The Cory glass filter is a major part of making good vacuum coffee. If you took my advice from a few months ago, and tried using a vacuum coffee maker, you might have been disappointed at the design of the so-called “filter,” a sorry afterthought that looks like it’s made from a spring, a keychain and a bent paperclip:
I suggested using a vintage Cory glass filter rod with the Hario for more luxury; how about trying it with the Bodum for just a little more luxury? There are always plenty of Cory filters on eBay, so like an impatient fool I bid higher than I should have for one that was New In Box. OK, glass can be easily made clean and sterile, so what difference does it make whether it’s new and now what am I going to do with the box? Keep it forever in case I need to sell it back on eBay? But I want to keep it! Anyway, here’s the picture:
To install, you take the old one out and put it somewhere (in the trash, hopefully) and just place the Cory glass filter rod in the opening in the top globe. By the way, the Bodum glass vacuum coffeemaker is available from Amazon for about $99. Start heating the water in the lower globe by itself on the stove, and add the grounds around the filter. Nothing could be easier. Put the top globe on, wait for the water to expand into it and let it gurgle for a minute or two. The glass rod gives it even more of the desired mad chemist look:
Take it off the heat and the filter does its job of letting the freshly-brewed coffee surge back down, while keeping the grounds up where they belong. The special secret bonus advantage is in the ease of cleaning up. Put the top globe over the disposal (or the garbage or the compost pile), pull out the rod from the top and just rinse the grounds away.
No mess and you can’t do that with the cheap metal and plastic filter that came with it. All in all, the way to go and available on eBay for under ten bucks.