The Chemex is a drip coffee maker and takes as long to brew as a french press. There is no real steeping involved, but you add water to the grounds slowly, not all at once. That whole process takes a couple minutes, but not any longer than any other process of making coffee. The first pot I made was with beans ground a little too fine for this, and it took a while, but worked well with a more coarse grind, about the same as you would use for a french press.

I really like the coffee I get from this product. If you like the sludge and everything else that comes from coffee in its purest form, this may not be for you, but this delivers good, smooth coffee, while keeping the flavor of the beans.

If any of you have read my past reviews, you probably know that I am a black coffee drinker, and that’s about it. No cappuccino, no caramel lattes, or other Starbucks concoctions. I believe in the purity of a cup of coffee, and all of the flavor that the bean has to offer. If you want a different flavor, use a different bean or roast.

Curiosity got the best of me, and after some prodding from other coffee aficionados, I tried a latte from Starbucks. It was just a plain latte, made with espresso and milk. It was a pretty good drink and a nice deviation from my normal cup of coffee.

Not wanting to have to give my money to Starbucks every time I wanted a latte, I decided to get a milk frother, since I could already make the perfect espresso, with my AeroPress. Since I’m still in the experimental stage with lattes, I decided to go the low cost route and went to Williams & Sonoma to purchase a milk frother that kind of looks like a tiny motorized whisk.

The frother is pretty much designed just for frothing milk; it’s not a mixer or blender or anything else, but it does its job well. It’s by BonJour, and called the Rechargeable Primo Latte Frother. Being rechargeable is nice, since it’s one less cord to get in my way.

The first time I used it, I was able to make a better, more smooth latte than my Starbucks the prior night, although regular readers of brotherhoodofthebean should all be able to do this with the information contained herein. You can either used heated or cold milk, and the frother makes a nice, bubbly froth. I found that using a tall, thin container for the frothing makes it much easier. For some reason, the more milk the more foam you get. For example, if you use, say a coffee mug to froth, and use 3-4 ounces of milk, you won’t get a good foam. If you use the same amount of milk in a thinner container ( I use the top part of the AeroPress), you get a much better foam.

For the price ($30), this is a great product, does what it should, and is easy to use. If you’re just getting into lattes or need a frother without spending huge money on a steam attachment for your espresso machine, this will do it.