Toddy Maker Cold Brew Coffee Maker 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. 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. 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. 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 Customer Review: Works, but is overpriced In the past, I’ve attempted to cold `brew’ coffee utilizing a few components that I found around the kitchen. It worked using a glass carafe and a few standard coffee filters, but it was time consuming and made a bit of a mess with the loose coffee grounds. I remedied that by using coffee pods. I bought Folgers coffee pods and threw about six of them in with roughly six cups of water. At the end of the `brewing cycle’, about 18 hours, I simply poured the coffee into another carafe and tossed the pods. Worked fine with no mess, but was more costly using the factory made pods. I then decided to invest in the Toddy system. It works great — and I have experienced no problems with the filters clogging as others have noted — and the coffee is fine ( I’m no coffee aficionado and use this system to make iced coffee only). The entire process from start to finish really takes no great effort, but if you don’t have the patience for such an `ordeal’, then it’s not the system for you. One complaint I do have is the actual cost of the Toddy system. As others have written it sells for around $30, but feels like a $5.00 product. The main plastic brewing pot is fine, but the detachable handle is almost completely useless. The glass carafe is made of very thin glass and could easily break at some point. I’m not going to give it a chance to break, however, for I immediately purchase a much heavier, fluted carafe (with stopper) at Wal-Mart. The Toddy brewing pot actually fits better on it and it would definitely take an effort to break it. Another thing I’m not crazy about is the fact that one needs to continue to buy the proprietary components after the fact: Toddy filters and plugs, so now my quest will be to find equivalent parts in my local stores so I won’t need to re-order when I run out of them. Bottom-line: This system works, but see if you can buy the Toddy brewing pot by itself somewhere at a discount and then pick up a $5.00 carafe at Wal-Mart — if only to send a message to the Toddy company that, yes, we like your product but we think that it is overpriced. Customer Review: Great coffee! The Toddy makes excellent iced coffee. The only drawback is that it takes a pound of coffee to make 6 cups of concentrate, which if you like strong coffee like we do, will only make about seven to eight 16 ounce cups of iced coffees. We also like to use good coffee so it can get pretty expensive. But the coffee itself is wonderful! Looking for coffee maker? Find exactly what you want today. Coffee Maker