This Cold Brew Kit Is Perfect for Lazy Coffee Drinkers Like Me

Here’s how I know I wouldn’t have survived long during the time of hunters and gatherers: the idea of hunting and gathering is appalling to me. In theory, I understand the importance of a person growing or gathering or killing their own food. When you have to work for it, and I mean truly work for it, you have a greater appreciation for every single bite that goes into your belly. But damn it, hunting and gathering just takes so long. And who has the time, what with all of this Netflix to watch? I feel like the drive-thru is more conducive to my life style. Does that make me an asshole? Yeah, a little bit. But that’s my truth and when you find your truth…Furthermore, I can’t help the fact that I was raised in America during the height of microwave dinners, instant coffee and drive-thru liquor stores. I am very much a product of my environment, and therefore, a creature of convenience.

Speaking of instant coffee, aren’t those K-cup coffee pods wonderful? Sure, they’re rotting the world from the inside out, but you can make a cup of coffee in like, 20 seconds. Can you put a price on that convenience? I mean, this is coffee. The very nature of the product—conveyor of fast energy—demands a sort of immediacy, right?

Chameleon Coffee understands this. They do all the things you want a responsible coffee company to do (sourcing organic, non-GMO beans from family farms, roasting it carefully and brewing it in a process that blends art with science), but then they give it to us, the lazy “give it to me now” public in cold brew concentrates that you pour into a glass, add a bit of water and shazam, you’ve got a cup of great cold brew ready to go. Instant gratification.

Now Chameleon has this new cold brew kit and pod system where you do the brewing yourself. I know, it sounds they’re taking coffee in the opposite direction of where I need it to go, but the kit passes my lazy litmus test with an A+. Namely, it takes almost no effort on my part to brew a solid cup of coffee.

The kit includes a mason jar and half a dozen cold brew coffee pods. Put a pod in the jar, add a cup of water and put the thing in your fridge. 10-24 hours later, you’ve got a cup of tasty cold brew. I know what you’re thinking: waiting a solid day is hardly instant gratification. True. But I make one of these kits at night before I go to bed, then the following day when I’m hitting my afternoon slump, I open my fridge and there’s this cup of perfectly brewed cold brew. Just waiting for me. Like a present.

And there are no plastic cups with these pods, so you don’t have to worry about killing the dolphins or whatever it is that we’re worried about this week.

Does the coffee taste good? Yeah, it’s good. As good as any cold brew concentrate that I’ve had. It’s roasty and rich, and did I mention it’s waiting for you in your fridge when you want it? You can even double up on the pods and create your own cold brew concentrate so you get more than one cup of coffee out of all that effort (literally, all you have to do is pour a cup of water into a jar).

And that’s the extent of where I’d like to take this whole hunting and gathering thing. Hunting for cold brew in my fridge and gathering it into my mouth.