This is the best drink I had at World of Coffee Brussels

As is tradition, I write an article about the best drink I had at every trade show I visit. This year it was the Morning Mirage I had at the Toddy booth.

I drank exceptional espresso and tasted beautifully prepared filter coffee from some of Europe’s best roasters. Coffees that had travelled halfway around the world.

None of them impressed me as much as Toddy’s cold brew.

I assumed that had something to do with the weather. World of Coffee Brussels took place during one of the most severe heatwaves Europe has ever experienced. Brussels reached 35.5°C during the exhibition, and western Europe would later record its hottest June since records began. By mid afternoon, another espresso wasn’t exactly what I was craving.

But the Morning Mirage wasn’t memorable because it was cold. It was memorable because it represented sixty years of thinking differently about coffee.

And that story doesn’t begin in Brussels. It doesn’t even begin with Toddy.

Cold brew existed long before cafés discovered it

Cold brew feels like a modern invention because most of us only started seeing it on café menus during the last decade. The brewing method itself is much older.

Most coffee historians trace its roots back to the seventeenth century, when Dutch traders brewed coffee using cold water before long sea voyages. Brewing a concentrate made practical sense. It travelled well, lasted longer than freshly brewed coffee and could be diluted whenever needed.

As trade routes expanded, that way of brewing coffee eventually reached Japan, where it evolved into the slow cold drip brewers that became associated with Kyoto.

Then, oddly enough, cold brew development stalled.

Coffee culture became centred around heat. The kettle. The espresso machine. The filter brewer. Everything about coffee focused on extracting flavour as quickly as possible.

Cold brewing survived, but it was something only enthusiasts knew about.

Todd Simpson wasn’t trying to start a coffee company

Todd Simpson was a chemical engineer. Engineers have a habit of looking at everyday things and wondering whether there’s a better way to solve the problem.

In 1964, while travelling through Peru, Simpson ordered a cup of coffee prepared from a cold brewed concentrate. He loved it. So much so that he was still thinking about it when he arrived home.

It made him wonder if heat was necessary at all to make a good cup of coffee.

Using his engineering background, he started experimenting with time. Coffee grounds were immersed in cold water for hours before being filtered into a concentrate. The process looked almost too simple to work, but the results were surprising.

The coffee was softer. Sweeter. Less acidic. It had a completely different personality.

His wife, who struggled with the acidity of conventional coffee, found she could comfortably drink the coffee Simpson was making through cold extraction.

That’s when the project stopped being an interesting experiment and turned into something worth building.

A simple brewer that changed coffee

Later that same year, Simpson founded Toddy.

The first Toddy brewer was hardly glamorous. It wasn’t Instagram-worthy. It was a practical piece of equipment built around one idea.

Replace heat with time.

The brewer allowed coffee to steep slowly before filtering it into a concentrate that could be stored and diluted later. The concentrate could be mixed with cold water and served over ice. But it could just as easily be diluted with hot water.

Today, cold brew is almost automatically associated with iced drinks. Back then, Simpson was simply trying to brew coffee differently.

That’s probably why Toddy succeeded. The company wasn’t chasing a trend. Because the trend didn’t exist yet. It built a repeatable brewing system around a method that most people had overlooked.

How Toddy became a trusted name

As specialty coffee grew, more cafés started experimenting with cold brew. Roasters looked for ways to serve coffee during warmer months without compromising quality.

Ready to drink coffee became a serious business. Suddenly, a brewing method that had spent centuries in the background was becoming commercially important.

And Toddy was already there. The company had spent decades refining its brewers while everyone else was focused on espresso. A head start unlike any other.

Today, Toddy systems are used by home brewers, cafés, roasters and beverage companies around the world.

The Morning Mirage

The Morning Mirage didn’t look complicated. It looked refreshing. Exactly what I was after.

It arrived over ice. A stream of tiny bubbles caught the light inside the deep amber of the cold brew. Fresh orange oils reached my nose before the glass reached my lips. Then came softer notes underneath. Caramel. A little chocolate. Just enough to remind me it was still a coffee drink. The orange juice brought brightness without becoming sharp.

It tasted fresh rather than acidic.

Most signature coffee drinks push the coffee to the front. If they don’t, they bury it under syrups, cream or sweetness until it becomes almost impossible to tell you’re drinking coffee at all.

The Morning Mirage does neither. The coffee stays present from beginning to end, but it leaves room for everything else.

It was just an impressive drink.

It takes only four ingredients

The recipe couldn’t be much simpler. Fresh orange juice. Toddy cold brew concentrate. Agave nectar. Seltzer. An orange slice to finish it.

But simple recipes expose every decision. There’s nowhere to hide. Every ingredient has to contribute something, because if one of them is unnecessary you’ll notice immediately. And there’s nothing unnecessary in the Morning Mirage.

The orange juice provides brightness and natural sweetness.

The cold brew concentrate gives the drink backbone. And because it has been brewed without heat, it brings chocolate, caramel and gentle roasted notes without the sharper acidity you’d often expect from hot brewed coffee.

The agave sits quietly in the background, smoothing the transition between citrus and coffee.

The seltzer lifts the citrus aromas, lightens the body and keeps the finish remarkably clean.

Even the garnish has a purpose. As the glass reaches your mouth, the oils from the orange peel already introduce you to the experience before you’ve taken a sip.

That’s thoughtful recipe development.

Sixty years in one glass

Todd Simpson probably couldn’t have imagined cold brew becoming what it is today. When he founded Toddy in 1964, he wasn’t creating a summer menu or chasing café trends. He was an engineer solving a brewing problem that interested him.

Sixty years later, his company was serving one of the most memorable drinks at the world’s largest specialty coffee exhibition.

Every year the specialty coffee world brings new processing methods, new brewing devices and new ideas that promise to change everything. Most don’t.

Toddy has never been that kind of company. It stayed focused on one brewing method while the rest of the industry chased trends.

The Morning Mirage didn’t feel like a drink designed for social media. It wasn’t overloaded with ingredients. And it wasn’t trying to surprise anyone. It simply demonstrated what cold brew already does well.

Sometimes that’s enough.

Frequently asked questions

Who invented modern cold brew?

Modern cold brew was popularised by Todd Simpson, a chemical engineer who founded Toddy in 1964. Cold brewing itself dates back centuries, but Simpson developed one of the first practical brewing systems that made cold brew consistent and accessible for home brewers, cafés and commercial coffee businesses.

Did Toddy invent cold brew?

No. Cold brew existed long before Toddy. Historians generally trace its origins to Dutch traders in the seventeenth century, before the method later evolved in Japan. Toddy’s contribution was developing a repeatable brewing system that helped turn cold brew from a niche technique into a mainstream brewing method.

What is the difference between cold brew and iced coffee?

Cold brew is made by steeping coffee grounds in cold water for many hours before filtering the concentrate. Iced coffee is brewed with hot water and then cooled over ice. Because cold brew is extracted without heat, it generally has a smoother body, lower perceived acidity and a naturally sweeter flavour profile.

Why does cold brew taste smoother than hot coffee?

Cold water extracts coffee differently from hot water. The slower extraction reduces the perception of acidity while highlighting chocolate, caramel and sweeter flavour notes. The result is a coffee that many people find softer and rounder than conventionally brewed coffee.

What is the Morning Mirage?

The Morning Mirage is a cold brew recipe created by Toddy. It combines Toddy cold brew concentrate, fresh orange juice, agave nectar and seltzer before being finished with an orange slice or peel. The drink balances bright citrus flavours with the smooth, chocolatey character of cold brew coffee.

Who is Todd Simpson?

Todd Simpson was a chemical engineer who founded Toddy in 1964 after tasting coffee prepared from a cold brewed concentrate while travelling through Latin America. His work helped establish one of the first practical cold brew systems and played a major role in bringing modern cold brew into cafés and homes around the world.

Why is Toddy important in specialty coffee?

Toddy helped standardise cold brew long before it became popular. Its brewing systems are now used by home brewers, cafés, roasters and beverage companies worldwide. The company has also contributed to the development of dedicated cold brew cupping protocols, helping establish cold brew as a brewing method that deserves to be evaluated on its own terms rather than by standards developed for hot coffee.