Iwaki Water Drip 4 Cup Cold Brew Dutch Coffee, Tea Maker

I hadn't tried making cold-brewed coffee before, and this option seemed to be the best and most inexpensive way to make it. I have seen people put grounds in a bag and let it steep overnight, but for me the coffee ends up tasting too much like cocoa. It has a thicker mouth-feel than I'd prefer. Plus the idea of washing coffee bags didn't appeal to me. I used to make hot coffee in batches and let it cool, then put it in the fridge, but I still had the same stomach ache (and feeling like I need to be near a bathroom) that I get when I drink hot coffee.Turns out the Iwaki Water Drip Coffee Maker was the answer to making really inexpensive, flavorful and satisfying iced coffee. I like to use dark roast coffee with this method (I get a 6 lb. bag of beans from Costco). I found that if you have a fairly fine grind and fill the water reservoir, the coffee is done in two hours. I soak the grounds with water first, take a spoon and mix the grounds to let some air and water disperse, then fill the reservoir with water and let it drip. It's relaxing for me to watch the water drip, plus the coffee maker has an elegant hourglass shape and is beautiful to look at. The bottom is interesting because it does look like a wide-mouthed Erlenmeyer flask, just like in high school chemistry class. After an hour I usually stir the grounds again to distribute them and get a darker drip. I have heard some people try to get two batches out of this by using the same grounds twice, but when I tried it, the coffee was a very light amber color and not flavorful at all. Once the drip is done, I usually put the brewed coffee in a glass canning jar and put it in the fridge. It probably stays good for about 5 days before starting to get stale.The benefits: you get all the taste, satisfaction and quality of a "regular" coffee without all the caffeine jitters or having to run to the bathroom. Now I look forward to making coffee every morning. Thanks for saving me the $3.25 I would normally spend on a venti iced coffee at Sbux every day!

This brewer drips water at a non-adjustable rate of about 2.5 drops per second. With my other cold drip brewer (a Hario), I have found that the best rate is closer to 1 drop every 1.5 seconds. I am currently looking for a way to slow this brewer down.EDIT: (after 2 weeks of use)After 2 weeks of use, I can say that the Iwaki's drip mechanism has slowed down considerably (between 1 drip per second and 1 drip per 2 seconds). The only reason I can come up with for this is mineral buildup from hard water. This actually works to my benefit as it produces delicious coffee, but it does mean that I'll need to de-scale (soak in vinegar / fill with vinegar and allow to drip clean) once every month or so.I also noticed that the Iwaki's coffee is FAR more potent than the cold-drip I'm used to from my Hario cold drip tower. The coffee from my Hario can be drunk direct from the collection vessel. By comparison, the Iwaki's coffee is more of a coffee concentrate. I usually cut it at a ratio of about 1 part coffee to 2 parts water before I get the flavor I'm looking for.All in all, this cold-drip tower provides a great cup of coffee at a reasonable price. It has quickly become an office favorite on days when we don't feel like making a trek out to Starbucks.

I got my cold brew coffee maker yesterday, and I'm sipping my first cup from it right now. I bought this coffee maker as a budget-friendly alternative to the Yama cold drip coffee maker ($200+) for a Kyoto-style cold brew. So far, I am very pleased with the Iwaki coffee maker, and I am fairly picky about my coffee. The coffee came out much brighter flavored than it does when I cold brew it in my French press (toddy style). I urge folks to try light to medium roast coffee with this. You may be surprised with how delicate and fruity some of your coffee beans can taste! For a fun experiment, try making iced coffee with same beans different ways: Kyoto (with this coffee maker), toddy (water sitting in the grounds), and then simply chilling hot-brewed coffee. The different brewing methods have a huge impact on the flavors of the coffee.As a previous poster mentioned, all of the directions on the coffee maker were in Japanese, but it was easy enough to see the pictures and figure things out. I set up the coffee tower, put my coffee grounds in the middle basket up to the line, wet them a little bit, and used ice + water in the top reservoir. (I never even saw the tiny triangle, but it didn't seem to matter, since the triangle is towards the top anyway.) I had read in a few different posts about Kyoto drip coffee that using ice cold water is best. Who knows if it made any difference, but it was fun to watch. Also, I made a point to adhere to the 2:1 coffee to water ratio in my cup. This coffee maker brews STRONG coffee!I did notice that the water dripped out of the top reservoir much faster than 1 drop every 1.5 seconds--more like one tiny drop right after the other. However, the coffee did seem to drip out of the middle basket with the grounds at a rate of 1 drop every 1.5 seconds. And when the water was gone and there was nothing but ice left, the drip rate slowed down to a 1 drop every however-long-it-takes-to-melt-ice. So, for all of you stopwatch-wielding coffee makers, this may annoy you that you can't adjust the drip speed. For the rest of us, it's fine.All in all, I love this coffee maker so far, and I will be buying it as Christmas gifts for all of my iced coffee-drinking friends.

This is a great cold brew coffee maker. Every parts are beautiful.Very slowly extracted coffee has a great aroma and a smooth taste.However, you should be careful in handling it. The glass made server is very sensitive and no other plastic parts are securely fixed (just stacking, even the lid).And I wish that it had a handle on the coffee server.