Bodum Santos Coffee Maker
When people talk about vacuum coffee brewers it is impossible not to mention the Bodum Santos coffee maker.Bodum is a family owned business. It was founded in 1944 in Denmark. The head office is located in Switzerland. Today Bodum is well known for its collection of beautifully designed everyday life products. With it's motto "give up bad design for good", the company aims to provide an attractive and functional design at an affordable price.
Bodum Santos Stovetop Vacuum Coffee Maker
Peter Bodum, the founder of Bodum, introduced the Santos in 1958. It was actually the first product that Bodum designed. The Bodum Santos soon became very popular in Europe, particularly in Scandinavia. Today the Santos still uses the same design that was introduced 50 years ago.
Santos is a very practical vacuum brewer that you can use every day. You can use it directly on the gas stovetop. If you have electric stovetop you should use a wire grid. You can also use it with spirit lamp if you want to brew the coffee at the table. Santos has a plastic filter made of nylon. The glass feels a bit more fragile that for other vac pots like Yama. It does make a very good coffee.
Bodum Santos Electric Vacuum Coffee Maker
I usually like Bodum products. But I don't like electric version of Bodum Santos coffee maker. The concept of electric vacuum brewer is excellent, but the way Santos electric is made is just no good.
First of all, it is made from polycarbonate and a lot of people find out that the pot starts cracking only after a few months of use. There also seems to be a lot of problems with the heating unit burning out.
When the Santos electric works it does make decent coffee. Decent, but not brilliant. The problem is that you don't have any control over the duration of the brewing process and it is set to be too short. As a result you will need to use much more ground coffee that you are used to - otherwise the brewed coffee will be too weak.
Bodum Santos electric vacuum coffee maker also used to be sold as Starbucks Barista Utopia. I would recommend that you stay away from it.
If you are interested, I have another page about vacuum coffee makers (different than Bodum Santos coffee maker).