BREW IT: COLD BREW COFFEE
BREW IT
Iced Coffee Toddies
Perk up your summer coffee the cold-brewed way.
BY CARLA SINCLAIR
Until last year, I avoided iced coffee. It’s usually too
acidic, and the ice melts immediately in the hot brew,
making it weak and watery. I like my coffee strong
and smooth, and have always resorted to espresso drinks. Until,
that is, the day I stumbled into a café in Maui that proudly served
cold-brewed iced “Toddies.”
A Toddy (named after Todd Simpson, who invented his cold-brew
coffee machine in 1964) is coffee that’s been brewed without heat
for at least 12 hours. The result is an amazingly smooth, strong,
and naturally sweet cup of java without any acidic harshness or
bitterness. Although it would be easy to buy the Toddy machine
(around $35), here’s a low-tech way to cold-brew coffee that’s
every bit as good as the black gold I discovered in Hawaii.