Purchased from: www.EspressoZone.com
Price paid: $178, shipping price included.
Delivery time: 3 days to East Coast, standard UPS ground
Green coffee bean suppliers:
Caracolillo Coffee Mill www.ccmcoffee.com
Sweet Marias www.sweetmarias.com

The Cona Vacuum pot "D Size" comes with the following:
--Shiny chrome or gold base with sturdy arm fixture to hold the glassware
--Filter rod. It looks like a glass pacifier.
--Filter bowl. An oversized wineglass which I will refer to as a chalice
--Coffee pot. Although deceptively small in appearance, it can hold 32 ounces (about 8 cups) of coffee.
--Plastic nub. Fits into coffee pot spout as a place to store the filter rod. It can also be used as a stopper to retain steam as the water comes to a boil.
--Spirit lamp. Spirit as in alcohol spirits, not ghosts. A better name would be alcohol lamp. It comes with a glass cap for extinguishing the flame.

Not included: Fuel for the spirit lamp. Cona recommends using denatured alcohol which is ethanol (pure grain alcohol) with poisonous methanol (wood alcohol) added. It is easily obtained at K-Mart for about $5.00 which is enough to last for several months. Hardware stores that sell paint/varnish supplies also probably carry it, as would Wal-Mart. You can also use pure grain alcohol from the liquor store, such as Everclear. That would be the most expensive but least toxic solution. DO NOT use isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol, gasoline, or other such inflammables. You are brewing coffee, not napalm!

Like many people, my coffee routine consisted of buying canned coffee from the grocery store using an automatic drip machine with cheap paper filters. The coffee produced was ok but nothing to leap in the air about. To vary the routine I would add ice cream, sugar, or sprinkle cinnamon and nutmeg on the coffee grounds to get some "wow" in the morning. After several years of trying every kind of ground coffee sold in the grocery store I had to conclude that coffee was basically coffee. I would get marginally better results buying beans and grinding them myself but still, it was nothing to clap about. I compared my coffee efforts to commercial vendors but found that their coffee was usually burned and bitter, costing me as much as a whole pound of coffee in the store. I resigned myself to the fact that coffee would always be an average beverage with a little caffeine kick. The Cona has proven me wrong.

Why a vacuum pot? Is it really that much better than an automatic drip machine? The answer from my taste buds is a resounding yes! By far, vacuum-brewed is the best coffee I have ever tasted. No longer do I need sugar and cream to disguise the bitter badness typically found in pre-ground coffee sold at the grocery store. I am also better able to distinguish between the different types of coffee. Sumatran coffee does very well with the Cona, making coffee that is sharp, a little spicy, and heady. Ugandan coffee comes out earthy and chocolaty; Mexican smooth, sweet, and mellow. Please note that I buy my coffee beans green and roast them myself, grinding then adding the coffee immediately. This gives the best result in taste. The Cona does a great job but unless you use fresh water and good coffee in the appropriate quantity and proper grind, your results will range from disappointing to little better than percolated. Stale coffee brewed in stagnant water is going to result in bad coffee no matter what you do. You also need to use a little more coffee than with a drip maker. For the full 32 oz. pot you will need about 8 to 10 tablespoons of coffee. Presumably, you bought the Cona to make excellent coffee that cannot be made using other methods. If you can afford the Cona then you can afford the cost of a few extra tablespoons of coffee. Using less will make the coffee taste like brown scalded water. If you are absolutely determined to use less coffee then use a finer grind and less water-contact time to compensate. Using finely ground coffee will result in some (but still not very much) silt in the coffee and possibly cause a stuck pot.

As with most things, there are some negative points to consider before getting a Cona. Such negatives are a small price to pay to get really good coffee.

TIME
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If you are the kind of person who wakes up less than an hour before it is time to go to work, stumbling to the kitchen like a zombie mumbling "must...have...coffee...NOW" then fumbling about barely coherent until the caffeine jump-starts your humanity so you can zip off to work, then the Cona is not for you; at least, not during your wake-up time. You will need about 35 to 45 minutes to go through the process of heating water, brewing coffee, and cleaning everything up before you can take your first sip of coffee. And, unless you want to wait an hour for the spirit lamp to get the water hot enough to initiate the brewing process, you need to heat water on the stove first then let the spirit lamp finish the job. If the brew stalls, meaning, the coffee gets stuck in the chalice and doesn't filter down, then you will need even more time.

STALLING
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The Cona requires that the coffee be of medium grind to get the best result. If the coffee is ground such that enough fine particles form a sludge around the filter rod, the brewing process can stall after about 1/3 of the coffee has filtered from the chalice to the coffee pot. All you will see is what appears to be foam bubbling in the filter tube. You can relight the spirit lamp in the hopes of clearing the blockage but you risk boiling your coffee making it bitter or maybe even causing an explosion. The best remedy when this happens is to pour the coffee from the chalice into a container then carefully blot away the coffee sludge that has formed around the filter rod. You will hear the air go into the coffee pot and the intense
vacuum seal will weaken enough so that you can pull the chalice and coffee pot apart. It is best to use a coffee grinder where you can select the type of grind. Using a blade grinder to grind coffee often causes a stuck pot unless you are adept enough to do it just right to get a medium grind. Even then, there are often enough fine particles to cause a blockage.

FRAGILE
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To prevent paper, metal, or cloth from (possibly) affecting flavor, the Cona uses only glass for the brewing process. You get pure, excellent coffee but you must be careful when handling. I always use both hands to prevent dropping or banging the glass, especially during cleaning. If you are a clumsy person, or, if you are the kind of person who tries to make coffee half-asleep fidgeting for that first rush of caffeine, you are most likely going to break the glass. Would you handle fine china just after waking up? Not recommended with the Cona either. By all means keep it away from children, just as you would your other precious glassware.

TOXIC
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The spirit lamp uses toxic, slightly foul smelling denatured alcohol. The smell is noticeable when trying to get a good sniff of the coffee brewing in the chalice. I would not recommend hovering over the Cona inhaling while the coffee is brewing. Pure ethanol will burn cleaner but is still toxic and flammable. Another reason to keep the Cona away from children.

Some people complain about a small amount of water left in the bottom that never rises into the bowl to become infused with the coffee, and when trying to brew less than a full pot of coffee it tends to dilute the coffee making it weak and watery. The residual water is actually a good thing for it prevents the glass bottom of the pot from getting too hot from the spirit lamp. If all the water went out of the pot then the integrity of the glass bottom could become compromised causing it to crack or shatter. The best reason why the residual water is a good thing is because the remaining water circulates throughout the coffee pot providing a hot, steamy, environment similar to the coffee's native land. What better way to welcome coffee coming home to the pot than in a place like home? Air is the enemy of coffee which is why it goes flat and stale so fast.

After all that has been said you may be asking yourself why get a Cona vacuum pot coffee maker: it's glass, it needs toxic fuel, it's expensive, it requires heating water twice. Is it worth it? If you are just a Caffeine Freak, not overly concerned about the actual flavor of coffee, then no, it probably isn't worth your while seeing as how "coffee is coffee" for the most part and yes, you can get respectable coffee even from a percolator if done right. But if you truly appreciate the flavor of coffee then this is the Real Deal, the whole Shebang. The Big Time. You cannot and will not get coffee like that
which is made in a vacuum pot. Most, if not all, other coffee-making methods will result in varying degrees of "mud" with varying degrees of bitterness. The Cona makes a clean brew where the flavor of the bean is brought out to to the front, not buried between the floating grinds or masked by the taste of paper filters. It is a delight to watch the coffee brew, watching the water disappear from the pot to mix with the coffee then, after snuffing out the lamp, watching it gurgle back into the pot. The vacuum-brewing method, more than any other, brings out the full flavor of the coffee bean. Either by accident or design, the coffee bowl has the appearance of a chalice: THE HOLY GRAIL OF COFFEE MAKERS. For me, I need search no longer for a way to make excellent tasting coffee.

Here are the steps I use to get good (not necessarily the best) results from the Cona:

1) Start the process of heating water on the stove.

2) While water is coming close to a boil, rinse the chalice, filter, and coffee pot in hot water to lessen the stress of cool glass coming into contact with near-boiling water. Wipe off any droplets on the outside of the chalice and coffee pot as this could cause the glass to crack.

3) Pour boiling or near-boiling water into the coffee pot, light the spirit lamp, then place coffee pot in holder above the flame. If the water has cooled too much you may want to use the plastic nub to retain heat better.

4) When water starts to boil, carefully and firmly grasp the chalice's top edge with one hand while the other holds the coffee pot handle then gently push down and twist the chalice to create a vacuum seal. Make sure the coffee pot is firmly seated in its holder. Sometimes the Cona jumps during brewing which may dislodge an improperly seated coffee pot.

5) While water is seeping into the chalice, now is the time to grind your coffee beans.

6) After the coffee pot is half full (or half empty--pessimist!) pour coffee into the chalice. Please note the time you added the coffee so as to calculate how long to let the coffee percolate. You may want to lightly stir the grounds with the end of a chopstick or long toothpick(unused I hope) to eliminate any dry pockets.

7) After the water in the chalice starts bubbling, note the time again. The number of minutes you want the coffee to percolate is 4 minutes minus the number of minutes elapsed since you added the coffee. For example, if you added the coffee at 8:00 AM, and it is now 8:02 AM, then you want to let the coffee percolate for 2 minutes (4 minutes - 2 minutes of time coffee sat in the chalice), snuffing out the flame in the alcohol lamp at 8:04 AM. The goal here is to have the ground coffee in contact with the water approximately 6 minutes or less. A general rule to remember is to allow 2 minutes for the coffee to steep plus 2 minutes percolate time then 2 minutes for coffee to drain back into the coffee pot. If you use a finer grind you will want to decrease this time.

8) Allow all the coffee in the chalice to drain into the coffee pot. This can take a minute or longer depending on how the coffee was ground. See STALLING above in case you get a stuck pot. Even with a stuck pot you can usually salvage the coffee and it is still very good, so don't despair.

9) When all the liquid is gone from the chalice and you see many bubbles in the coffee pot, firmly grasp the chalice's
edge with one hand while the other holds the coffee pot handle then gently twist and pull the chalice until it comes free. Do not yank or pull at an angle or you may dash the glass tube of the chalice against something and break it. You may want to allow the chalice to cool a minute or two before handling, or use a damp paper towel or cloth. It's hot!

9) Clean the chalice and filter in warm soapy water. You can use a plastic or wooden spoon handle to shove a soapy paper towel through the glass tube to clean it. Wipe the chalice dry and place it on the arm stand. Pour the coffee into whatever you plan to drink from, then clean the coffee pot like you did the chalice.
Time to enjoy that coffee!

UPDATE 5/25/2006
The Cona is still doing a great job. Excellent coffee! Because I have been very careful none of the glass has broken, even though I've banged the chalice against the side of the sink a few times. I still get a stuck pot now and then but overall, this has been the best coffee maker I've ever owned.

UPDATE 9/30/2005
After 3 months of use I am still getting good results with the Cona. It has suffered from some wear and tear, however. The glue that holds the rubber seal on the chalice broke down after just a month of use but this has not affected performance or quality. Apparently, the glue is not the kind that can handle the stress of heat. Before brewing, I just have to make sure the seal is tight on the chalice by pushing it up as far is it will go.
On the spirit lamp, the small ceramic o-ring that holds the alcohol wick has cracked due to my overfilling the spirit lamp causing excessive heat. This has not affected performance either. Because of the two aforementioned issues, I am starting to come to the conclusion that the Cona is more suited for "special occasion" brewing rather than everyday use.
I also must make a correction concerning automatic drip makers. Due to time constraints I sometimes use a drip maker to make coffee. To my utter and complete shock, some coffees actually taste better in a drip than the Cona. For instance, the Papua New Guinea coffee I use has a peculiar fruity kick to it (if used 3 to 4 days after roast date) when made via drip but this fruitiness does not appear when brewed with the Cona. Apparently, the Cona captures all the properties of the coffee bean which can, when combined in water, negate each other whereas a drip maker with its paper filter may allow a particular essence to get through which accentuates a particular aspect. I still stand by my 5-star rating because this coffee maker has, overall, given me the best coffee I have ever tasted.
Here is how I rank coffee makers (excluding espresso) concerning ability to get the most out of a coffee bean. Of course, this is only my subjective taste and opinion but seems fairly accurate based upon people I've talked to and from what I've read:
Percolator: 80%
Drip maker: 91%
Press Pot: 93%
Vacuum Pot: 99%

Recommended: Yes