The 3 Best Cold-Brew Coffee Makers of 2025
Runner-up
This well-constructed brewer makes a mellower coffee than the OXO Good Grips. But its many parts can be cumbersome to assemble and store.
The Filtron Cold Water Coffee Concentrate Brewer consistently produced great-tasting coffee concentrate in our tests, with most tasters ranking its brew first or second.
This brewer is not quite as easy to set up and drain as our top pick, but the process is simple compared with that of nearly every other model we tested.
It looks clunky, but it still stores compactly. And the black plastic doesn’t discolor the way clear or white plastic does. It also happens to be a darling of craft-minded coffee shops.
It makes reliably good coffee. The Filtron produced a smooth, mellow brew every time, regardless of the beans we used. Multiple baristas on our panel noted the Filtron coffee’s “mild body.” One also remarked on its “well-balanced sweetness and acidity.”
We thought this brewer made slightly flatter-tasting coffee than the brighter brews from our top pick, but some people might appreciate the mellower flavor.
For an even cleaner brew (and for easier cleanup), you can use Filtron’s optional paper filters, but we thought the coffee was great even without them. And they’re hard to find in stores.
It’s straightforward to use. The Filtron system is far simpler to set up and empty, compared with more-involved methods, like the Toddy system or the CoffeeSock. (However, we still found the OXO brewers to be the easiest to use.)
After your brew has finished steeping, you place the black plastic reservoir directly on top of the carafe, yank the rubber stopper out of the drain hole, and let your coffee drain through a felt filter in the bottom of the reservoir.
But the drainage process is a little accident-prone. While the OXO brewers are pretty foolproof, you need to be sure that you tightly jam the rubber stopper into the drain hole; otherwise, you might wake up to a slow leak all over your kitchen counter.
You also have to do some quick maneuvering to remove the stopper without dribbling coffee on your hand.
Plus, since the heavy reservoir rests on top of the tall, narrow carafe, the Filtron is more susceptible to being knocked over while it drains.
Caring for the filter can be a chore. The felt filter must be rinsed out (never use soap) and stored in a container of water in the fridge to prevent mold—a step someone could easily forget. And eventually the filter will need to be replaced, but replacements are inexpensive and readily available on Filtron’s website.
Other than that, maintenance is easy. The Filtron disassembles into just a few parts, which you can quickly wash by hand.
It has a higher yield. The Filtron system makes about 32 ounces of concentrate, which you then dilute with water.
Filtron suggests a ratio of 6 ounces water to 1 ounce concentrate; this is enough for about 32 servings of cold brew. But we found that ratio to be a little weak, and we preferred just using the ratio OXO recommends for its brewers: 2 ounces of concentrate to 4 to 6 ounces of water. This yields at least 16 servings.
Filtron also says you can resteep the grounds, something OXO doesn’t explicitly recommend (though we’re sure you could).
It isn’t the prettiest or the most streamlined model. The Filtron doesn’t look as stylish or pack away as neatly as our other picks. But its black plastic is less likely to show coffee stains over time, and the plastic carafe is more durable than its glass counterparts.
Though the Filtron stands 19 inches tall when you’ve set it up to drip into the carafe, it’s much lower while it’s brewing and should fit fine on a kitchen counter. It also stows compactly, taking up the space of a medium mixing bowl in a cupboard, but it doesn’t fit together as well as the OXO Good Grips.
