Bodum KONA 8-Cups Coffee Maker

Pogomom's review was great and was influential in my buying the Kona. I really love it! It does look very cool and is virtually bulletproof. I expect this thing to last the rest of my life with only the occasional rubber gasket being replaced. The only thing lacking, in my opinion, has been good advice on how to actually MAKE coffee with this thing. I am a moderate coffee snob, ie. I know what I like and what I don't like, so it has take some time for me to get things dialed in. Believe me, it is possible to make coffee that tastes horrible with this machine. But, it is also possible to make that perfect cup of black nectar that we all are ever in pursuit of. My humble advice:
1. Buy coffee that smells good! I buy mine in whole bean. It seems such a simple thing, but really, if the beans don't smell like a perfect cup of Jo then it won't make that perfect cup. Darker roasts where the beans are shiny (perfect roasting brings those luscious oils to the surface) are best.
2. The grind! This is really important. This and how long it takes for the coffee to be made are vital. I have found that a coarse grind yields a quite bitter result, no matter how you play with stove time. If you have ever been able to buy the real Italian bags of coffee made for these things, the coffee is practically a powder. I should have paid closer attention. When I set my hand powered coffee mill to its finest setting I found that the coffee was not bitter anymore. Great!
3. How much coffee do I put in? This really can be varied. Most of the time and with the way the machine is designed it is best to pack it into the filter and press it down, then add a little more on top before you screw the top and bottom together. This way there is NO WAY for water to "get by" the coffee without filtering through it. You CAN also add less coffee for a result which is not quite as strong( is this good?). If you use less coffee you must be more careful about how you brew the coffee, as a quick boil will make the water force a channel through the available space in the coffee compartment and not through the coffee itself. This is not good and is a waste (coffee doesn't taste good).
4. Actual stove time. This must be to taste and experience. There are basically two ways to do this. One, to put the machine on the stove top turn the heat to maximum (oh, how I wish I had a gas stove!) and wait for the bubbling sound of rushing steam to let you know the coffee is done. This method works best when the coffee filter is packed full of coffee. Be careful not to let the steam at the end continue for long as this adds bitterness to your brew! The other(2nd) method, when the coffee filter is not packed full, is to put heat on maximum until you hear(you must listen closely) the water BEGIN to boil. That little sound. If you wait too long then the water will burst through too quickly, making a path by the coffee and not through it. OK, so now you hear the water, turn down the heat to the lowest setting. The coffee will take a long time to fill the upper reservoir but it will be much better coffee. When the coffee begins to come out using this method, you can play with the heat, keeping it low, but high enough to keep a constant stream of coffee flowing. It isn't really very good for the coffee grounds to remain hot for very long. The faster you can actually make the coffee the better. But avoid letting steam pass through the grounds as this will add a bitter taste to your coffee. The just boiling water is the right temperature to extract the best taste from the coffee but the steam is too hot!

Long-winded but I hope helpful to my fellow coffee lovers. This machine has what it takes to give you that feel-good feeling. In spades!