La Cafetiere Thermique 8-Cup French Press with Thermal Carafe (Stainless Steel)

After weeks of searching for a stainless steel coffee press and reading every review submitted--I really appreciate product reviews: good and bad--I finally found a press that I thought would work...and it does! In fact, it makes an excellent pot of coffee. It is also very beautiful. It looks like a silver coffee pot you might find on the room-service tray at a 4-star hotel: classic art deco design. The generous spout allows you to pour the coffee without dripping and the large handle makes it easy to hold securely. The pot is polished stainless steel, made in China by a British firm with, obviously, very exacting standards; there are no flaws, dents, or unfinished surfaces. It has a smooth and seamless appearing surface throughout: inside and outside and it can sit proudly on any tray or table.Following my accident with my glass Bodum press (it exploded and I received 1st and 2nd degree burns), I was a little leery about pressing down on the plunger when I made my first pot. No need to worry; it slid down like a dream: smoothly and easily. So easily that I thought it might not have captured all the coffee grounds. (The one drawback in using a metal pot is not being able to see the grounds being pressed.) No need to worry, as I discovered when I cleaned the pot, all the grounds had been captured by the stainless, mesh filter and there was little if any water with the grounds in the bottom of the pot. By the way, this press must be hand washed and dried: it cannot be put into a dishwasher.The only feature that did not seem to "work" for me was the keep-warm feature. I did not make a full pot (which probably contributed to the cooling down of the brew); but, I did make enough for two mugs of coffee--about 20 oz.--and I drank the second cup within ten minutes. The second cup was not as hot as the first one. I did rinse the pot with very hot tap water before putting the ground coffee into the pot and I placed it on a hot pad so my tiled counter would not cool the pot. However, this pot is double-walled and the air pocket is what "keeps the coffee warm"; it is not a thermos pot. The pot is hefty; but, not as heavy as it would be if it was a thermos or glass-insulated pot. Not having the glass insulation might be a good thing: nothing to break should I drop it; therefore, it should last a very long time. I think the warming aspect would be better triggered if one was making a full pot and using--as the instruction booklet suggests--water "just off the boil." That is, the water for this coffee press should be boiled; it will cool down when it hits the pot and the heat is absorbed by the air pocket.Oh, yes, the coffee from this elegant press--it was the best! I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this great press to anyone. Yes, it is a little more expensive than the glass presses; but, I don't have to worry about it exploding or breaking.July Update: I have made many full pots of coffee since my initial review and I can safely say that my coffee did stay very warm; that is, very drinkable--for up to 2 hours--and the pot stayed cool to the touch. I did use water just off the boil; I think that certainly helped. I really do like this coffee press!

This is the second of these I have bought for myself. I use the first for loose leaf tea, and wanted one for coffee. I bought a similar pot for a friend. They are great!. They are quit attractive, don't fall over, all stainless (no plastic parts), hold up great. They seem to keep the hot drink as hot as other stainless, thermos French presses, which means, it will get cold after a while, but is better than glass. I have use the first one daily for several years, and am very pleased. It has held up better than a competitor I had previously. I had two consequitively. They fell off the counter, plastic parts broke, screen frayed, didn't hold up like this one. This one still looks new after several years, while the others were trash after 2. People frequently admire how attractive it is.I bought the new one for coffee. There is a trick to making French Press coffee. Many of the complaints I have read in the reviews appear to be based on their making the coffee wrong, ie, grinding the coffee too fine. There are instructions for making French press coffee on the internet, and I suggest people read them. You need to grind the coffee in larger, more uniform pieces than you use for drip (I saw a suggestion that you pulse the grinder if you don't have a burr grinder). Yesterday a barrista told me he pours a small amount of hot water (just short of boiling), over the grounds and lets it set for a minute. He then pours in more water, and gently stirs. He lets it sit for a total of about 4 minutes before pressing the plunger.As far as its construction and functionality, this pot seems to work about the same as other French presses I have used. Some advantages are it is easy to clean (parts unscrew easily to open the screens, and get any little piece of coffee or tea out), it doesn't break, and keeps the coffee hotter. The screens on the first one are also still in good shape, unlike the competitor, which frayed after awhile. The jury is still out on whether I like this method of making coffee as well as drip, but I do love the pot. The trick seems to be in getting the grind perfect so it is strong, yet not grainy.It would be nice if they made the pot in a larger size. I was hoping to serve a crowd. This is the large pot (35 oz) , but realistically, this is only about two 16 oz mugs. I am very happy with the purchase.

Absolutely wonderful. I work in Iraq, and coffee makers (especially filters) are hard to find. So, I have been using a French Press for years, and I love how it makes coffee. If you really love the taste of coffee (and are not just using coffee as a vehicle for cream and sugar) then you need to be using a French Press. The problem with most presses is that they are made of glass, and they break after a while, and not just by being dropped. Sometimes, the shift from room temperature to near boiling will stress the glass and you will see a fantastic eruption. It's not pretty, takes forever to clean up, and you can get burned. This doesn't happen too often, but I have seen it happen to presses that looked perfectly fine.This press solves that problem. It looks great, made out of mirrored stainless steel, and you don't have to worry about breakage. It also, when used properly, keeps coffee hot for hours.One final word of warning though-I ordered one from Amazon to my home in the US, and it never arrived. It was shown as delivered by the shipper (not Fedex, UPS, USPS, or DHL) but it never came. Amazon was great and refunded me and I got mine from another source. I am not sure how this happened, but I want to put an honest review of my experience. It took a bit to get it, but I LOVE this French Press!