brew time, where the water is distributed over the grounds, all of these things matter, and make a difference in the flavors that end up in your cup. So while a $10 walmart dripper just indiscriminately dumps some moderately hot water over your precious coffee, a more expensive maker will control these variables with greater and greater precision. It's possible a moccamaster is more precise, but I don't have experience with one. I can say that the coffee the bonavita produces compares favorably with the extremely expensive, top of the line fetco machines (with...

United States on Aug 20, 2016