Do you have a Palate for fancy Coffee accessories?

On a recent vacation trip I met Chef & Wine Maker, Wayne Didier who convinced me to purchase a better coffee maker. The pitch for “better” is keeping the temperature of the water between a “safe” window so as not to destroy delicate aspects of the coffee. Well? Can I tell the difference? Do I have a discriminating palate?

Lets take a look the details and we’ll find out.

The new coffee maker is one “Bonavita BV1900TS 8-Cup”. I purchased on Amazon.

The old coffee maker is one “Black & Decker” (not sure the model name… going with “old”).

Notice how worn out that “start” button is? The plastic is completely punctured!

Now for the coffee…

Initially I tried my standard “Starbucks Pike Place Medium Roast”. Now, I’m not going to tell you how that turned out because it would ruin your fun. Before we talk about the first results lets talk about the the coffee I asked my wife to buy when I said “I don’t care how much it costs, just buy something that looks like it’s what people who know coffee would buy”.

She came back from QFC with…

and you are already asking yourself, “what about the grinder!?” because coffee-people know how important that is!

Whatever that knob is (I’m guessing it’s coarseness) I left it in that position for the grinding.

I performed the grinding moments before I made a cup of coffee with both “Black & Decker” and “Bonavita”. I tasted them both as soon as they cooled down. The verdict?…..

I couldn’t tell the difference. Yeah, I know right? Second question: could I tell a difference using the Starbucks Pike Place Medium Roast; B&D vs Bonavita? No, not drinking same vs. same. No no no! I couldn’t tell a difference. Now, I could tell that Caffe Vita was different (and better in my opinion) than the Starbucks brew. That must mean my tongue isn’t dead.

So am I keeping the Bonavita? Yes, I like how it looks. It’s faster than the B&D. The B&D is old and disgusting anyways.

Did my wife notice a difference? Yes! She sure did. She picked out the Bonavita brewed cup both times (Starbucks and Caffe Vita). Funny thing is she likes using K-Cups.

Sad days for my tongue I guess.

Thanks for reading, later.