I'm online to buy my fourth Bodum Electric Santos coffee maker. There is no coffee maker, anywhere, with a more attractive design. However, even if it was ugly, I'd still buy another. The taste of the coffee is perhaps equaled by some commercial equipment such as that which Starbucks uses. However their product seems to vary and coffee from the Santos is great every time. Since I also like tea and the taste of tea is even more variable than coffee, I tried buying a new Santos for tea brewing only, even though neither Bodum nor any other source was recommending the unit as a tea maker. After trying the new unit I was amazed that tea could taste so good and even more surprised that Bodum and it's retailers were not touting the Santos as an electric tea maker. I have never found any other tea maker that was electric and could be programmed and that would turn on and off at my preset times. The Bodum does all this and more and makes better tea than traditional methods, most of which I've tried many times, in many corners of the world.
On the down side the Santos has a hard to clean heating element base, and the seal around this element gives out after 1.5 to 2 years of use. Apparently it can't be repaired, so I've resigned myself to not worrying about it and not begrudging the approximately 10 cents per day
that I pay for privilege of drinking the best tea brewed anywhere. I wish the unit lasted longer. Bodum's had a number of years to improve it, so hopefully they will be rewarding our loyalty with a new unit that not only lives up to its European heritage of quality but also the old world standard of longevity. If you want common tasting coffee or tea, buy a common coffee maker, otherwise buy the Bodum Santos and both you and your guests will share an uncommon delight, day after day, for many, many, many days to come.
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