Bodum

Peter Bodum founded the company in Copenhagen in 1944. It is still a family business, and it is no longer Danish in the practical sense: his son Jørgen Bodum moved it to Switzerland in 1978, and its head office today is in Triengen, in the canton of Lucerne. That is why this site files it under Switzerland while the design language stays recognisably Scandinavian.

The French press is the product the name is attached to. Jørgen Bodum launched the Bistro press in 1974. The Chambord came later and from elsewhere: it grew out of the dome-topped Melior press made in France by Martin, and Bodum dates the Chambord as it sells it today to its purchase of that company, which it gives as 1991. The shape has barely moved since. A chrome frame with four feet holds a borosilicate glass beaker, the lid is a dome with a ball knob, and the plunger carries a stainless mesh screen.

Around that sit pour-over makers with a permanent steel filter, electric and gooseneck kettles, double-walled glasses and mugs, and spare beakers in the common sizes, sold separately.

What they are good at. Keeping a design in production long enough that the parts outlive the breakage. A cracked glass on a Chambord is a replacement beaker, not a new press, and the eight-cup glass is listed on its own on Bodum’s site.

What to know before buying. Bodum counts in its own cups of about 4 oz, so an “8 cup” press makes three or four mugs, not eight. Glass and a steel lid hold heat poorly next to a double-walled press, which matters only if you let the coffee sit, and the method page explains why you should not.

Who it suits. Anyone who wants a press that looks like a press, costs little, and can be repaired with a part rather than replaced. The first look at the Chambord 8-cup goes through the design in detail.