Inexpensive way to make great drip coffee especially when you tweak it!
Positive Product Points
Cheap way to make coffee - better then most auto-drips! Full control of temp. of brewing and pour Can be used for 1 or 2 mugs or even for a thermos Can take it traveling easy cleaning
Negative Product Points
Paper filters More labor intensive - need to pour and wait...pour and wait... If you do the restriction trick, it will effect the coffee infusion time
Detailed Commentary
I have the #2 size cone, which means it works great for one or two people having a nice sized mug of coffee. When you use the correct amount of coffee (about 2 tablespoons per 6-8 oz of water) it will not flow well at all when you go past 6 tablespoons of coffee. I really notice the coffee bloom when I use my fresh roasted coffee and you have to make sure to prewet grounds before really starting to pour! My advice:
If your making coffee for one, and you do the correct grind (I use a Mulino) the coffee flow is still too fast through the filter. You want to aim for about 2 min. of infusion time. What I did was take an aim n' flame lighter and heat up the plastic whole and using a small screwdriver I molded the whole smaller so it would restrict the flow better. You can re-heat and adjust if it still is too fast or you make it to slow and wanted to open it up a little bit. I time about 2 min. from when I fill the hot water from the top of the cone till it has drained almost all out (coffee in the filter of course). The only drawback is that depending how much coffee you put in the cone, it will change the flow so you have to make adjustments (Less water at first so it all drains in 2 min...). For me, I mostly use it for making "one mug" of coffee when I don't want a full pot of Vac pot or french press.
This has been said before, but while your waiting for the water to get to the magic 195 deg. put the filter in the cone and run some water through it to help get rid of some of that papery taste. Just for the heck of it, I tasted just water through the filter and cone and it had a nasty paper taste. Running water through it helped reduce the nasty taste when I actually put in the coffee
Buying Experience
Nothing to complain about. I was shopping and saw one of these, a great deal for a cheap price.
