How the Five Compare on the Numbers
Cold brew is an overnight job, so the only thing that can be faster is the handling at either end. These five split three ways on that. One is a rigid stainless cone that sits in a jar and lifts out, three are disposable pouches you fill and throw away, and one is a set of washable mesh bags. Nothing here shortens the steep.
The sizes follow the vessel rather than the coffee. URCYLA states 4 by 6 inches for a 32 ounce mason jar. Fermus fits a 64 ounce wide mouth jar. Toddy supplies 11.5 by 13 inch paper bags for its own brewer. XNXQLFPY states 20 by 20 inches for a 5 gallon bucket. bellamei supplies three bags at three sizes and names no vessel at all.
What the table cannot tell you is how much coffee any of the four bags actually holds, because only one of them says. XNXQLFPY states up to 5 pounds of ground coffee in a 20 by 20 inch bag, and nothing else on this page gives a figure for grounds at all. Sizes are published as flat cloth dimensions, which is a different thing from a volume, and a flat 4 by 6 inch pouch is not four inches of anything once it is filled.
How Many Steps Between Grounds and Coffee
The Filter That Needs No Bag
Fermus is the only pick here with no consumable in it. Its listing describes a 304 stainless cone with silicone rings around the filter and the lid, and the routine is short: fill it with grounds, fill the jar with water, let it steep. Nothing is tied, nothing is folded, and there is no residue to squeeze out of cloth at the end.
Emptying it is described too, and specifically: turn the diffuser upside down and run water over the outside of the bottom and the sides. The listing also claims the mesh leaves no particles behind when the filter is pulled out of basic ground coffee. On daily use that is one object, rinsed at the sink, and no reorder.
Fill, Pull, Throw Away
The three disposable listings remove the washing instead of the bag. URCYLA supplies 120 drawstring pouches at 4 by 6 inches and states they are tear resistant during long steeping and compostable. XNXQLFPY supplies 50 at 20 by 20 inches and states you throw the bag away with the residue, then adds that it can be washed and reused if you want to.
Toddy is the odd one because it is not the filter itself. Its 50 paper bags are stated to sit inside the Toddy system’s felt filter, and the claims are about the system rather than the bag: quicker and more convenient use, more concentrate out of every batch, a longer life for the felt filter, and easier clean-up. It is a consumable for a brewer somebody already owns.
Sizes, and What Each One Is Sized To
Four Inches to Twenty
The published sizes here span a factor of five and they are all flat cloth measurements. URCYLA’s 4 by 6 inch pouch is stated to fit a 32 ounce mason jar. Toddy’s 11.5 by 13 inch paper bag fits a Toddy brewer. XNXQLFPY’s 20 by 20 inch bag is stated to suit 5 gallon buckets and coffee sock systems, which is a commercial batch rather than a kitchen one.
bellamei is the only listing that gives you a choice inside one purchase: three bags at 8 by 12, 10 by 12 and 13 by 13 inches, with a U shaped bottom the maker states gives more surface area to squeeze and stops pulp sticking in corners. It names no vessel, so the three sizes are the whole of the fitting information.
Where One Cone Measures Itself Three Ways
Fermus publishes 3.2 by 3.2 by 9 inches in its dimension fields and then measures itself again in a bullet: a bottom diameter of 2 inches, a top of three and a quarter, and eight and a half tall on the flange. A cone has two diameters, so the bullet is the more informative of the two, and the fields describe the wider end and round the height up.
That matters because the fitting claim is about a jar rather than a shelf. The listing states the filter fits a 64 ounce wide mouth mason jar, and the figure that decides that is the flange, not the cone. No other pick on this page publishes a part that rests on a rim, because the other four are cloth or paper and take the shape of whatever holds them.
What Happens Afterwards
Washing, or Not Washing
Three of the five publish a cleaning instruction and each one means something different. Fermus describes rinsing the diffuser upside down under a tap. bellamei states the bag is washable and reusable and should be rinsed and left to air dry, with rounded corners to help liquid pass through. XNXQLFPY states the honest middle position: throw it away with the residue, or wash it if you want to.
URCYLA and Toddy publish no cleaning instruction at all, and in both cases that is the correct answer rather than an omission. A compostable drawstring pouch and a paper filter bag are meant to go in the bin or the compost. What neither states is how many uses one is good for, which on a 120 count pack is the figure that decides the reorder interval.
How Many Batches Before You Reorder
Counting is where the disposable listings earn their place. URCYLA supplies 120 pouches, which at one batch a day is about four months of coffee. Toddy and XNXQLFPY supply 50 each. bellamei supplies three reusable bags and Fermus supplies one filter that is not consumed at all, so neither has a reorder interval to calculate.
The trade is storage rather than money. A box of 120 pouches at 4 by 6 inches is small, and 50 bags at 20 by 20 inches is not. Fermus takes the space of one cone in a cupboard and bellamei three folded bags, and both then need a place to dry, which the disposables never do.
Which One Fits Your Kitchen
You brew in a mason jar every day. Fermus supplies one 304 stainless cone with silicone rings on the filter and the lid, stated to fit a 64 ounce wide mouth jar, with a bottom of 2 inches, a top of three and a quarter and eight and a half inches on the flange. Rinse it upside down and there is nothing to reorder.
You want no washing at all. URCYLA supplies 120 drawstring pouches at 4 by 6 inches in food grade non-woven fabric, stated tear resistant during long steeping and compostable, sized for a 32 ounce mason jar. It publishes no grounds capacity and no washing instruction, which is the point.
You already own a Toddy brewer. Toddy supplies 50 paper filter bags at 11.5 by 13 inches, stated to increase the concentrate yield from every batch and to extend the life of the felt filters they sit inside. They are a consumable for one system rather than a filter you can put in a jar.
You brew five gallons at a time. XNXQLFPY supplies 50 bags at 20 by 20 inches in thicker non-woven fabric with multiple reinforcement at the seams, stated to hold up to 5 pounds of ground coffee in a 5 gallon bucket. It is the only listing here that publishes a grounds figure.
You want one bag per job. bellamei supplies three reusable nylon mesh bags at 8 by 12, 10 by 12 and 13 by 13 inches with drawstrings, a U shaped bottom and reinforced stitched edges, at 0.09 pounds for the set. Rinse and air dry, and it names no vessel it fits.
What We Could Not Verify
These are the figures the five listings do not publish, and nothing above has been estimated for them.
- Only XNXQLFPY publishes a grounds capacity, so what the other four hold is unstated.
- None of the three disposable listings states how many times one bag can be used before it fails.
- bellamei names no vessel or jar size its three bags are meant for.
- Only bellamei publishes a weight, and it covers three bags rather than one.
- Fermus publishes 3.2 by 3.2 by 9 inches in its fields against three different figures in its own bullet.
- No listing publishes a mesh size except by adjective, so how fine any of these filter is unknown.
