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I recently installed a Ring doorbell camera, the wired version. I am still getting used to the interface and everything, but setup was straight forward and installation easy.

What happened? This morning I went to make coffee and saw that we were about to run out of coffee filters, not in itself an emergency, but I knew I would have to let the wife know before she went shopping again… and then I forgot.

Later that day I get a notification that there is activity at front door, so I took a look…. and I saw the wife walking down the walkway with the shopping bags in hand!!! I had not mentioned yet that we needed filters.

Using the two way speak ability on the app I was able to call out to her and let her know we needed filters…. crisis averted. With the price of gas currently, who wants to make a second trip to the grocery store.

This was not a crisis, but it felt like a crisis in the moment and was only averted thanks to the recent technology update of the old doorbell. I really got it just so I could see who was ringing at 4:30 in the morning without opening up. I mean, everyone knows I don’t start brewing the first pot till 6… y’all gotta wait.

In retrospect, I could have just ordered my Melita filters no 4 from amazon, or I could have texted that we needed filters when she was on the way. My wife usually gives me a heads up when she is at the store, to see if there is anything I wanted. I may have remembered…. probably not though.

As you will recall my parents needed a new drip brewer… because you DID read my earlier post right? If not, go read it now, I will wait.

Great, welcome back… so its been a few weeks since I started to search the pertinent specs for a brewer to recommend to my parents. And here is the shortlist based on the requirements, specs, customer reviews, and… my opinion.

The TLDR: Get this machine.

The Bonavita BV1901TS is an SCA approved brewer with 8 (5oz) cup capacity and a flat bottom filter. A shower head design helps to ensure a good wetting of grinds and a feature that I liked was the amount of coffee to add to the basket is written right on the 1900, which does not appear to be on the Bilingual version available in Canada. Boo.

This unit has a pre-infusion stage that can be enabled by pressing and holding the power button for 5 seconds, which will help YOU with your fresh coffee… my parents will not have to worry about off-gassing their freshly roasted beans, haha. The carafe needs to be removed from the brewer and the lid needs to be put on to keep the coffee at temp, and this is not cool. At about $330CAD, the one year warranty added to the lidless-ness and prevented this unit from gaining the top recommendation.

The OXO Brew, 8 cup Coffee Maker was the next on the short list. It also has a simple interface, and is capable of a pre-infusion brew cycle. The 8 cup Brew is also a 40oz brewer with a thermal carafe. Although this unit has a two year warranty and was the least expensive on this list at about $290CAD, the lack of a sealed lid for the thermal carafe bumped this unit from the top spot as well.

Honorable mention is the Breville Precision brewer. This makes the list because of the 60oz capacity. It is not a top contender because of the complexity and brew options available, features that my parents do not need, and will just muddy the waters.

The fact that it has both cone and flat bottomed baskets available so you can tweak your brew based on taste profiles is exciting. If I could get my hands on one, I would for sure be brewing back to back pots and do blind taste tests and triangle tests all day, till every drop of those 120oz of delicious coffee were consumed. A price tag of about $340CAD and a two year warranty make this brewer an option for someone who wants to try playing around with the different variables involved with making delicious coffee.

The final contender and my top recommendation is the Technivorm Moccamaster KBGT. I have the KBT741 and have been using it 2-3 times a day for the last 6 or 7 years. So I know it lasts. The five year warranty is a great testament to build quality, and the thermal carafe does a good job of keeping the coffee hot enough for long enough. The brew through lid does not allow a lot of heat to be lost, and after pouring off your first coffee, you can always swap it out for the sealed lid and keep your coffee hotter for longer.

The reason I am suggesting the KBGT vs the KBT is because of the auto stop mechanism. The ‘GT will stop the drip if you remove the carafe which will be good for people that just can’t wait the 6 minutes for their cup of coffee. The ‘BT has a selector switch that would do the same thing, but we are looking for simple here.

So its time to send off this list, and I will update back here what they decide to do. It may be possible that they will not listen to me at all but that is ok. It is sometimes a bitter pill for people to swallow when you point out coffee machines that are over twice the price of what they are used to getting… but if they just a good one, would they really be able to get “used to getting” a coffee machine, or would it just… last? I wonder.

Today I have been tasked to recommend a new drip machine for my parents. Oh boy, I like window shopping, but this is not something I want to take a simple approach too.

I have been rocking a Technivorm Moccamaster for about eight years now, and I recommend it to anyone who wants a great machine. But I now have a budget to keep in mind, and the TV MM is a premium product at a premium price.

A sticker on the side of the MM that said SCA was my first exposure to the Specialty Coffee Association. I have since researched into what the SCA, now SCAA was all about, and I can confidently recommend any SCAA approved machine to somebody that wants a good cup of coffee at home.

I am not saying these are the only machines that makes good coffee, because they are not. Just because somebody has not submitted a machine for approval does not mean it cannot make good coffee. But any machine on that approval list have been tested and have been found to meet the minimum requirements, consistently. And that is important. It is so very important.

A consistent machine removes a set of variables from the equation when you are trying to tweak a recipe to fit your desired taste preferences.

A consistent machine removes a set of variables from the equation when you are trying to tweak a recipe to fit your desired taste preferences. (Its important enough to repeat).

The differences of the machines then comes down to build quality, features and customer support.

I am fully aware of the other coffee brewing methods available and the delicious coffee and different nuances that each method can provide.

But I have considered the audience in this case, and my 71 year old mother is not going to be interested in learning how to make syphon coffee (or any type of pour over, etc) at this juncture.

I also know there are plenty of machines that would meet the criteria for brewing a good coffee that are not approved by the SCAA (yet), however, I am efficient (lazy) and don’t want to spend the time researching it at this time. There are also time constraints on this recommendation project.

In this quest for the replacement coffee maker, here is the outline of the plan of attack:

1. I will start with the list of approved coffee makers.

2. With list of approved machines in hand I then eliminate everything outside of budget.

3. Next is to look at feature sets that are desired, eliminate machines that fall short.

4. Short list now created, read and watch all reviews for each machine, making notes as required.

5. Make recommendation and wait for machine to arrive so I can start testing it out. (This means make and drink a lot of coffee).

I will let you know how it goes.

Today is wife’s birthday. I gave her a Fellow travel mug, the Carter. She likes it. I tested it.

I took some pictures for the gallery and then compared it to my Yeti. The yeti is 18oz whereas the Carter is 16oz. Both have screw top lids.

I filled them both with coffee that measured 80.7C, and screwed on lids, then filled up a 6oz cup. Left all on counter, ambient temperature was 22.1C

While at work, the first chance that wife gets to drink coffee is after three hours from leaving home. I opened everything up at the three hour mark and measured the temperatures. I am pleased to say the Carter outperformed my Rambler, but also sad to say that.

The temperature of the coffee in the Carter was 69.3C and the Rambler was 68.4C. To be honest, I could not distinguish the difference between the temps after burning my tongue on the first tasting, haha. I can really only start drinking coffee when it hits about the 60C mark. For reference, the cup on the counter had cooled to room temperature, which was 22.4C at this point. It was soothing.

The Carter has a wide mouth and a thin lip. I found the thin lip made drinking very comfortable. The wide mouth meant that I could enjoy the aroma of the coffee to the max. Enjoying the aroma was important at this point, because I was not tasting much at this point.

My wife likes her coffee scalding hot. When I prep her cup in the morning I will heat her milk while preheating her cup with black coffee. After sitting for a bit, I then dump it into mine. This heats her cup significantly, and lowers the temp of my coffee a bit, which means I can get to it sooner.

The Carter came in a little black bag, that the top folds back on. I think this baggy can be used to carry the cup around, as well as provide a little bit more thermal protection for the coffee goodness within.

I will run a couple more temperature drop tests. With the bag, with preheated cup, then with bag and preheat the cup. I am curious to see what the differences will be.

Yesterday I made a silly video, where I put instant coffee into the filter basket of TVMM… then brewed it. It was actually the best instant coffee I ever had, I don’t know it its because a large batch made better mixing with the flow through spout on the carafe, or if the temp was just right. Perhaps I just never gave it a fair chance.

The tragedy occurred this morning, when my wife went and made a pot of coffee. She must have thought the carafe was empty, as there was no filter in the basket… she brewed a full pot on top of the half pot of instant that was in there.

The mess all over the counter only bothers me because its sweet delicious coffee that has been spread all over the place. Trying to drink from a wrung out cloth is not nice.

Our undercover coffee drinker just reported in.  Pike Brew at Starbucks is good.

Thank you sir, we’ll give it a try.