The Bunn Trifecta is here to fill the void the Clover has left in cafe’s across the country.  Until today I had only seen it a couple of times once at Coffee Fest and another at Seattle Coffee Works.  Magically a Bunn Trifecta appeared in the EP lab this week.  I decided to put Sunday afternoon aside for some lab time.

First off thanks to @BUNN for sending me a great link to all the Trifecta manuals and tasting sheet.  I read the manual to help in the process.  Changing the settings is fairly easy once you get used to the layout of the controls.  For fun I changed the name for the brew cycle and found it to be easy to do.  A normal 120v outlet will do, connect the brewer to a cold water system capable of 20-90 psi from a 1/2″ or larger line.  The brewer does not have a drain tray standard, you do have the option of installing one on your own.  The Trifecta’s design is rigid and somewhat cold, it’s grey and black.  The handle is all plastic with silver at the end of it, I want it to more substantial it feels a little light also an aluminum cap at the end of the handle would look way better than painted silver over plastic.  I tried to disassemble the handle as instructed from the manual and was unable to get the screen out.  The other components cam out easily the spray-head which is at the top of the brew chamber came out easy but because there isn’t much room it’s hard to get it back on.  The parts are easy to clean when brewing if you have a pitcher rinser from EP it’s a breeze.

Now let’s talk about the brewing.  I used the parameters from the Trifecta site as a start for dialing in the brew.  I used Costa Rica Tarrazu Shb El Indio from Batdorf & Bronson.  My parameters were as followed: 28g water 8oz 203° #8 on a Mahlkonig Guatemala grinder.  The brewing cycle was set to:3 second pre-wet, 10% pre-infusion, 2 second fill pause, 43 second brew time, 8 seconds of turbulence, 10 seconds turbulence off, turbulence was set to 6, press out power was 7, 35 second press out time.  There was a lot of honey sweetness a macadamia nuttiness with a creamy finish.  I burned through half of a pound during my lab time I went from a setting of 4-15 ending up with #8.  To open the brewing chamber you pull the lever at the top of the machine up and the chamber will release from the handle, add your freshly ground coffee to the handle slide it back into the holder and pull lever down.  to initiate the brewing cycle there is a small button with the picture of a cup of coffee.  It’s fun to watch the brewing cycle of the Trifecta, the chamber is filled from the bottom and some from the top, after the pre-wet/infusion the remaining brew water is added and the turbulence starts.  Air is used to agitate the ground coffee which adds a nice touch to the show.  One problem I ran into was after I changed the brew settings the press out time I selected was not long enough and there was water left in the filter handle.  I was not able to figure out how to purge the brewing chamber without starting another cycle.  Last but not least the rinse cycle is cold, I would like to be able to choose between cold and hot.

I really enjoyed my time with the Trifecta it was easy and fun to use, it was able to brew a quality cup in a short amount of time and the clean up is very easy. The Trifecta would definitely be something I would use in my own cafe(hopefully one day).  There is also a grinder that is being marketed with the Trifecta it’s the G2.  I have very limited experience with the grinder from regionals and coffee fest but did find it easy to use.

http://www.trifectaexperience.com/