How to get French Press coffee without the cholesterol

December 16, 2012 11:03 AM

My parents have decided to replace their french press due to concerns about cholesterol. Previously . I want to get them a paper filter based coffee maker that makes 4 or more cups of coffee at a time. The other constraint is that the machine has to be shorter than 14 inches so it fits under their cupboards.

I make my daily coffee with a aeropress, but I dont think they would like to deal with making their cups one at a time, but I am open to being convinced. If someone made a french press that uses paper filters, that would be ideal. Alternatively a drip machine that is sufficiently short would also work.

posted by vegetableagony to Food & Drink (8 answers total)

What about a Chemex?
posted by Sara C. at 11:22 AM on December 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

I'm a fan of Chemex's coffeemakers. Minimalist, no moving parts to break/lose, and the coffee simply drips through the filter directly into the reservoir, never passing through metal or plastic (and so in theory, delivering the most "pure" coffee taste -- I'm not enough of a connoisseur to notice the difference). They look nice too.

On this page, there's a 6-cup model that is 9.5" tall.
posted by andromache at 11:25 AM on December 16, 2012 [2 favorites]

Have you or they considered a good, old-fashioned drip coffeepot? Several styles are available (here are many on one page at Fante's, but you could probably score a cheap and perfectly nice one at K-Mart or Penney's) . They use paper filters. They do tend to imply that you're going to boil water on the stove, of course.

I've also been frustrated by the "height wars" among coffeemaker makers. Few of them fit under my cabinets either.
posted by gimonca at 11:26 AM on December 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

When I just have two people, I make in an AeroPress by doing the four-shot into a smallish (2-cup, I think) Pyrex measuring cup and pouring into mugs from there, and I get two cups at a time that way. That's assuming two two-shot lattes--if they don't take it as strong, then you'd get more out of it, although I'm not sure if you'd get a full four or not.

Since you already have one, I'd just take it over to their place and see what they think of it.
posted by gracedissolved at 11:44 AM on December 16, 2012

I have a Zojirushi EC-DAC50 that is 11" tall. I've been happy with it. It makes 5 cups but that's really 2 1/2 mugs.
posted by interplanetjanet at 11:47 AM on December 16, 2012

I worked at a coffee stand for several years serving coffee from ceramic drip cones. Everybody *loved* them and wanted to know where they could buy them. They're relatively commonly available and require filters. They're short because the cone sits on top of any mug, and so it wouldn't need to be left out on the counter. Another search term would be "melitta." Some even have attractive chambers for the coffee to drip into if you really want something that will sit on their counter.
posted by aniola at 12:47 PM on December 16, 2012

Chemex yes! I've got a decades-old, hand-blown one and it makes the best coffee ever. It's a little fussy, so we use it only on weekends.
posted by fivesavagepalms at 6:53 AM on December 17, 2012

There are few auto drip coffeemakers that brew at a high temperature and the Technivorm and Bodum are quite tall and expensive, but the Bonavitas claim to be only 12" tall.

If you go with a Chemex, cones-over-cups or cone-over-carafe, Bonavita also makes nice electric kettles, one with PID temperature control, with "gooseneck" spouts for washing bits of wet grounds down the the filter.
posted by morganw at 4:27 PM on December 17, 2012