Video Overview | Bonavita BV1901GW 8-Cup Coffee Maker w/ Hot Plate
Poised to become a new favorite in homes and cafes alike, Bonavita’s BV1901GW is an automatic coffee brewer with impressive capabilities. It features a shallow flat bottomed brew basket for a more even extraction, an optional pre-infusion state that allows coffee to bloom before full infusion, and a heating plate that’ll keep your coffee prepped and ready to serve. Want to see it in action? Discover everything you need to know about the BV1901GW as Steve shows off this remarkable brewer.
Transcript
Hey. It's Steve with Prima Coffee here. Today, we're taking a look at Bonavita's 1901GW Automatic Coffee Maker. Now, this is basically the sister to the BV 1900TS. It is a glass carafe model with a heating pad, instead of a thermal carafe. So that's kind of nice for people who, you know, maybe don't want to keep your coffee super-hot, super-long, and you'll go through a 40-ounce pot pretty quickly. But everything else here, there's a lot to love. It's basically an automatic coffee maker for specialty coffee enthusiasts. We have a pretty powerful heating element. I already kind of mentioned that we have a 40-ounce capacity. So that's 8 5-ounce cups or about 1.3 liters. We have a redesigned showerhead that's going to give more even distribution of water over the coffee grounds. So that's great. You're going to get a really even saturation, good extraction with all of your favorite coffees.
Non-stick coated warming plate (keeps coffee warm for 40 minutes)
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Again, just like the BV 1900, we have these basket-style filters. So a nice, flat bottom, which will give some good pooling during extraction. It's going to help encourage more evenness, again. That coffee will kind of sit and mingle a little bit better as it's draining and brewing. As I said, we have this 40-ounce glass carafe. Now, what's really interesting about this brewer is we also have some optional carafes that we can use, including Bonavita's double-wall insulated glass carafe. So this actually comes... This is an optional product, and it comes with a little brewing ring. So I can take my filter basket and click it into place, and then I'm ready to just slide it right in and I can brew into an insulated carafe, instead of the plain glass carafe. Now, obviously, an insulated carafe is not going to take advantage of the heat plate. So you can just take this off when it's done. You can snap the lid on in place, and you'll have 40 ounces of coffee that'll stay warm for about an hour, maybe an hour and a half.
We do recommend preheating these glass carafes. But back to the sort of standard carafe. Take that little ring off. As I said, we do have a hot plate. That will stay on for about 40 minutes after the brew cycle is finished. So once your coffee is done, it'll stay there for about 40 minutes at a pretty good, hot temperature. Too much longer than that and your coffee is going to start to go a little bit stale anyway. So that's a pretty good time, especially if you're really focusing on those, like, third-wave coffees that have great kind of floral aromatics that don't really last that long anyway. Now, again, if you're using this with, like, really good, kind of specialty coffees, you might be interested to know that there are two brewing styles for this brewer. The standard brewing mode, just Mode One, I guess you can call it, heats the water, sprays the water, pretty much statically the entire time. However, if you want to take advantage of the second brewing mode, you can hold down the Power button for about five seconds. It's going to give you two beeps to let you know that you're in Mode Two.
And now, you're in what's called Pre-Infusion Mode. And what that's going to do is as the brew cycle starts, it's going to sort of pulse that first portion, which is going to more slowly add water to the coffee grounds. It's going to allow them to bloom, and it's going to allow them to saturate a little bit longer than it might in the Mode One. So Mode Two is really great if you're using really fresh coffees that might have a little bit more gas to them. So they can off-gas, and they can bloom a little bit more. That way you don't have an overflowing brew basket. It's also really good if you have like lighter roast coffees or coffees that are a little bit more delicate. That way you can give them a little bit more time to steep and extract, and really get that flavor or the complexity that you're looking out of those coffees. So really, really easy to get to that mode, and just as easy to switch back. I'm going to leave it here for now, and I'm going to show you what a brew cycle looks like. I'm going to take... I have the carafe lid I've been keeping in the basket there. I'm going to take... I have 35 grams of coffee here, and I've already got my water added. I'm just going to give that a shake to settle it. Now, the 1900 Series are all one-touch brewers. So in order to start the brew cycle, I just need to push that button once. Now, it is a spring-loaded button and the brewer does need to be plugged in, in order to start brewing.
So unfortunately, you can't put the 1901 on a timer. There are timer models that Bonavita makes for their brewers. However, this specific model cannot be put on a timer. That's a little unfortunate, but it just means that you have to be there to grind the coffee and hit the button yourself. Now, my brew cycle is going to start shortly, and as I'm in that Mode Two, the Pre-Infusion Mode, it's going to start basically by pulsing the water over the coffee grounds. It'll do that a few times. The grounds will get nice and saturated, and then it'll kind of go into full gear, the normal spraying of water over the coffee grounds to finish the brew cycle. So for this coffee, and especially for... I'm doing about 600 milliliters, which is less than half a pot. Especially, for a smaller brew like that, that's really great, because that gives you a little extra contact time. I've already ground finer to take advantage of the greater surface area, get a little bit more extraction out of the coffee. But slowing down the brew is very helpful as well, just in terms of getting a really great extraction out of that coffee and getting the best out of the coffee that I'm using. So that is really it. That's the BV 1901GW brewer, a really fantastic glass carafe model of their 1900 Series, and thanks for watching.
