My new coffee

As I write today, I am drinking a homemade white chocolate mocha. Yes, that’s right. Homemade. Not from Starbucks or Woods or anywhere else.

Did you go buy one of those fancy schmancy espresso machines? you ask.

Nope.

I bought a $10 Toddy Maker off Craigslist.

My domestic friend, Lea, introduced me to Toddy Coffee. It’s a slow, cold brew, which removes most of the acidity from the coffee. You put six CUPS of ground coffee in the top and add 9 cups of water. Then you let it sit. The first time, I only let it sit about 12 hours, but that made kind of weak coffee. So, this second time it was about 18-20 hours and it’s perfect. After this contraption sits on your counter for about 18-20 hours with the coffee and the water up in that plastic part, you remove the plug on the bottom. There’s a filter inside and all the coffee drains out into the glass carafe. You then have some seriously delicious coffee concentrate! You can use it to make regular hot coffee, hot mochas and lattes, or iced coffees, mochas, or whatever!

Keep this carafe in your fridge and use about 2 ounces for every 8 ounces of water or milk, depending on what kind of drink you’re making. Use more or less coffee depending on how strong you like your coffee. The longer you let it brew before draining, the stronger your concentrate will be, and therefore, the less concentrate you will use in your drinks. And of course, that equals saving money.

Today’s thankfulness prompt is “I’m thankful….for a convenience.” Today, I’m going with my Toddy Maker coffee. I’m thankful for all those other conveniences, too, like hot running water, toilets, electricity, and my bed. But in truth, I think of those as requirements rather than conveniences. I’m still kind of a city girl who doesn’t like to go camping. 

I tell ya, if I ever make it to Africa, which I do honestly hope will happen at some point in my life, it is not gonna be fun.