The Toddy Maker is a simple device that uses cold water and a carefully designed filter system to produce an exceptionally pure coffee concentrate from ground coffee. The advantages of coffee brewed with the Toddy Maker make it a popular choice among both individuals and the food service industry. The Toddy coffee maker is a cold-drip coffee maker that makes the best tasting coffee you’ll ever have. The concept of cold brewing a cup of coffee sounds utterly insane when one first hears it, yet that is exactly what the Toddy coffee maker does. It makes great tasting java without heat, but you still get a hot cup of Joe. It takes a little more effort and time than traditional brewing, but it is well worth it. Here’s how it works.
Cold water brewing extracts the desirable flavor elements, but eliminates many of the undesirable oils and acids found in hot brewed coffee that are not soluble at low temperatures. Cold brewed coffee tastes smoother and is easier on the stomach. Toddy coffee has been recommended by doctors to their patients who are sensitive to the acid in hot brewed coffee.
First of all, you’ll need to plan ahead a little bit in order to make effective use of the unique Toddy cold brew coffee maker. Unlike regular hot water automatic drip and brewmatic java machines, the Toddy isn’t designed to make a pot of steaming black ambition on the fly. The process takes between ten and twelve hours to complete. Don’t let that frighten you off, however. This is madness - yet there be method in it, wrote the Bard and while it is unlikely that he was thinking about a hot mug of wake-up juice, he could have been describing Toddy to a… tea.
The original Toddy Maker consists of a plastic brewing container with a plug and filter at the bottom. One pound of regular grind coffee and nine cups of cold water are added and allowed to steep for eight to twelve hours. The plug is then removed and the resulting concentrate is allowed to drain through the filter into a glass carafe which is also provided. The grounds are then disposed of (they make good compost) and the filter rinsed thoroughly.
Take one pound of your favorite regular grind brand of java and put it into the top of the Toddy. Then fill that baby to the top with cold water and… wait. After the proscribed ten to twelve hours has elapsed, remove the stopper (carefully now, there’s a pound of espresso-like sludge in there – don’t make a mess) and let the concentrated mixture drip into the carafe. Once it’s done, you can pop the carafe into the refrigerator where it will keep for up to ten days. When you’re ready to have a nice cup of Joe, mix one part of the concentrate with three parts boiling water.
The concentrate must be refrigerated. To make a cup of hot coffee simply mix one part concentrate with three parts water and heat in the microwave. To make iced coffee mix one part concentrate with three parts water and serve over ice. The concentrate is good for about three weeks in the refrigerator, and can be frozen for several months.
Now you can create a ‘coffeehouse’ coffee - served steaming hot or iced cold, and in the comfort of your home - for much less than expensive signature coffee drinks! As important as those fresh roasted beans are to your cup of coffee, it’s what you do with them that counts the most. The Toddy coffee maker extracts the coffee bean’s true delicious flavor and eliminates much of the acidity, producing a bold, super-smooth coffee that can be served one cup at a time.
Featured Review:
” Initially I wasn’t sure about the concept of storing brewed coffee to use later… cold or otherwise (we all know that time is the enemy of hot brewed coffee). However, there’s just not the bitterness you get with hot brewed coffee - really! With the Toddy system however, even though I don’t get the rich smell of fresh-brewed coffee in the morning, I do get a taste that reminds me of that smell, and that’s far more important. Better still, my girlfriend can make her coffee weaker than mine by simply adding less concentrate. Cups of coffee tailored specifically to your taste! I’ve tried espresso makers, french press, auto drip and even (dare I say it) instant coffee, and french press is the only type that comes close to the rich flavor. But that said, as I get older (early thirties) acid content becomes a bigger issue for me, and the relatively low acid content in a cup from the Toddy system is more and more appealing. Now, as much as I like the system I do have a couple of gripes. First, I wish the brewing process was a little more intuitive since it’s time consuming and messy. I brewed my coffee almost a week ago, and I’m still finding grounds hidden here and there. Hence, I wish the brew portion into which the grounds go had a lid. Second, though it’s easy to figure out through trial and error, a chart in the manual with more detail info on ratios, coffee types and strengths would be helpful. For example, I used Eight O’Clock coffee (I know, it’s not designer coffee, but it tastes pretty good) which isn’t quite as full-flavored a roast as some other coffees. Hence, I find I need to add more concentrate to water. I’m curious what the concentrate will be like when I use a stronger/different roast. Nonetheless, I gave the Toddy system 5 out of 5 because when it’s all said and done, a brewer is about the cup of coffee it produces, and hands down this is the best cup of coffee I’ve ever made at home. ”
” If you just don’t want the hassle of brewing your coffee every morning, use the concentrate in some hot milk for an instant hot latte or with hot water for a traditional cup of coffee. The concentrate that’s produced this way keeps in the fridge for 6 weeks I guess… I’ve never kept it around nearly that long because we drink it long before that (because it’s so good). I’m pleased with the quality of the coffee that this equipment makes. It’s not worlds-apart better than the best hot brew coffee, but it is very good, and definitely lower acidity. Essentially, this is just a mechanism for steeping coffee ground in cold water for 12 hours, then carefully filtering the result. 12 hours is hard to manage, except on weekends, but a carafe of coffee concentrate lasts me a week. (I did accidentally steep one batch for 16 hours, and I don’t recommend it–ugh.) The main failure mode seems to be the filter getting clogged with very fine coffee grounds, either because you’re using too fine a grind or because the grounds got stirred or otherwise agitated. We’re coping with this by using a disposable basket filter (standard Mr. Coffee shape) at the bottom of the steeping basket. This is in addition to the re-usable filter, and it makes the whole process less hassle. Overall, 4 stars because the coffee is good, but the process of making it is significantly more of a pain than traditional coffee technology. It’s still worth it for me, especially since I can do it once a week and then have coffee on hand. ”
” 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. ”
” We used this to make the iced coffee at the coffee shop where I used to work. You really can store the concentrate for about a week, and there’s practically no acidity (great for those of us with reflux). The previous review mentioned that you still get your caffeine - actually you get more. The longer it takes to brew the coffee, the more caffeine there is. The plastic handle they now include, while not absolutley necessary, is a nice bonus. ONE IMPORTANT THING: don’t follow the instructions included as far as the technique for making the coffee, namely, 2 cups then 5 cups then 2 cups water added in stages. Instead, do 3 cups 3 cups 3 cups. When I used the 2-5-2 method, the thing would get clogged every single time, which is a real problem when you’re dealing with a large quantity of coffee concentrate. Using the 3-3-3 method, I haven’t had a clog or a slow “bleed” once; coffee comes pouring out as if from a firehose once I pull the stopper. I also ensure no dry grounds by, about an hour after initial setup, scraping coffee up from around the edge of the brewer into a pile in the middle, leaving behind a ring of already-dampened grounds at the sides; then I add another 1/2-1 cup of water, pouring it on the pile in the middle so that the grounds level out again and the brewer is really _full_. I’ve found the Holy Grail of coffee makers and I won’t look back my life long. “
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