Review on ☕ Bonavita 5-Cup Stainless Steel Thermal Carafe Coffee Brewer with One-Touch Function by Jeremiah Whiteley

I've tried - and failed miserably - to make a decent cup of coffee at home. From the late 80s. Two coffee machines. French press. watering. I grind the beans myself, beans handpicked by the elves, roasted under the rainbow and brought to the shop by the unicorns. No matter what I try, it always tastes terrible. Is always. And my standards aren't high: My favorite coffee has always come from donut shops and Denny's, as well as the rare specialty store that serves a decent cup of dark, smooth coffee that's not bitter or sour. The house is in the outback - and while we have a great cafe, it closes very early - and it cost me a fortune. And with no Dennys or donut shops nearby, it was time to exorcise my coffee demons once and for all and start making coffee at home. After a lot of research I bought the Bonavita 5 cup despite the bad reviews. The large Bonavita TS1900 was highly acclaimed, but large coffee makers often don't do 4 cups very well and I wanted the coffee maker to be optimized for small batches. 50% like the guy who bought the Brooklyn Bridge. The coffee maker just heats the water and drips onto the beans - why would it cost 14 times more than a similar machine at WalMart? But coffee snobs seemed to think Bonavita was magical, so I took a chance. When the unit arrived I made my first batch of fine grains from my local gourmet market. And also. it was horrible: no wonderful, freshly brewed scent, strong, dull. And it was warm. WARM! The main reason I bought the Bonavita was that it could brew beer at 195-205 degrees, but I didn't see a way to adjust the temperature. The FAQ on the Bonavita website doesn't say anything, nor does the user manual, so I called tech support. No reply so I left a message. And then he demanded a refund from Revane. I knew there would be no way to adjust the temperature and 195-205 is a wide range when brewing coffee - a Brazen unit would allow me to adjust the water temperature in 1 degree increments. This device will definitely come back. But the next morning the unexpected happened: Bonavita called me back. The first thing I asked tech support for was grinding my grains. It turns out so small - no, no, the rougher the better. I was also advised to make a full 5 cups if I wanted the coffee to be hot. And let the hot water sit in the carafe for a minute or two before brewing. And buy a coffee spoon. Also, as I suspected, there was no way to adjust the water temperature. I was skeptical but decided to experiment before sending the device back. I bought more beans, ground one batch at the drip grind and the other batch at the coarse grind. I also bought a coffee spoon and a thermometer to measure the temperature of the water. With the drip grinder, my next batch of coffee was amazing. Strong, soft, not bitter, not sour. The best coffee I've ever made, possibly the best I've ever had. FYI, I measured the temperature of the water while it was brewing and it was a few degrees below 200. Unfortunately, Denny's Donut Shop and coffee taste terrible to me now. And coffee at work. Let's just say I got in touch with UN human rights activists. I can't justify buying a second Bonavita for my office, so I tried Presto My Joe: a lot of work for a bloody awful cup of coffee. My coffee snobbish friend brought his Aeropress. Better than My Joe, but not by much. And just in case, I tried the Cuisenart coffee maker - same beans, same grind, tart taste. Now, thanks to the TS1500 and the lovely tech support girl at Bonavita, all I can do is drink homemade coffee.