Customer Reviews

BonJour French Press Monet 12-Cup, Polished Stainless Steel

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I saw this BonJour model at a national discount retail chain this weekend and decided to put it to the test against my Bodum. The price was only $19.99 which is half of what I paid for my Bodum. They looked identical when placed next to eachother. So, what's the difference?

In my opinion, the price is the only difference. The BonJour model is exactly the same size. The construction is near identical. I could swap them back and forth with guests and they couldn't tell the visual difference. The next test was taste of course.

Each model is a 12 cup, but for coffee 1 cup is actually 4 ounces. I don't know why this is, and neither do any of my local baristas. Might be a french thing, but no big whoop. So a 12 cup is really 48oz. The measurements were 1T per cup(4oz) of water. I splash a pinch of cinnamon in with my jamaican blue mountain beans for an added kick.

Both presses where made of glass. Both were chromed out. The second filter on the BonJour is more porous. Each required 4 minutes to brew. Each was delicately hot if touching the surface of the glass.

In the tastes test it was a dead heat. My guests thought both cups of coffee, with and without cream, were delicious. Taste would have improved with the use of filtered water, but the boiling does a lot for the water as is.

The great thing about presses is the cleanup. It's not complicated. It doesn't take any more time than an automatic drip machine.

With the BonJour you are getting a great cup of coffee at half the price of the Bodum. Give the BonJour a whirl.

The Bonjour coffee press was mentioned in a magazine (maybe Esquire?) as a top pick and after a little more research, we purchased an 8-cup version. We (and our dinner guests) loved it so much, we decided to get the 12-cup version.

Here's why we like it:

1) The container looks really nice on the table. We get lots of compliments on it.

2) We've had it for over 3 years now, use it daily, and haven't had a single problem. I've read about glass shattering or burning yourself w/other models, but we've been fine. We often put it in the top rack of our dishwasher on the normal dishwashing cycle, too.

3) It's fairly easy to clean, all the parts unscrew if you want to give it a thorough washing.

4) As with probably all French presses, we feel like we get more flavor per scoop of coffee. Delicious coffee!!

Here are some tips:

1) We grind our coffee at the store on the "French press" setting so it's coarser. We measure the coffee scoops, but not really the water anymore since you get used to just looking at the color of the mixture or how far you normally fill it. We use a wooden spoon (wooden chopsticks and bbq skewers also work well) to stir the grinds/water mixture - this helps prevent the glass from breaking if you accidentally hit the glass.

2) I'd recommend getting this larger 12-cup version. As mentioned in the product description it comes out to 4-5 mugs of coffee - this is because the "cups" they refer to are really teacup sized. This is true for all brands when they say "12-cup," not just Bonjour. The larger size gives you flexibility to make a little or a lot depending on your needs.

3) You can also use this for steeping tea. Handy with the loose leaf teas that aren't in bags since you can just press it down at the end.

nice coffee maker. little messy. too expensive for what you get. still have to filter coffee to get sedement out, even using very course grind. good flavor

I recieved this as a gift and was so excited about using it. Unfortunanlty the plunger is a tad too small so I can't brew the coffee unless i stand there and hold the plunger for the time i want it to brew. Once I let it go is goes down rather quickly.

I was given the 12 cup BonJour coffee press as a gift.

Once my wife, (non coffee drinker) made sure that nothing was broken, she disposed of the packaging. When I completed my out of town work and was ready to try the coffee press, I found that the filter screen etc. would simply not slide down when the plunger was pressed.

Since it was a gift I did not have the receipt or packaging I called the company to check for replacement parts or parts breakdown to see what was missing fully expecting to pay for the missing part. I was told that they do not have parts for sale. I would need to buy a completely new item to get the one missing part.

I think this comes under the buyer beware category.