The Bodum Bean 34 Oz. French Press: A Product Review

Apparently the pricing of the Bodum Bean 34 Oz. Press varies wildly depending on where you buy it. I paid $30 for mine at Crate & Barrel about a year ago, which I mostly did just because they were the only place within easy walking distance that sold any kind of a French press. I wish I'd shopped around a little more, though, because I've seen it for as little as $19.99 from a variety of online sources. And I've actually seen some places charging $69.99 for it! Yeesh.

The colors available also seem to vary by retail outlet. Both Crate and Barrel's website and Amazon say that the Bean only comes in white, magenta or lime green. Mine is brown, however, and I know I saw a black display model as well.

Once you sort through all the confusion, though, I'm pretty happy with this thing at $30. I would have been more happy with it at $20, but I guess after shipping the savings would have been negligible. The unit is made of fairly tough plastic with "borosilicate glass" which is apparently tough to break. I'm not about to test that theory personally with my unit, but the press is designed in such a way that if you dropped it, a plastic portion would take the brunt of the damage anyway. It's also apparently dishwasher safe, though I haven't tested that one out yet either.

It also advertises a "spill proof design", which I've so far found to be accurate, having no spills while pouring in a year of regular use. Once the lid is on, the unit is sealed until you press down on a lever to open the spout for pouring. No problems with leakage around the sides or lid.

If you're unfamiliar with the operation of a French press, you basically just twist the top to remove the whole plunger mechanism and lid, then add boiling water and coffee grounds directly to the press. After it has brewed to taste, you replace the plunger and lid mechanism, and press down slowly but firmly on the plunger until it hits bottom, which strains the coffee through a mesh filter. The grounds get compacted on the bottom, and the coffee sits on top of the plunger, ready to be poured. You do get a touch of grounds usually at the bottom of each cup, but nothing major - the stainless steel plunger and filter mechanism does a very good job. The downside of a press is that you have to clean out the jar and plunger after every brew rather than just tossing a paper filter of grounds in the trash, but that's a problem that's unavoidable with any French press, and this one is about as easy to clean as they can be.

The Bean also comes in a 12 oz. version for travel, but it seems to go for the same $19.99 price that the larger version does.