The Bonavita Voyager portable espresso machine. All images courtesy of Bonavita.
Consumer coffee equipment brand Bonavita is entering a new chapter as it launches its first espresso-focused product, a portable all-in-one hot or cold espresso machine and grinder combo called the Voyager.
Not only is the Voyager Bonavita’s first foray into espresso, cold brew and grinding, it’s the first all-new piece of Bonavita equipment since the Bonavita brand recently became solely owned by its longtime manufacturer, China- and California-based SmartCo.
The Voyager’s built-in adjustable grinder centers on 38-millimeter conical steel burrs and holds up to 100 grams (about 3.5 ounces) of coffee in its hopper. Also on board are a pump and a boiler that can heat water from ambient temperature up to specified temperatures as high as 205ºF when plugged into an AC power source.
When powered solely by the device’s rechargeable lithium battery, the boiler can raise preheated water up the final few degrees necessary for the targeted temperature for up to 20 freshly ground shots of espresso, according to the company.
Adapters are available for compatibility with Nespresso-style capsules or Keurig-style pods, although the Voyager is designed primarily to brew espresso from 7-15 grams of ground coffee inside a chambered pressurized brew basket. It offers both hot and cold brewing modes, maintaining the same coffee-to-water ratio across three water volume options (50 ml, 100 ml or 180 ml), while in cold mode the delivery of water is approximately three times slower.
“I believe that cold brew has to be steeped, put in the fridge for a couple hours and then you come drink it the next day. That would be a traditional cold brew to me,” Derek Ku, the brand director for SmartCo’s Bonavita and Brewista brands, told Daily Coffee News. “But our machine will mimic a cold brew with excellent quality, up to 90-95% similarity, within 200 seconds.”
The current MSRP for the Voyager is set at $319, although a company spokesperson said prices in the U.S. could be affected by tariffs on Chinese imports.
After its emergence 15 years ago, the Bonavita brand became an early leader in what was then a sparsely populated market for electric gooseneck pourover kettles. In 2012, SmartCo partnered with Washington-based coffee equipment distribution company Espresso Supply for sales of its kettles and brewers in the United States.
The partnership expanded the Bonavita name, while the company embraced the early standards for SCA Certified Home Brewer certification and became synonymous with high-quality home coffee brewing at an affordable price.
Approximately 10 years ago, SmartCo manufactured another brand of home coffee products — some with a similar look and feel to Bonavita products — under the Brewista name. Legal disputes emerged between SmartCo, Brewista and Espresso Supply regarding trademarks and contracts.
According to Bonavita, which along with Brewista is now solely owned by SmartCo, those disputes are now all resolved, and the company has added a U.S. office in California for U.S. operations and distribution.
“Over the past couple of years, we’ve had different partners and distributors that we signed on to help run the company, and it has gone through quite a few different groups of people,” Ku told DCN. “Starting last year as of April, we decided that we no longer want somebody else to represent us here in the States. We want to do everything ourselves.”
Within the past year, SmartCo has launched upgraded versions of Bonavita’s flagship digital kettles, as well as its 8-cup Enthusiast Series Coffee Brewer. The long-term agenda includes an emphasis on lower-priced products for budget-conscious consumers, while also diversifying the Bonavita brand with other kitchen appliances.
The company has thus far maintained its pre-tariff pricing on all its products sold in the U.S.
Bonavita’s Ku said the company is planning to dive into additional tech-driven appliance solutions in coffee.
“Five or seven years ago [in the U.S.], there would be new stuff coming out every other day — new programs, new technology — but for the past couple of years, that kind of slowed down,” said Ku. “Now I believe that the technology has fallen behind what current design is able to provide. Over the past year or so, we have done a tremendous amount of research and found that there is a lot of new technology out there that we can bring into the coffee market.”
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Howard Bryman
Howard Bryman is the associate editor of Daily Coffee News by Roast Magazine. He is based in Portland, Oregon.
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