What the Moccamaster KBTS Is

The Technivorm Moccamaster KBTS is a hand-built drip coffee brewer from Amerongen, the Netherlands, and one of the few automatic machines certified by the Specialty Coffee Association. A copper heating element brings water into the ideal 196 to 205°F brewing range and pushes a full 32 oz pot through in about 4 to 6 minutes. Instead of a hot plate, coffee drains into a double-walled stainless steel thermal carafe, and a manual-adjust drip stop on the brew basket lets you slow or pause the flow for smaller batches.

What Is Plastic on the Moccamaster?

The housing is powder-coated aluminum and the carafe is stainless steel, but three parts that matter to us are plastic: the water reservoir, the 9-hole outlet arm that showers water over the grounds, and the brew basket. The brew-through lid on the thermal carafe is plastic as well. Technivorm states that every plastic part is free of BPA, BPS, BPF, and phthalates.

What Touches Hot Water

Cold water starts in the plastic reservoir. It is heated by the copper element, then exits through the plastic outlet arm and drips through coffee sitting in the plastic brew basket. From the basket, brewed coffee passes the carafe’s plastic brew-through lid into an all-steel interior. So hot water and hot coffee do touch plastic on this machine, but the contact is brief and happens in a short section of the path rather than the whole brewer.

The Plastic-Free Verdict: Minimal Contact, Not Plastic-Free

The Moccamaster KBTS is not plastic free. Hot water meets BPA-free plastic at the outlet arm, the brew basket, and the carafe lid. That said, it is a big step up from typical drip machines, where water sits in plastic tanks and runs through plastic tubing at full temperature. We rate the KBTS minimal plastic water contact: one of the better automatic drip options if a fully metal path is not a requirement. If you want a drip machine with a genuinely plastic-free hot path, the BUNN VP17-1 with a stainless basket swap is the rare machine that gets there. We explain how in our BUNN VP17-1 review.

Who the KBTS Is For

• Coffee drinkers who want SCA-certified brewing and accept brief contact with BPA-free plastic
• Small households: 32 oz per brew, with a drip stop for half batches
• Anyone replacing a hot-plate machine, since the thermal carafe keeps coffee hot for hours without cooking it

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