Review: Bodum Chambord Aluminum Stovetop Espresso Maker

I know I am breaking away from the norm here but I've decided to add kitchen product reviews to HCR. We've all done this, spent hours searching the internet for an honest review and I once even asked you guys for help while looking for kitchen gadgets. So I figured why not review the new kitchen items that I buy? So without further ado I present to you one of my new favorite kitchen additions.




I bought a 6 ounce Bodum Chambord Aluminum Stovetop Espresso Maker from Amazon for $14 when they were having their lightening deals right before Christmas. It's just the Mr. and me in the house and I am the only one that drinks coffee. I had been thinking of buying one of those fancy one cup coffee makers. We actually call them the robotic makers because we were introduced to them with this commercial.



However, have you seen how expensive these things are? At the time they didn't have reusable K-cups either so you had to buy their boxed set of k-cup's and even though I am not a coffee snob, I am particular in that I pretty much only like Kona coffee and their kona cups were more expensive than a bag of whole kona coffee beans from the grocery store. Not to mention that the machines are pretty bulky in size. Right now our current kitchen is so tiny that I have one of those 55gal plastic totes out in the garage filled with baking pans, quesadilla maker, chocolate fountain... basically anything that I don't use on a daily basis. So needless to say, I don't have the space for a big chunky coffee maker. I do have a 4 cup coffee maker but it just sits on the counter and gets rather dusty between uses and with my space issue there is nowhere to store it when I don't need a caffeine fix so it just takes up well needed counter space. So when I saw the Bodum Espresso Maker I must admit I got pretty giddy when I saw the measurements and compared it to my current coffee maker. The thing is no wider than a container of salt. So it makes storing a synch.


Not only that but I for one love the espresso it produces. I will admit that I have never had espresso before but what comes out of the maker is so strong that for the first couple of months I had to add hot water to my cup to dilute the taste until I got accustomed to it but now I just need a little bit of milk and raw sugar and I'm good. Now when I drink normal coffee it just tastes like a watered down mess. Sort of like comparing freshly ground, brewed coffee to a cup of instant coffee. There is just no comparison.


Speaking of coffee... you don't need a fancy brand of coffee beans for this. However, you do need to finely grind your own coffee, so pre-ground coffee beans won't really work out so well since they tend to be more course. Other than that though there really is nothing special you need to do and cleanup is super easy. You just unscrew the base, dump the coffee grounds, wipe out filter and wash out the top and let dry.


I highly recommend this for anyone who is limited on space and is looking for a one cup deal. They do make a 12 ounce version that would obviously be larger and offer twice as much espresso but for me, this is perfect. I can toss the old coffee maker in the tote out in the garage and pull it out on the rare occasion that we have company over. Meanwhile reclaiming a good chunk of counter space in the process.



*I was not compensated for my review. Bodum doesn't even know I exist.