Reclaim your morning: Many coffee lovers find regular brewed coffee too acidic. According to the National Heartburn Alliance, of the estimated 54 million Americans who suffer heartburn, 75% say beverages such as coffee can cause it.

Cold brewed coffee's secret?

During the cold-brew process, time replaces heat. Todd Simpson, a chemical engineering graduate of Cornell, and who developed the Toddy cold brew system, discovered that the desirable flavor of coffee is destroyed by high temperature. 

A roasted coffee bean contains many compounds that are extracted during the brewing process. Some of those compounds, including certain oils and fatty acids, are soluble only at a high temperature. During the cold brew process, coffee beans are never exposed to high temperature (this only occurs after a rich liquid coffee concentrate has been produced). 

Deceptively simple, cold water brewing extracts the delicious flavor compounds (and some of the caffeine) from coffee beans, but leaves behind myriad bitter oils and biting fatty acids, including undesirable elements such as ketons, esters and amids. 

These are the same bitter acids and fatty oils that surface to the top of your hot cup of coffee, and give hot-brewed coffee that familiar 'bite' (thus the reason that some 8 out of 10 people attempt to soften the acidic taste by adding milk or cream to their coffee). 

The cold-brew process creates a perfectly balanced and distinctively smooth cup of coffee - served steaming hot or iced cold. You're invited to taste the Toddy difference: the same taste that has delighted coffee drinkers for some 40 years. 

As important as those fresh roasted beans are to your cup of coffee, it’s what you do with them that counts the most. The Washington Post said recently that Toddy’s process creates “the perfect cup of coffee.” To help you achieve perfection in your kitchen, we've drafted a few suggestions.

1. Coffee Beans: Make sure to use an Arabica coffee bean - brand is not important as long as your beans are an Arabica variety (compared to Robusto). 

2. Grind: Different coffee brewing methods require different kinds of grind. It’s critically important that you use regular or, better yet, coarsely ground coffee with your Toddy. 

If you task your local cafe or market to grind your beans, ask them to grind them on a "Coarse" setting. Don't grind them as you would for use in a French Press, Automatic Drip or Espresso machine, you'll be disappointed in the results. 

If you grind your beans at home, you may use an inexpensive blade grinder, grinding your beans for between 9-11 seconds - similar to the grind used in an old-fashioned percolator. 

3. Add Coffee and Water: The Toddy brewing container is designed to hold 1 lb. of coffee and 9 cups (72 fluid ounces) of water. 

First add 2 cups of water in the bottom of the Toddy brewing container. (When pouring the water over the 

grounds, the water should be added gently, in a circular motion, to make sure all the grounds get wet and there are no dry pockets.) Then add 1/2 lb. ground coffee. Again, slowly pour 5 cups of water over the grounds. Then add the remaining 1/2 lb. ground coffee. Finally, wait 5 minutes and slowly add 2 cups of water. DO NOT STIR. 

Make sure to not stir the coffee. However, lightly tap the topmost grounds with the back of a spoon to ensure all grounds get wet. 

Allow to cold brew for 12 hours before draining. 

NOTE: Use good water. Coffee is 98-99% water. Fresh cold water contains more oxygen and this will lead to a fresher-tasting cup of coffee. If your tap water tastes OK, then use it, but generally speaking, it's better to use either filtered or bottled water. Don't use distilled water, though - the absence of minerals in it will leave your coffee tasting flat. 

NOTE: If your coffee beans are packaged less than 1 lb., visit www.ToddyCafe.com, click About, then click FAQ. You may review instructions on how to cold brew less than 1 lb. of coffee beans. It's very straightforward.

4. Brew: We recommend that you cold brew your coffee grounds 12 hours for maximum results. This will produce a pure concentrate, with minimum acidity and caffeine. 

Toddy's cold brew process should yield 6 cups (48 fluid ounces) of coffee concentrate. The beans absorb the balance of the water. 

You may cold brew your coffee longer than the recommended 12 hours. However, if you do, more acidity and caffeine will be absorbed into the liquid (although the amount of acidity and caffeine will never be as much as coffee made by hot brewed methods). 

The trade off is that a richer concentrate will be produced (with the same amount of liquid produced), therefore allowing you to produce more cups of coffee per pound of beans. 

5. Enjoy Your Fresh Cup of Coffee: The Toddy produces a pure, low-acid coffee concentrate that may be refrigerated for up to 10 days without any deterioration in taste or freshness. And, importantly, there's no waste. Toddy can be made one cup at a time, simply by adding steaming hot or iced cold water, milk or cream. It's also microwavable (but remember not to boil the concentrate). 

We generally recommend a ratio of 1 part coffee concentrate to 3 parts water, milk or cream. However, one of the benefits of using the Toddy system is that you can mix to taste. 

And, you drink the coffee you make - unlike hot brewed coffee, where on average 3-4 cups are consumed for every 8-10 produced. 

NOTE: Storing Your Coffee. Coffee beans tend to lose their flavor rather quickly after being ground. Always keep your coffee in a sealed container that prevents the coffee from being exposed to the open air - preferably inside your freezer. 

When keeping coffee in the freezer, take out only the amount you are going to use and put the remainder back into the freezer immediately. Coffee kept in the freezer will last a month or more. 

NOTE: After brewing Toddy concentrate, rinse out the filter with water (no soap). Immediately, place filter in the refrigerator in a Tupperware-type tub or Zip-Lock-type bag. The filter may be used up to 10 times (discard after three months). 

NOTE: Refrigerated, Toddy is as fresh on Saturday as it was on Monday. There is no noticeable difference in taste for 10 days. After 10 days, the concentrate will begin to deteriorate, producing a cup of coffee that is slightly "stale" tasting. 

However, if not objectionable, the concentrate may be kept refrigerated up to three weeks. If frozen, concentrate will remain fresh-tasting up to six months. 

TIP: Freeze your Toddy-made concentrate in ice-cube trays. Then, when you're ready, pop one into your favorite cup, add steaming hot water, and, well, as The Washington Post claims, you just may have "the perfect cup of coffee."

The Toddy brewer is also ideal for making tea - served hot or over ice.

What's in the box: Brewing Container with Handle, Glass Decanter with Lid, Reusable Filters (2), Rubber Stopper (1), Instructions & Recipe Guide.