Battle Of The Cold Brew Coffee Makers: Hourglass Coffee Maker Review

Hourglass Cold Brew Coffee Maker System
On sale at Amazon for $50.43. Regular price $59.95

The Good

• Delicious Cold Brew Coffee
• Coffee With Lower Acid Levels
• Environmentally Friendly

The Bad

• Hot Coffee, Not So Hot
• Tricky To Use Initially
• More Expensive Initial Price

If you’re looking for a cold brew coffeemaker, there’s two devices that battle for the cold brew market. There’s the Toddy Cold Brew System (reviewed in July) and then there’s the Hourglass Coffee Maker, which was in the Daily Shot Of Coffee kitchen this month.

Both cold brew coffeemakers work basically the same. Instead of using hot water to extract flavor quickly, the cold brew coffee makers soak up the coffee flavor over a longer period of time (twelve or more hours). They’re great for summer, but you may want to plan ahead.

Hourglass With Filter Full Of Coffee Grounds Before Brewing

My number one concern with any coffee making device, hot or cold, is the quality of the final product. The Hourglass Coffeemaker produced cold coffee that was smooth and delicious. Compared to hot brewing methods, the flavor does seem slightly muted. Compared to other cold brew coffee makers, the Hourglass brought out more flavor of the bean.

The cold brew concentrate made iced coffee that scored high on the drinkable scale, but I can’t say the same thing about the hot version. After trying different methods of making cold brew coffee, it’s safe to say that nothing compares to the taste of a hot cup of coffee from a French Press.

If acids from traditional methods of making coffee like the French Press or drip coffee maker cause you to have problems like heartburn, check out the Hourglass Coffeemaker. It was easy to determine that there were significantly less acids that can cause upset stomachs.

Coffee Concentrate Dripping Into The Lower Chamber

Besides the taste, one factor that really scored points for the Hourglass Coffee Maker is that this device is environmentally friendly. Like all cold brew coffeemakers, it doesn’t require any electricity to heat the water during brewing. Unlike other cold brew coffeemakers, it doesn’t require filters that need to be thrown away and replaced. The Hourglass comes with a stainless steel filter. If you don’t plan on using your cold brew coffee maker often, it’s not that exciting of a feature. However, if you plan on using it often, the savings could add up.

The Hourglass Coffeemaker gets bonus points for having a portable and unbreakable carafe. The Toddy has a gallon sized glass carafe, while the Hourglass would be easy to carry around to the office or even outdoors when I go camping.

One distinct difference between the Toddy Cold Brew System and the Hourglass Coffee maker is the amount of coffee that each uses per batch. The Toddy uses a whole bag of coffee per use, while the Hourglass Coffee Maker uses about half a bag. However, they even out because the Toddy produces more coffee concentrate with each batch.

The only major drawback that I found about the Hourglass Coffeemaker was that it was tricky to piece together as I set it up for the brewing process. Pieces didn’t seem like they wanted to fit together and there were small leaks around the seams. After reading reviews on Amazon written by people with similar problems, it seems like the issue disappears after a few batches. I’ll update the blog post after a few more uses to give my final answer.

It’s difficult to determine the differences between the Toddy and the Hourglass Coffeemaker. Both make delicious cold coffee, but the Hourglass is more expensive. If I was going to be making a lot of cold brew coffee, I would go with the Hourglass because the quality of the product (besides the way the pieces fit together) seems like a better investment over time.

What’s your opinion? Have you tried the Toddy or Hourglass? What did you think?

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Fine Print.

Tagged as: Cold Brew Coffee, Hourglass Coffee Maker, Toddy Cold Brew System