Speaking of Cona, the word "cheap" doesn't quite come to mind, but one does get a fairly decent vac pot for that. The latter is of course an understatement. The Cona's certainly are the Rolls-Royces amongst glass vac pots, combining high quality, convenience & style. Moreover, these vac pots make the finest cup of coffee.
The glass of the Cona's is thicker than that of my other vacs & feels very solid. I've accidentally dropped the bowls a couple of times without breakage - ill-advised, but apparently it will stand a bit of abuse.
The stand of the table models is sublime, both in form & functionality. The heavy duty chromed stainless steel & plastic handle, looks simple, yet stylish. It very conveniently incorporates a place to put the funnel after brewing. Nice finishing touch is the little cup to catch drops from the funnel. As far as style is concerned, I very much enjoy the continuous curvature of stand & handle.
The Cona glass rod is the best filtering device I've come across so far & hardly leaves any sediment in the cup. Furthermore, it can stand a wide range of grinds without ever clogging. On one occasion, I had left my grinder only a couple of clicks away from 'spresso grind - still the brew went down south just as smoothly. Cleaning the filter is very easy, just rinsing will do - no need for any hassle with bleach or other chemicals.
Like the other parts, the wick-style spirit burner sits snugly in the stand. It burns very smoothly, producing hardly any soot - downside is that it also produces little heat, because of that, brewing is a slow, but OTOH also a very smooth process. Since the jug has a flat bottom, the vac pot can also be used on a stove. To speed up brewing, I always start with hot water.
The Cona "D" is designed for 2 pints, it can make about a liter of coffee. It can be used to make only 75% of the capacity, but the brew will not be as good. The "D" is the largest size Cona & I use it only when having people over - it serves up to eight, depending on the size of cups used.
AFAIK, the usual price in these parts is around a US$150-ish |
