Bonnie: My first real memory of French-press made coffee was at the home of my coffee-loving friends Frank and Mary Ellen, as they always served coffee from a French press. A large French press. The coffee they poured after pressing was always full bodied, rich, deliciously satisfying and hot. But my second cup (which I accepted only once) was always lukewarm. I drink my coffee steaming hot. I immediately thought of them as I heard about the double-walled (AKA insulated) French press coffee makers.

Our Bite of the Best team tried two double-walled versions when we were all together recently at Smugglers Notch in Vermont. We tested the 8-cup Bodum Chambord and BonJour’s Rhone Insulated French Press The latter also comes in 6-cup capacity for $69.99; its 8-cup capacity is $79.99.

We followed the instructions implicitly, carefully measuring the freshly ground coffee and hot water, stirring, waiting the approximately four minutes and then pushing the plunger. Both produced delicious coffee. But the team, hands down, selected the Bodum one for it’s more elegant upscale looking double-walled glass container. I must share this info with Mary Ellen and Frank.

Bryan: There are few beverages that are truly revered like coffee; an aroma so intoxicating, a flavor so memorable, a warmth so comforting, a rush so powerful, a relaxation so tangible…. All this and more can be said about this ancient beverage turned modern elixir. And with billions of followers world wide, coffee just might be the world’s biggest religion. What’s not to love about coffee? Well… maybe, making it…. (C’mon, it is annoying sometimes… ahem, success of Starbucks anybody?)

Making it shouldn’t be a hassle though, especially in this day and age. There do seem to be countless ways to make a “cup o’ joe” nowadays. We’ve got percolators, drip machines, espresso makers, pod mechanisms, HAL 2000…. Just Google “coffee makers” and you’ll get “Results 1 – 10 of about 180,849.” Seriously, you’ve just got to love the excess of choice we’re offered on a daily basis, on something so simple; just to mix some ground beans and hot water.

I’ve personally never liked to have a big drip machine in my home. I am generally out the door 15 minutes after my alarm has sounded, leaving little time for a proper pot to brew, anyway. On top of not really having the time (or prescience of an alarm clock coffee maker), I also do not have the need for more than a single cup, rendering a pot brewer a bit excessive. I do like espresso, but find the machines so bulky — especially with the limited counter space I have — that the coffee maker inevitably ends up in a cabinet, wasting valuable space and doomed to show its face only on the occasion of a dinner party.

The French press, on the other hand, has always been a personal favorite. We grew up with a 12-oz Bodum in the house at all times, and I have always loved having one in my home ever since — small, non-electric and very simple to control portion size. The larger presses, though capable of brewing up to 8 cups, can brew a single cup just as easily. It is the simplest method there is: Grind beans, add hot water, strain and pour. There is something very special about grinding fresh beans and making your own steaming hot cup, perfectly strong to your liking (though this will take time to perfect – Also, make sure not to grind the beans too finely, this will cause French press muc). The simplicity of pressing is the type of ceremony that can be found amongst our simplest tasks; enjoyment really can start before the first taste… get back to your coffee roots.

Eric: While I was studying in the Netherlands I would always start my morning (usually around 6 am due to the hospitality curriculum), with a large cup of French-press coffee. I never needed more than one American-sized cup, so I always opted for the simplicity of the Bodum 12-oz Chambord press, a compact unit that allowed for the perfect amount of brew.

I’d wake up early in the morning and start the therapeutic process of boiling water, grinding fresh coffee beans and plunging grinds. The aroma, not only the taste, of the coffee was enough to jump-start my brain. When I returned to the states four years later, I was overwhelmed by the amount of filtered coffee that people drank, and scared even more that the majority of people considered Starbucks as the “best” choice for coffee.

Now that we’ve entered an economic recession beyond what most of us have ever lived through, I plead to, and challenge, all coffee drinkers to replace their morning routine of driving to Starbucks/Dunkin’ Donuts with the simpler, more cost-effective method of pressing their own coffee. Forget the Tassimo or the filtered-coffee maker, and treat yourself to the real taste, with Bodum.