Brazen Plus 3.0

I gave away my Technivorm Moccamaster. We just didn't care for the user experience. Brewed good coffee though, and it's a very attractive apparatus, and heats up and brews very fast. The shower head is garbage though and requires manually moving the filter holder around to get it uniformly wet, and at that point I might as well be doing a manual pourover. We replaced it with a Behmor Brazen brewer which is very ugly and bulky but the user experience is 10x better, and brews equally good coffee.

My experience is similar. I have an Aiden and XBloom. Prior had a Behmor. Plus all the pourover and other coffee equipment possible pretty much. But I really loved the aesthetic and simplicity. Ultimately my Aiden and xBloom make much better coffee and turns out all that fine tuning I can do was way more important to me than I estimated.

I have enjoyed my Behmor brewer for a number of years. Flatbed, showerhead brewer with control of brew temp and bloom time. Of course Technivorm is a great, proven brewer as well.

Behmor Brazen, SCA Golden Cup certified and very well built/thought out. Beans and grinder will make a much larger difference than the brewer though.

I've got an Aiden, which makes delicious coffee. I only use the medium roast built-in profile. I find the day-to-day usage somewhat glitchy. It sometimes thinks it needs water, when it already has plenty - I do not know if you would be able to detect the 'add water' alert without being able to see the screen notification. It uses a dial to do all of the selection and scrolling, and like an Instapot I had - it was annoyingly sensitive to rotation - trying to select a setting which it would almost always over or under shoot - like trying to nail jello to a wall!!!! I just recently had an issue where I ask Aiden to brew 750 ml and it only uses 500-ish ml of water. All that said, I've also got a Moccamaster KBGV, and the Aiden makes a tastier cup. I am planning to send in the Aiden for warranty repair, but in the interim I bought a Bonavita Enthusiast, and am liking the flavor it provides - very sweet with a nice creamy mouth-feel. (My Moccamaster is on indefinite loan to my neighbor, it's flavor prilfe is more to the bright, high-acid side of things, which is not my preference anyway) The Bonavita has a power button, a brew button, a bloom button (which is bloom then brew; the brew button is no-bloom brew). There's also a descale button. No app. Flavor-wise, I'd take the Bonavita, for longevity and repairability, the Moccamaster. I also have a current version Behmor Brazen on order, which has more control, and physical buttons. I can report back when it arrives if you want - you can message me as well....

Just had my second brew with the Brazen. Likewise, I've only done a few brews with the new Bonavita as well. That said, in the spirit of quick impressions, the Behmor produces more distinct flavors, and subtlety in the cup. It is pretty easy to use - once you've set the temperature and bloom times, and calibrated for your elevation relative to sea level. The settings do not click or beep, but display on a screen, and there is no app, that I can find. Once set up, you add ground coffee and water, and push one button. It beeps when it is done, and you can hear stuff happening as it does its thing. I think the Bonavita brews at a hotter temperature, but I have not measured, and only tweeked the brew temp on the Behmor once so far (went from 196 to 204, to see if that would make them taste more 'the same'. I certainly need more time and brews to test this more, but I like them both, and the 'in the cup' experience seems quite different -- both good, that creamy, sweet mouth-feel from the Bonavita was yummy -- but so is the flavor from the Behmor, but I miss a bit of the creaminess..... All that said, and keeping in mind how preliminary it is, I'd say that the Behmor would be easier to use day-to-day, than the Aiden, once it is programmed. Likewise, I think the Bonavita would offer the same 1-switch ease of use as the Moccamaster, and I like the taste (from memory) from the Bonavita better than the Moccamaster (subjective preference, the Moccamaster makes a great cup). I cannot presume to know what it is like to be blind, but the shower head-water delivery 'pipe' is metal, gets quite hot, and is exposed as the cone holder lid fits around it. The Bonavita does have a small metal 'grate' above the brew basket, but it seems more avoidable, as the basket slide in from the side, The Brazen seems like it 'hides' the hot metal parts better. Hope this helps. Now, back to yummy Behmor coffee - lord help me, I am thinking of keeping both machines.

back again! I ended up returning the Bonavita. It is a nice machine, but the whole sur la table buying experience was, for me, not good. If i were to reorder one, it would be from another vendor..... I have been loving the Brazen. I found the settings for the Fellow Aiden's preset that I had been using. 30 second bloom, 205F brew temp, and am using those settings on the Brazen now. I get the flavor notes and the nice mouthfeel - so a total winner. Loving the machine now. I think if someone helps you get the settings done, then it would be pretty easy to use. Add water, add grounds and filter, hit button on lower right twice. wait.... coffee!

I like my Behmor Brazen Plus.

Probably barking up the wrong tree but curious if anyone here in pour over land also uses an auto-drip coffee maker...and really enjoys the results. I'm not looking to pack up my gear, but open to saving a few steps in the early morning hours of the weekdays. I have an old Behmor Brazen, which is a beast on the counter, tho I remember it making a respectable cup, and have looked at Mocamasters but think they're more plastic than not (just a thought, don't know this to be fact). If there are recommendations from this community, I'm all ears. TIA.

Thanks! Nothing would be wrong with using the Behmor if that’s still among the best of what’s available. I’d likely swap out the gear so as to not have another thing in the counter. I also have an espresso machine, two grinders and a very understanding spouse.