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I recently bought a Cuisinart coffee maker.

It has a button to switch between "regular" and "bold" when brewing. I have no idea what this actually does. I thought that usually bold coffee came from different beans or from the amount you used, not from a setting on the coffee maker.

What does this function do and when would I use it?

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  • Does it brew for a longer time when you select "bold"?
    – rumtscho ♦
    Jan 5, 2012 at 18:09
  • didn't time the coffee, but it sounds like from the answers listed, that it probably is slower.
    – Hortitude
    Jan 6, 2012 at 19:44
  • It seems this could be put to bed by reading the instruction manual.
    – Preston
    May 27, 2014 at 7:54
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    @PrestonFitzgerald -- If only it were actually in the instruction manual...
    – Hortitude
    May 27, 2014 at 16:38
  • Haha. Of course.
    – Preston
    May 28, 2014 at 1:54

4 Answers 4

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"Bold" appears to be a flavor term in general, usually referring to a type of bean; however, on coffee makers, it appears that the water drips more slowly, which allows more flavor to be extracted from the beans. This source confirms that this appears to be the case on at least one Cuisinart model.

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5
  • Haha we posted at exactly the same time.
    – Jay
    Jan 5, 2012 at 18:54
  • @Jay lol, so we did.
    – Yamikuronue
    Jan 5, 2012 at 18:57
  • Actually you might be a couple seconds earlier AND you listed sources. I suppose you win ^^.
    – Jay
    Jan 5, 2012 at 19:04
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    I hereby issue the following royal decree: "Bold" shall henceforth be the default setting on all things Cuisinart. This court shall not countenance wasted flavour. Make it so.
    – Thomas
    Jan 12, 2013 at 14:49
  • The problem is you don't want all of the flavor in your beans. Over-extracted coffee due to either too long a seep or too fine a grind has extremely bitter notes as you are extracting significantly more tannins than you want. In general the acids come first, then the body, then the bitterness.
    – Chuu
    Nov 22, 2021 at 22:55
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When a coffee maker has a setting for bold coffee, this usually means that the amount of water that passes through the coffee grind and filter is slowed down so the water has a longer time to steep in the coffee grind which will produce stronger coffee.

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I believe but cannot confirm, the water temp. Is also hotter along with slower dripping as stated above. Mine always seems hotter on Bold .

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  • If you have a thermometer, you could verify this pretty easily. (I'd be curious to know what Cuisinart is up to...)
    – SourDoh
    May 19, 2014 at 15:05
  • I found that because it takes longer to brew, the burner has more time to warm up the pot. This could explain why you find your coffee hotter on the bold setting. (I thought I commented here, but accidentally made an "answer". I need more coffee!)
    – datagod
    Jun 11, 2014 at 14:53
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I find coffee brewed on the BOLD setting to be a bit darker and more flavorful than when brewed on the REGULAR setting. I always go straight to the BOLD setting when it's an option so I can't speak to the flavor of REGULAR. The preceding explanations of how the process works makes a whole lot of sense too.

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