Toddy Cold Brew Coffee System: Why I’m a Satisfied, Regular User

Starting about 4 years ago, Megan and I began drinking cold brew (or other forms of afternoon coffee) regularly enough that I felt it might be helpful to have a dedicated cold brew maker. Over the years, I’d kind of “perfected” a way to make-do with the various coffee tools we already had in the house for cold brew making, it never really worked seamlessly (and it honestly low-key drove me nuts).

So I bought the Toddy Cold Brew coffee maker. And to cut to the chase, I’m very glad I did. That’s the TL;DR of this review.

But no product is perfect, and the cold press coffee Toddy is no exception to that. While overall I’d definitely recommend this brewer to anyone thinking that a cold brew coffee maker might make sense for their life, I do think it’s important to see and admit that it’s not for everyone.

So in this Toddy Cold Brewer review, we’ll cover all the pluses and minuses of the Toddy brewer as I see it.

Basics of Cold Brew

For the uninitiated, cold brew is just a catch-all term for coffee that you BREW (versus drink) cold.

That doesn’t really mean you refrigerate the coffee+water while you’re brewing, just that you’re never using boiling water (or anything above room temperature).

You can drink cold-brewed coffee hot (I’ve done it, it’s not CRAZY. Even gone to coffee shop who treated that as a core premise. It’s just not common.) And you can also drink lots of COLD or iced coffee, which is hot-brewed. That’s where your basic “iced americano” (a mix of an espresso shot, ice, and cold water) is very popular—or coffee that is refrigerated after its brewed hot.

Those things said, one of the best things about cold brew is that you can quickly grab a bit of your refrigerator and don’t need to spend time brewing it. And especially if you like cold coffee, there’s no real need to think about other things you could do.

For the curious, the most common way I’ve tried to filter my cold brew apart has been some kind of funnel above the receiving/storing container. Usually this has been a narrow-necked glass bottle, and the conventional funnel I’ve used most was prone to over-topping or falling to the side. I’ve also tried a V60+filter in the past, which works OK… just, it’s actually TOO BIG for our favorite non-Toddy cold-brew carafe.

Others swear by using a French press. Heck, if you have a canning jar and a filter, you can probably get pretty close. I just know the clean up will be worse, and probably the end result too.

» Learn more: Our complete guide to cold brew

How the Toddy Works

So the basic premise of the Toddy, or any other cold brew coffee “kit” or “brewer” is that it makes this process much simpler. By giving properly considered, and most frequently purpose-made things like the Toddy’s brew-bucket & carafe, you get a nice simple a holistic solution that “just works” far more than any amount of (cheaper, yes) cheese cloth, etc is likely to.

Also a note about “concentrates” in the world of cold brew. Because of the emphasis on “easy daily coffee” use in the world, it’s common for cold brew (both homemade and commercially purchased) to be made as a concentrate. The Toddy recipe I use works this way.

To drink it, I put about as much water into a cup as I put “cold brew concentrate” and that hits the right flavor. You can (and I sometimes do in times of desperation or confusion) drink the “concentrate” straight, but it’s less tasty than properly-diluted cold brew. The default Toddy recipe from the Toddy is 1:1 (1-to-1) of water and concentrate.

Our go-to Toddy Cold Brew recipe

You will need

• Toddy Cold Brew System
• 12 oz (340 g) coarse-ground coffee
• 7 cups (56 oz / ~1.65 L) cold, filtered water
• Rubber stopper and glass decanter

1. Insert the stopper

Make sure the rubber stopper is firmly seated in the bottom of the Toddy. If it leaks, you’ve already failed.

2. Add coffee

Use a coarse grind, similar to French press. If you go finer, you’ll get sludge and bitterness, not “more flavor.”

3. Add water

Pour 7 cups of water slowly over the grounds, making sure everything is saturated.

» Learn more: Cold brew vs. iced coffee (Yes, there is a difference)

4. Cover and steep

Let it steep at room temperature for 12–24 hours. Aim for the shorter end, 12–14 hours, if you want your coffee to taste cleaner and brighter. Shoot for 18+ hours if you want heavier body and more bitterness (this can be ideal if you like to mix your cold brew with syrup or milk).

If you always think cold brew tastes “muddy,” you’re steeping too long.

5. Drain

Place the Toddy on the decanter and pull the stopper. Let it fully drain.

Voila!

Pros of the Toddy Cold Brew System

As I kind of laid out above, I think the Toddy has been a great addition to our coffee repertoire since I bought the cold brewer a few years back. Not only does my household love it, but so do the extended family we sometimes send off a nice little pick-me-up with (Hi in-laws!)

And I’ve never actually spilled a bunch of coffee grounds on the counter (at least mid-brew) since we shifted.

Reusable filter system

Overall one of the things that makes the Toddy so much better than my prior system is the ease of use.

To make cold brew you really only need a container for your beans and water to mellow together, a way to separate the two, and then a container for the post-separation brewed coffee to live in. What that means is that it’s easy to “jerry rig” a way of making cold brew. What that also means is that you may be suffering from a very subpar brewing, and ESPECIALLY filtering experience.

Filtering the coffee and beans into a nice little cold-brew concentrate is where the Toddy brewer really shines. Assuming you set everything up correctly (and you probably did, it’s pretty easy), filtering using the Toddy is as simple as removing the little stopper, setting it on the (included) pitcher and walking away.

Cool, included glass carafe

But the Toddy pitcher is nice. While Megan doesn’t like its fairly-large circumference, I don’t feel that it takes up TOO MUCH of our valuable refrigerator space.

And I LOVE how it’s solid, and VERY EASY to put your heavy bucket of brewed and beany cold brew on to drain. It both looks pretty good and works great!

Easy recipe, even if you ignore the directions

The first 3ish times I brewed with the Toddy I was SUPER SCRUPULOUS about following their directions to a T. And it made great cold brew. I regular get compliments from friends and family I hand it off to that it’s the best cold brew they’ve ever had.

And I’m just using some bulk Costco beans!

But those things said, now that I know the basics, I just weigh out 12oz of coffee beans, grind them coarse, and alternatively put water and grounds into the bucket until it’s fairly full and reasonably well mixed. And it works great.

If you fill the bucket, and use the included carafe, you can’t really make a mistake because the whole volume of the bucket fits in the carafe!

Downsides of the Toddy Brewer

Filter woes

While I love the reusable felt filter, it’s not the cleanest thing in my kitchen. If I cared more, I assume I could hand wash it better detergent, etc. But I don’t really care and it’s not really affecting the flavor in a way I or anyone else notices. And I will say, the Toddy offers at least one other way to filter.

I’m just a bit of cheapskate, dirt-bag and am telling you that I’ve used the same lightly washed felt filter because I’m also kind of proud of it.

While awesome, the Toddy pitcher is a little bulky and awkward

I know I praised the pitcher just before, but I will also say it’s one of the bigger pain points of the Toddy for us because for our refrigerator layout space, “tall things” is kind of at a premium.

And the Toddy pitcher isn’t super efficient in its use of its over ground-area in this way.

So especially as it gets lower in the pitcher and we get crowded out by milk gallons, beer & soda bottles, etc. we often end up repacking the last of the Toddy into a smaller jar.

It’s not the biggest issue, but it is something to consider.

Regular, low-level fear I’ve lost the stopper ;p

At right you’ll see the Toddy bucket, my aforementioned dirtbag felt filter, and at the bottom that little tiny stopper. It’s sheer size alone is part of why I’m so prone to realizing I don’t know where it is just as need it.

But the problem is exacerbated, at least in our kitchen, but the sheer number of similarly-gray places I might have places it.

Our dish drying rack, where it often goes after I hand-wash the bucket, is basically an identical color. And our counters, which you can see in other photos, are a varied quartz-y shades-of-gray pattern.

So this little sucker isn’t always on a same colored area of the counter, but it’s rarely obvious where it is. More than once I’ve thought I did lose it only to look again and find it blending in well about the place I landed the whole contraption after pulling it down from the cabinet.

Alternative Cold Brew Coffee Makers to Consider

While I’ve not tried a lot of cold brew brewers (I can only drink so much of the stuff… ;p) I do think if I didn’t already have a Toddy I would consider a few others. So to keep this Toddy Cold Brewer review a bit more honest and relevant to the shopping public, here are a few others I’d consider.

OXO Cold Brewer

First and foremost, I see this OXO cold brewer recommended a lot. I don’t think it existed when we bought the Toddy, and we had friends who swore by the Toddy. But in the copious coffee-adjacent media I consume it’s the most often recommended thing (even above the Toddy, honestly).

For those who, like me, love the brand there’s also a compact one.

KitchenAid Cold Brewer

I’ve also seen this KitchenAid a lot in comparison shopping. Personally it looks both expensive and perhaps a little annoying to clean to me.

But I do love that best I can tell it is nearly PLASTIC FREE, which does seem like an increasingly salient concern for humans in 2025.

Blue Bottle x Hario Cold Brew Pitcher

We love Hario and we love Blue Bottle (before it was bought by Nestlé, Ok???), so this cold brew maker could be a good addition to your coffee set up if you share our affinities. It’s also dishwasher safe and describes itself as ‘low-effort cold brew for a group,’ which we can get behind.

It runs about $45 (the same as the Toddy Cold Brew System), but holds less than half of the volume of cold brew coffee (27 oz versus 64 oz).

More Tips for Making Cold Brew at Home

Over the years, I’ve picked up a few tricks that make a real difference in how your cold brew turns out, whether you’re using the Toddy or just making do with what you’ve got.

Don’t waste your fancy beans

Cold brewing flattens your coffee. Since the long, cold steeping process smooths out acidity and mutes some of the brighter flavor notes, you really don’t need to use specialty-grade or single-origin beans. In fact, I’d argue you shouldn’t.

Those subtle citrus or floral notes that make a pour-over amazing? Cold brew mostly makes them disappear. A solid, medium or dark roast from your grocer will do the job beautifully (and save you a few bucks).

Make a concentrate and dilute to taste

The cold press coffee Toddy is designed to make a concentrate, which I like because it gives you flexibility. I usually mix mine 1:1 with water when I pour a glass, but you can adjust that depending on your mood (or how much caffeine you want that day).

It’s more like your personal “cold brew base.” You can even use it for things like affogatos, espresso martinis, or coffee soda experiments if you’re feeling fancy.

Keep it fresh(ish)

Cold brew keeps better than hot-brewed coffee, but it’s not immortal. Stored in a sealed container in the fridge, the concentrate tastes great for about a week.

After that, it’s still fine to drink, but the flavor can start to dull a bit. If you notice it tasting flat or weirdly papery, it’s probably time to brew a new batch.

Give it time, but don’t overdo it

Most cold brew recipes recommend 12-24 hours of steeping at room temp or in the fridge. I’ve found that somewhere around 16-18 hours hits a nice sweet spot: smooth, rich, not bitter.

Past that, you’re not gaining much except the risk of extra sludge.

Should You Get a Toddy Cold Brew Coffee Maker?

As we wrap up this Toddy Cold Brew System review, I come down in favor of the Toddy for sure. It is a versatile, self-contained, and quite high-volume. We’ve got some friends who just brew the Toddy once a week instead of making coffee every morning. It’s not a pattern I would enjoy, but I get it!

The Toddy is that great and easy that if I were a bit less particular about getting the most intense and pleasant flavor out of every bean I’d probably do that too.