The $9.99 ALDI Find I’m Using All Summer Long (It Pays for Itself)

I love iced coffee all year round, but it becomes essential when the humidity hits and I can’t stand drinking anything hot, especially on sticky, summer mornings. With the rising temperatures, I’m getting ready to retire my warm cups of coffee and go back to drinking them cold.

Thankfully, ALDI recently started offering an affordable tools to help me out: the $9.99 Crofton Cold Brew Coffee System.  

My Honest Review of ALDI’s Crofton Cold Brew System 

This cold brew maker comes with a sleek glass carafe that holds up to 50 ounces of coffee, or around four 12-ounce cups. The system also includes a stainless steel mesh filter and two lids. The first lid seals to the filter while the coffee steeps. The second is used to pour the coffee once the filter has been removed, with a sieve to catch stray coffee granules. The system is currently available in three accent colors: black, gray, blue, and red.

The instructions for this cold brew system were super unclear. I almost went insane trying to twist the top off of the carafe before turning to Reddit, where I learned that it pops off like a candle lid. An insightful YouTube video by an ALDI fan also helped me figure out which parts of the system did what.

Thankfully, it was easy to use once I got this clarity. I added 3/4 cup of ground coffee to the filter and put it inside the carafe, which I had filled with cold water. I then put the lid on and placed the carafe in the fridge, letting it steep overnight.

The next morning, I removed the filter and poured the cold brew into a glass, adding ice cubes and milk. The filled carafe is heavy and handleless, so I had to be careful lifting and pouring. The coffee tasted just like the cold brew I’ve gotten at cafés, if not better, because I could control all the elements.

Like many coffee makers, the system was a little hard to clean, with some wet coffee grounds clinging to the inside of the narrow filter. I rinsed the filter in hot water several times to get them all out. 

Tips for Using ALDI’s Cold Brew System

I prefer blonde roast coffee, so I used Maxwell House Master Blend Mild Roast Ground Coffee, which turned out to be a great choice. The coffee should be steeped for 12 to 24 hours, depending on your desired strength level—I steeped mine for 13. Cold brew is a concentrate, so always dilute your glass with water or milk.

The system isn’t limited to coffee. Place loose-leaf tea in the filter to make an iced tea concentrate. Or use it to make a refreshing infused water or lemonade, adding cucumber, citrus, berries, mint, watermelon, ginger, or mango to the filter.

Whether it’s tea, flavored water, or cold brew coffee, it’s so nice to set the system up the night before and wake up to a drink that’s already made. Now that I have this process down, I’ll be using this cold brew system all summer!

_{To learn more about our approach to product recommendations, see HERE.}