Bodum Chambord 8 cup French Press Coffee Maker, 34 oz., Chrome

Okay, to some the idea of using a French press coffee maker is a little too precious, bordering on snobbishness. I used to be in that boat until a few hours ago. Tonight on a whim, I purchased this Bodum French press. Now I should warn you readers that it is generally NOT a good idea to test out your shiny new french press when you are getting home at 10:30pm on a Monday after spending way too much money at Target when you just ran in to get "dog food". I write this review so heavily caffienated that I will probably stay up until dawn tonight re-organizing my closets or alphabetizing my CD collection or doing some other useless task. Despite being a daily coffee drinker (of the muddy variety the office's Bunn machine churns out), one cup from the french press has knocked me into the stratosphere, and that alone is worth giving this product 5 stars.

My caffiene overdose aside, this press produces the best coffee I have ever had at home, and it truly rivals or surpasses coffee I've had at coffee houses. It's slightly more involved than using an automatic maker, but not difficult at all. The unit itself is pretty sturdy, and looks lovely.

French press coffee is a great alternative to using those smaller 1-2 cup automatic drip makers. Being single, I've gone through my share of those, and the coffee they make alway seems about ten times worse than the coffee from a normal-sized drip maker. If you like to make a large pot of coffee and drink it throughout the morning, I would suggest picking up a good quality carafe or thermos to keep the coffee warm.

Pros:

-Best tasting coffee you'll ever have at home, period.

-Strong, full bodied flavor

-Pretty easy to prepare

-Impress your friends with your snobby european coffee-making ways :) (looks good on your counter too)

-Great for making small amounts of coffee, for one or two people.

-Priced about the same as a ho-hum auto drip coffee maker with no extra bells and whistles, yet makes coffee a million times better.

Cons:

-More cleanup than using a automatic drip maker

-No heating element to keep coffee warm. Use a thermos/carafe if you want to sip several cups over a few hours.

8-cup capacity is based on a 4oz beverage size. Not really a "con" but something you should be aware of. If you had a large group you were making coffee for, it might get a little tedious to be constantly making a fresh batch of coffee.

Couple other notes: Coarsely ground coffee is recommended. This is no problem for people that already buy whole bean and grind their own, but it will be an extra step for some people. Also, I recommend picking up an Aerolatte milk frother if you want to make truly effortless cappuchino. I find that there's plenty of time to warm some milk in the microwave and froth it up while the coffee brews for 4 mintues. A $20 Aerolatte milk frother + $24 french press = coffeehouse coffee at home, whenever you want it. That's really a tiny investment for coffeehouse quality java!

I also purchased a smaller 1-cup Bodum press to take to work. Tomorrow I plan to smile smugly while my co-workers chug down the crap that comes out of the Bunn machine. If my boss is really nice, I may let him use it too. Maybe.

I previously owned a (much) smaller version of this press, which made an excellent cup of coffee. But that was the problem. It only made a CUP of coffee. I usually have two, and what if others want coffee? It takes a while, going one cup at a time.

Needless to say, I upgraded to this larger press, which makes about 3 times more coffee. It makes the best coffee ever I could never go back to a junky old drip coffee maker after this. Yeah, it's more work than a drip coffee maker, but really, would you rather have quick, easy coffee that tastes bad, or a delicious cup of coffee that takes 5 minutes more?

Using this is like steeping tea you boil some water, grind some coffee beans (I hope you're grinding your own coffee beans!) and pour the water over the coffee grounds to let them steep for 4 minutes. Then you push the knob down, which filters delicious coffee into the water and leaves the grounds at the bottom of your pot. Then, voila! You've got about 3 cups of yummy coffee, depending on to what extent you water your cup down with cream and sugar.

If you're one of those people who just CAN'T WAIT for their coffee, you'd be better off getting a typical drip coffee maker. But if you love coffee, and want it to taste as good as it possibly can, you have to buy this press.

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A french press is one of the best methods of brewing coffee at home. I have never liked the "drip method" machines like Mr Coffee which, in my opinion, produce a very bland cup of coffee. Some reviews have mentioned the extra effort involved in comparison to a drip machine. This really is not a big issue. You have to boil the water separately and remember to press the plunger down when the coffee has finished brewing. The clean up is about the same.

Some tips for getting the most out of this machine. Always use coarsely ground coffee. I've found a 9 second burst with my grinder works best. You'll have to experiment. I also gently shake the grinder while using it. This results in a more even grind. With this approach I have very little sediment in my final cup.

Allow the boiled water to cool for a minute before adding to the grounds. This seems to produce a less bitter cup. Finally, stir the grounds and water with a chopstick or similar. Let the coffee brew, then press the plunger down *slowly*.

If making more than one cup per person, store the extra in a vacuum flask. The coffee cools very quickly if left in the press.

Always clean your grinder. Oils accumulate very quickly resulting in increasingly bitter coffee.

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A friend loaned me this great coffee press. It's the best coffee brewing system I've found, but more time consuming to use and clean up. Please note also that 8 cups is wildly optimistic. That's four-ounce cups. I real life, you get about two good 10-12 ounce mugs of coffee.

At the time I ordered, the item was described on Amazon as having a glass beaker, but the one I received was plastic.

Some may prefer this because it's unbreakable; I was disappointed. I specifically wanted the glass one because I trying to avert plastic's that might leech chemicals into food. The plastic version also differed in that filter screen was held together with some plastic components, whereas the glass version uses all metal parts (with the exception of the lid).

I ended up returning the item (which sours the whole on-line shopping experience) and buying a glass version at a local retailer instead. One where I could verify I was getting the glass version that I desired. I'm very happy with it and use it daily.

So, if you want to order this item from Amazon, please double-check that your getting what you want.

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Many coffee drinkers are inflexible on one point and that is the necessity to brew coffee in a glass container only! I used to be in this "glass camp", and I broke beaker after beaker in every coffee press I had. I am ham-fisted and lack the delicacy needed to make any glass coffee maker last longer than a few weeks.

I had a Brazilian polycarbonate coffee press and it lasted nine years. It finally came apart because it had been made in two pieces, and the two simply came apart because they were not injection-molded as one piece.

Then I discovered this Bodum Chambord 8-cup press and am delighted to say that it is absolutely perfect for me. The beaker is made of polycarbonate, like my old Brazilian one, but unlike that one, the Bodum is one solid piece, with no mold marks, seams, or anything else to come undone.

One other nice thing about it is that the beaker is big enough in diameter so that I can get my hand in it easily, and that's a big plus for cleaning the coffee pot thoroughly.

The coffee tastes great, needless to say, and unless I do something exceptionally stupid, this coffee pot should last me the rest of my life.

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