Teapots & Brewing Vessels · Model review
Bodum Assam Tea Press review
The only vessel on this site that can stop a steep without you lifting anything out.
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Buy it if you drink a pot over an hour rather than a mug in ten minutes. The plunger drops the leaves below the filter and ends extraction mechanically, which fixes the one flaw every ordinary teapot has — that cup three is bitter because the leaves never stopped working. If you brew single mugs, this is the wrong shape and a basket infuser is the right one.
The kettle in question · Stopping the brew at the right moment
Bodum Assam Glass Tea Press
A press, not just a pot. Plunging drops the leaves below the filter and ends the extraction, which is the problem every teapot has.
Published specifications
- Capacity
- 34 ozSource: Target — Bodum 34oz Assam Tea Press listing
- Body
- Borosilicate glassSource: Target — Bodum 34oz Assam Tea Press listing
- Filter
- Stainless steel basketSource: Target — Bodum 34oz Assam Tea Press listing
- Care
- Dishwasher safeSource: Target — Bodum 34oz Assam Tea Press listing
What the numbers mean
The plunger is the design answer to over-steeping. In an ordinary teapot the leaves keep working while the pot sits on the table, and cup three is bitter. Here you plunge at three minutes and cup three tastes like cup one.
It is a tea press, not a coffee press, and the filter reflects that — but the same object will make coffee badly if you ask it to, which is worth knowing if counter space is tight.
34 oz is a table pot. For one person it is oversized, and a half-full press cools quickly.
Good for
- Extraction stops when you decide it does
- Genuinely dishwasher safe, unusual at this price
- Serves three or four without a refill
Against it
- Glass, so it cools fast and breaks if dropped
- Plunger mechanism is another thing to clean
- Too big for a single drinker
Skip it ifSkip it if you brew one mug at a time. A 34 oz press half-filled is a worse cup than a 300 ml pot filled.
Who this is for
Anyone who makes a pot for a table and then sits with it. That is the specific situation a press solves and an ordinary teapot does not: in a normal pot the leaves keep extracting while the pot sits, so the last cup is measurably harsher than the first. Plunge at three minutes and the third cup tastes like the first.
It is not for one person brewing one mug. 34 ounces half-filled cools fast and brews worse than a small pot filled properly, and you would be washing a plunger to make a single cup.
What Bodum publishes
| Specification | Published value |
|---|---|
| Capacity | 34 oz |
| Body | Borosilicate glass |
| Filter | Stainless steel basket |
| Care | Dishwasher safe |
| Lid and handle material | Plastic |
| Dimensions | 6.5 in H x 7.6 in W x 6 in D |
| Weight | 0.89 lb |
| Warranty | 1 year limited |
That is a fuller list than most teapots on this site manage, and it is worth saying where it comes from. Our source for this product is a retail listing rather than Bodum's own page — the same listing the buy link resolves to — and it publishes materials, dimensions, weight and a warranty term.
The mechanism is the product
Everything worth knowing about this vessel is in the plunge. A tea press works like a coffee press with a finer filter: leaves brew loose in the full volume of water, and when the tea is ready you push the filter down and the leaves are trapped beneath it.
That matters because loose brewing is the best-tasting method there is — leaves get the entire vessel to move in rather than being packed into a basket — and its one weakness is that nothing stops the extraction. A basket infuser can be lifted out, which is the other solution, but lifting a hot dripping basket out of a full pot is awkward in a way pressing a plunger is not.
So the Assam gives you the extraction quality of loose brewing with the stop control of an infuser, which no other vessel we cover does. That is the entire case for it.
Glass, and what it costs you
The body is published as borosilicate glass, which is the right material for a brewing vessel: inert, it will not hold the aroma of yesterday's jasmine, and it lets you watch the leaves open — which is most of the pleasure of loose leaf for anyone still learning what they like.
What glass costs you is heat and durability. A glass pot cools noticeably faster than cast iron or enameled steel, so a 34 oz press on a table for an hour is a pot of cooling tea unless you add a warmer. And it breaks.
The lid and handle are published as plastic. That is not a flaw at this price, and it is worth knowing before it arrives if you were picturing the stainless-framed version — the same model is sold in a brushed steel trim at a higher price.
Cleaning, honestly
The listing publishes dishwasher safe, and this is the area where a press is genuinely more work than a plain pot. A plunger is a rod, a filter plate and a mesh, and spent leaf packs into the mesh from underneath once you have pressed it.
The routine that works is the same one every fine mesh needs: empty and rinse while the leaves are wet, before they dry into the screen. Do that and it is a thirty-second job; leave it overnight and it is not.
How it compares to the alternatives on this site
| Bodum Assam press | Glass pot with a basket | Loose plus a strainer | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Room for leaf to open | Full volume | Limited by the basket | Full volume |
| Ending the steep | Press the plunger | Lift the basket out | Pour it all off |
| Objects to wash | Pot plus plunger assembly | Pot plus basket | Pot plus strainer |
| Serves | Three to four | Depends on the pot | Depends on the pot |
| Watch the leaves | Yes | Yes, if glass | Yes, if glass |
| Extraction genuinely stops | Reduced, not stopped | Yes, once out | Yes, once poured |
Read the last row honestly: a lifted basket or a poured-off pot ends extraction more completely than a plunge does. What the press buys is that ending it takes one hand and no hot dripping object.
Capacity, and the one number we no longer claim
34 ounces is about a liter, which is four cups by this site's own sizing table and suits three people comfortably. The listing publishes the 34 oz figure and no serving count.
We used to state a serving figure attributed to the listing and removed it in September 2026 when re-reading the source showed it no longer published one. The four-cup figure above is our arithmetic from the published volume, not a maker claim, and this page treats it that way.
Verdict
For a pot that sits on a table, the press mechanism is a genuine functional advantage over an ordinary teapot, and the Assam is the cheapest way to get it in glass. Borosilicate, a stainless filter, published dimensions, a published weight and a one-year warranty is a reasonable amount to know about a vessel at this price.
Against it: it is a single-purpose object for a specific habit, glass cools fast, plastic trim at this price point, a plunger is more to clean than a basket, and the plunge reduces rather than halts extraction. None of those is a reason not to buy it if the habit matches; all of them are reasons to be sure the habit does.
What we did not do
We did not test this press. There are no timed extractions, no cooling measurements and no taste comparisons on this page, because we have run none. Every specification quoted is read from the retail listing our buy link points at, which is our published source for this product, and links back to it from the product card. Where a figure is ours rather than the maker's — the four-cup serving estimate — the page says so.
Questions
Is the Bodum Assam tea press worth it?
If you drink a pot slowly at a table, yes — the plunger ends extraction mechanically, which fixes the reason cup three from an ordinary teapot tastes harsher than cup one. If you brew single mugs, a basket infuser does more for less.
How big is the Bodum Assam?
The listing publishes 34 oz, roughly a liter, with dimensions of 6.5 inches high by 7.6 wide by 6 deep and a weight of 0.89 lb. By this site's sizing arithmetic that is about four cups, which suits three people — that estimate is ours, not a published serving figure.
Does a tea press stop the tea from over-steeping?
It reduces contact rather than eliminating it. The leaves sit below the filter but still in the water, so a pressed pot left for an hour keeps changing slowly. It is a large improvement on an unpressed pot, not a hard stop.
Is the Bodum Assam dishwasher safe?
The listing publishes dishwasher safe. In practice, rinse the plunger mesh from the outside while the leaves are still wet — spent leaf packs into the screen from underneath once pressed, and dried leaf is much harder to shift.
Can you use a Bodum Assam for coffee?
It will work and it is not what the filter is for. This is a tea press with a finer mesh than a coffee press, so coffee grounds pass more readily than they would in a purpose-built press. If counter space is tight it is worth knowing; if coffee matters, buy a coffee press.
Is the Bodum Assam glass or plastic?
The body is published as borosilicate glass; the lid and handle are published as plastic. The same model is also sold with brushed steel trim at a higher price, so check which version a listing is showing you.
Sources
Every figure on this page came from one of these, retrieved during the research pass for this article. Where a maker publishes nothing we could verify, the page says so instead of substituting a number.
Read next
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- The best teapot warmersBase diameter decides fit and the candle decides duration. Three warmers whose maker actually publishes both, and when a warmer is the wrong fix.
- Tea infuser vs tea strainerAn infuser contains the leaves while they brew; a strainer catches them on the way out. The strainer makes marginally better tea and one more thing to wash.
- What size teapot do you need?Teapot capacity matched to the number of people who will actually drink, and why the biggest pot is rarely the safest choice.
- How to make tea in a French pressThe method, the two things that go wrong, and why the plunge is a genuine advantage over an ordinary teapot.