@ShotgunX I figured I’d take a chance on waiting because it went pretty quickly from $20 for one to $20 for two, it seemed like they wanted to get rid of them, and then it showed up as a “super summer steal” for $10. Just keep an eye on all the sites.
@ShotgunX great minds think alike. I actually used it for just that purpose today and I can confirm it mixes fast and smooth without the extra foam and bubbles that a blender usually makes.
@ShotgunX yes just buy it from morningsave and add your VMP coupon code to get it for less than $10. That’s what I did a few weeks ago. Hope this helps!
@Kyeh I bought one a few weeks ago (at $10 on SideDeal) It makes a decent brew. Like all french press brewers, it can be messy I use a moderate sieve to capture the grounds so they don’t go down the drain. I actually bought two more this past Monday since I suspect that this may go out of production and it isn’t the most robust equipment so if you go for this, you save a penny. That Burr grinder on SideDeal is the real deal for today.
I got a couple of these a while back, and while I’ve only made coffee with them once, we’ve used them a lot to make what is effectively sun tea. Three tablespoons of assam CTC tea in a full carafe for about 15 minutes yields a nice strong tea that you can add just a little water to, along with loads of ice.
@pmarin@user31820230 CTC stands for crush, tear, curl… a high volume tea leaf processing technique developed by the British to maximize profits. It’s become the de facto standard for tea production in India and makes for a strong brewing but lower quality tea that most Indian people have come to prefer. Assam is a Northern province of India which is noted for its teas that have a full bodied and oftentimes described ‘malty’ quality. As a tea fan I consider CTC leaf inferior to regular leaf and only use the top (usually British) brands if I must. For a far better experience I recommend buying from someplace like https://www.davidsonstea.com/ which only sells organic and politically correct tea at very reasonable prices. Their English Breakfast tea is a good starting point but all their offerings are very good… not super premium but great value for the price.
@babakool@pmarin A couple of additional things to point out. CTC processing produces tea that releases all of its tea-ness quickly at one time, and so it is unsuitable for repeated use, unlike proper leaf tea. That’s one of the reasons though, that it holds up so well to added ingredients like milk, making rich tasting masala chai possible. Also… you can get a 28-ounce bag of Mamri Assam on Grocerybabu.com for $8, and I don’t know about you, but throwing organic fair trade tea into a Wizard of Oz themed coffee cold brewer to make iced tea feels… heretical somehow.
@pmarin@user31820230 My response was just to inform about the CTC Assam query only. I have no interest in these cold brewers and rarely drink iced tea, but would make it the old fashioned way if I did. The thing about CTC processing is that the ‘tea-ness’ it releases is pretty much stripped of most of the nuanced characteristics of the tea, such as where and how it is grown. It produces a fairly generic strong black tea in high volumes at low cost. I mainly use black leaf tea for my British style ‘builders blend’ that I make up myself, consisting of a mix of Assam for body + Ceylon/Southern Indian for astringency + Darjeeling for floral notes. I’ve sourced from many places over the years but have switched mainly to Davidson’s as others have become more expensive, harder to find or decreased in quality. Davidson’s Darjeeling is a superior quality estate tea at a bargain price of $20 per pound. I occasionally pick up a cheap bag of CTC at a local Indian grocery and have found that Tata Tea Gold, which boasts ‘15% Long Leaves’, does seem to have more character to it. Indian peoples came to like the CTC style because it stands up to the boiling with milk they give it to make chai. Masala chai is much more of a Western thing… you might get a few cardamom pods in a large kettle of boiling chai in India but not the spice melange that became popular here. It should also be noted that tea is a product that has notoriously been found to possibly have significant pesticide/heavy metal contamination. Organic just might be a heresy worth embracing
The creepy Children of the Corn Dorothy didn’t dissuade me from buying these.
My wife loves cold brew and this looks convenient and it’s a good enough price to give it a whirl.
I liked this at first, but the metal filter allows too much sediment to pass into the coffee. It’s kind of a deal breaker. However, it’s awfully fun to watch.
@mehrrychristmas@uscpsycho I pour through a coffee filter in a wire sieve, and there is still dark sediment at the bottom, but it brews a very tasty, strong coffee that is great chilled.
I bought one of these from Meh in May for $20. It is fun to use. The filter does allow too much sediment in the coffee. It does take about twice as long as advertised. It is super messy and time consuming to clean and dispose of the grounds. All that said, it does make pretty good cold brew!
I’m going to use these to stir stuff a lot faster and hopefully more thoroughly. Will probably mostly make hot coffee with them like the true rebel I am.
I’ve been using the one I bought a month ago every day since it arrived. Great purchase. I can get my cold brew started then enjoy a pour over while I wait for it to finish. Perfect for an addict like me.
@blaineg It works for pretty much anything that isn’t particularly thick. Hot cocoa should be in its range, and I’m going to try that when the weather changes in (hopefully) late October.
I have long-brew cold brewers, but got this last time because why not when it’s cheap? It does OK, but I definitely wouldn’t go for less than 30 minutes. I forgot to check on my first batch and it went an hour…and the result was good. Not the best cold brew I’ve ever had, but mixed with some half-and-half over ice a delightful evening brew. I use a really dark roasted Sumatran.
@jo2y I have to agree. I have them, and the spinner at the bottom is a large cup that allows the grounds to get trapped away from the water when you plunge/strain, so you can keep the coffee in the carafe, without it continuing to brew… I would guess this would not work will with the resin.
Bought this a couple months back when it was here. (I think one for 20 bucks?) The coffee was meh at best. My son said he was unlikely to use it again, so we threw it away.
Dumb question: is cold brew any different than just making a regular pot of coffee the day before and refrigerating it overnight?
I’m boring when it comes to coffee so I’m unfamiliar with different machines, grounds, ect. I do have a little French press in that my daughter got from IKEA, but we haven’t tried it yet.
@k4evryng Yes. Hot water pulls more acidity out of the coffee. Cold brew definitely has a different flavor. Of course, the beans used and grind size, brew time also all have an impact. French press style brewers (like this one) work best with a larger grind size.
@coryczorna@k4evryng The twister is also similar to just making coffee with cold water and no heat – making a “tea bag” of coffee and let it sit, dangling in a jug (and not sunk to the bottom) in the fridge overnight and then stirring in the morning.
@coryczorna@pakopako thank you for the explanation! This looks fun…but I’m not sure I’d get enough use out of it to justify trying to store it somewhere in my tiny kitchen, lol!
The coffee tea bag idea sounds do-able. I’ll have research proper amounts for the ratio of grounds to water and give that a try!
Though if I may toot my horn a bit: I have a bunch of soda bottles with twist-off caps, so I like to stockpile lemon-tea when I can. I load an English black blend into two of these stirrers and have them running after dinner (in my sink; I too know the hassles of having a tiny kitchen); after about half-an-hour (when I go to wash my hands and realize they’re still in the sink) I add some lemonade from the fridge, let it stir for a little bit, and then pour them into my bottles (which then go into the fridge). I also repeat again (squeezing another batch out of the tea bags) and leave the carafes in the fridge so I have tea to go (bottles) and tea at home (carafes).
I got one of these a while ago. Honestly extremely disappointed. The filter in the thing barely works, so you end up with very gritty, very watery cold coffee. You’d be better off just brewing your coffee as normal and then putting it in a freezer for a little bit of time, or just going to the effort of getting a proper cold brew concentrate maker and making it ahead of time. This quick cold brew device isn’t awful or anything, but it’s underwhelming and truly just not worth it at all when you could get the same result better and faster with plenty of other methods.
Bought one before, just bought two more. Going to gift one and hang onto the other one as a spare… or in case I ever need a magnetic stir plate for mixing something random.
Have one, recently started using it regularly and loving it. Could I just make cold brew in the fridge, overnight? Sure, if I was smart enough to think that far ahead. This does a nice job in a short period of time, and now I’m buying it as gifts. Sucks to only buy one set though!
Another really good use for this is to mix protein shakes and powder addins like glutamine fast and smooth. Tried it today with two scoops of Fruity Pebbles Dymatize protein powder and it mixed perfectly. I have a blender but what usually happens is there’s a lot of bubbles and foam using my ninja blender so this is a nice alternative for a quick shake without the extra hassle. It reminded me of a battery operated vortex that I had that did the same thing on a smaller scale so I tried it and it worked well. I’m going to try my mass gainer next and see how that works. Will probably mix half a dose to try it out but there’s more uses for this besides cold brew. I didn’t need to filter just poured it into a cup. It mixed in maybe 2 minutes or less.
My wife made some cold-brew coffee with this last week and said it didn’t do a great job of keeping grounds out of the cup, however, she acknowledged that it could have – at least in part – been user error.
I’m a (mostly herbal) tea drinker and enjoy flavorful iced tea from time to time, but I don’t enjoy the long planning that it requires: brew tea, throw it in the fridge, do other things for at least a few hours, enjoy.
Yesterday, I saw that I had some peach oolong tea, so I gave it a (literal) whirl in this device. I used cold water from the fridge and let it spin at full speed for about 45 minutes and the half I had was really good. I put the second half in the fridge and am drinking it today and it’s as good or better than yesterday’s.
“Catching” the little basket is like some weird arcade-claw game and even when I got it out, a small amount of tea leaves (or sweepings or whatever) was in the bottom, so I just poured slowly and managed to keep most of it out of my glass, but, as with my wife, it might have been user error.
Anyway, I’m pretty happy with this purchase (and it looks like we’re giving one of the 2-pack to a family member who is excited about such cold-brewing).
Specs
Product: 2-Pack: Presto Dorothy Rapid Cold Brewers
Model: 02937
Condition: New
What’s Included?
Price Comparison
$95.98 (for 2) at Amazon
Warranty
90 days
Estimated Delivery
Monday, Jul 22 - Wednesday, Jul 24
/showme Dorothy making coffee while a tornado is swirling outside.
Hrmmmmmmmm
@Cerridwyn They’re really on a coffee binge this month!
/showme Dorothy cold brewing coffee in a tornado
/showme Dorothy brewing a tornado in coffee
This may be the best meh-face of all time…
@shahnm It IS great! Thanks for making me go back and take a better look!
/showme presto meh
I love the Meh clicky face today
@heartny me too.
This looks like it would be excellent for mixing protein powder. Why can’t you just sell single units?
@ShotgunX they did - for the same price…
@ShotgunX I got mine on morningsave as a single for this price (I mean $10), they don’t have it now but might in the future.
@mossygreen I guess I’ll wait then.
@ShotgunX I figured I’d take a chance on waiting because it went pretty quickly from $20 for one to $20 for two, it seemed like they wanted to get rid of them, and then it showed up as a “super summer steal” for $10. Just keep an eye on all the sites.
@mossygreen @ShotgunX I mean I’ll just take the two because I might break one of them anyway.
@Dizavid @ShotgunX Never a bad idea with glass!
@ShotgunX great minds think alike. I actually used it for just that purpose today and I can confirm it mixes fast and smooth without the extra foam and bubbles that a blender usually makes.
@ShotgunX yes just buy it from morningsave and add your VMP coupon code to get it for less than $10. That’s what I did a few weeks ago. Hope this helps!
@mehrrychristmas Yeah, that’s what I just did.
@PooltoyWolf
You got a shoutout, sort of …
@Kyeh Ha! Close but no dice as they say, on the username. I wonder who I poke to get the spelling corrected
EDIT: I’d be blown away almost instantly in even a small tornado…or any sort of windstorm, really…
@Kyeh @PooltoyWolf Oops, fixed now
@dave @Kyeh Thanks, dave :3
/image divergent-abrasive-calcium
/giphy divergent-abrasive-calcium
/showme divergent-abrasive-calcium
@mossygreen Did you end up liking yours?
@Kyeh It’s fun but it’s so messy to clean. I haven’t tried it with tea or anything else yet. I do love watching the tornado.
@mossygreen I assume all those French-press type things are messy to clean, right? I do like using a coffee filter that you can just lift out.
@Kyeh I’m used to an aeropress that ejects a firm little puck.
@mossygreen Oh! Nifty. I’ve never tried that.
@Kyeh it’s literally a plunger and a tube with a cap on the end. I love it.
@mossygreen I’ll have to check those out.
@Kyeh I bought one a few weeks ago (at $10 on SideDeal) It makes a decent brew. Like all french press brewers, it can be messy I use a moderate sieve to capture the grounds so they don’t go down the drain. I actually bought two more this past Monday since I suspect that this may go out of production and it isn’t the most robust equipment so if you go for this, you save a penny. That Burr grinder on SideDeal is the real deal for today.
I got a couple of these a while back, and while I’ve only made coffee with them once, we’ve used them a lot to make what is effectively sun tea. Three tablespoons of assam CTC tea in a full carafe for about 15 minutes yields a nice strong tea that you can add just a little water to, along with loads of ice.
@user31820230 can you explain more about assam CTC tea? Or do you think I have to do a few seconds of manual clicking to look it up myself?
@pmarin @user31820230 CTC stands for crush, tear, curl… a high volume tea leaf processing technique developed by the British to maximize profits. It’s become the de facto standard for tea production in India and makes for a strong brewing but lower quality tea that most Indian people have come to prefer. Assam is a Northern province of India which is noted for its teas that have a full bodied and oftentimes described ‘malty’ quality. As a tea fan I consider CTC leaf inferior to regular leaf and only use the top (usually British) brands if I must. For a far better experience I recommend buying from someplace like https://www.davidsonstea.com/ which only sells organic and politically correct tea at very reasonable prices. Their English Breakfast tea is a good starting point but all their offerings are very good… not super premium but great value for the price.
@babakool @pmarin A couple of additional things to point out. CTC processing produces tea that releases all of its tea-ness quickly at one time, and so it is unsuitable for repeated use, unlike proper leaf tea. That’s one of the reasons though, that it holds up so well to added ingredients like milk, making rich tasting masala chai possible. Also… you can get a 28-ounce bag of Mamri Assam on Grocerybabu.com for $8, and I don’t know about you, but throwing organic fair trade tea into a Wizard of Oz themed coffee cold brewer to make iced tea feels… heretical somehow.
@pmarin @user31820230 My response was just to inform about the CTC Assam query only. I have no interest in these cold brewers and rarely drink iced tea, but would make it the old fashioned way if I did. The thing about CTC processing is that the ‘tea-ness’ it releases is pretty much stripped of most of the nuanced characteristics of the tea, such as where and how it is grown. It produces a fairly generic strong black tea in high volumes at low cost. I mainly use black leaf tea for my British style ‘builders blend’ that I make up myself, consisting of a mix of Assam for body + Ceylon/Southern Indian for astringency + Darjeeling for floral notes. I’ve sourced from many places over the years but have switched mainly to Davidson’s as others have become more expensive, harder to find or decreased in quality. Davidson’s Darjeeling is a superior quality estate tea at a bargain price of $20 per pound. I occasionally pick up a cheap bag of CTC at a local Indian grocery and have found that Tata Tea Gold, which boasts ‘15% Long Leaves’, does seem to have more character to it. Indian peoples came to like the CTC style because it stands up to the boiling with milk they give it to make chai. Masala chai is much more of a Western thing… you might get a few cardamom pods in a large kettle of boiling chai in India but not the spice melange that became popular here. It should also be noted that tea is a product that has notoriously been found to possibly have significant pesticide/heavy metal contamination. Organic just might be a heresy worth embracing
Well, thank you for stopping by to tell us what tea you feel is inferior!
What did you guys do? I can’t get the mobile version of the site anymore. It’s all desktop all the time.
@warpedrotors mobile works on chrome but not Samsung browser. Casemates and sidedeal both load the mobile version. I’m confused!
The creepy Children of the Corn Dorothy didn’t dissuade me from buying these.
My wife loves cold brew and this looks convenient and it’s a good enough price to give it a whirl.
/showme Dorothy making coffee in a cornfield
@mediocrebot
As played by Anya Taylor-Joy.
/showme I see what you did there
gasp
you can actually read it
I liked this at first, but the metal filter allows too much sediment to pass into the coffee. It’s kind of a deal breaker. However, it’s awfully fun to watch.
@uscpsycho I think it depends on the ground size.
@mehrrychristmas @uscpsycho I pour through a coffee filter in a wire sieve, and there is still dark sediment at the bottom, but it brews a very tasty, strong coffee that is great chilled.
I bought one of these from Meh in May for $20. It is fun to use. The filter does allow too much sediment in the coffee. It does take about twice as long as advertised. It is super messy and time consuming to clean and dispose of the grounds. All that said, it does make pretty good cold brew!
@jimdkc Heh heh! I’m a celebrity! I made the newsletter email!
/image crummy-reminiscent-decision
/giphy crummy-reminiscent-decision
I’m going to use these to stir stuff a lot faster and hopefully more thoroughly. Will probably mostly make hot coffee with them like the true rebel I am.
/giphy rebel
I just opened the one I bought last month and used it for the first time Monday. I’m pleased with it. I think I paid $10.
I’ve been using the one I bought a month ago every day since it arrived. Great purchase. I can get my cold brew started then enjoy a pour over while I wait for it to finish. Perfect for an addict like me.
Maybe we need to start being like casemates and say anyone in Southern California want to split a package. LOL
My daughter likes.this. got one when twice the price.
Why does Dorothy only have 3 fingers?
/giphy catty-deaf-seal
What about tossing the coffee junk and using it to mix other drinks like cocoa?
@blaineg It works for pretty much anything that isn’t particularly thick. Hot cocoa should be in its range, and I’m going to try that when the weather changes in (hopefully) late October.
@blaineg @sammydog01 It seems like this might work a bit like that vintage cocoa machine you have … although that one has a stirrer; but maybe?
I have long-brew cold brewers, but got this last time because why not when it’s cheap? It does OK, but I definitely wouldn’t go for less than 30 minutes. I forgot to check on my first batch and it went an hour…and the result was good. Not the best cold brew I’ve ever had, but mixed with some half-and-half over ice a delightful evening brew. I use a really dark roasted Sumatran.
I bought this last time it came in. It works to cold brew Iced tea with loose leaf tea, as well. I’m really happy with it.
@justdave88 How long do you stir the tea?
@justdave88 @sammydog01 I set mine to stir for at least 15 minutes. There’s no harm to let it spin for longer.
I actually let a tea bag dangle from under the plunger so bubbles still form when the water rushes past.
For $10 a piece, it’s actually a nice 1L glass carafe plus the option to stir things.
@justdave88 @pakopako Thanks, I’ll give it a shot. We’re always short on ice.
Too soon! The Chicago are just had several tornado touchdowns with very little coffee involved.
Would this work fill the roll of a magnetic mixer? I’d want to mix resin before pouring.
Something like this
https://a.co/d/aTBDuVr
@jo2y It’s way too wimpy for anything with that kind of viscosity.
@jo2y That item is also not suitable for resin.
@jo2y I have to agree. I have them, and the spinner at the bottom is a large cup that allows the grounds to get trapped away from the water when you plunge/strain, so you can keep the coffee in the carafe, without it continuing to brew… I would guess this would not work will with the resin.
Bought this a couple months back when it was here. (I think one for 20 bucks?) The coffee was meh at best. My son said he was unlikely to use it again, so we threw it away.
Dumb question: is cold brew any different than just making a regular pot of coffee the day before and refrigerating it overnight?
I’m boring when it comes to coffee so I’m unfamiliar with different machines, grounds, ect. I do have a little French press in that my daughter got from IKEA, but we haven’t tried it yet.
@k4evryng Yes. Hot water pulls more acidity out of the coffee. Cold brew definitely has a different flavor. Of course, the beans used and grind size, brew time also all have an impact. French press style brewers (like this one) work best with a larger grind size.
@coryczorna @k4evryng The twister is also similar to just making coffee with cold water and no heat – making a “tea bag” of coffee and let it sit, dangling in a jug (and not sunk to the bottom) in the fridge overnight and then stirring in the morning.
@coryczorna @pakopako thank you for the explanation! This looks fun…but I’m not sure I’d get enough use out of it to justify trying to store it somewhere in my tiny kitchen, lol!
The coffee tea bag idea sounds do-able. I’ll have research proper amounts for the ratio of grounds to water and give that a try!
@coryczorna @k4evryng Good to have learned something new!
Though if I may toot my horn a bit: I have a bunch of soda bottles with twist-off caps, so I like to stockpile lemon-tea when I can. I load an English black blend into two of these stirrers and have them running after dinner (in my sink; I too know the hassles of having a tiny kitchen); after about half-an-hour (when I go to wash my hands and realize they’re still in the sink) I add some lemonade from the fridge, let it stir for a little bit, and then pour them into my bottles (which then go into the fridge). I also repeat again (squeezing another batch out of the tea bags) and leave the carafes in the fridge so I have tea to go (bottles) and tea at home (carafes).
First thought was, would this be good as a stir plate for yeast starters for homebrewers? The price is right.
@Ayrahvon It works well for fast-proofing yeast for bready things, so I don’t see why it wouldn’t work there.
@Ayrahvon @werehatrack Interesting. I’m not sure if that would mean some dough would stick underneath the stirring panel though.
@Ayrahvon @pakopako Proofing of the yeast is done with just water and sugar, no flour. Proofing the dough is a different part of the process.
I got one of these a while ago. Honestly extremely disappointed. The filter in the thing barely works, so you end up with very gritty, very watery cold coffee. You’d be better off just brewing your coffee as normal and then putting it in a freezer for a little bit of time, or just going to the effort of getting a proper cold brew concentrate maker and making it ahead of time. This quick cold brew device isn’t awful or anything, but it’s underwhelming and truly just not worth it at all when you could get the same result better and faster with plenty of other methods.
Mu hahaha! Only 300 sold?!? The resellers are your lifeblood! You’ll be back, they all come back!!!
I hope this one comes intact. My last one looked like someone played soccer with it.
I will buy these when they’re $10
@Xieneus They… are $10. (You can still snag them individually at $10 each from MorningSave)
Bought one before, just bought two more. Going to gift one and hang onto the other one as a spare… or in case I ever need a magnetic stir plate for mixing something random.
Have one, recently started using it regularly and loving it. Could I just make cold brew in the fridge, overnight? Sure, if I was smart enough to think that far ahead. This does a nice job in a short period of time, and now I’m buying it as gifts. Sucks to only buy one set though!
/buy
@blaineg It worked! Your order number is: purring-ocular-gerbil
/showme purring ocular gerbil
/giphy purring-ocular-gerbil
The “it expires when it sells out” deadline is good for procrastinators.
/showme procrastinators
Another really good use for this is to mix protein shakes and powder addins like glutamine fast and smooth. Tried it today with two scoops of Fruity Pebbles Dymatize protein powder and it mixed perfectly. I have a blender but what usually happens is there’s a lot of bubbles and foam using my ninja blender so this is a nice alternative for a quick shake without the extra hassle. It reminded me of a battery operated vortex that I had that did the same thing on a smaller scale so I tried it and it worked well. I’m going to try my mass gainer next and see how that works. Will probably mix half a dose to try it out but there’s more uses for this besides cold brew. I didn’t need to filter just poured it into a cup. It mixed in maybe 2 minutes or less.
@mehrrychristmas This is exactly what I want to do, so good to know that it works so well.
And I have one of those vortex cups too somewhere. I imagine the battery is completely dead now.
@ShotgunX I just actually tossed my vortex last month. It was never great to be honest but a good idea for on the go. I would often forget to use it.
This works quite well for my wife for mixing up Metamucil. Almost no grit after a 5 min mix.
My wife made some cold-brew coffee with this last week and said it didn’t do a great job of keeping grounds out of the cup, however, she acknowledged that it could have – at least in part – been user error.
I’m a (mostly herbal) tea drinker and enjoy flavorful iced tea from time to time, but I don’t enjoy the long planning that it requires: brew tea, throw it in the fridge, do other things for at least a few hours, enjoy.
Yesterday, I saw that I had some peach oolong tea, so I gave it a (literal) whirl in this device. I used cold water from the fridge and let it spin at full speed for about 45 minutes and the half I had was really good. I put the second half in the fridge and am drinking it today and it’s as good or better than yesterday’s.
“Catching” the little basket is like some weird arcade-claw game and even when I got it out, a small amount of tea leaves (or sweepings or whatever) was in the bottom, so I just poured slowly and managed to keep most of it out of my glass, but, as with my wife, it might have been user error.
Anyway, I’m pretty happy with this purchase (and it looks like we’re giving one of the 2-pack to a family member who is excited about such cold-brewing).
@andymand “catching” “basket”?
I think I have a different model.