EMSAEleganza Stainless Steel Insulated Carafe, 34-Ounce

Elegant design. Easy to use and clean. Keeps liquids hot or cold for 24 hours.

I recently got rid of my automatic thermal coffee maker and went to one that was plastic-free. I'd been reading a lot of articles about not cooking or heating food in plastic containers so I figured that making coffee using almost boiling water and pouring it through a plastic basket into a plastic lined pot might not be the healthiest way to go. After much searching and asking questions on Amazon discussions I found the Chemex 10 Cup Coffee Maker that made an excellent cup of coffee. The only problem was, how to keep it hot? That glass coffee maker kept it hot for all of about 10 minutes, even with the lid. So the search was on for a thermal carafe to pour the coffee into that would keep it hot for a several hours. And it had to be plastic free. So many of the ones that I looked at were stainless steel on the outside but lined in plastic. I finally came across this one that is 18/10 stainless steel both inside and out. There is a silicone ring at the top and under the lid there is a fiberglass stopper to keep the heat in. (I emailed the company to verify the materials.)I couldn't be happier with the carafe. It keeps the coffee hot for several hours, like 4 or 5, and even after 24 hours the coffee is warm. I fill the pot up with hot water while I'm brewing my coffee like a few other reviewers recommended. Then I just dump it out when the coffee is ready and pour the coffee in. I love the way it looks, very sleek and elegant. I got the 44 ounce model. When I make 6 eight ounce cups of coffee I can get all but about half a cup into the carafe. And I always drink a cup right away, so that isn't a problem. This carafe is elegant enough that you could put it on your dinner table for a dinner party. It reminds me of the Nambe serveware type designs. It is both beautiful and functional. It has a nice balance to it and the lip flips up easily to pour. You can also flip it all the way back to fill or to clean the pot. I bought a soft bottle type brush with a large head that works really well for cleaning. And the carafe is dishwasher proof so you could put it in there if you wanted.I'm posting some photos of the carafe, along with the Chemex Coffee Maker and the Hamilton Beach 40898 Cool-Touch Cordless 8 Cup Electric Kettle that I use to heat my water on the main product page so you can see the size of the 44 ounce model. It was kind of hard for me to visualize, so I hope this helps.Update 12/9/12 - I'm still using this carafe every day and still loving it. The finish is so durable. It's out on the counter all the time and when it gets fingerprints, they wipe off easily with a soft towel. I occasionally use a stainless steel spray cleaner, like the type you'd use for appliances. It comes out looking just like new. This is one of those products that's one of my all time favorites. It was worth the money. (I got the 44.2 oz.)

This is an attractive, well made and high functioning carafe that I've owned for around a year. It looks great and keeps the coffee hot all day long and you can brew the coffee directly into it if you place it in the sink (in case of overflow and for easier pouring) and use a pour-over Melita type of filter cone with an extra long neck, which can also be purchased on Amazon. It's a slightly tippy arrangement, but it works for me every day.I have two important warnings:1) If you don't hold down the lever for the cap while pouring the very hot coffee will splash out when gravity causes the top to release suddenly. That precautionary measure will become automatic for you, but any guests must be told in advance.2) Do NOT put it in the dishwasher! It will survive the dishwasher if you can get it in there without the top falling through the rack which, considering the carafe's height, is unlikely. The rubber stopper portion of the top on mine just got melted away by the heating element on the bottom of my dishwasher. I am curious if Amazon can tell me whether this part can be replaced, as it simply screws in. The pot itself is very expensive to replace, so just wash it by hand with a bottle brush!UPDATE: I emailed the manufacturer of this carafe about the rubber stopper melting in the dishwasher and they sent me a replacement part immediately, for free. The stopper easily unscrews and should be removed for machine washing, or wash by hand.CONCLUSION: This is a high quality, elegant product backed by great customer service. It is technically dishwasher safe but is best washed by hand.

The instructions for this are inside the carafe. They're awful and tiny and the graphic images for some are not always clear what they're alluding to.I found their web site page to download a PDF so I could look at it larger (and actually see it) and just to find the "manual" for this item you have to enter three fields, one of which is an EAN number for the item. I had to Google what that even was, and I gave up on finding it. Is it on the packaging? Nope. Couldn't find it there either.Isn't this ridiculous enough? Shouldn't you just have to enter the name of the item in a search field, the product page comes up, and on that page is a link to the appropriate PDF?But wait, it gets worse, because from that page even if you had all the informaiton for the three fields, it takes you to a page where there is NO link to English amongst the other languages.Does this company want to really sell in the U.S. or the U.K.? It doesn't seem so.From straining my eyes I was able to read to wash this before use (as expected) and to fill it with hot (or cold) water and let it sit for 3 minutes before adding your hot (or cold) beverage.I'm sitting here having my morning coffee and thinking how annoying all this is and that I doubt I'd buy this again (or any other product from Emsa).As for the carafe itself, it would be more comfortable to use if it was wider and sat lower (less likely to tip over too).I also discovered that the underside is not perfectly flat, so when I sat it on a glass coaster that was smaller than the diameter slightly it wobbled, and I had to find a trivet to put under it that was larger than the diameter of the bottom to make it sit without wobbling. Do you have something like that or are you planning to sit this directly on your table and potentially mar the surface?Since I have a pot of coffee from my Technivorm Moccamaster each morning i know this works okay but even in the 100 minutes or less I drink my coffee in this isn't keeping the coffee QUITE as hot as if I left the Moccamaster carafe on the hot plate. It didn't cool MUCH at all in that time in this carafe, but it did cool noticeably in comparison (since I do this every morning and know).I found the lid to be a bit thin and flimsy feeling, and the hard squared off edge of the lid's hinge rubs against your thumb when you depress the tab to open it, and it doesn't feel comfortable. Not bad, but a rounded rather than squared edge would have been more ergonomic.Next to the classic Alfi "Juwel" carafes I've used for over 20+ years, this is okay in comparison. Unfortunately Thermos bought Alfi and discontinued that classic model (which was twice the price of this and had a glass insert that really kept beverages' temperatures but could be easily broken if dropped [with no replacement parts available]).This is okay for now, but I doubut I would buy it again or any other product from this company.After using now a few times I've also noticed that when you finish or nearly finish the liquid inside, if you close the lid there really is a vacuum created. So much so that it makes it hard to open with ease when you want to pour that last cup or clean it out after use.For me? I'm already looking at a replacement for this. It's okay, but I'm not happy with it in comparison to the Alfi Juwel design I used for years before it was discontinued (after Thermos bought Alfi).UPDATE:I really never liked how narrow and tall this is (very deep and hard to clean with a bottle brush) nor did I like the looks all that much. I replaced it with an Alfi Hotello within just a few weeks and am much happier with that item both in quality appearance and the innovative lid that doesn't require a seal and opens to pour automatically (and cleanly) when you tilt it. The Alfi Hotello is made in China but is a higher quality level compared to other products I've seen out there, even though I wouldn't say it's as high quality a polished finish as Alfi when their products were still made in Germany. It's a much better looking design and a clearly higher level of finish side by side compared to the Emsa Eleganza.The Alfi Hotello also keeps coffee noticeably hotter during the time it takes you to drink a pot. The Emsa Eleganza keeps it hot, but noticeably cooled slightly towards the end of drinking a pot of coffee from it.You also don't have to fill the Alfi Hotello with hot water to preheat it like you do with the Emsa Eleganza, and even though you don't, it actually keeps coffee hotter longer than the Emsa Eleganza, with no discernable loss of heat during the time it takes to drink a liter of morning coffee.

Great carafe that is beautiful and keeps coffee hot for hours!