Cold-brew makers aren’t like coffee machines. They don’t push steam through a tight puck of coffee grounds or heat water to drip over them. Most cold-brew makers are simple devices, and that’s because cold-brewing coffee is a deceptively simple process. We don’t actually need a cold-brew maker to do much. We don’t want it to do much. It should stand back and let the water take its time to gently coax the subtlest, sweetest flavors out of your grounds. It’s just coffee plus water plus patience. So during testing, we have to pay close attention to what the cold-brew maker does, and doesn’t do.
I test a lot of devices for making coffee, and in my opinion, testing cold-brew makers is probably the trickiest. When something goes wrong with a batch of cold brew it’s not always obvious what the cause is. It can be as subtle as an off flavor or a few too many dregs at the bottom of a cup. Sometimes it’s even something else in your fridge that adds a weird flavor. That’s why we test so thoroughly and really put these products through the ringer.
Be sure to check out our other coffee guides to round out your coffee tool set, like the Best Espresso Machines, Best Latte & Cappuccino Makers, Best Portable Coffee Makers, Best Coffee Subscriptions, and Best Coffee Grinders.
Updated April 2024: We added the Hario Mizudashi, Aeropress XL, Fellow Prismo, Fellow Shimmy, and Partners Coffee Cold Brew Pouches, and adjusted pricing and product descriptions throughout.
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Best Brewers
The simplicity of the Mizudashi’s design makes it an absolute joy to use. It’s an elegant, understated devices that works just as well for coffee as it does for tea. The reusable filter provides less filtration than a paper filter—which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The presence of microscopic coffee particles in a cup of cold brew will leave some sediment in the bottom of the cup, but they also provide a little more body to the brew itself. A silken mouthfeel that, in my opinion, helps the cold brew stand up to the addition of milk a bit better without getting watery.
The thing I love the most about the Mizudashi is its size. The 600-ml version is perfect for the amount of cold brew I usually want to have on hand, and the shape and build quality of the Mizudashi just makes me want to make cold brew, and that’s an important quality. Hario is a Japanese company with a long history of making quality glassware, and it shows in the craftsmanship of this simple carafe.