Cold Brew System

I have only been a coffee drinker for about 5 years, and I had always put a bit of half and half and a teaspoon of sugar in my coffee. Recently, I was visiting a friend and she served coffee from her Toddy system. I took a sip and couldn't believe the difference. It was so smooth, I didn't need any cream or sugar and just really enjoyed the coffee flavor. I think I have lost a pound or two just by cutting out the cream and sugar for two months! There is no better way to describe it than "smooth". The cold brew system cuts the acidity by 2/3, so I guess that is the difference. I will never go back to hot brew, I actually carry the concentrate with me when I travel! I have tried different brands of coffee and found that I prefer a medium roast. The Trader Joe Breakfast Blend and the Kirkland World Roast are my faves so far. Pretty much any coffee you enjoyed hot brew will work for cold brew. Its better to grind it more coarsely, but I have bought pre-ground and it worked just fine (but see my tips on filters below). I tried a flavored coffee and that was a bust (flavor was really weak), but that could have been user error or just not the right flavor to try (it was swiss chocolate orange). I am interested to try the chicory flavor listed on the Toddy website as "most popular". This is definitely one of the least expensive and most basic "appliances" in my kitchen. If you have never tried cold brew before, you can do a small test run with a small pitcher first. After it sits for 12-14 hours, pour it through a filter. This is not an ideal way to always make cold brew because it will be cumbersome and you won't get much for your effort...but you can try it just to see if you like cold brew. The Toddy system is well-priced enough to make the purchase worthwhile in the long run. Each batch I make lasts me about two weeks. I drink one cup per day. As a perfectionist-in-reform-training, I stressed a bit at first about the exact quantity of grind versus water, the coarseness of the grind, and exactly how long to let it sit and brew. What I learned is that it doesn't matter too much because the result is stronger or weaker concentrate, so you simply add more or less hot water when you drink it. Measurements...I use the Toddy recommended 12 ounces of coffee for 7 cups of water which is approximately twice the number of ounces of grind as cups of water(so if you were testing this at home and did one cup of water it would be just under 2 ounces of coffee). And for those of you, like myself, who are unsure of how to measure 12 ounces of coffee...it is luckily the same as measuring a liquid, 8 ounces=1 cup, so 12 ounces is 1 1/2 cups of grind. Grind...I have used coarse grind and regular "coffee maker" grind and both have turned out fine. However, I am not a super-snobby coffee drinker. So you can experiment with both and see if you can tell a difference. For me, I have three little kids and don't want to spend the time grinding my own coffee, so I buy it pre-ground. The concentrate pours out faster upon completion if you use a coarser grind, but that was about all I could discern. The filter...I push it snugly into the bottom and then lay a regular #4 filter on top of it. I tried wrapping the #4 around it and that was a huge bust, it wouldn't drain. I think using the extra filter helps preserve the Toddy filter, giving it a longer life. So I wet the #4, lay it on top and quickly pour a cup of water and a half cup of grind to set the filter so it won't float up. Then over the next half hour or so, I pour in a cup or two of water and pour some more grinds in. I usually do this while I am busy in the kitchen with other things so I can let each water/grind pouring sit for 5-10 minutes. I reserve about a cup of water at the end to pour over grinds that haven't sunk into the mixture, let it sit for 5-10 minutes, and gently push any remaining dry grind into the mixture with the back of a spoon. Note: you are supposed to pour the water in slowly in a circle, and do not ever stir it. I put a round Tupperware lid on top...not sure why the system doesn't include a lid. Brewing and Draining...Generally, I set up the mixture Sundays at 4pm so it is ready Monday morning at 6am. If it sits a bit shorter or longer that seems to be ok, but I've never left it more than 15 hours. Fourteen hours seems like the ideal time to me. To drain, I put the Toddy container on top of the glass carafe and pull the plug. Sometimes it takes 30 minutes to finish draining, so be aware. I think the extra filter slows it down. Once it wouldn't come out at all, so I simply poured the mixture into a bowl, reserving as much of the grind in the Toddy container as possible. Then I scraped out the grind from the Toddy container, rinsed the filter and poured the mixture back in. It drained just fine then. This also works well if you have a brilliant moment and insert the plug from the inside. I will neither confirm nor deny whether I have done this. :) Cleaning...This is easy to clean. I have a general disdain for anything that doesn't go in the dishwasher, but have not been annoyed or tormented by cleaning out this system. If you have a compost bin, you know what to do with the grinds. If you don't and you have pine trees, azaleas, rhododendrons, hydrangeas or any other acid-loving plants, you can put the grinds around the plants. Otherwise, you just bang it on the side of the trash can and most of the grinds will come out. Then I scrape the rest out with a spoon. I've never had the Toddy filter dislodge on its own, I always have to poke it out by sticking a straw or pen through the hole to dislodge it. I then rinse the Toddy filter well, put it in a well-marked ziplock (so it doesn't get thrown away) and keep it in the fridge. Drinking...I highly recommend the Zojirushi hot water dispenser. It keeps water hot all day and uses very little energy. I use the hot water to mix with my Toddy coffee concentrate (so no matter what time I am ready for coffee, it is ready), and we use it for oatmeal, grits, and tea. Its very handy. As an aside, they also have fabulous rice cookers. I've read some comments about the glass carafe...yes, it is fragile, so be careful. I haven't broken it yet. This is a GREAT system that is well worth the price!

The Toddy is an outstanding choice for a cold brew coffee system. Despite breaking the glass decanter after a few weeks of use, this system still produces outstanding cold brew coffee in a manner that is much easier than using a mason jar and double filtering everything yourself. After months (literally) of reading about different cold brew systems, I narrowed my choice down to the Filtron system and the Toddy. Luckily for me, Christmas came around and I was gifted the Toddy! One less purchase decision to make! I've been using the Toddy every week since then. Making the coffee once at the beginning of each week yields enough coffee to last me through the week. After getting back home the following day, I took everything out of the box and set it up. The box contained the following items: 1 white plastic container where the coffee will steep in water for 12-24 hours; 1 white plastic handle for the aforementioned container; 1 glass decanter for storing your brewed coffee; 1 rubber lid for the glass decanter; 1 rubber stopper for the bottom of your plastic container while brewing; 3 filters. So the plastic container works just fine for its purpose. It definitely works best with 12 oz of coffee, but CAN hold up to a full 16 oz of coffee and water. I've only used 16 oz once because it was just too close to overflowing. I haven't had any problems with the rubber stopper yet, though other reviews say it doesn't hold a seal for very long. The plastic handle for the plastic container works, but barely. I don't trust the handle when holding the full container, lifting it up to pull the stopper out of the bottom when ready to drain and filter the brew. The plastic container is easy enough to lift with two hands, and if you lift from the bottom, you can easily pull the rubber stopper out at the same time. Onto the glass decanter and rubber lid... I loved the glass decanter, and the rubber lid kept an airtight seal in the fridge. I had to use past tense when referencing the glass decanter, because it broke within a few weeks of owning it! I don't completely blame Toddy for this, but the glass was very thin and fragile. It didn't feel cheap by any means, but it was certainly thin. The glass was broken around the top rim of the decanter when my wife was transferring it to the drying rack in our kitchen after washing it. It's easy to understand how it happened- just a slight tap on another glass in the rack, and the top chipped and cracked. Perhaps we could have continued using it, but I chose to recycle it instead. I found another plastic decanter at Homegoods and it works just fine for filtering the coffee into and storing the coffee in the fridge. The brewer also came with 3 filters for the plastic container. These work wonderfully. I've been following the instructions for care of the filters and I'm still on my first one, about a month and a half after getting the Toddy. The filter works very well, giving you a very clean product at the end with absolutely no sediment. Again, despite having broken the glass decanter within a few weeks, this system is still fantastic. The ease of use is unbeatable, and the product is great. I would recommend this to family, friends, and strangers alike (I already have recommended it to many people!).

I've had my Toddy since May 2009 and still think it makes the best iced coffee. Granted, I'm sure you could make the same coffee with a bucket and filter but for $30 it's a great system. A couple of notes about how I make my coffee: 1. The beans matter! This is not a magical device and it will not turn old, over-roasted coffee beans from your grocery store into great coffee. Find a shop in your area that roasts their own beans and buy them fresh. My personal favorite is a Guatemalan Antigua but just find one that works for you. If possible, get the beans 2-3 days after roasting. If you use them the same day they were roasted, I've found it foams up much more and has a greater chance of overflowing (if you use a full pound of coffee like I do). Also, get them ground coarse, not fine. 2. Be careful about covering this up. I brew my coffee with a full pound plus 9-10 cups of filtered water. This causes the coffee grounds to initially rise over the lip of the Toddy but the surface tension keeps everything inside. However, if you cover it with plastic wrap, it will leak over the side. So wait a couple hours until it settles down and then cover it if you wish. Personally, I leave mine uncovered. 3. I recently experimented with using an unbleached #4 coffee filter at the bottom of the Toddy (in addition to the regular filter). Seemed to work pretty well and the Toddy filter rinsed completely clean. 4. I brew my coffee for about 24 hours and it tastes great. 5. It is very easy to go through coffee beans pretty quickly with this because it tastes so good. But even so, I get 10-12 cups out of one bag which works out to $1.70 per cup. Still much cheaper than buying it at Starbucks although more expensive than using my Keurig. 6. Don't think you can just brew regular coffee over ice and it will be the same thing. I don't know why, but it is nowhere near the same. Cold brew is vastly superior in taste. 7. I personally use a stronger ratio than they suggest. I like to fill my glass (I use a 20oz plastic glass) with crushed ice, then add 1 cup water, 2/3 cup coffee concentrate and a little bit of whole cream. Amazing.

First and foremost let's just get something out of the way: Cold brew ain't rocket science. It's water, coffee, and time, then filtration. And there is no secret sauce. No brewer on the market can possibly create "better tasting" cold brew than some other brewer given the same input amount of beans, water, and time. So why the market for these things? It's all about making life easier. You can achieve the exact same effect as any of these devices if you just put your grounds and water in a large jar, and then pour the results through a coffee filter-lined sieve when you're ready. That's a bit of a pain and you'll probably wind up with grounds everywhere, so the job of one of these brewer products is to improve on the process -- presumably making it less messy and more contained. All that out of the way, on to this system, which I purchased to replace an OXO cold brew maker that I found to be just one small step above awful. (You can find my review there, if you're interested.) As compared with the OXO: - Toddy initial price is a bit lower. - Toddy total cost of ownership, maybe higher - you have no choice but to buy replacement felt filters. With OXO you can use either just the built-in metal filter (which I usually did) or add paper filters (instant clog in my experience). - Toddy plastic seems quite a bit less durable (it's far softer and thinner). - Toddy's glass carafe is a bit larger. - Toddy's bucket does not come with a lid, which seems weird. Luckily, the OXO lid fits perfectly so I'm happy. - Toddy's filter area is much larger, which is a huge plus -- the OXO filter regularly clogged for me. - OXO's awful grommet design means it often leaks and there is nothing you can do about it. Toddy's cork doesn't have that problem, but you do need to make sure to give it a nice twist to tighten it up. - To release the coffee with OXO, you flip a switch. With Toddy, you have to pull out a cork. That part, quite bluntly, just sucks about Toddy. - Cleanup, probably slightly easier with Toddy. - Coffee quality, identical, except that the Toddy filter is giving me much cleaner results because I'm using the felt filter vs the OXO metal filter. So which is better between the two? OXO feels like a higher quality product and has a somewhat better user experience with its switch release mechanism. But, the fact that I can control whether or not the Toddy will leak, makes me very happy. (I certainly will take that control.) And the fact that coffee actually flows when I pull the cork, and that I no longer worry about clogs, really brings it home. Toddy wins, by far. A few tips and observations: A) Put the cork in before you put the filter in. Otherwise there is a chance that the cork will push the filter up and out of position a bit. If this happens, you're getting a bunch of grounds in your finished coffee. B) When you put the filter in, you'll have to press it into place around the edges. It's better if the center of the filter, as you're looking at it, is convex rather than concave. (In other words, it should arc over the cork, not down toward it.) This seems to help it stay in place. (See (A) for why I think it dislodged for me, the one time it did.) C) After you're done draining the coffee, pick the bucket straight up just a bit, and then tilt it from side to side a few times over the carafe. Reason, there is a design flaw where a small amount of coffee pools in the little section where the cork plugs in. I found this out the first time I brewed, when I removed the bucket and it leaked coffee all over my floor as I was carrying it to the sink. D) You're supposed to store the filter in the freezer in between uses. It freezes hard as a rock. Stick it in a bowl of water for five minutes before you attempt to do anything with it. E) The instructions for both Toddy and OXO say to make a concentrate, but that never produces a really GREAT cup of coffee for me. I recommend brewing at full strength. (I like a 12.5:1 water:coffee ratio for cold brew.) I also recommend a "hot bloom", whereby you pour a small amount of hot water on the grounds first to help them bloom, leave that for a couple of minutes, then follow up with the remaining water in your formula, cold. I like a 20-24 hour total brew time. So is this better than a jar and a filter? Yes, but not by a huge margin. I think it's the best system currently on the market, but the market is full of not very good choices. Toddy's design is very old, and it shows. If the company were to update a few things it could create an actual winner instead of something that's merely "good enough." All in all, recommended but with reservations.

I am NOT a coffee drinker, hot or cold, but my husband is a Starbucks Mocha in the little bottle, addict. Until two weeks ago neither of us had heard of cold brewed coffee. Our local paper did an article on cold brewed drinks, hot and cold, and mentioned amongst other products, The Toddy. So after reading the numerous good reviews on Amazon, I immediately ordered one. Since we don't have a grinder, we had the beans ground at a local store and rushed home and to make our first batch. All the while my skeptical husband was sure that this was just another of my impulse purchases. The next morning was he surprised. He said that everything the good reviews said, about taste etc.. was true. He made a Vietnamese iced coffee with condensed milk and cold brewed coffee and ice in the cocktail shaker, and was hooked. He says that his tastes as good as any he has had in Thai restaurants. I don't like the taste of coffee, but I love the smell, and the taste of coffee candy, and coffee ice cream. After smelling the concentrate, my mouth started watering for an iced cappuccino - 2 ozs, cold brewed coffee, 6 ozs. milk, and 1/8 teaspoon of vanilla, optional sweetener, shaken with ice in a cocktail shaker. GUESS WHAT ... it still tasted like coffee! My husband finished it, and said that it was delicious. Next, cold brewed tea for me, as I am a tea drinker, hot or cold. The Toddy is not a gimmick, it does make superior tasting coffee. I'm trying to get my husband to mix it with hot water for a hot coffee... but since it is about 100 degrees now, and has been for a few weeks, that will have to wait. The only negative that I can find, is that the filters and an extra plug (just in case it is lost), can only be bought online. I live in San Francisco and there are no stores near me that sell them. The shipping is almost as much as the filters. The filters can only be used 10 - 12 times because of bacteria accumulation. The Toddy company told me on the phone that the filters don't 'wear out', but have to be replaced after 10 -12 uses because of the bacteria. He said if that is of concern to me (it is), I can boil them for about 10 minutes. I will probably do that after a few more uses and then replace the filter after the suggested 10 -12 uses or three months. Next time I make a batch, I am going to immediately reuse the grounds as suggested in other reviews. I'm not sure how much water to use, the original amount or less, but since it is free, it is worth a shot. I am an impulse buyer, and this was one of my best impulses ever. ******* UPDATE, 7/27/10 We made a second batch of cold brewed coffee using the same grounds that we had just brewed. Since we got no responses when we asked reviewers here who had used the same grounds twice how much water they had used, we decided to use a little more than half of the amount used in the first brewing. We initially had 12 ozs. of ground coffee and used 7 cups of water, as per the instructions in the manual. After draining the first batch, I immediately added four cups of water, and cold brewed for an additional 12 hours. When I drained it, I got back 3.5 cups of concentrate. I think I got so much back because some of the water from the first brewing came out also. My husband said that both the first and second brewing of the same grounds, tasted very similar, both very strong and flavorful. The difference was that the second cold brewed concentrate left a sightly bitter aftertaste. This was barely noticeable when he made several iced coffee drinks using the second batch. It didn't ruin the drink, it was still excellent. He is keeping the batches separate at this time, but may decide to mix them in one container. The slight bitter aftertaste may be from the acid, etc. that was left behind after the first brewing. We have 'double brewed' the last 3 batches. For a minimal amount of work, and no additional expense, we get about 75% more concentrate from the same amount of grounds, without a loss of flavor or strength. Because we brew the second batch right after draining the first, we have to time it so that we aren't up in the middle of the night draining the second batch, since they are 12 hours apart. We do the first batch maybe around 10:00PM, give or take an hour, drain it 12 hours later, and immediately start the second batch, and drain it later that evening, 12 hours later. We are big ice tea drinkers. I just made my first batch of tea and it is excellent. I used Ceylon Pekoe leaves, 1/2 pound of tea leaves and nine cups of water, steeped for 12 hours. I haven't had it hot yet, only iced. It is even better than the Tea Java that we have been drinking for years.

Just bought this because I occasionally enjoy a cold brew and my college student prefers (loves) it. Cold brews are not bitter and are easier on the stomach. To start, all parts are super easy to wash making cleanup fast. This one can be used with dual filters. This means a one time use large bag-like filter as well as the small reusable felt filter is used. For cleanup, this method was awesome. It also ensures more coffee concentrate in the process since all water is filtered thru the coffee (less sediment to block felt). Also, is way can accommodate less coarse grinds. I’m not sure how feasible it would be to create a reusable fitted type bag (like the old Golds filters), but that would be ideal. I will try the single filter next time with just the felt filter, but I have to admit, I like the idea of easy clean up. A for the results, what an awesome brew! Nice and smooth. My only complaint is that the lid that is meant to seal the carafe while being stored keeps popping off the container. For my brew. I used one part concentrate, one part filtered water, and one part milk over ice with a little salted caramel syrup and it was awesome. I recommend this product to anyone.

Hard to believe I bought my Toddy maker 14 years ago, one of my first Amazon purchases! Hands down, this makes the most delicious coffee that I have ever tasted. The decanter broke years ago (thanks to my dog), but I still use the plastic brewer, original rubber stopper, and the original filters. Hard to believe, but the whole contraption is so simple and easy to clean (i.e., no moving parts, no metal to corrode). My recipe has not changed much. I coarse grind between 1/2 - 1 pound of very fresh coffee, add 9 Cups of filtered water, and let it soak at room temperature for 1 hour. Be careful to mix the grounds with the water so they are thoroughly saturated and there are no air bubbles. Be very careful with super-freshly roasted coffee, because it will release CO2 and may "bloom" over the top of the container as the CO2 bubbles out of it. Once I am satisfied that all of the gas has released and that my mixture is thoroughly stirred, I cover it with a plate and allow it to brew in my refrigerator for 24-48 hours. Usually it's just overnight, because I am too impatient and want to drink my Toddy coffee. Just to note, I have used cheap coffee, like Maxwell House and it still tastes great, but the pre-ground coffee for hot drip coffee makers requires a little extra water (as the finer grind absorbs more water) and it takes a lot longer for it to drip into the decanter. Because my decanter broke, I just use a regular grocery store brand glass pitcher to drain it. The Toddy maker fits well on top of it. It usually takes 30-60 minutes for all of the coffee to drip into the decanter. I usually discard the grounds into my compostor (nice source of nitrogen for the compost). The cold brewing process makes the coffee taste extremely smooth and very flavorful, without the bitterness of hot brewed coffee. I surmise that hot brewing extracts more of the bitterness. If you use good quality coffee, you may see the essential oils of the coffee on the top of the brewed coffee. As far as the caffeine, I feel that there is no difference between the caffeine content of the cold versus hot coffee, but that is my subjective opinion. I like my coffee very strong, so I usually drink the coffee neat. However, sometimes I will add 1-2 parts boiling filtered water to 1 part Toddy if I want a hot cup that doesn't have the kick. To clean the filters, I soak them in hot tap water, with a small amount of dish soap and a little bit of chlorine bleach for about 10 minutes; I rinse the filter copiously with cold water, then I put it in the microwave for 1 minute to heat it up, and finally leave it to air dry on a towel in the kitchen. I find that the microwave oven destroys the bleach smell and helps the filter to dry faster. I was bored and reviewing my old Amazon purchases and was glad to see that Toddy is still making these things and decided to post this review. Hope this helps some people on the fence about buying it.

This thing makes the most wonderful coffee. I am an admitted coffee snob but was suffering from the acid in the coffee I drank. It all ended with this set up. It makes great coffee that is so darn much easier on your system. It is not without its minor flaws, however. It is a bit more expensive to make coffee this way. Clean up is a bit difficult. The rim of the plastic upper part could be an inch taller. I am going to tell how I approached each of those problems, it seems to work well for me. In using the full pound of coffee and 72 ounces of water called for (It soaks for 12 hours per instructions) the top container is filled to the very brim...water and grounds are easily spilled over the top when pressing the grounds down (again per instructions) to assure uniform wetness. I now use about 75% of a pound of coffee and 90% of the water called for. I place a #4 basket filter over the round Toddy filter to make for a better flow at the end of the process. I leave it all for about 30 hours and it is at least as strong as that obtained by following the instructions provided. Remember...this is not an exact science! I get more cups of coffee per pound this way and also have much easier clean up and less mess in the making. With the coffee and water mixture about an inch below the top of the container, one simply does not make the spills normally encountered. When done, I let the concentrate run into the carafe per instructions, but then press the outsides of the grounds and then the center to get all the concentrate out...I do this twice. A surprising amount of extra concentrate is saved in this fashion. I then remove the carafe, place a plastic bag over the top of upper unit and invert it into the bag. The round filter is right at the top and I can easily pick it out. In the sink I have placed a very large bowl (I use a stainless one) and rinse the parts that need it into the bowl. The grounds do not get away or get down my drain. When done I can just toss the bowl of water and grounds rinsed from the filter, etc. into my back yard and the clean up is basically complete.

Funcionou como esperava e as instruções eram claras

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Me encantó!! Muy fácil de usar y queda muy rico el café, como de cafetería. Lo recomiendo ampliamente si estás buscando probar recetas de café de cafetería con bajo presupuesto

My breville machine is now collecting dust because of this.

ottimo. Arrivato in ottime condizioni consiglio a chi vuole fare un perfetto caffè freddo in stile americano. Materiali di ottima qualità