- A really old Cona (a wedding present I don't really dare get out of the cupboard)
- Two modern stove top Conas (a B and a D)
- One solitary Bodum Santos (the glass sort - but it's on its last legs as there's a small star-shaped crack in the upper bowl)
- I tried the electric Santos and didn't get on with it so being a mean so and so I sold it to HughF!:oops: Sorry Hugh, I hope you like it more than I did.
Hokay - what are the differences?
Out of the box, the Santos comes with:
- The pot itself - the usual glass jug and globe connected with a tube with a rubber seal around it
- The seal that keeps the coffee in the top - in this case a ribbed plastic disc held in place by a spring and chain locked to the bottom of the tube
- A chromed wire stand to put the pot on (intended no doubt for use with the spirit lamp, but great to put the pot on when I take it off the stove).
- A stand to hold the upper bowl when it's not in place on the jug
- A plastic stirrer, a top for the coffee jug and a really useful "question mark shaped" cleaning brush
- A spirit lamp
- The bottom jug and the top globe
- The seal in this case is a rinky dink glass rod
- A stand to hold the globe when its not attached to the jug
- Absolutely sod all else apart from a very amatuerish (looks photocopied) instruction sheet
So the Conas are slightly more expensive and don't come with lots of useful bits. Indeed, I use the cleaning brush and metal stand from my Santos when I'm using my Conas.
So the question has to be : how do they compare, performance wise, to make the Conas worth the extra? Are they in fact worth the extra?
The visible differences (apart from the bits and bobs) are:
- The Cona has a glass rod for a filter while the Santos has a ribbed plastic disc on a metal chain
- The tube in the Santos reaches visibly further into the pot. In practice this means more water is left behind in the Cona's jug when brewing
So, in practice, how do the pots compare?
This is a work in progress so please don't expect a complete analysis of the functional differences at this point. However, my initial impressions are:
- The Cona leaves more water in the jug while brewing, as already described. This means that less hot water is in contact with the coffee during brewing. Well, a little less anyway. Personally I can't imagine that the very slightly more concentrated brewing environment makes much difference to the extraction. In his article on vac pots on the Coffeekid site, Mark Prince suggests that this difference is a problem but he doesn't say why IIRC. Personally I dunno. Can't imagine it makes much difference though.
- The brew from the Cona was noticeably, yes noticeably clearer and cleaner tasting. It was actually quite a revelation. Pretty much the same sort of revelation I had when I first switched from press pots to vac pot brewing with the Santos.
Preliminary assessment: the presentation and packaging of the Cona are amateurish compared to Bodum's class effort. The Cona is more expensive. Indeed if you want the spirit lamp version then it's a lot more expensive (£94.99 / £99.99 / £104.99 respectively for the B, C & D) although then you do get the gubbins.
However, when it comes to the coffee, which is what it's all about, then my current impression is that the Cona is clearly superior. British engineering and amateurish presentation beats Danish style and professional packaging.
To be continued .....
