Hourglass coffee maker – Cold brewer

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coffee-hourglassLet it not be said that I’m a tea snob… Here’s an interesting gadget for my coffee loving gadget buddies. It’s the Hourglass Coffee Maker, a cold brewing coffee system. You fill one section with fresh coffee grounds, pour in cold water, leave on the counter over night and wake up in the morning with coffee extract. A portion of the extract is then mixed with hot water to make your cup of joe. It’s supposed to have less acid and taste very smooth. Maybe I should try to get one for one of my coffee loving writers to test. What do you think?

21 thoughts on “Hourglass coffee maker – Cold brewer”




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  2. Looks nifty, but you don’t need a gadget — I make cold-brewed coffee every day. A scoop of coffee grounds and a cup or two of cold water in a mason jar, shake, leave it on the counter till the next morning. Filter, add ice (or heat it in the microwave) and drink. Smooth and yummy!

    1. @Kara You’re taking the whole gadget aspect out of the equation though. How sad 😉 Actually, that’s how I make my iced tea. I put a family sized tea bag in the bottom of a big pitcher, fill it with filtered water and stick it in the fridge for 24hrs 🙂

  3. @Kara,@Julie I’ve heard of cold-brewing coffee before but it never occurred to me to cold brew tea. Makes perfect sense for iced tea really. I’ve never felt compelled to cold-brew anything-one more bullet point on my list of things to try.

    1. @Lloyd For some reason we’ve not been able to make a good hot brewed iced tea no matter what we’ve tried, so one day it occurred to me to try to cold brew it. Now that’s the only way I’ll do it from now on. 🙂

  4. Is the cold brew coffie a lot better, i use my expresso michine in the morning and make what i think to be the greatest coffie, but if this makes it worth my wile i might have to get one just to try it out. I think a review would be nice on this device Julie, and thanks for something to look for.

  5. I read this post after having just prepared my coffee for the morning. As Kara pointed out, you don’t need gadgets for cold brewed coffee: use a French press (saves the “filter” step in Kara’s list of tasks above).

    I went to the Hourglass site and they tout the benefits of being BPA free. My French press is glass so that’s hardly an issue 🙂

    1 part freshly ground coffee, 4.5 parts water, leave for at least 12hrs in a French press and plunge slowly. The resulting coffee concentrate is identical to that produced by this “hourglass” contraption. I pour mine over some ice cubes and a glass of milk for fabulous Iced Coffee.

  6. I’ve been doing mine exactly as Kara describes for a few months now, thanks to my worldly Wife! I’ll have to try the french press version too. Unfortunately this is one time the gadget seems line an unnecessary expense, but good post Julie! 😀

  7. I drink a lot of coffee at work and until a couple of years ago it was always a problem. Everyone was willing to buy the coffee, but nobody wanted to fill the coffee maker or clean out the pot.

    So I went in with a couple of co-workers and bought a Keurig k-cups coffee maker. No pot to clean and no filters to mess with. Great machine.

  8. Elizabeth Daugherty

    Heck, Yeah Julie…. let’s review this one. As a Seattle transplant to the Indiana area, we’re coffee snobs in this house. I’m renovating a home office for my husband upstairs and currently, we plan to use our old creaky coffee pot. But if this one does the job better, the old Mr. Coffee may be finding a new home at our church.

  9. I’ve never considered this type of brewing. It sounds great. I’ll have to give it a try soon. Maybe the Mason jar first then a gadget!

    Thanks for the info.

    Tommy

  10. If you’ll indulge me, I have two questions for those who are into the cold-brewing thing. First, is it better to make a coffee concentrate like Melvyn describes, which is later diluted, or better to make it regular strength like Kara describes? Second, as cold brewing really seems to mean room temperature brewing, should the steeping process not be done in the refrigerator? I was thinking in terms of iced coffee, and better to wake up having it already cold. Thanks in advance.

  11. What about caffeine content? Thats one of the most important aspects of coffee consumption. Does the cold-brew (or atmospheric-temperature-brew, as it please you) method result in less, the same amount, or more caffeine as compared to traditional hot-brew?

  12. For those that have used this method: how does it compare in taste to french press or moka pot coffee?

    I’d be willing to bet you don’t extract all the oils in the coffee that make french press and moka pot coffee taste so wonderful. Those oils are what make drip coffee taste awful by comparison; the filter in a drip coffee maker absorb all the oils.

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