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Cafe Du Chateau vs Goodful Side-by-Side Comparison
Our Verdict
Overall Verdict
- Brew Quality (50%)7.3/10
- Design (15%)7.6/10
- Ease of Use (35%)8.3/10
- Brew Quality (50%)7.5/10
- Design (15%)8.7/10
- Ease of Use (35%)8.8/10
The Cafe Du Chateau, as the name suggests, is a take on a French press coffee maker design. Apart from the French press ‘look’ it doesn’t use a typically hand-pressed filter but is a rather incongruously-designed immersion filter. The brew quality lacks character, it is cumbersome to pour, and the stopper design is flawed.
The Goodful, on the other hand, is a better proposition. It’s a large-sized plastic jug brewer that brews in the door bin of your refrigerator. While the brew quality is satisfactory, the lid design is clunky. A similar, but better quality design to the Goodful is the Takeya. Regardless, the Cafe Du Chateau is not a coffee maker we’d recommend.
Cafe du Chateau Cold Brew Coffee Maker
- Bouquet (10%)6.0/10
- Drinkability (70%)7.0/10
- Sediment (20%)9.0/10
- Bouquet (10%)7.0/10
- Drinkability (70%)7.5/10
- Sediment (20%)7.5/10
Bouquet
After 18 hours of brewing, the Cafe du Chateau produced a noticeably weak bouquet despite a reasonable brew ratio of 1:8. The bouquet did, however, have a distinctively earthy note. Overall, there was very little complexity and sweet notes were indiscernible.
The bouquet of the Goodful brew was borderline medium. It had a distinctive woody aroma with mild-roasted notes coming through. Considering the brew ratio and filter design, this was not unexpected.
Drinkability
Considering the brew ratio, we diluted the concentrate with one part water to one part coffee. The final serving was smooth to drink, but the aftertaste was neither rounded nor satisfying. It had a defined roasted and somewhat earthy flavor, but lacked character. Overall, the Cafe du Chateau produced an average to reasonably good brew, but it didn’t excite.
Based on the brew ratio and the bouquet test, we chose not to dilute the brew. It had a mild-roasted flavor with a slight bitterness to it. There was no sourness so it was smooth to drink, but the aftertaste, although sweetish, was a little watery. You could drink the brew straight, but with a little milk, or even sugar, it’s not too bad. We would recommend adding just enough water to cover the grounds and to brew for a longer time. The brew yield of 67 fl oz or 2 liters is quite good for the quality.
Sediment
After allowing the concentrate to settle, we decanted the contents of the Cafe du Chateau. The filter, made of laser-cut 304 stainless steel, did a good job overall. There was not much sediment and it was mostly fine with some powdery grains. All considered, the filter seemed not porous enough to produce a high quality brew.
Surprisingly, the Goodful produced a fair amount of sediment. Of course, this is not a bad thing for an immersion brewer since it often indicates that the filter is permeable enough to produce a good brew. Very fine filters, on the other hand, tend not to brew so well.
We would recommend letting the brew settle after removing the filter, then decant, rinse out the container, and return the brewed coffee. Make sure you have a larger container or enough on hand for two liters of liquid.
Cafe du Chateau Cold Brew Design
- Stopper / Lid (30%)7.0/10
- Filter (40%)8.5/10
- Build Quality (30%)7.0/10
- Stopper / Lid (30%)8.5/10
- Filter (40%)9.0/10
- Build Quality (30%)8.5/10
Cafe du Chateau Cold Brew Maker In the Box
- Box: WDH: 7 x 2.1 x 10.6 in
- Fully assembled unit
- Use manual and brew guide
The Cafe du Chateau was one of the few cold coffee brewers we bought that came with styrofoam packaging. It’s very secure and comes fully assembled. The user manual and brewing guide come together as a high-quality glossy booklet. Both the box and booklet feature a convenient QR code for the customer support email. They promise hassle free replacement for any damaged product. In terms of first impressions, we were well satisfied.
- Box WDH: 11.8 x 7 inches
- Assembled brewer
- Instruction leaflet inside
The Goodful is completely made of plastic, so it’s quite durable. Perhaps for this reason it didn’t come in a fancy box. We received it bubble-wrapped and bundled with other cold coffee brewers we had purchased.
The Goodful reminded us of another cold brew coffee maker we have reviewed — the Takeya. Goodful, however, has a slightly larger brewer. It’s also oblong shaped to fit in a refrigerator door, the lid design is similar, but the filter is quite different. The Goodful filter is made of stainless steel mesh and not nylon, and the filter base is detachable. We were really interested to see how the two would compare.
Cafe du Chateau Cold Brew Decanter
- Height With Stopper Lid:9
- Base Diameter:5
- Width:6.5" (16.5 cm)
- Weight:29.5 oz (836 g)
- Material:borosilicate glass & stainless steel
The brew decanter has the look and feel of a solid and durable product. However, on closer inspection it’s not without its flaws. For one, we found it a bit on the heavy side even when empty. We filled the decanter with water to test pour it, and it poured rather heavily. It also felt unbalanced and the grip was somewhat slippery. The manual says the glass decanter can detach from the stainless steel sleeve, but it was difficult to do, so we left this for the cleaning stage.
- Height With Stopper Lid:11.8 in (300 mm)
- Base Diameter:4.5 x 3.9 inch oblong (115 x 100 mm)
- Width:7 in (180 mm)
- Weight:14.1 oz (400 g)
- Material:plastic
It appears that the decanter is made of Tritan plastic. However, there is no clear information about the materials used either in the included literature or on their website (Amazon store website only). There is also no information about the BPA-free status of the device, but it is made in China.
In our small 97 L refrigerator, the brewer didn't fit in the door bin so be sure to check all measurements carefully before purchasing. In comparison, the Takeya fits a small refrigerator door bin, is made in the USA, clearly labeled BPA-free, and made from Tritan plastic.
Stopper / Lid
- Diameter:3.9 in (100 mm)
- Material:stainless steel
- Additional Features:silicone seal
The stopper has an airtight when brewing, but is rather loose with the filter attachment removed. Furthermore, the silicone seal is very rubbery, deforms easily, and is overall not the best quality.
- Diameter:6.3 in (180 mm)
- Material:Plastic
- Additional Features:2 silicone gaskets, detachable grip
The lid consists of three parts. There is a rim with an attached handle that screws over the top, and an inner lid that partly unscrews for pouring or completely removes for brewing and cleaning. Each part has a silicone gasket, and the handle has a detachable silicone grip.
We really liked the comfortable grip and size of the handle. However, although airtight, the rim and the inner lid are rather clunky when screwing.
Filter
- Length:6.7 in (170 mm)
- Diameter:4 in (102 mm)
- Material:laser-cut 304 stainless steel
- Additional Features:silicone seal
The filter is made from laser-cut 304 grade stainless steel and comes with a ‘lifetime warranty’. It appeared well-machined and the edges were not sharp. However, like the decanter lid, the silicone seal around the filter top was not such great quality. The filter, however, did allow for a relatively decent brew to develop and the sediment produced didn’t require additional decanting.
- Length:8.1 in (230 mm)
- Diameter:2.6 in (75 mm)
- Material:Plastic & stainless steel mesh
- Additional Features:Flip-up plastic handle, detachable base
The brew core is of robust construction with a significant amount of plastic cover. The filter itself is made of a stainless steel mesh. We wondered if this type of design was permeable enough to produce a good brew, but the brew test results were favorable. The handle fully extended is 9.1 in (260 mm), but this function is only deployed during decanting.
Build Quality
The materials used, except for the silicone seals, are generally good quality, however, the design is not well executed. The brewer is all-round cumbersome to handle, the lid and seals are poorly designed, and it is weighted badly for pouring. Overall, this has been one of our least favorite cold coffee brewers to work with and will probably gather dust on the shelf.
The Goodful cold coffee maker is pretty solid and durable. We liked the quality and build of the filter, and the detachable silicone grip on the handle. The screwable parts, however, don’t have the best feel and are somewhat clunky. There was also very little information about the materials used for the different parts.
Cafe du Chateau Cold Brew
- Brewing (45%)9.0/10
- Decanting (35%)8.0/10
- Cleaning and Storage (20%)7.0/10
- Brewing (45%)9.0/10
- Decanting (35%)8.5/10
- Cleaning and Storage (20%)9.0/10
Brewing
Like its design, brewing with the Cafe du Chateau has its unique points. No measuring is required because you just fill the filter with grounds to about 1 cm (less than ½ inch) below the top.
Then, you gradually pour water through the grounds but you don’t push the filter completely in. The filter has an upper chamber which makes pouring water very easy. The filter itself is very fine so you must wait for water to seep through. The last 200 ml of water takes a little time to pour.
Once the water is just below the 1-liter mark, you push the filter unit completely in and do the same for the lid. Despite the cumbersome design of the silicone seals, they do a pretty good job. Most air is completely compressed out of the brew decanter. All in all, the brewing method seemed very sound and we looked forward to the brewing results.
As per the instructions, you fill the filter, or brew core, to the top of the mesh windows which is 16 tablespoons or 3.8 oz of grounds. After carefully inserting the filter, you should pour two cups of water to dampen the grounds. The rest of the water should rise to the top of the brew core mesh windows.
We measured the grounds to 3.8 oz (107 g) and poured approximately 68 fl oz (2 L) of filtered water. The brew ratio was, therefore, 1:18 which suggested a weaker kind of brew.
It took quite some time to pour all the water without the grounds overflowing. It may be better, therefore, to prefill the decanter with at least 800 ml before inserting the filter and pouring the remainder of the water. Goodful recommends brewing for 24 hours, but we brewed for 18 hours according to our testing procedure.
Decanting
As with all similar immersion brew filters, all we had to do was remove the filter and place it in a glass to catch the remaining liquid. The stopper comes off with the filter attached. To separate the stopper, you’ll need to hold the filter tight, twist and pull forcefully.
Additionally, the decanter lid doesn’t fit so snugly when the filter unit is removed.This means that your fridge may become contaminated with coffee odors and the concentrate may oxidize and spoil faster.
Once the filter and grounds are removed, you should have around 700 ml of cold brew coffee concentrate. The overall volume is 900 ml (30 fl oz) with the difference being taken up by the filter and grounds while brewing.
Decanting simply requires removing the filter. However, the clunky lid design can make removing and securing the lid a little frustrating. The flip handle for lifting the filter, however, is a handy feature. Based on our sediment test, you may want to decant the contents to remove the sludge settled on the bottom.
One thing worth noting is that with the filter removed, you can lay the decanter on its side when storing in the refrigerator. The Goodful is somewhat similar to the Takeya brewer. With the Takeya, the filter screws into the lid and you can brew in a horizontal position, but you can’t brew this way with the Goodful.
Cleaning and Storage
Cleaning the Cafe du Chateau filter is easy enough. Use a standard non-abrasive sponge. You can reach to the bottom of the filter and the edges are not sharp. The decanter itself is easy to reach inside.
The user manual states the glass decanter is fully removable from the stainless steel jacket. Even after running under hot water, however, we were unable to remove the decanter. We didn’t want to exert too much force and break the glass, nor injure ourselves, so we didn’t succeed in separating the parts.
All components except for the silicone seals can go into the dishwasher.
Once dried, the brewer can be stored fully assembled. It looks nice on a counter and should easily fit in a standard cupboard or a shelf space. The filter also stands well on its own for storage when the decanter is in use.
Cleaning the Goodful is a breeze because it has a removable filter base and it's easy to reach inside the sizable container. The filter is reasonably robust and the handle makes it easy to hang on a hook. You can also put everything in the dishwasher, but we would recommend removing the silicone gaskets first. The container is quite large, so storage may be a factor depending on your kitchen setup.