Hario "Mizudashi" Cold Brew Coffee Maker, 1000ml, Red

I spent a lot of time researching for a cold brew and eventually landed on this one. I could not recommend anything better at this price point. The Japanese craftsman ship makes it very stylish and worthy of being in the fridge every summer. It is easy to use, and a good size that can fit enough for a week of coffee for myself.Pros: I find that it does not leak when I am pouring coffee, good size for 1 week of coffee, easy to use, stylish, affordable, made of glassCons: plastic black bitsI use this daily right now and highly recommend it as long as you can get past the fact that there is some plastic in this product. Overall highly recommended

Over the last three years, I have been experimenting with all sorts of different coffee brewing methods in an attempt to find one that met the list of things I wanted from a coffee maker.1: It has to be easy. I do not mind grinding my beans as I can see a definite improvement in the quality of the finished product with that, but I have also tried:Pour overs. Too finicky about the pour time and such.Aeropress. Killer coffee. Too much rather precise timing and such for early morning pre-coffee brain.Two different high-end small size brewers. Could not get a decent cup of coffee out of either of them. Sour or bitter.A semi-automatic Espresso machine. Again, too much work for a cup of joe.2: The resulting coffee has to be adaptable. Somedays I want a strong short hot cup. Other days a milder glass of iced coffee. And sometimes I like to make a quasi Vietnamese style super sweet with Hazelnut syrup over ice.3: I would prefer it not be acidic.So of course, A cold brew rig is the way to go. I started with a Toddy. Works well, but the part where you sit a half gallon of coffee and grounds balanced over a juice carafe for an hour to let it drip through the small fiber puck filter...ehh. I kept having nightmares of that crap all over my kitchen. Yeah, I can set it in the sink, but my sink is not flat bottomed, so the wobbly factor was raised. Plus those filters are a dog to get rinsed out. Noticed the flow was significantly diminished after the third batch even with soaking the filter in multiple changes of water after use.Then I thought I was overthinking it. So I went with 50 grams of fine grind in a quart mason jar of water in the fridge overnight. Filtered it through a Melitta #4 in one of the pour over gadgets. That worked, but again a bit too fiddly. Plus I got the feeling I was filtering out some of the wanted coffee flavors.Along came this lil number. I have a few Hario kitchen gadgets already, so I was familiar with the brand and their quality. The 80 grams of ground coffee for a liter of returned concentrate seemed high at first. But man with a 24-hour brew in the fridge, this concentrate is strong. Like I tried drinking an espresso cup of it with a teaspoon of sugar straight, and after a while, I felt I could see through time. 1 to 1 water to concentrate is plenty strong for most folks iced coffee. Maybe a bit stronger for a drink with creamer and sugars. My go-to summertime drink is.Make the Mizudashi with 80 grams of semi-fine grind medium roast. (I have a Capresso Infinity grinder, and I set it on the 2nd tick mark from the right in the FINE section) 1150 ml of bottled water (my tap water is hella hard) and a 24 hour brew time in the fridge. Pull the filter basket, and I pour the concentrate into a 32 oz. Nalgene bottle. In a second Nalgene bottle, I mix: 1 15oz can of full fat Coconut milk, 8 oz. of simple syrup and 8 oz of bottled water. Shake the devil out of it to blend, and it goes into the fridge too. When I want a drink, I pour into a 20 oz glass: Half cup of concentrate, half cup of the Milk mix (Shaking well before), half cup of water and fill the glass with ice. Stir or shake in a cocktail mixer. Is it super strong? No. Is it super sweet? No. Does it cost $8 like from Starbuckers? Nope.

This is my review of the Hario Mizudashi Cold Brew Coffee Pot Cold Brew Coffee Maker. This simple cold-brew coffee maker is an excellent addition to my coffee addiction. Do you go to the coffee shops and find that their ice coffee is too weak for your liking? I know I did and if they are using hot coffee and trying to cool it down once ordered, it will never be good.This is a super economical coffee maker, but the amount of coffee it uses is more than one might expect. That does not matter that much for me because this brewer makes the best cold-brew coffee that I have had anywhere. The big plus is that I get to choose the beans and water to use. Of course, you should never use tap water for your coffee, use purified, filtered water.The coffee beans that I have been using for more than a decade now are the organic, fair-trade coffee beans that Sprouts sells. I wait for them to go on sale with the bulk items and then buy the large four-pound bags the coffee comes to the stores in. Lately, the sale price has been $9.99 per pound, which is a great price for organic coffee beans. Plus, when you buy the unopened four-pound bag, they give you an additional 10% off. I get the Sprouts Special Dark Blend or the Espresso beans. I grind them as I need them into a powder for this coffee maker.The trick to making powerfully strong, super-tasty coffee is to spend a little time preparing it. Once the grinds are loaded into the filter, slowly drip a few drops of water in at a time. You want the coffee to saturate before dripping to the bottom of the flask. As you are able to add a little more water at a time, the coffee turns into a mud. When this happens use a butter knife and gently stir and move the mud around. Be careful not to over-fill it!With good, strong beans the first tall glass of delicious coffee could be filled within eight hours or so after being in the frig. Once you have poured a glass, slowly refill the coffee maker again to the top with water. Give it a few more hours and again, another great glass full. I do this three or four times. This device uses a lot of coffee, so there is a lot that can be made with it if you play with it a little.For mine, I pour a little heavy whipping cream into the glass first and a milky froth comes to the top. It is so tasty and rich, you just want to sip it. Another thing for me personally, I do not add ice as I hate how it slowly dilutes the coffee. Oh yeah, once I am done with the grinds, my sister uses them in her electric ice coffee maker and she said it is still strong coffee!