The breakup of a liquid jet into spherical droplets via the Rayleigh–Plateau instability is a common
and fundamental part of fluid mechanics. However, teaching this instability in a laboratory setting
is challenging, requiring sophisticated methods to generate and study the jet dynamics. Recently,
toroidal droplets were shown to break into one or more spherical droplets in the thin-drop limit via
the Rayleigh–Plateau instability. We propose a simple experimental setup to generate toroidal
droplets that break up on the order of tens of seconds, allowing for easy video capture using a
basic CCD camera. With this setup, it is possible to quantify the Rayleigh–Plateau instability in a
pedagogical laboratory setting. In addition, the role of curvature on jet breakup can be explored
using thick toroidal droplets. We envision this setup as a powerful teaching tool for one of the
most fundamental fluid dynamics processes.