Too Hot For Coffee – Try Cold Brew

When it got too hot for coffee, we tried to find the best cold brew.

Coffee, a worldwide beverage and multi billion dollar industry. For most of Europe and the United States this summer is got too hot for Coffee. While most of us were reaching for an ice cold Diet Coke, Dr. Goldberg suggested Cold Brew coffee.

Dr. Goldberg advised that I switch from Diet Soda to coffee for health reasons. Since it was too hot for coffee, he handed me a cold brew, and told me to try it. Maybe you are tired and just want a little pick me up so you can prevent an accident after a long day at the office.

Trader Joe's ready to Drink Cold Brew

Not being a coffee drinker, I stuck to the Diet Coke at first but eventually someone (me) didn’t restock and Trader Joes Cold Brew coffee was all that was left. I know I can kill the bitter taste of coffee with sugar, cream and a host of flavored additives, but all of that adds chemicals and calories or both.

Diving in head first, I poured a small glass of the pre-made cold brew over ice. It wasn’t good, but it wasn’t bad enough for me to go shopping for Diet Coke. After a few days, the switch was complete. I was no longer driving through McDonalds for a Diet Coke every three hours or grabbing a can from the fridge. In fact my wife challenged me to stop wasting plastic and challenge myself to dump the cup.

Cold Brew Coffee Made Easy

Since I had just started the Right Wing Tree Hugger Website, it made sense to have the first RWTH eco-challenge posted. Get a re-usable metal insulated cup and see how many plastic cups, lids and straws I could save.

The next challenge became finding a way to not buy pre-made Cold Brew and save even more plastic. Trader Joes does offer a concentrate so that would automatically reduce the plastic bottle use by half, but I wanted to go further. Shipping water is expensive, so why not make my own cold brew.

For the test, since my bitter tasted buds haven’t been burned off by years of coffee drinking, I started with Grady’s cold brew in bags, and eventually moved to Cafe Du Monde can’s to save the bags and cut the costs.

Several cold brew machines made it to the test, and here is how they stacked up in our world in the order we liked them.

The Ovalware RJ3 Cold brew maker was the overall winner. It’s larger cousin was a bit too delicate and like many other people found it broke quite easily. If there were a stonger pyrex version we wouldn’t even show you the other contenders

By Far the best looking, the Kitchenaide had a huge coffee grounds basket and a little problem with dripping. A lot of unneeded clean up.

While this made great coffee it was just simply too tall on the counter. The big advantage was you could fill the hopper with ice for an even slower brewing time and less acidic bite.

Since doing our test, a couple of brands have upped the game and added plastic handled and bases so the jars weren’t as delicate. We also found that Cafe Du Monde coffee was easier to find. They even have it at Brennans in Downtown Disney. The chickory takes the bite out of the coffee even more.

3 comments

  1. Editors Note – The coffee grounds are great in the garden or for plants in the house. Just don’t use too much or you will burn the plants.

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