forCycling.com - BonJour Hugo 8-Cup Unbreakable French Press, Black

Product Description:


The BonJour Unbreakables... for those who are a little clumsy before their morning coffee! The Monet Unbreakable French Press is elegant and durable, perfect for patio, RV, boat or picnics. The carafe is made of polycarbonate that is unbreakable with normal use and care. The lid and frame are stainless steel as is the filter rod and assembly. Includes BonJour's filtering lid for less sediment in your coffee.


A virtually unbreakable polycarbonate carafe makes this coffee press sturdy enough for picnics or camping. To use a French press, grounds are placed in the bottom of the (preheated with hot water, if possible) carafe, then near-boiling water added. The lid with its stainless-steel rod and filter is pushed down after a few minutes of steeping, and the coffee is ready to pour. Many coffee aficionados swear by the French press method. The Hugo features a second mesh screen in the lid that removes even more of the coffee grounds sediment typically left behind by most coffee presses. In addition to the polycarbonate carafe, the Hugo features a rubberized comfort-grip handle and plastic frame, which makes it possible for coffee (or tea) to be reheated in a microwave when the lid and stainless-steel fixtures are removed. The Hugo eight-cup carafe makes about 32 ounces of coffee, which is more like four cups for most coffee drinkers. An individual-sized 12-ounce model is also available, and both come in black, white, blue, or green. --Ann Bieri

Customers' Reviews:

Screen Breaks quickly

I'm on the hunt for a new press that will last since this one broke one morning (before my first cup no less!). The carafe is sturdy and a workhorse, but the plastic broke into shards where it holds the rubber gasket on the press.

Excellent French Press in spite of it's causing the world to come to an end

OK, I have owned one of the Bonjour Hugo 3 cup glass presses for years and have never had any trouble out of it. I carry it in the car with me and use it every day.

But, thousands of cups of coffee later, I finally decided to buy one which is a little bigger for use at home making coffee for more than one person. I bought a cheapie at Tuesday Morning for $6 and got good use out of it for a while. Then, while washing it, the carafe slipped out of the plastic frame and landed in the sink with a crash, half the pieces ending up in the garbage disposal. What a pain in the a$$ it was picking the shards of glass out of that thing. But I guess it was inevitable.

So when I saw the "unbreakable" polycarbonate by Bonjour I went ahead and bought one. I wish I had read the reviews first, it is uncharacteristic of me not to do so, but that is water under the bridge. But that said, I have used it many times now and have not had any trouble with it......yet. I will be very careful with the plastic strainer, which I must admit I was never all that fond of in the first place. Honestly, I expected it to have a limited lifespan not because of the plastic strainer frame but from the silicone o-ring around the frame which will clearly not last forever and will probably not be available as a replacement part. But, being made out of polycarbonate, it has already outlasted my previous large french press. If the strainer frame outlasts the o-ring I will feel like I have gotten my money's worth out of the thing.

Now, the "other" downside has already been mentioned by at least one other reviewer, and that is that it cools off VERY quickly. So if you are going to make coffee for yourself only, drink up or you will be reheating it in the microwave. It is for THIS reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5, since I do like the overall design, especially the additional strainer in the lid. That feature alone is worth it's weight in gold.

P.S. All you fruitcakes out there howling about Bis-A leached from your press carafe causing CANCER, you have been watching too much alarmist propaganda passing under the guise of "news". Turn off the damn TV and get a life. In the first place, a properly made PC will not leach Bis-A at more than low parts per billion level, at which it is harmless. You would have to drink thousands of gallons of coffee a day to get enough Bis-A to cause any harm. Secondly, Bis-A is an estrogen mimicker, not a carcinogen. So, guys, if you have not sprouted a pair of hooters from using your french press, you are safe. Girls, you have nothing to worry about, drink up.

DON'T buy this

Seriously, don't do it. I read the reviews and most of them said it was sturdy and I did read about a problem with the plastic piece on the plunger. I had mine for three weeks (I bought it because it was called unbreakable) and the plastic piece that houses the plunger broke out of nowhere! Sure the container is unbreakable, but the rest of it is junk!

Screen disintegrated after a few months

The carafe may be unbreakable, but the screen on the stainless-steel filter rod disintegrated several months after I bought it. I now wish that I had bought something durable, which this is not.

Great little coffee maker

Works very well. I am worried that since it's made from plastic it will give me the cancer.