Bonavita8 Cup Drip Coffee Maker Machine, One-Touch Pour Over, Auto Pause Brewing with Stainless Steel Double Wall Thermal Carafe, SCA Certified, Dishwasher Safe, BV1901TS

I am a pretty serious coffee snob - I have a lot of coffee making apparatus (pour over, chemex) and an elaborate espresso machine setup, as well as multiple grinders. I never thought I would actually own an automatic coffee machine but when it came time to buy one I asked my coffee geek friends and they consistently recommended the Bonavita as one of the top choices. It was also the most affordable among the choices they recommended (the others being the Technivorm Moccamaster, the Ratio Eight, Ratio Six, and various others). That said it costs more than many other mainstream brand coffee makers.But here's the thing - this machine works like a charm, and it does exactly what a good coffee maker should. It heats the water up to the right temperature, pre-infuses (if you turn that mode on which I do), and evenly distributes the water to saturate the coffee grounds, and extract a delicious pot of coffee. It's quick, easy, and makes consistently flavorful coffee.The thermal carafe keeps the coffee hot for a long time, I've had no issues with that at all - but as others have pointed out you do need to put the lid on right after the pot is done brewing because you cannot brew with the lid on, and obviously heat escapes quickly without the lid on. Others have complained about pouring with the lid off, and even some complain about pouring with the lid on. I haven't found either to be an issue, you just have to sort of get the hang of it.I've made dark and light roasts with different grinds (coarser and finer) and been quite happy with the results. A good burr grinder is a must obviously, but these days you can get a good one for relatively little (I am using a Breville and it works like a charm).I'd strongly recommend this to serious coffee drinkers - it's a bit of a no-frills design but it's the best automated version of pour over I've found and if you care more about the flavor of your coffee than bells and whistles, this is a great machine for you.

It has been 6 years since I bought this coffee maker by Bonavita. It has been simple to keep clean and it makes great tasting coffee at the perfect temperature: that temperature accuracy is key to good tasting coffee. The only downside I've encountered is that the carafe does not keep coffee warm enough for an extended period of time and 8 cups is a bit small here: we finish a pot quickly enough that it's not really a problem. It's still going strong: build quality and durability are a plus. It has increased in price by $50 here on Amazon in those 6 years, mostly a reflection of general inflation than anything else. It is simplicity itself and highly recommended.

Let me start by saying I love Bonavita. I got my first one 8+ years ago, after hearing and reading about them, and how highly rated they were. I ordered a BV1800 and was very impressed. Mr. Coffee went to the storage closet to await emergency use. Well, after 8 years, the Bonavita carafe somehow developed a crack in the glass despite how careful I always was with it. Shortly after, the carafe actually lost a big chunk of the rim and even though various BV1800-owners commented on the internet that their choice of glass replacement carafe worked for them, I ordered and returned several that did not fit. And since the unit is out of production, I couldn't just order another BV1800.So that's how I ended up ordering the Bonavita Connoisseur 8 cup One Touch, after much research. My immediate reaction was to appreciate the looks of the coffeemaker. It looks really snazzy, though taking up a bigger portion of countertop real estate than the BV1800. It makes really good coffee, just like the other one, and delivers a piping hot brew in short order. But there are significant differences, some good and some bad.First off, the Connoisseur does not have a heat plate to keep brewed coffee hot. Instead, it relies on a really nice insulated metal thermos-like carafe to hold hot brewed coffee. But there are issues with that. Please note that this coffeemaker has a slide-in basket-style filter holder that suspends the brewing coffee above the carafe; that is kind of a handy idea. The BV1800 has a glass carafe that sits on a warming plate and a separate drip-down style filter holder, using cone type filters, sits on top of the carafe, just under the hot water "shower" that drizzles the coffee with steamy hot water. And it flows through the filter quickly, allowing you to pull out the carafe right after the brew cycle stops. The new Connoisseur, on the other hand, beeps after the water has finished going into the filter holder, making you think you could remove the carafe and pour some coffee. However, it continues to slowly drip coffee into the open carafe (you can't screw on the top of the carafe to hold in the heat until the carafe is off the coffeemaker). It takes so long before you can safely remove the carafe without having coffee drip down onto the recess that holds the carafe, and running onto the counter, that you loose a good deal of the heat in the carafe before you can withdraw it and screw on the carafe top. If you do manage to do that, the coffee isn't as hot as I like it once you get some poured, and it doesn't remain drinkably hot in the carafe for any length of time.Now, let me qualify all of that by describing my particular situation. I am the only coffee drinker in the house, so I brew just 4 cups (or about 2 1/2 mugs) of coffee at a time. And since I always took coffee with me to work (before I retired), my practice was to preheat a Stanley 24-ounce metal coffee thermos with hot water while the coffee brewed and then replace the hot water with hot coffee before screwing down the top and cap. That would keep coffee steamy and hot all day. So that's what I did whenever I made coffee (and still do), whether I was going to work on weekdays, or it was a weekend, or (as now) I'm retired. I can still enjoy hot coffee all day, even if it needs a quick zap in the microwave, once poured. But if you make a pot of coffee for multiple coffee drinkers, and plan to pour it all around once it's brewed, then the Connoissuer model may work for you. Or maybe you have the patience to wait for all the coffee to drip into the carafe and then have it be only sort of hot once poured. But to me, the significant advantage of the Bonavita system is hot, really good, coffee that is quickly brewed. My disappointment is that the Connoisseur doesn't deliver the same brew in the same way as the old BV1800.One final note: if you have the old BV1800 and need a new carafe, I found (finally) that the Melitta 52-oz. Pour Over Brewing Cone with Glass Carafe will work pretty well with your old BV1800, except the brewing cone is too tall to fit. So instead, I just used the plastic cone filter holder I already had, which was just short enough to sit atop the Melitta carafe and fit into the Bonavita BV1800 coffeemaker. It is still available on Amazon (Fino Pour-Over Coffee Brewing Filter Cone, Number 4-Size, Black, Brews 8 to 12-Cups).