Hey James! Thanks for the review! Community Manager at xBloom here. We are finalizing a prototype for a plumbed in water reservoir that fills itself when it gets low 😊 The recipes definitely tend to look like a melodrip recipe, due to the lessened agitation of the kettle stream and the form factor of the small brewer. We have some really exciting new light-roast roasters joining our lineup soon, and we’ve been able to get some pretty solid extractions by grinding a little finer and using more pulses.
I really hope you consider replacing the RFID with QR codes and a QR scanner, or even just put the RFID on the lid instead of the base, since the lid can then be disposed of and the body composted wholesale.
@@KainYusanagi We are in the process of adding a format change to the RFID to drastically reduce the amount of RFID's in the process. It will release very soon. Stay tuned!
Why doesn't the company just add a basic trained AI and a lens to look inside the cup with coffee beans to capture an image of beans, analyze them to then choose a receipt for brewing based on what is in the cup? It's possible to measure size, roast color, and weight right there. Maybe let also choose between robusta and arabika with a button. Enough information for the basic decisions. It's not worth it to make people buy coffee with RFID chips for every single brew. I understand that basically selling RFIDs is a good business but it's a serious complication of the whole thing.
First video glance at this brewer...Beautiful design! From what I could see in this review, great ingineering. Sharing the concerns about RFID tags and their carbon footprint. But mostly, if I was to replace my weekday V60 routine for a "hassle free" brewer, I would hope it gave me clear visual control on grind/temp/time. But I'm geeky... Also, not sure an "plumbed-in" version is going to help your potential customers if the target market is really "hassle-free" coffee drinkers. Nevertheless, Great work...Just my 2 cents.
If you have to remove the lid of the coffee pod to use it, then the RFID chip should be placed on the lid instead of the pod. This way, you can throw the lid and RFID chip away together and compost the pod.
Agreed. It may be a production line reason, but if the argument is the lid needs to cover the top and user experience is better [if] the RFID is on the bottom, the lid/label can have a narrow ribbon that extends to the bottom RFID chip part of a single label/lid/chip design.
They probably could replace the RFID chip (and reader) with a printed QR code and laser barcode scanner (though James didn't really like that idea either), maybe even a regular 1D barcode if they're clever with how they encode a recipe on it. Lower waste profile.
Is the recipe really in the RFID chip, or is it (as is typical) a UUID that the machine looks up over WiFi? The machine is pretty clearly connected to ... Something.
@@kantarjiev I don't know what the machine actually does, but it's certainly possible to make a recipe into a short barcode. Depending on the complexity of a recipe. It would seem a process with not that many variables. Let's say it's something like "heat water to a Temperature of 97C, dispense 23 grams of Coffee, Bloom 15 seconds, dispense 100ml Water". Then that can be encoded as "T97C23B15W100" which can be fit into a barcode very easily. A few extra characters can be included for other steps & it's still shorter than the barcode for the ISBN of a book.
The continuous inkjet printers that print things like best before dates on packaging use electrostatic deflection of a stream of liquid like this... I feel like the person who designed this was aware of it from some application like that.
I am extremely impressed that a group (1) devoted the time, effort, and experience to examine the qualities of each element of a proper pourover, (2) found ways to automate and chain them together, and then (3) integrated it all into an app that is both powerful and user friendly. This is an example of what innovation should be.
@@dozog If we agree that innovation means, “to make changes to something established by markedly changing methods/processes, or by introducing new products that can automate part or all of those methods/processes,” then this looks to be innovation.
@@dozogyou don't understand the sheer significance of this discovery and the app. They can start subscription service with famous coffee persons like Hoffman itself, and you can drink the exact coffee which Hoffman would brew. I think if they add a refractometer to it for 50 bucks, we can put a drop of the cup of brewed coffee, and it can re calibrate the machine to match to what Hoffman would produce.
I think the reusable pod problem is easily solvable by allowing people to share their recipes with each other from within the app. In that case, any roaster could sell you a bag of coffee and tell you that they have published a recipe you can just use from within the app.
@@curtislevey7639 I think you are trying to find a problem-solution-problem loop in this. Its only giving you flexibility to do certain things or choose certain recipes as default if you use the app. But you don't need to, you can still brew the coffee using the roaster's recipe.
@@curtislevey7639 That may be something James harps on, but not everyone hates that. Especially if it's simple and fast to just pick a recipe and go. If I could stop having to grind/wet/dump/bloom/pour manually and get a consistent cup every time, I'll take an app!
@@curtislevey7639 There might be an easy fix for that: xBloom could sell the RFID tags on their own, so you could buy them and programm them to have a specific recipee. RFID chips are very cheap, so no big markup, even if you are switching beans frequently.
This process/phenomenon, is called Ion wind/corona wind/corona discharge (it has many names). You can experience the same thing at home; when you inflate a balloon and then run tap water, when you place the balloon near the stream of water coming from the tap, the water will indeed deflect.
and in the interim...just glue that silly chip on the lid that you already have to pull off anyway...but i'm sure the marketing dept threw their hands up in the air when it was first discussed where it was going lol...that or they will now like "No way are we shrinking the brand names and our logo!"
Jeh, that chip or qr code should definitely go on the lid as nobody wants a cup where brewing water flows trough nasty plastics and/or ink? Or am I’m getting it all wrong?
Regarding the reusable filter, I think it would be super cool if the company created a community database where you could download recipes for various roasts, e.g Square Mile filter blend
As a workaround, couldn't you save the rfid from a roaster you liked, buy their coffee again at wholesale prices and use the reusable pod with the old chip?
I just love how every time James reviews a product, he doesn't just try to leave a positive review or impression, but always evaluates it with a lot of criticism and professionalism. There are always minor flaws or huge mistakes, and I love that this guy isn't shy about pointing them out. Cool content. It was surprising how much of the material is written in one line, how clearly and simply he expresses his point. Keep it up,
Exactly.. If it was my product, from a producer point of view, this is what we should be looking for.. The review was thorough, very clear, eloquent, and it represents not only as the professional, but also as an end user of the product..
Wow! Despite my initial thought of "oh no, not only a pod but also one with electronics on the pods" this concept really grew on me as you talked more about its downsides. In comparison to any other pod machine, the 0.001g of metal in the coils is negligible in my opinion. Furthermore, you probably use less paper compared to any other filter brewer and definitely produce less waste than a standard Nespresso machine. Additionally, you get much more coffee from your pod and have the opportunity to use your own coffee. Apart from the noise you mentioned, this is one of the most innovative coffee machines I've seen, and I'm down for it.
One very important thing which i personally find important to consider is the level of consistency and control you can in theory achieve with the xBloom when brewing your own coffee. Sure pouring by hand if done in a good way will obviously leave you with more than satisfying results, but being able to so delicately tune your brew is certainly something appealing.
@@unknownuser069 that’s one thing I like about it. Didn’t have the money to kickstart it at the time, but how Hoffman mentions how you still have to dial in etc. if you do it yourself.. at least you’re just doing it to dial it in and then after that you’re set to just tap it and go about your morning while it’s pouring instead of taking the time to heat water and pour over yourself
James! I had the exact same issue of coarseness when I started, except the grinder calibration did not solve the issue after two tries - I have just been grinding around 12-13 in the settings and that has produced the best cups so far! This machine has actually been a blessing in the house with me being a v60 guy and her being a "I need good tasting coffee but I don't know how and don't want to know" kind of person. I have ultimately used the re-usable dripper more than anything else, and her the pods.
V2 of this thing has the potential to be amazing. Ditch the RFID sticker in place of a barcode or qr code somewhere, bigger water tank and a bit more refining all around. Also as others commented, I could definitely see myself using the re-usable cup, just figure it out once for a bag of coffee and no hassle anymore every morning. A big bonus would be if they had several re-usable cups with a unique barcode/qr code printed on it. that way you can have 1 setting for you, 1 setting for your partner. or for a different kind of coffee.
You can figure out what setting to use for a certain bag of coffee, but you'd still need to weigh your beans for every cup you want to pour. So there unfortunately always will be some kind of hassle
Another option for the RFID chip would just be to have only one one chip per box of pods as a small token (like a casino chip), that way you can just leave it on top until you swap your type of pods.
I would prefer to get rid of it in favor of e.g. a qr code. One problem with those rfid tags is, that by definition in some places they already count as electronics waste, not something you are allowed to put in your regular bin.
The one thing with RFID chips is that they could potentially be made separate from the pods. basically, buy 32 pods in a pack, and it comes with a separate token which you can use to scan in your pods and then not have to deal with removing the chip every time
Personally, I would've considered putting the chip on or in the tear-off pod top. You're already removing a part of the pod to begin the process; just scan the label instead of setting the whole pod on top. You could even easily print a QR Code or other machine-readable code on the label to be used instead of a non-recyclable RFID Chip.
exactly what I was thinking. only issue with it I see is potentially losing/damaging the 1 per box token and then having issue easily brewing the rest of the pods in that pack. also lesser issue of making sure you use the right token in the case of people who like to have many different pods at once to choose from. both minor issues that can be preventable with organization and I think it is just such a cool system that it would be worth it
that's such a cool idea that I am actually impressed sounds like an acceptable middle ground to me the idea could be taken a little further and just have a qr code card in box so you can save ink from printing it on each separate pod and save electronics and in case it is lost, you just print a new qr code on your local printer
It would be interesting to see if these custom profiles could be shared, so that the community can fine tune the recipes while maintaining convenience.
This is absolutely one good way to do this. Like, you link your phone's app with the machine, it scans in a pod and your phone pulls up the main brew with a little swipable ribbon of "community recipes" that have little descriptions from the person who submitted it. Then, once the brew finishes, it provides a dismissable pop-up in the app to ask if you would like to switch to this recipe as your default, or just like the recipe to promote it within the community recipe listings. When someone decides to adjust a custom recipe for an existing pod, after it brews you'd get another pop-up asking if you would like to submit this recipe to the community recipe listings. Obviously there should be an option in the settings to disable any or all of these extra pop-ups so people who really don't care can just keep on keeping on. Just give the option to long-click on a community recipe and change it to the default recipe for these people.
Yeah. Once you have that you could scan the coffee's barcode (the one they scan at the store) and look up online the highest voted recipe for that coffee and send it to the machine. That would mean getting out your phone in the morning but shouldn't be too big a deal. Or just have a button that calls up your last custom recipe or whatever.
shareable community recipes would be a major help with the lock-in hoffmann mentioned in regards to the diy plastic pod thingy. are the shops closed leaving you with a bag of offbrand supermarket beans and you can't be arsed to figure it out? maybe someone has posted a config online.
It's an interesting machine, I could actually see myself using it, just not with the pods but with the plastic cup. Having found a "regular" coffee I can order and order and order I could see myself spend the 5-10 runs to dial it in and then have the machine do its thing. 4-5 minutes is not too bad when you're between meetings and have to decide if you want a new cup more than a bio break. 800 bucks though is a little oof.
I agree. The concept of creating a profile of your “perfect cup” and having consistency in how it is poured every single time is it cool concept. I love the process of making a cup of coffee now but it becomes a weekend routine rather than a weekday to based on time available. This could let you get that perfect cup of coffee every time.
I don’t understand why a pod is necessary to get the recipe. Couldn’t you just put the rfid on a whole bag of beans, or on a card, that you just swipe in, and then it says “ok put in X grams of beans and press go”
James, if you want to keep following down this theme, check out the Bonaverde Berlin and its history. It’s basically THIS but included a roaster as well. It was THE all-in-one coffee machine. It went badly wrong for them and there’s now a whole community that have managed to hack them and still use them everyday. I’m actually surprised to have not seen a video from you on it, it seems like it would be an interesting one for you to do!
The big fundamental problem of it is freshly roasted coffee never taste good, I learnt that from roasting lots of different coffee beans for years. You need to let the roasted beans sit for a day or up to 3 days to let the unpleasant aroma out-gassed from the beans. If you roast and brew immediately, it tasted like grass. rofl With that kind of price, you're better off with a dedicated roaster, I have a small drum that goes on camping stove, it works brilliantly, it was made by "K Coffee Roaster" in Thailand.
@@worawatli8952 sure, but if you can get a cheap, working Bonaverde Berlin now, it’s possible to programme it to only roast, to only brew etc. etc. and you just take the roasted beans out and let them be for a few days. So if you’re someone who wants this and doesn’t mind it all being in one package…
@@worawatli8952 Could it be possible to roast the coffee, cool it down to like above room temp, spray a drop of water (to counter static), grind it. How long would the ground coffee need to degas for it to taste good? Would the aroma detoriate faster than it can degas so it would be still more viable to just wait three days or could this speed up the degassing without detoriating the aroma?
@@boatoflol I'd say 12 hours is minimum, currently no method we know can speed this up significantly for same day brew, it's not possible. I found that darker roast aged faster than light roast. With light roast, you should be waiting at least 2 days, while on medium, 24 hours is enough and dark roast would be okay at 12 hours. And on water spraying, some commercial roaster do that right after roasting, to reduce heat and avoid fire hazard, it also is important if you don't want it to developed too much. I do it with fan, put it on tray and cool it down, apart from stopping the heat, it help a little with degassing.
For someone who wants pretty good freshly ground coffee but doesn’t want to (or doesn’t like the ritual of making coffee) I think this is great. Personally, I’ve gotten super overwhelmed by everything I was “supposed to do” to pour correctly- having a machine to grind and do it for me sounds pretty nice. I think building some recipes and tuning the recipe a little is waaaaay easier (since you only do it once per coffee bag/type) rather than doing so much manually. I think this review needed more tuning and should be directed at the ‘person who wants good coffee but is too “lazy” or can’t be bothered’
I think this review already communicates well that if you want convenience over quality then this coffee is good. But if you're overwhelmed by the steps needed for pour over then having to fiddle with the settings to create your own profile would not be as easy as you think. You would need to trial-by-error it and have some idea of what to change for the desired effect you want. I can see how changing some settings on a machine that in theory will then consistently reproduce it is easier/ more accessible than having to get the steps right yourself and then not only know what to do but also reproduce it.
Thank you James for reviewing the machine! I'm really proud of the team at xBloom and the work we've done here. Joining this company has helped me develop my understanding of the coffee industry and is allowing me to tackle my personal goals of increasing the perception of value of coffee. I'm really happy that we're delivering units and getting all of these fantastic coffees out there. For those of you who see this comment, the RFID format will be changing soon (I already see comments about a card), and we have much more coming! Thanks everyone for watching this review and thank you again James for checking out xBloom.
Thanks for all the great work. I am receiving mine this week, and I cannot wait to try the coffee. I think you and your team have done a successful job at launching this new product into the coffee community.
I think this device runs a good balance between ease of use and specialty features. If there are multiple individuals living in a home, it allows the nerdy fellow to really dive deep into their brews. Another person could easily grab a pod, scan it, and let the machine do it’s thing. Very enticing in the right setting!
Same is true for an office environment, e.g. in an agency. We run a portafilter with a grinder and not everyone is happy going through the process of understanding how a good Americano or Espresso is being made.
I’ve had my machine for about a week now I’ve really enjoyed it. I haven’t gotten through all the coffee that I got yet, but was interested in it for the sake of me being able to geek out on coffee with it and my wife just plug and play with it. I like the duality of the machine that way That being said it does not blow me away and if I paid the full 800 I would’ve probably been disappointed and the water tank by far is the most disappointing feature of it. It is so small and harder to fill than I wish. Thanks for the review though!
I do think it's worth considering that for a lot of people it would definitely be easier to not have to do the actual actions of brewing pourover coffee even if they still have to do the planning/thinking around building a recipe. Having a machine that will perfectly execute a program means that even someone without the skill to test a recipe (especially not effortlessly like you can) can just try stuff and see how it tastes. Getting the consistency needed for good testing is also an important thing this would provide.
I bought the machine. I love making pour overs but this machine allows me to play around and dial in a recipe then it can make my pour-over while I make breakfast in the morning (when I don't have time to do it myself) and I get a great cup of coffee.
Thanks James for the review. To me, really the benefit of this is not only convenience (or lack thereof) in recipe, but a time saver for someone who normally would meticulously grind, weigh, calculate, bloom, finally pour and let cool, which can easily take 5 mins at the least. In this case, once it is dialed in, you can simply start it and walk away to go finish getting ready for work, or prep the kids, or walk the dog. When you come back, a proper (better than drip or nespresso or kurig) cup of coffee awaits you. Brilliant! ☕
I agree. I could see using the reusable pod to create a "recipe" for a particular coffee that I could use every time I used that coffee. I could create multiple recipes for the multiple coffees that I drink.
If I was in the market for this sort of thing I'd 100% be on board. The sheer convenience of being able to tap a pod, tear the top off, put it in place and then walk away while fresh coffee is brewed would definitely be the sort of convenience I'd look for at 5:30 AM just after I get up for work. That level of not having to apply any sort of mental effort at that time of day would easily be worth the asking price.
It was wise of the manufacturer to include the ability to use your own coffee, otherwise this product would have been giving off heavy “Juciero” vibes.
Can one adjust the settings without using an app? If the company goes under and the apps are eventually removed from distribution, how are the owners of these devices going to change these settings? Keep a bunch of the different rfid tags around for brews that are close to what one wants?
I'm actually pretty amazed. They thought of a lot of things and it really seems like a device made by coffee lovers. I can also definetly see the advantage of the reusable cup for people that allways get the same coffee beans. That way you only need to dial in the recipe once and after that the whole prozess is just accelerated and easier.
Enjoyed your informative review. Just received a unit of my own. I am huge coffee geek - roast my own beans, own a Decent espresso machine, regularly brew pour overs, love the process of dialing in, etc. I bought the machine mainly because there are times I just don't have time to make a good cup of coffee and loved the idea of pods curated from some of the best roasters and brewed to their standards. I have enjoyed a couple cups and was pretty impressed. Certainly I could make a more perfect cup of coffee. But, it was still very good and done in 4 mins! I also agree with you that they will need to find the right price point to make this machine accessible to more people. I hope they do because it would be good to see more people drinking well prepared coffee. I did test the TDS coming out of the box with a VST refractometer - came out with a TDS% of 1.6 and extraction of 20%. So appears the grinder was calibrated pretty well at the factory and the machine is brewing a well extracted cup. Hopefully your experience was an anomaly. I did note the coffee is not as hot as what I get out of a typical pour over - about 5C below normal. That said, still above what I normally enjoy.
I actually really see a use case for this machine - someone who has the time during their weekend to mess around with settings, but during the week just wants their coffee exactly the way they had it then in only 5 minutes. No messing around with a kettle and having to stand there and pour manually - whilst it does it all one can go off an brush teeth/get dressed/ make breakfast etc. Really like the idea, and if i end up getting one i think i'll actually use the re-useable "pod" more than the pre-filled ones.
We got ours last week and we are in the “delighted” category. We primarily use our espresso machine, clever dripper, aeropress, or chemex. We love the ritual of coffee making, but some mornings or getting home from a long day, we just don’t want to deal with weighing, filling the kettle, waiting for the espresso machine to heat up, or babysitting a pour over. This fills that void and it’s great. And I actually think it’s a good thing it doesn’t make the absolute pinnacle cup of coffee. If it did, why even have all the other crap? Just toss it. Now, I can enjoy the ritual if I want to and get a great cup when I want to. Or I can just throw a pod in while I’m running out the door and get a really nice cup of coffee. It’s incredible. I’m surprised at the negativity of this review
I wouldn't say it's any more negative than any of his other reviews, but I do think the calibration issue when he first got the unit really swayed the tone of the video more than he intended.
@@Denf0 I think you’re right. As we all know they aren’t often glowing reviews. I think I was just surprised. I would have definitely avoided this product if I saw this video first. But since I had used it first and loved it … once I saw this video pop up I was like, “oh there it is! Oh he’s gonna love this thing!” and boy it didn’t feel that way haha
@@micahgaar4209 I don't think it was overly negative (a brand new product getting a "promising" review from JH isn't bad) and all the criticism seemed productive and fair to me, someone who hasn't tried the machine but would want great results from an $800 (or even a $400 on KS discount) machine. There's obviously things that could be improved to make it significantly better and I'd want a review to mention them. That you're happy to trade convenience for quality when that works is great and understandable but I'm not sure everyone would say, "thank goodness it doesn't make great coffee or I'd not have to have a bunch of other kit to do a better job when I have the time and energy. I'm so glad it makes decent coffee that isn't too delicious"? Perhaps you also slightly underestimated James' standards when it comes to coffee taste and brewing? Or maybe your machine was much better calibrated?
This machine would be an amazing alternative for a hotel room, an office, or airport lounge- they just need to develop a beefier line-in option for more intensive/frequent uses. Overall pretty interesting!
The higher end hotels wouldnbe interested in using these because tbey can afford it and have a clientele that would enjoy it. For the most part hotels/motels jist use industrial kitchen brewers and make large thermos ammounts at once. Its way more cost effective then anything else.
Got mine in the office and have been loving it. All of the coffee pods I have tasted needed some tweaking in the app to be excellent. But once tweaked, the brews really were some of the best I have had. I love using my own coffee with the reusable dripper and I am getting some tasty brews. It's just a much more viable and convenient method of having very good coffee in an office setting, where I cannot be taking the time to brew a pourover every few hours.
It's actually the first one of these kind of machines which seems to be well thought about. It might need a bit of tuning, but in my opinion all of the details that are included (the spiral of water, the paperclip thingy, the specific recipe, ...) are impressive. But 800 dollar is way to high, especially as there is no guarantee that you will find cups in a year.
@@fencheltee7237I don't do pour over coffee but the impression I've got from this channel is that if you do it yourself, you can get good results without spending even $400. with espresso, you do need to spend more money because you need a more complicated and thus expensive machine. so spending a lot of money on an espresso machine is pretty normal, but spending a lot of money on a pour over setup is not. so they're putting a huge price on the convenience factor, potentially a price much higher than the target market is willing to tolerate.
Hi James! I just started using my xBloom, which I backed on kickstarter. I agree with every single one of your points regarding proper extraction, temperature, and the water tank (arghh!). My machine isn’t overly noisy, so that’s not a gripe for me. I’ll continue to use it and update my experiences here. Cheers!
This product is not for me at my current place in life. But I’m really glad it exists because it is iterating toward something incredibly unique and cool. Hopefully a QR or barcode can be added in the future to eliminate the RFID waste.
As an alternative to the RFID chip, a circularized bar code around the base of the pod could also work. 8 bits can give you 256 possible gradations, so you could fit quite a few settings into the code.
@Norman Delingpole it doesn't look like he's writing back to the tag. More likely, the RFID is just giving an ID number, and the brewer uses preprogrammed settings. Using bar codes, you could either do it the same way, or have the option of printing new stickers with the settings
@@edwardbarton1680 Add a few bits and that might just be good enough. The brochure says 30 grind settings (5 bits), to be generous lets say you have 30 degree variation in water temperature (5 bits). To control timing for initial pour, bloom, second pour lets say 18 bits so 28 bits for a full recipe? A 12x12 datamatrix would also be able to fit that amount of information.
I have to be impressed by the incredible engineering and design that went into this. Every function seems smooth and reliable, I love how it looks, and the footprint is impressively small considering everything that must be inside
@@JokeswithMitochondriaI mean it seems not to be? It does grind and brew coffee, that's what they say it does. And the fact that you can use your own beans takes it far away from Juicero
One thing I love about about this, is it will eventually have a community. Likely shareable profiles for settings for a specific roast and company. Which would honor their promise of simple and less guess work. I'm interested to see how this develops
Hello James. Loved the video, as always. I wanted to thank you and your team for making my day today. I came to the UK from Romania and thought to visit the Square Mile roastery. Even though I didn't have an appointment or anything, your team there was amazing, giving me and my brother an impromptu tour and some coffee to go. I loved it, please if you see this let your team know that they're awesome!
This is the perfect machine for me! I enjoy doing the work of dialing in a cup of filter coffee. I have spreadsheets. I have multiple grinders. You know how it be. But some days I don't want to go through the process. I am running late and I want to set it and forget while I multitask and make breakfast. Also, my wife enjoys great coffee but does NOT enjoy dialing in a cup. I can dial it in and then let her just use my recipe. She likes pod machines and is sad we got rid of our Nespresso, and doesn't understand why I find pods philosophically abhorrent. This machine might let us have the best of both worlds.
I'm in the same boat. There are days when I enjoy the whole process, but there are days when I don't and end up forgetting I have coffee brewing in an Aeropress for 15 minutes. While I wouldn't use the pods regularly, I can 100% see having some for family/friends who drink coffee and can then tap and go.
Tassimo uses barcodes and the early version was simple and most coffee geeks figured it out. They changed the codes to a more secret format, but a little scanning and printing and you have the label to stick to a refillable pod. I have used Tassimo for years right beside my Barrista Express. The Tassimo brew cycle is a very well timed profile that makes a perfect cup every time. I do like this machine and would consider it if I grew tired of my current work flow. I learned a lot from you about work flow and trust your opinions about this machine
As always James, great review! Cool drip tech! $399 yes, $799 no chance. Of course, with all the pod-style makers, the profit margins are mostly in the pods. Nespresso often even subsidizes the cost of their newer pod machines to lock you in to their pods.
True. I've noticed that's the case with so many things, like printers and ink now vs 20 years ago. And it's in lots of other fields too! Like, even though I'm in a country with subsidized healthcare, people with diabetes have to buy blood sugar meters and their strips - and the meter is often free when you buy packs of 100 strips. 🙄 "Free"
You seem to contradict yourself. If they can sell the Kickstarter for 399 it seems to me there is a substantial profit margin in selling it retail for 799. A Nespresso machines can be had for (far) less than 399.
@@dozog Not sure what you mean. $799 is too expensive for this, so $399 maybe (it seems nicer than the keurig or nespresso machines, but maybe not - is that your point?). Comparing it to Nespresso, they sell machines for far less (I tried one for $89). They sell the machines cheap and then make it up with the pods. It is similar to printers, the printer is relatively inexpensive, but the ink cartridges are expensive bc that is where the mfrs margin is.
@@scottintexas The business model you describe depends on getting as many people as possible to become dependent on your consumables. As you say, Nespresso is selling the machine at a loss or almost at a loss. Same with cheap inkjet printers etc. I don't think that's what is going on with the $799 drip machine. Maybe they do hope for a profit on their pods from locked in consumers, but they don't forgo selling the machine with a healthy margin too. It's more Apple iPhone than Nestle Nespresso. 😎
I think the versatility with the reusable basket is great! For a family, this machine serves whoever is coffee enthusiast, but also serves whoever just wants to load up different coffee without further thought.
To be honest, the reusable pod that it ships with provides some exciting possibilities! I see this as a tinkerer's delight that allows you to play with the settings until you've dialled in exactly how you want your favourite beans prepared. From that point it's 100% hassle-free, 'cos it remembers how you like the reusable pod set.
Re the work for the re-usable pod. It would probably work for those of us that have a favourite regular coffee (maybe only venturing out on non-work days, when you can play). In that instance, once you've "dialled in" for your fave coffee, it then becomes incredibly convenient. No different to any other B2C machine, I suppose.
XBloom is great for mornings when you don’t have time to brew multiple pour overs for yourself and family. Also once you have a recipe dialled for the reusable dripper it is automated for the rest of the bag
I think this machine would fit well with the people who want better coffee than simple drip/pods brew, but don't want to go full down the rabbit hole of exact measurements of all parts of the process each brew. Once you find your recipe you can basically hit a repeat button. It saves some time once you have your recipe but still allows for that experimentation with recipes when desired. I'm kinda locked in my current Aeropress iced coffee recipe, but I have an Aeropress so can play around whenever. This is similar but gets an app too.
Great video! Questions I still have after watching: 1) What's the process to keep the machine clean? How often do cleanings need to be done? How long do they take? 2) What materials make up all of the components that the water touches, particularly in a heated state? Are they non-toxic, non-endocrine-disrupting, etc? 3) Looks like the pods are definitely not airtight. Are they shipped in an airtight container to preserve freshness?
I think the ability to play with and control the variables in the app makes the reusable filter beneficial! I know I don't want to do the work of pouring 30ml at 90°C in four different increments. I think the variety of options in terms of brew profile makes it pretty interesting
They just need to print a QR code on top of the coffee that gets scanned by the machine to avoid the RFID chip. Plus you could scan it with the phone app.
The QR code could be on the bottom of the pod too and just gets scanned similarly to the rfid when you put the pod on.. You just need a bit of glass up there.
Moving to entirely app based seems the easiest way to do this - would allow you to buy cups from them / beans from anyone and have the recipe published, bloop your phone and away you go.
From the point of the machine, an RFID reader is significantly simpler and cheaper than a QR scanner. But yeah, needing RFID chips in bags isn't great.
My solution would be user controls where you can set the dials for brew temp, ratio, and grind size. That way, they can just put the config settings on the packaging and you set them yourself. Then you have the flexibility to try other coffees and adjust the dials on your own. The rfid is a bit overkill, and setting 3 dials for each new type of coffee is pretty minimal user interaction without compromising the automated nature of the machine. Of course like others have said a barcode or qr code would work just as well as the rfid.
Really cool product! Personally, the process of making coffee is my mindfulness activity and I don't want that to be taken from me but that doesn't take away how genius this design is!
I am glad you brought up the composability of the pod, there is a difference between compostable and commercially compostable as well, I do not know which side this pod falls onto but companies don't tend to disclose that what they mean is commercially compostable which means it requires a special facility to break down(in big facilities with controlled conditions) and that it wont break down in the garden at a natural rate.
Sounds like they are at a great spot for version 1. Once the price point comes down and version 2 comes out, they should have it dialed in!! I may put my money down on this though.
I like the idea of this. I'd probably use my own beans with it to keep costs down. It might need some setting up but after that I'd just need to weigh the beans and start it going. I think it's far too expensive for me right now and even at $400 I couldn't justify it.
One design improvement idea would be placing the RFID chip on the lid instead of the pod. Makes it just a bit easier to separate the compostable from the non-compostable
Great review, I hope that xBloom will take some of your concerns into account before the UK/Euro launch. I'd love empty filter pods instead of the reusable pod. I'm exactly the 'lazy' coffee loving consumer this is aimed at 😂 Time to start saving £
Honestly love this concept. More of these kinds of machines for different kinds of brewing methods should be brought to market (but maybe at a more affordable price like the Morning capsule machine).
Even if this device isn't the right fit, out of all these high end products this is the first in a while that I actually believe they took a lot of community feedback and tried to address as many issues as possible. Maybe not perfect, but I see this as a far better solution as most machines. My only concern would be, as many of these smart devices have, is what happens if the company goes under (wishing you success, xBloom). It looks like there's mostly good contingencies if they stop making pods or their servers go down as it doesn't RELY on those but if the app itself breaks I would hope you could still manually have some controls on the device itself to alter the brew for home bought coffee
Like how you can't do much with your TV if you lose the remote... Actually, I'd be more worried that some element of the complex system would cease functioning and there'd be no place to repair the coffeemaker. In my many decades of life it's become clear that the more feature-packed a device is, the more likely it is that something will go wrong.
Fair and honest review! I agree with the overall sentiment that there are several areas to improve, but I'm hopeful for what it and machines like it might achieve in the near future.
Why not use an RFID tag on the box? Make a small RFID tag on the box. It tears off and you retain the tag for all pods until the box of pods are gone. They could make a small shelf/box on the side/back of the machine. each RFID tag has minimal info for IDing your pod in case you have multiple boxes at once
I think this still comes down to convenience, the ideal solution here would likely be having an RFID on the box and then a small display on the top with a number of saved scanned pods to select from with a touch. You could reduce the amount of tags you need to ship by doing that. Unfortunately now that they've shipped a unit this is somewhat difficult to retroactively fix without making things less convenient for the early adopters.
Yes we're actually working on something like this! Think a card with a single RFID that you can scan for each brew. So eventually the customer can actually choose between fully tagged pods (most convenient, but tag must be removed before composting) vs. a tag on a card and no tags on pods (less convenient, but easier to compost).
@@tropicalkings3044 It could be skipped but I think that somewhat misses the point of the device. There's lots of options out there for people who want to brew really nice pour-over coffee, but they're all pretty involved. The benefit of this machine is that you just tap a pod on the top and put it in to brew. Adding taking your phone out in the morning to this process makes things more difficult.
I actualy love how much time you spend on criticising the RFID. I am really surprised and happy about a UA-camr that cares about the impacts of products. Thanks.
The tech involved is pretty great and, considering it’s a kickstarter project, I can see improvements being made in future iterations. The water stream movement is beautiful design, and with some increased pressure I can see the dripping issue improving. I personally enjoy the ritual of manual pour over as well as the economical aspect, but I have sooooo many people in my family who hate that. You can set it up and let it do it’s thing much like a traditional coffee maker but you get better results. This reminds me of pour over machines but you have the built in grinder which is great. Out of my budget but it seems like a great bit of tech with a lot of potential.
The electrostatic stream diversion is lifted from a machine called a flow cytometry sorter. It’s a scientific instrument used to sort cells from a liquid stream. Interesting idea.
I don't love the idea of plastic and hot water for brewing coffee (or tea) either but there are some better plastic out there now (hopefully true!), but also I can see why they went with plastic not only because it is cheaper, but for coffee brewing a lot of people prefer the plastic pour over devices because it's got better thermal stability (it has low mass so doesn't need a preheating and keeps the heat in nicely), metal like aluminum dissipates heat quickly, ceramic or glass have a higher mass which when cold will drop initial brew temp dramatically, and are also more fragile.
I love my xBloom.... I have been doing various pour-over methods for 10+ years. Still have all my gear on the counter (kettle, grinder, brewers, etc...) Love the convenience relative to the quality of the cup.
100% the reusable pod is worth it. Yes, there is effort in dialing in everything just right, but once you've dialed it in, you don't have to go through the work of grinding and brewing it. And I can imagine that, if it gets popular enough, coffee companies might even have recommendations built-in, or else you can find other people online who have used the same coffee as you have and have recommendations. This is something I would love to get for my mother. I can help her dial in the settings, and then whenever she wants coffee, it's just a little extra work compared to a Keurig and she'll get much better coffee out of it.
One thing that immediately jumped to me with regard to the disposable rfid tag. They could replace it with a permanent one that isn't attached to the pod but shaped like a casino chip that you can tap on top of the machine, and maybe have a storage location on the machine or on a keychain. Also to consider is most people would be trying at max 2 or 3 roast for daily coffee so would only require few of them. Maybe even have blank ones that can be attributed to certain roast in app. So even if you change the roast, you just need to make that change in app and now buy new rfid chips. Also if thye can get a community started where people share their recipes for different roasts. It will make it easier for beginners to try the machine and not be intimidated with all the setting options. But this is for the future, a best case scenario I would say.
Like I stated in a different comment. They should've used 4 digid codes with numbers ranging from 1 to 4 in my opinion. They can write it in big letters on the packaging and that way you have 256 options of water strength, temp, bloom length etc. And the only thing the device needs is a tiny numpad with 4 numbers.
I wonder if they could just attach it to the packaging the pods come in (maybe even perforate around it so you can tear it off and keep it separate if desired)
@@Jules-bass That is a good idea. I was just thinking along the lines of me just waking up and what would be easy for my sleep-muddled brain to do. Without much changes to the machine. But your idea is even better from a waste standpoint. Maybe have physical numbers like in the number lock of suitcases(but more refined), which won't required to be input each time. Only requires manual input when you change the roast.
I have been using the xBloom for a few weeks and love the coffee it produces. I will take your advice and experiment with grinding the the beans a bit finer. I live alone and drink about 2 cups a day so the water tank issue is not a problem. I use the machine every 2 days with another method in between. Thank you for the excellent videos. I have learned so much from you over the years and have read your books.
Seems like a QR code on the paper lid would be the best solution. It's already being printed on and you could even use invisible ink with and IR or UV scanner to see it, so it wouldn't interfere with the roasters logo or other information. That way, you don't have to worry about ink or stickers that need to be food safe and you can just lay the paper on the top, or put the cup on the top, upside down. (For that matter, why aren't the RFID chips on the lid so you don't have to worry about the coffee running all over it and taking it off to compost?). The RFID chip just seems excessive and an obvious point of contention. You could even offer a function in the app to make a QR code image to print or bring up on the phone so you could have little recipe cards that you scan for different coffees w/out having to open the app up. Very cool product, overall. Far too expensive for me, but a hard-line option in an office seems like the best place for it.
In an office setting, the coffee machine will often be plumbed in (much like the water/ice dispenser on a fridge). So they might want to make sure it's compatible with that connection if they want it to fit that niche.
Going to go out on a limb and wonder if they could put the RFID chip on the top label so you could simply put the pod on the top upside down and once it's read, pull off the cover (and RFID chip) as I assume the top is not compostable...
Definitely feels good when you heard James Hoffmann call your local roaster a "great roaster" 😅 Also, I guess Fisher Price wasn't too far off with only including the paper cone in their set...
Honestly this machine is kinda my jam. I love making good coffee but the whole process is too fiddly for me to make it every morning. I can totally handle dialing in a new brew setting with the custom cup when I get a new bag of coffee, and letting that carry me through until the next roast I buy.
If you're gonna do the RFID reader, why not just stick it to the packaging that the pod comes in. Reduce the number of RFID labels needed and still is easy. Or do something like capacitive buttons like Red, Green, Blue, Yellow. Then you just hit the buttons in a combo to denote the info. A lot can be included in a database that then is recalled via a key which the RFID is undoubtedly using.
What a great review, you asked all the questions the makers have to answer to make a better machine in the future. This is a machine that I’ll keep an eye on… maybe version 2 or 3 if they upgrade will be a great coffe machine…
This is a very cool and intuitive device... i absolutely love the implementation and personally, as a technologist i believe NFC is the best, easiest, and most consistent implementation for these cups... my ONLY issue with this, is the cost. at $800, that is very steep.
Great review, James. I bought these on the Kickstarter program, and you gave me an excellent idea for under-extracted coffee. Just go in and lower the grind setting a couple of settings. There are 30 grind settings and then save it, and then when you do that, make that coffee again; it will be dialed in. The xBloom is an excellent machine for people who aren't coffee nerds because then they don't have to get a Pearl scale, Fellow GEN two grinder with SSP upgraded burrs, and a Stagg pro kettle, which is what I did. That's $870 US, and I am a coffee nerd. If you are a coffee nerd, the xBloom will let you dial in your coffee and save it so you don't have to write it in your coffee log. I primarily bought it to see how the roasters brewed their coffee, and if I didn't like the coffee, I didn't have to have 10 ounces of it. I also roast my beans on an Ikawa, so this is fun to make coffee that I roasted and plug in recipes that work for similar beans. You can use 155 filters or Orea small flat filters, and there is an Etsy creator that makes a negotiator that flattens to filter to the removable pod. One comment was that there could be a community for the bloom, and there is one on Discord. Finally, xBloom has incredible customer service, similar to Decent Espresso, which is some of the best. I saw that Caleb Schwarz, the community manager at xBloom, tried to answer some questions from posters of Comments. It could be better, but with two Apple engineers as the creators and some UA-cam personalities working on it, they got pretty close. I paid $399 for mine, so I bought two, and someone will get a great Birthday present. So if $800.00 is too much, they have it on their website for $699, and you get the reusable dripper and eight pods of coffee. Probably Only in the US. Enjoy
A QR code on the seal seems like a better solution, a low res camera where the RFID reader is could scan it. That would be more expensive since you'd need hardware on board to do the image processing. I wouldn't worry about the camera in this case since a dedicated QR code camera would probably be pretty poor for anything else and if it's on top pointed up that would also contribute to it being bad for nefarious purposes. I suppose if it has wifi a barcode on that top would also work and not require a camera, but a QR code has the advantage of being data dense enough to encode a recipe directly so the machine could be entirely stand alone.
An throwaway RFID chip under the cup is a huge amount of Ewaste compared to a QR code. Each of those tags has a small computer chip in them that takes tons of resources to make. Compared to some black ink that could be printed directly onto the bottom or side of the cup.
This machine is highly tempting for me, though the price is a bit of a stretch. I would actually enjoy having a sort of "baseline" recipe to start from, like a basic V60 recipe, and even if i never dial it further it can probably get me pretty far. I feel like the convenience of "push-button coffee" is extremely compelling, even if there's a bit of initial fuss for a non-pod option, like you said. There are ways around it that could still get decently far.
Some metrics takeouts from James: 1. Autotune water mineral machine -> Complementary blue ocean strat for producer (machine + minerals pods + water filter + descaling cleaner + etc) 2. Brew metrics are fine but add final 20-23% extraction window KPI. 3. Appstore DLC subscription for fine tuning existing features e.g. a little agitation from water drip, plus points for creating reverse fountain show! 4. Scrap RFID from pods, use barcodes instead while maintaining pricing for better margin. 5. Cooling fans may have upgrade quieter options, supplied from better OEM fans, custom passive water cooling cage, or those Germany Fan Motor Driver custom quiet algorithms with premium subscription. Coffee producers brew recipes only reached 19.5% extraction probably due to differences in machine calibration used by Hoffmann & Coffee producers.
17:33 If I would buy that machine, I would probably use it exclusively with beans and not with pods. I’d use the RFID chips from the accompanying pods as presets for my beans.
Just wanted to take a moment to appreciate the iOS app overlay showing while James changes settings and sets the pod on the brewer. It's that attention to detail which takes a lot of work to get right and makes these videos excellent.
i have the xbloom and i love it! i love building recipes with the reusable dripper. i think james is wrong when he says people who want the machine don’t want to fiddle with recipes. it’s one of my favorite parts of the machine!
I think the idea is that if you want to fiddle with the recipe and have to dial in, you're better off doing your own manual pour over instead of paying $800 for a machine that just has you do it yourself anyways.
@@wretchedpkmn i get that viewpoint, but i personally find it more fun to fiddle with the machine than mess with a whole pour over setup. fiddling with a whole setup and fiddling with an app are 2 very diff things. i also only paid 400 from kickstarter. if we incorporate the retail 800 dollar price, then i think everything becomes a new convo
I rarely every say anything on a UA-cam channel. I have Nespresso machine at home, that I feel does just fine for my needs. You seem like an absolute coffee snob, but in the best possible way. You're presentation and delivery of the information is fascinating and fun to listen to. I am honestly thinking of getting this machine now. They have a $100 promotion, but it still seems quite pricey. If I could have paid $400, I'd be much more interested. Subscribed.
I have a Bunn MCU, that has four trays. One for grounds, one for kcups, one for hot water, and one for coffee pods/tea bags. The water reservoir in the back keeps water hot at all times. Just pour the amount of water in your cup, pour it in, and what you pour in is what comes out. No measurement required. Just like the big Bunn machines. The water you pour in goes to the reservoir and is heated. The coffee maker you are showing looks really nice! Thank you for posting.
I use mine every day and love it! Its consistency is so awesome in the morning when I'm too tired to do a pour over properly. Also I use the reusable pod everyday lol. Because I only drink a cup a day, a bag of coffee lasts a good 2 1/2 weeks so I can dial in a new bag in a day or two and then the rest of the bag I don't have to worry about it. There are a few things that I do find annoying about it. The "anti-static" grind funnel still has pretty bad static issues if you don't spray the beans first. This would normally be fine since the cleanup is relatively easy, but the problem is while the coffee is brewing, the chaff or grounds that have stuck to the grinding funnel will sometimes fall off of the grind funnel and land directly into the cup! It's happened more than once now, and I find the only ways to fix it are to: a) move the cup further to the right so only the left edge of the cup is under the pod whilst brewing (potentially causing messes while pouring) b) spray the beans before putting them in the grinder to reduce static c) pause the brewing process before water starts pouring, clean the funnel, then resume brewing A minor inconvenience, but an inconvenience nonetheless. I imagine many people who buy this product won't know about the spraying beans trick to reduce static so it could cause some frustration. Also, you can't really fit anything besides a small mug or tasting cup under the pod while it's pouring, I do wish it had a bit more height to it.
Great machine review so convenient and nice design. With the recycling becoming a must. The pod rf chip could go Into a tin (bean) can scrap bin, the paper into tiny little pieces and thrown into your own home compost. I believe they thought a lot about consumers and the hurdles we face recycling.. Failing all that pop round to someone else's kitchen and get them to make it for you , they dispose of the waste!! Like the perma cup ! The "shard building of coffee" 😁
This product is insanely appealing to me because I love coffee and building the recipe but I struggle to find the time to make coffee each morning with a V60 and a kettle (I work on average 50+ hours a week from 9 am to 7 pm) and being able to take some time to make a recipe and then use the same coffee every day to enjoy it seems great!
Hey James! Thanks for the review! Community Manager at xBloom here.
We are finalizing a prototype for a plumbed in water reservoir that fills itself when it gets low 😊
The recipes definitely tend to look like a melodrip recipe, due to the lessened agitation of the kettle stream and the form factor of the small brewer. We have some really exciting new light-roast roasters joining our lineup soon, and we’ve been able to get some pretty solid extractions by grinding a little finer and using more pulses.
Thank you for the good work!
I really hope you consider replacing the RFID with QR codes and a QR scanner, or even just put the RFID on the lid instead of the base, since the lid can then be disposed of and the body composted wholesale.
@@KainYusanagi We are in the process of adding a format change to the RFID to drastically reduce the amount of RFID's in the process. It will release very soon. Stay tuned!
Why doesn't the company just add a basic trained AI and a lens to look inside the cup with coffee beans to capture an image of beans, analyze them to then choose a receipt for brewing based on what is in the cup? It's possible to measure size, roast color, and weight right there. Maybe let also choose between robusta and arabika with a button. Enough information for the basic decisions. It's not worth it to make people buy coffee with RFID chips for every single brew. I understand that basically selling RFIDs is a good business but it's a serious complication of the whole thing.
First video glance at this brewer...Beautiful design! From what I could see in this review, great ingineering. Sharing the concerns about RFID tags and their carbon footprint. But mostly, if I was to replace my weekday V60 routine for a "hassle free" brewer, I would hope it gave me clear visual control on grind/temp/time. But I'm geeky... Also, not sure an "plumbed-in" version is going to help your potential customers if the target market is really "hassle-free" coffee drinkers. Nevertheless, Great work...Just my 2 cents.
If you have to remove the lid of the coffee pod to use it, then the RFID chip should be placed on the lid instead of the pod. This way, you can throw the lid and RFID chip away together and compost the pod.
Agreed. It may be a production line reason, but if the argument is the lid needs to cover the top and user experience is better [if] the RFID is on the bottom, the lid/label can have a narrow ribbon that extends to the bottom RFID chip part of a single label/lid/chip design.
They probably could replace the RFID chip (and reader) with a printed QR code and laser barcode scanner (though James didn't really like that idea either), maybe even a regular 1D barcode if they're clever with how they encode a recipe on it. Lower waste profile.
or put the RFID chip on the outer packaging. assuming it's not a variety pack.
Is the recipe really in the RFID chip, or is it (as is typical) a UUID that the machine looks up over WiFi? The machine is pretty clearly connected to ... Something.
@@kantarjiev I don't know what the machine actually does, but it's certainly possible to make a recipe into a short barcode. Depending on the complexity of a recipe. It would seem a process with not that many variables.
Let's say it's something like "heat water to a Temperature of 97C, dispense 23 grams of Coffee, Bloom 15 seconds, dispense 100ml Water". Then that can be encoded as "T97C23B15W100" which can be fit into a barcode very easily. A few extra characters can be included for other steps & it's still shorter than the barcode for the ISBN of a book.
The no moving parts water deflector is very cool
Guess it's a capacitor instead of a conductor, though
Fun that someone made the trick of putting a just-used comb next to a stream of water into something useful
@@mulad Yeah, it's quite fun to play around with, although the pubes that fall into the coffee are annoying.
@@boo_ No!
Just no,
sad now.
The continuous inkjet printers that print things like best before dates on packaging use electrostatic deflection of a stream of liquid like this... I feel like the person who designed this was aware of it from some application like that.
I am extremely impressed that a group (1) devoted the time, effort, and experience to examine the qualities of each element of a proper pourover, (2) found ways to automate and chain them together, and then (3) integrated it all into an app that is both powerful and user friendly.
This is an example of what innovation should be.
It really strikes me as something made by coffee nerds. The "get creative" view of the brew cycle really made me think of pourover recipe apps.
Is it innovative or just gadgetry
@@dozog If we agree that innovation means, “to make changes to something established by markedly changing methods/processes, or by introducing new products that can automate part or all of those methods/processes,” then this looks to be innovation.
@@james.randorff I think we don't exactly agree.
This seems more like an aggregator than an innovator to me.
@@dozogyou don't understand the sheer significance of this discovery and the app. They can start subscription service with famous coffee persons like Hoffman itself, and you can drink the exact coffee which Hoffman would brew. I think if they add a refractometer to it for 50 bucks, we can put a drop of the cup of brewed coffee, and it can re calibrate the machine to match to what Hoffman would produce.
I think the reusable pod problem is easily solvable by allowing people to share their recipes with each other from within the app. In that case, any roaster could sell you a bag of coffee and tell you that they have published a recipe you can just use from within the app.
But then you're going into the app everytime you want to make coffee, which takes away from convenience
@@curtislevey7639 I think you are trying to find a problem-solution-problem loop in this. Its only giving you flexibility to do certain things or choose certain recipes as default if you use the app. But you don't need to, you can still brew the coffee using the roaster's recipe.
@@curtislevey7639 That may be something James harps on, but not everyone hates that. Especially if it's simple and fast to just pick a recipe and go. If I could stop having to grind/wet/dump/bloom/pour manually and get a consistent cup every time, I'll take an app!
@@curtislevey7639 you could use the phone's RFID sensor, but goodluck convincing Apple.
@@curtislevey7639 There might be an easy fix for that: xBloom could sell the RFID tags on their own, so you could buy them and programm them to have a specific recipee. RFID chips are very cheap, so no big markup, even if you are switching beans frequently.
The static charged water deflector is genius; I've seen this effect at play before but to see a practical application of it is so satisfying.
This!! Completely agree!
It is used commonly in laboratory equipment for sorting cells.
This process/phenomenon, is called Ion wind/corona wind/corona discharge (it has many names). You can experience the same thing at home; when you inflate a balloon and then run tap water, when you place the balloon near the stream of water coming from the tap, the water will indeed deflect.
I'm glad everyone else had the QR code idea too, seems like a much better solution as it means the whole thing could easily be compostable
I'd imagine it'll be something to do with printing on that composting filter - the ink will bleed etc.
@@JamieBarton1984 put it on the lid that peels off the top
and in the interim...just glue that silly chip on the lid that you already have to pull off anyway...but i'm sure the marketing dept threw their hands up in the air when it was first discussed where it was going lol...that or they will now like "No way are we shrinking the brand names and our logo!"
Jeh, that chip or qr code should definitely go on the lid as nobody wants a cup where brewing water flows trough nasty plastics and/or ink?
Or am I’m getting it all wrong?
And cheaper
Regarding the reusable filter, I think it would be super cool if the company created a community database where you could download recipes for various roasts, e.g Square Mile filter blend
wouldn't work, if you live in denver a recipe from seattle wouldn't work never mind people not using distilled water
@@jeffrydemeyer5433 The whole machine is based around set recipes.
This I think could solve a lot of problems around the re-usable pod!
@@jeffrydemeyer5433 Distilled water is for amateurs. I only use Type I water.
As a workaround, couldn't you save the rfid from a roaster you liked, buy their coffee again at wholesale prices and use the reusable pod with the old chip?
I just love how every time James reviews a product, he doesn't just try to leave a positive review or impression, but always evaluates it with a lot of criticism and professionalism. There are always minor flaws or huge mistakes, and I love that this guy isn't shy about pointing them out.
Cool content. It was surprising how much of the material is written in one line, how clearly and simply he expresses his point.
Keep it up,
Exactly.. If it was my product, from a producer point of view, this is what we should be looking for.. The review was thorough, very clear, eloquent, and it represents not only as the professional, but also as an end user of the product..
Wow! Despite my initial thought of "oh no, not only a pod but also one with electronics on the pods" this concept really grew on me as you talked more about its downsides. In comparison to any other pod machine, the 0.001g of metal in the coils is negligible in my opinion. Furthermore, you probably use less paper compared to any other filter brewer and definitely produce less waste than a standard Nespresso machine. Additionally, you get much more coffee from your pod and have the opportunity to use your own coffee. Apart from the noise you mentioned, this is one of the most innovative coffee machines I've seen, and I'm down for it.
This is the first automated coffee machine that makes a real compelling case. Compostable, programable, and can be used without pods!
What about the delonghi truebrew? Its basically a super auto for drip style coffee but no paper filters or apps like this one
One very important thing which i personally find important to consider is the level of consistency and control you can in theory achieve with the xBloom when brewing your own coffee. Sure pouring by hand if done in a good way will obviously leave you with more than satisfying results, but being able to so delicately tune your brew is certainly something appealing.
@@unknownuser069 Yep. You could make your eggs or your toast or (eggs & toast for your kids) while this makes your coffee. Sounds lovely.
@@unknownuser069 that’s one thing I like about it. Didn’t have the money to kickstart it at the time, but how Hoffman mentions how you still have to dial in etc. if you do it yourself.. at least you’re just doing it to dial it in and then after that you’re set to just tap it and go about your morning while it’s pouring instead of taking the time to heat water and pour over yourself
James! I had the exact same issue of coarseness when I started, except the grinder calibration did not solve the issue after two tries - I have just been grinding around 12-13 in the settings and that has produced the best cups so far! This machine has actually been a blessing in the house with me being a v60 guy and her being a "I need good tasting coffee but I don't know how and don't want to know" kind of person. I have ultimately used the re-usable dripper more than anything else, and her the pods.
V2 of this thing has the potential to be amazing. Ditch the RFID sticker in place of a barcode or qr code somewhere, bigger water tank and a bit more refining all around.
Also as others commented, I could definitely see myself using the re-usable cup, just figure it out once for a bag of coffee and no hassle anymore every morning. A big bonus would be if they had several re-usable cups with a unique barcode/qr code printed on it. that way you can have 1 setting for you, 1 setting for your partner. or for a different kind of coffee.
My thoughts exactly! Thanks for writing it for me ! Especially the bar codes or qr codes. They could even be made with soy ink to be more sustainable.
Agreed
You can figure out what setting to use for a certain bag of coffee, but you'd still need to weigh your beans for every cup you want to pour. So there unfortunately always will be some kind of hassle
Another option for the RFID chip would just be to have only one one chip per box of pods as a small token (like a casino chip), that way you can just leave it on top until you swap your type of pods.
I would prefer to get rid of it in favor of e.g. a qr code. One problem with those rfid tags is, that by definition in some places they already count as electronics waste, not something you are allowed to put in your regular bin.
They have made this. You now have the option to order pods without the RFID tags. Then in the box comes an RFID recipe card to swipe
The one thing with RFID chips is that they could potentially be made separate from the pods. basically, buy 32 pods in a pack, and it comes with a separate token which you can use to scan in your pods and then not have to deal with removing the chip every time
Personally, I would've considered putting the chip on or in the tear-off pod top. You're already removing a part of the pod to begin the process; just scan the label instead of setting the whole pod on top. You could even easily print a QR Code or other machine-readable code on the label to be used instead of a non-recyclable RFID Chip.
Just put the RFID chip on the lid! You can then remove two things with one peal!
exactly what I was thinking. only issue with it I see is potentially losing/damaging the 1 per box token and then having issue easily brewing the rest of the pods in that pack. also lesser issue of making sure you use the right token in the case of people who like to have many different pods at once to choose from. both minor issues that can be preventable with organization and I think it is just such a cool system that it would be worth it
that's such a cool idea that I am actually impressed
sounds like an acceptable middle ground to me
the idea could be taken a little further and just have a qr code card in box
so you can save ink from printing it on each separate pod and save electronics
and in case it is lost, you just print a new qr code on your local printer
@@ThatOneRoadie came to the comments to say this exact thing. love we're all having similar thoughts!
It would be interesting to see if these custom profiles could be shared, so that the community can fine tune the recipes while maintaining convenience.
This is absolutely one good way to do this. Like, you link your phone's app with the machine, it scans in a pod and your phone pulls up the main brew with a little swipable ribbon of "community recipes" that have little descriptions from the person who submitted it. Then, once the brew finishes, it provides a dismissable pop-up in the app to ask if you would like to switch to this recipe as your default, or just like the recipe to promote it within the community recipe listings. When someone decides to adjust a custom recipe for an existing pod, after it brews you'd get another pop-up asking if you would like to submit this recipe to the community recipe listings. Obviously there should be an option in the settings to disable any or all of these extra pop-ups so people who really don't care can just keep on keeping on. Just give the option to long-click on a community recipe and change it to the default recipe for these people.
Yeah. Once you have that you could scan the coffee's barcode (the one they scan at the store) and look up online the highest voted recipe for that coffee and send it to the machine. That would mean getting out your phone in the morning but shouldn't be too big a deal. Or just have a button that calls up your last custom recipe or whatever.
@@zenengineer5803 or make a feature that allows you to bookmark a brew on the machine and set it up the night before
shareable community recipes would be a major help with the lock-in hoffmann mentioned in regards to the diy plastic pod thingy. are the shops closed leaving you with a bag of offbrand supermarket beans and you can't be arsed to figure it out? maybe someone has posted a config online.
It's an interesting machine, I could actually see myself using it, just not with the pods but with the plastic cup. Having found a "regular" coffee I can order and order and order I could see myself spend the 5-10 runs to dial it in and then have the machine do its thing. 4-5 minutes is not too bad when you're between meetings and have to decide if you want a new cup more than a bio break. 800 bucks though is a little oof.
I agree. The concept of creating a profile of your “perfect cup” and having consistency in how it is poured every single time is it cool concept. I love the process of making a cup of coffee now but it becomes a weekend routine rather than a weekday to based on time available. This could let you get that perfect cup of coffee every time.
I don’t understand why a pod is necessary to get the recipe. Couldn’t you just put the rfid on a whole bag of beans, or on a card, that you just swipe in, and then it says “ok put in X grams of beans and press go”
@@Bear-re5xm 100% that should be the goal, add a scale to the pod/reusable and it could weigh out your ground beans for you.
James, if you want to keep following down this theme, check out the Bonaverde Berlin and its history. It’s basically THIS but included a roaster as well. It was THE all-in-one coffee machine. It went badly wrong for them and there’s now a whole community that have managed to hack them and still use them everyday. I’m actually surprised to have not seen a video from you on it, it seems like it would be an interesting one for you to do!
Where does the bonaverde community gather? Is there a subreddit or discord? Super interested!
The big fundamental problem of it is freshly roasted coffee never taste good, I learnt that from roasting lots of different coffee beans for years. You need to let the roasted beans sit for a day or up to 3 days to let the unpleasant aroma out-gassed from the beans. If you roast and brew immediately, it tasted like grass. rofl
With that kind of price, you're better off with a dedicated roaster, I have a small drum that goes on camping stove, it works brilliantly, it was made by "K Coffee Roaster" in Thailand.
@@worawatli8952 sure, but if you can get a cheap, working Bonaverde Berlin now, it’s possible to programme it to only roast, to only brew etc. etc. and you just take the roasted beans out and let them be for a few days. So if you’re someone who wants this and doesn’t mind it all being in one package…
@@worawatli8952 Could it be possible to roast the coffee, cool it down to like above room temp, spray a drop of water (to counter static), grind it. How long would the ground coffee need to degas for it to taste good? Would the aroma detoriate faster than it can degas so it would be still more viable to just wait three days or could this speed up the degassing without detoriating the aroma?
@@boatoflol I'd say 12 hours is minimum, currently no method we know can speed this up significantly for same day brew, it's not possible.
I found that darker roast aged faster than light roast. With light roast, you should be waiting at least 2 days, while on medium, 24 hours is enough and dark roast would be okay at 12 hours. And on water spraying, some commercial roaster do that right after roasting, to reduce heat and avoid fire hazard, it also is important if you don't want it to developed too much. I do it with fan, put it on tray and cool it down, apart from stopping the heat, it help a little with degassing.
For someone who wants pretty good freshly ground coffee but doesn’t want to (or doesn’t like the ritual of making coffee) I think this is great. Personally, I’ve gotten super overwhelmed by everything I was “supposed to do” to pour correctly- having a machine to grind and do it for me sounds pretty nice.
I think building some recipes and tuning the recipe a little is waaaaay easier (since you only do it once per coffee bag/type) rather than doing so much manually.
I think this review needed more tuning and should be directed at the ‘person who wants good coffee but is too “lazy” or can’t be bothered’
This is crazy what you're saying
I think this review already communicates well that if you want convenience over quality then this coffee is good. But if you're overwhelmed by the steps needed for pour over then having to fiddle with the settings to create your own profile would not be as easy as you think. You would need to trial-by-error it and have some idea of what to change for the desired effect you want.
I can see how changing some settings on a machine that in theory will then consistently reproduce it is easier/ more accessible than having to get the steps right yourself and then not only know what to do but also reproduce it.
Thank you James for reviewing the machine! I'm really proud of the team at xBloom and the work we've done here. Joining this company has helped me develop my understanding of the coffee industry and is allowing me to tackle my personal goals of increasing the perception of value of coffee. I'm really happy that we're delivering units and getting all of these fantastic coffees out there. For those of you who see this comment, the RFID format will be changing soon (I already see comments about a card), and we have much more coming! Thanks everyone for watching this review and thank you again James for checking out xBloom.
Excited to see how this evolves!
Thanks for the update =)
Thanks for all the great work. I am receiving mine this week, and I cannot wait to try the coffee. I think you and your team have done a successful job at launching this new product into the coffee community.
I think this device runs a good balance between ease of use and specialty features.
If there are multiple individuals living in a home, it allows the nerdy fellow to really dive deep into their brews. Another person could easily grab a pod, scan it, and let the machine do it’s thing. Very enticing in the right setting!
Same is true for an office environment, e.g. in an agency. We run a portafilter with a grinder and not everyone is happy going through the process of understanding how a good Americano or Espresso is being made.
I’ve had my machine for about a week now I’ve really enjoyed it. I haven’t gotten through all the coffee that I got yet, but was interested in it for the sake of me being able to geek out on coffee with it and my wife just plug and play with it. I like the duality of the machine that way That being said it does not blow me away and if I paid the full 800 I would’ve probably been disappointed and the water tank by far is the most disappointing feature of it. It is so small and harder to fill than I wish. Thanks for the review though!
I do think it's worth considering that for a lot of people it would definitely be easier to not have to do the actual actions of brewing pourover coffee even if they still have to do the planning/thinking around building a recipe. Having a machine that will perfectly execute a program means that even someone without the skill to test a recipe (especially not effortlessly like you can) can just try stuff and see how it tastes. Getting the consistency needed for good testing is also an important thing this would provide.
I bought the machine. I love making pour overs but this machine allows me to play around and dial in a recipe then it can make my pour-over while I make breakfast in the morning (when I don't have time to do it myself) and I get a great cup of coffee.
Thanks James for the review. To me, really the benefit of this is not only convenience (or lack thereof) in recipe, but a time saver for someone who normally would meticulously grind, weigh, calculate, bloom, finally pour and let cool, which can easily take 5 mins at the least. In this case, once it is dialed in, you can simply start it and walk away to go finish getting ready for work, or prep the kids, or walk the dog. When you come back, a proper (better than drip or nespresso or kurig) cup of coffee awaits you. Brilliant! ☕
I agree. I could see using the reusable pod to create a "recipe" for a particular coffee that I could use every time I used that coffee. I could create multiple recipes for the multiple coffees that I drink.
If I was in the market for this sort of thing I'd 100% be on board. The sheer convenience of being able to tap a pod, tear the top off, put it in place and then walk away while fresh coffee is brewed would definitely be the sort of convenience I'd look for at 5:30 AM just after I get up for work. That level of not having to apply any sort of mental effort at that time of day would easily be worth the asking price.
It was wise of the manufacturer to include the ability to use your own coffee, otherwise this product would have been giving off heavy “Juciero” vibes.
except for the part where jucero was a complete and total scam and actually did nothing except squeeze a bag, this clearly brews coffee
Can one adjust the settings without using an app? If the company goes under and the apps are eventually removed from distribution, how are the owners of these devices going to change these settings? Keep a bunch of the different rfid tags around for brews that are close to what one wants?
I'm actually pretty amazed. They thought of a lot of things and it really seems like a device made by coffee lovers. I can also definetly see the advantage of the reusable cup for people that allways get the same coffee beans. That way you only need to dial in the recipe once and after that the whole prozess is just accelerated and easier.
Enjoyed your informative review. Just received a unit of my own. I am huge coffee geek - roast my own beans, own a Decent espresso machine, regularly brew pour overs, love the process of dialing in, etc. I bought the machine mainly because there are times I just don't have time to make a good cup of coffee and loved the idea of pods curated from some of the best roasters and brewed to their standards. I have enjoyed a couple cups and was pretty impressed. Certainly I could make a more perfect cup of coffee. But, it was still very good and done in 4 mins! I also agree with you that they will need to find the right price point to make this machine accessible to more people. I hope they do because it would be good to see more people drinking well prepared coffee.
I did test the TDS coming out of the box with a VST refractometer - came out with a TDS% of 1.6 and extraction of 20%. So appears the grinder was calibrated pretty well at the factory and the machine is brewing a well extracted cup. Hopefully your experience was an anomaly. I did note the coffee is not as hot as what I get out of a typical pour over - about 5C below normal. That said, still above what I normally enjoy.
I actually really see a use case for this machine - someone who has the time during their weekend to mess around with settings, but during the week just wants their coffee exactly the way they had it then in only 5 minutes. No messing around with a kettle and having to stand there and pour manually - whilst it does it all one can go off an brush teeth/get dressed/ make breakfast etc. Really like the idea, and if i end up getting one i think i'll actually use the re-useable "pod" more than the pre-filled ones.
We got ours last week and we are in the “delighted” category. We primarily use our espresso machine, clever dripper, aeropress, or chemex.
We love the ritual of coffee making, but some mornings or getting home from a long day, we just don’t want to deal with weighing, filling the kettle, waiting for the espresso machine to heat up, or babysitting a pour over.
This fills that void and it’s great. And I actually think it’s a good thing it doesn’t make the absolute pinnacle cup of coffee. If it did, why even have all the other crap? Just toss it.
Now, I can enjoy the ritual if I want to and get a great cup when I want to. Or I can just throw a pod in while I’m running out the door and get a really nice cup of coffee. It’s incredible. I’m surprised at the negativity of this review
I think Hoff is just a little too far from the target audience.
I wouldn't say it's any more negative than any of his other reviews, but I do think the calibration issue when he first got the unit really swayed the tone of the video more than he intended.
@@Denf0 I think you’re right. As we all know they aren’t often glowing reviews. I think I was just surprised. I would have definitely avoided this product if I saw this video first. But since I had used it first and loved it … once I saw this video pop up I was like, “oh there it is! Oh he’s gonna love this thing!” and boy it didn’t feel that way haha
@@micahgaar4209 I don't think it was overly negative (a brand new product getting a "promising" review from JH isn't bad) and all the criticism seemed productive and fair to me, someone who hasn't tried the machine but would want great results from an $800 (or even a $400 on KS discount) machine. There's obviously things that could be improved to make it significantly better and I'd want a review to mention them. That you're happy to trade convenience for quality when that works is great and understandable but I'm not sure everyone would say, "thank goodness it doesn't make great coffee or I'd not have to have a bunch of other kit to do a better job when I have the time and energy. I'm so glad it makes decent coffee that isn't too delicious"? Perhaps you also slightly underestimated James' standards when it comes to coffee taste and brewing? Or maybe your machine was much better calibrated?
This machine would be an amazing alternative for a hotel room, an office, or airport lounge- they just need to develop a beefier line-in option for more intensive/frequent uses. Overall pretty interesting!
Totally agree with this. It could find it's niche in these establishments and do really well.
The higher end hotels wouldnbe interested in using these because tbey can afford it and have a clientele that would enjoy it. For the most part hotels/motels jist use industrial kitchen brewers and make large thermos ammounts at once. Its way more cost effective then anything else.
Got mine in the office and have been loving it. All of the coffee pods I have tasted needed some tweaking in the app to be excellent. But once tweaked, the brews really were some of the best I have had. I love using my own coffee with the reusable dripper and I am getting some tasty brews. It's just a much more viable and convenient method of having very good coffee in an office setting, where I cannot be taking the time to brew a pourover every few hours.
It's actually the first one of these kind of machines which seems to be well thought about. It might need a bit of tuning, but in my opinion all of the details that are included (the spiral of water, the paperclip thingy, the specific recipe, ...) are impressive. But 800 dollar is way to high, especially as there is no guarantee that you will find cups in a year.
@@fencheltee7237 Because it’s $800..
@@fencheltee7237I don't do pour over coffee but the impression I've got from this channel is that if you do it yourself, you can get good results without spending even $400. with espresso, you do need to spend more money because you need a more complicated and thus expensive machine. so spending a lot of money on an espresso machine is pretty normal, but spending a lot of money on a pour over setup is not. so they're putting a huge price on the convenience factor, potentially a price much higher than the target market is willing to tolerate.
Hi James! I just started using my xBloom, which I backed on kickstarter. I agree with every single one of your points regarding proper extraction, temperature, and the water tank (arghh!). My machine isn’t overly noisy, so that’s not a gripe for me. I’ll continue to use it and update my experiences here. Cheers!
This product is not for me at my current place in life. But I’m really glad it exists because it is iterating toward something incredibly unique and cool. Hopefully a QR or barcode can be added in the future to eliminate the RFID waste.
As an alternative to the RFID chip, a circularized bar code around the base of the pod could also work. 8 bits can give you 256 possible gradations, so you could fit quite a few settings into the code.
@@vamos419 That doesn't make sense, because you can literally copy the RFID with your phone and adjust stuff to fit your needs.
Kinda like old film cartridges?
@Norman Delingpole it doesn't look like he's writing back to the tag. More likely, the RFID is just giving an ID number, and the brewer uses preprogrammed settings.
Using bar codes, you could either do it the same way, or have the option of printing new stickers with the settings
@@edwardbarton1680 Add a few bits and that might just be good enough. The brochure says 30 grind settings (5 bits), to be generous lets say you have 30 degree variation in water temperature (5 bits). To control timing for initial pour, bloom, second pour lets say 18 bits so 28 bits for a full recipe? A 12x12 datamatrix would also be able to fit that amount of information.
@@normandelingpolebarcode /qrcode would be quite easy to change too. Print the code and stick it to the bottom
I have to be impressed by the incredible engineering and design that went into this. Every function seems smooth and reliable, I love how it looks, and the footprint is impressively small considering everything that must be inside
Hope its not another juicero
@@JokeswithMitochondria I got curious with ur usernamee so decided to cLick on ur profiIe. Wasn't disappointed haha
@@JokeswithMitochondriaI mean it seems not to be? It does grind and brew coffee, that's what they say it does. And the fact that you can use your own beans takes it far away from Juicero
One thing I love about about this, is it will eventually have a community. Likely shareable profiles for settings for a specific roast and company. Which would honor their promise of simple and less guess work. I'm interested to see how this develops
Hello James. Loved the video, as always.
I wanted to thank you and your team for making my day today.
I came to the UK from Romania and thought to visit the Square Mile roastery.
Even though I didn't have an appointment or anything, your team there was amazing, giving me and my brother an impromptu tour and some coffee to go.
I loved it, please if you see this let your team know that they're awesome!
This is the perfect machine for me! I enjoy doing the work of dialing in a cup of filter coffee. I have spreadsheets. I have multiple grinders. You know how it be.
But some days I don't want to go through the process. I am running late and I want to set it and forget while I multitask and make breakfast.
Also, my wife enjoys great coffee but does NOT enjoy dialing in a cup. I can dial it in and then let her just use my recipe. She likes pod machines and is sad we got rid of our Nespresso, and doesn't understand why I find pods philosophically abhorrent.
This machine might let us have the best of both worlds.
I'm in the same boat. There are days when I enjoy the whole process, but there are days when I don't and end up forgetting I have coffee brewing in an Aeropress for 15 minutes. While I wouldn't use the pods regularly, I can 100% see having some for family/friends who drink coffee and can then tap and go.
Tassimo uses barcodes and the early version was simple and most coffee geeks figured it out. They changed the codes to a more secret format, but a little scanning and printing and you have the label to stick to a refillable pod. I have used Tassimo for years right beside my Barrista Express. The Tassimo brew cycle is a very well timed profile that makes a perfect cup every time. I do like this machine and would consider it if I grew tired of my current work flow. I learned a lot from you about work flow and trust your opinions about this machine
Yes, they don’t want you to steal their recipes and opening your own pod company
As always James, great review! Cool drip tech! $399 yes, $799 no chance. Of course, with all the pod-style makers, the profit margins are mostly in the pods. Nespresso often even subsidizes the cost of their newer pod machines to lock you in to their pods.
True. I've noticed that's the case with so many things, like printers and ink now vs 20 years ago. And it's in lots of other fields too! Like, even though I'm in a country with subsidized healthcare, people with diabetes have to buy blood sugar meters and their strips - and the meter is often free when you buy packs of 100 strips. 🙄 "Free"
Compare it to other bean-to-cup machines like the delonghi, $799 is a bargain.
You seem to contradict yourself.
If they can sell the Kickstarter for 399 it seems to me there is a substantial profit margin in selling it retail for 799.
A Nespresso machines can be had for (far) less than 399.
@@dozog Not sure what you mean. $799 is too expensive for this, so $399 maybe (it seems nicer than the keurig or nespresso machines, but maybe not - is that your point?). Comparing it to Nespresso, they sell machines for far less (I tried one for $89). They sell the machines cheap and then make it up with the pods. It is similar to printers, the printer is relatively inexpensive, but the ink cartridges are expensive bc that is where the mfrs margin is.
@@scottintexas The business model you describe depends on getting as many people as possible to become dependent on your consumables.
As you say, Nespresso is selling the machine at a loss or almost at a loss. Same with cheap inkjet printers etc.
I don't think that's what is going on with the $799 drip machine.
Maybe they do hope for a profit on their pods from locked in consumers, but they don't forgo selling the machine with a healthy margin too.
It's more Apple iPhone than Nestle Nespresso. 😎
I think the versatility with the reusable basket is great! For a family, this machine serves whoever is coffee enthusiast, but also serves whoever just wants to load up different coffee without further thought.
To be honest, the reusable pod that it ships with provides some exciting possibilities! I see this as a tinkerer's delight that allows you to play with the settings until you've dialled in exactly how you want your favourite beans prepared. From that point it's 100% hassle-free, 'cos it remembers how you like the reusable pod set.
Re the work for the re-usable pod. It would probably work for those of us that have a favourite regular coffee (maybe only venturing out on non-work days, when you can play). In that instance, once you've "dialled in" for your fave coffee, it then becomes incredibly convenient. No different to any other B2C machine, I suppose.
XBloom is great for mornings when you don’t have time to brew multiple pour overs for yourself and family. Also once you have a recipe dialled for the reusable dripper it is automated for the rest of the bag
Do people do that? Lol make multiple pour overs for everyone in the morning?
I would never do that until I’ve had my coffee first.
I use moccamaster for this morning use case :)
I think this machine would fit well with the people who want better coffee than simple drip/pods brew, but don't want to go full down the rabbit hole of exact measurements of all parts of the process each brew. Once you find your recipe you can basically hit a repeat button. It saves some time once you have your recipe but still allows for that experimentation with recipes when desired. I'm kinda locked in my current Aeropress iced coffee recipe, but I have an Aeropress so can play around whenever. This is similar but gets an app too.
Great video! Questions I still have after watching:
1) What's the process to keep the machine clean? How often do cleanings need to be done? How long do they take?
2) What materials make up all of the components that the water touches, particularly in a heated state? Are they non-toxic, non-endocrine-disrupting, etc?
3) Looks like the pods are definitely not airtight. Are they shipped in an airtight container to preserve freshness?
I think the ability to play with and control the variables in the app makes the reusable filter beneficial! I know I don't want to do the work of pouring 30ml at 90°C in four different increments. I think the variety of options in terms of brew profile makes it pretty interesting
The expense and complexity of these things is why I love my Aeropress.
Cringe
They just need to print a QR code on top of the coffee that gets scanned by the machine to avoid the RFID chip. Plus you could scan it with the phone app.
The QR code could be on the bottom of the pod too and just gets scanned similarly to the rfid when you put the pod on.. You just need a bit of glass up there.
Yeah, was an RF reader and metal tags really better than a camera and QR/bar codes, either on paper stickers or just printed on the cups?
Moving to entirely app based seems the easiest way to do this - would allow you to buy cups from them / beans from anyone and have the recipe published, bloop your phone and away you go.
From the point of the machine, an RFID reader is significantly simpler and cheaper than a QR scanner. But yeah, needing RFID chips in bags isn't great.
Was thinking the same, throwing away electronics is not something good
My solution would be user controls where you can set the dials for brew temp, ratio, and grind size. That way, they can just put the config settings on the packaging and you set them yourself. Then you have the flexibility to try other coffees and adjust the dials on your own. The rfid is a bit overkill, and setting 3 dials for each new type of coffee is pretty minimal user interaction without compromising the automated nature of the machine. Of course like others have said a barcode or qr code would work just as well as the rfid.
Really cool product! Personally, the process of making coffee is my mindfulness activity and I don't want that to be taken from me but that doesn't take away how genius this design is!
I am glad you brought up the composability of the pod, there is a difference between compostable and commercially compostable as well, I do not know which side this pod falls onto but companies don't tend to disclose that what they mean is commercially compostable which means it requires a special facility to break down(in big facilities with controlled conditions) and that it wont break down in the garden at a natural rate.
Sounds like they are at a great spot for version 1. Once the price point comes down and version 2 comes out, they should have it dialed in!! I may put my money down on this though.
I like the idea of this. I'd probably use my own beans with it to keep costs down. It might need some setting up but after that I'd just need to weigh the beans and start it going. I think it's far too expensive for me right now and even at $400 I couldn't justify it.
Agree that $400 is a lot but compared to a $200 Nespresso that only accepts their own brand cups...it is fair, besides that this one uses real coffee.
Exactly where I am. Though, if they added a milk steamer, for $400 I'd be very tempted.
One design improvement idea would be placing the RFID chip on the lid instead of the pod. Makes it just a bit easier to separate the compostable from the non-compostable
Great review, I hope that xBloom will take some of your concerns into account before the UK/Euro launch. I'd love empty filter pods instead of the reusable pod.
I'm exactly the 'lazy' coffee loving consumer this is aimed at 😂
Time to start saving £
Honestly love this concept. More of these kinds of machines for different kinds of brewing methods should be brought to market (but maybe at a more affordable price like the Morning capsule machine).
Even if this device isn't the right fit, out of all these high end products this is the first in a while that I actually believe they took a lot of community feedback and tried to address as many issues as possible. Maybe not perfect, but I see this as a far better solution as most machines. My only concern would be, as many of these smart devices have, is what happens if the company goes under (wishing you success, xBloom). It looks like there's mostly good contingencies if they stop making pods or their servers go down as it doesn't RELY on those but if the app itself breaks I would hope you could still manually have some controls on the device itself to alter the brew for home bought coffee
Like how you can't do much with your TV if you lose the remote...
Actually, I'd be more worried that some element of the complex system would cease functioning and there'd be no place to repair the coffeemaker. In my many decades of life it's become clear that the more feature-packed a device is, the more likely it is that something will go wrong.
Fair and honest review!
I agree with the overall sentiment that there are several areas to improve, but I'm hopeful for what it and machines like it might achieve in the near future.
Why not use an RFID tag on the box?
Make a small RFID tag on the box. It tears off and you retain the tag for all pods until the box of pods are gone.
They could make a small shelf/box on the side/back of the machine. each RFID tag has minimal info for IDing your pod in case you have multiple boxes at once
I think this still comes down to convenience, the ideal solution here would likely be having an RFID on the box and then a small display on the top with a number of saved scanned pods to select from with a touch. You could reduce the amount of tags you need to ship by doing that.
Unfortunately now that they've shipped a unit this is somewhat difficult to retroactively fix without making things less convenient for the early adopters.
They could also include a tag or something, like a card.
The option to remember them would also be a good way to reduce waste.
Yes we're actually working on something like this! Think a card with a single RFID that you can scan for each brew. So eventually the customer can actually choose between fully tagged pods (most convenient, but tag must be removed before composting) vs. a tag on a card and no tags on pods (less convenient, but easier to compost).
The RFID tag could be skipped (if HF/NFC) by having a phone app and using the phone's NFC to send the recipe.
@@tropicalkings3044 It could be skipped but I think that somewhat misses the point of the device. There's lots of options out there for people who want to brew really nice pour-over coffee, but they're all pretty involved. The benefit of this machine is that you just tap a pod on the top and put it in to brew. Adding taking your phone out in the morning to this process makes things more difficult.
I actualy love how much time you spend on criticising the RFID. I am really surprised and happy about a UA-camr that cares about the impacts of products. Thanks.
The tech involved is pretty great and, considering it’s a kickstarter project, I can see improvements being made in future iterations. The water stream movement is beautiful design, and with some increased pressure I can see the dripping issue improving. I personally enjoy the ritual of manual pour over as well as the economical aspect, but I have sooooo many people in my family who hate that. You can set it up and let it do it’s thing much like a traditional coffee maker but you get better results. This reminds me of pour over machines but you have the built in grinder which is great. Out of my budget but it seems like a great bit of tech with a lot of potential.
The electrostatic stream diversion is lifted from a machine called a flow cytometry sorter. It’s a scientific instrument used to sort cells from a liquid stream. Interesting idea.
I like the fact you can use your own beans. I wish the cup was made out of another material than plastic.
I don't love the idea of plastic and hot water for brewing coffee (or tea) either but there are some better plastic out there now (hopefully true!), but also I can see why they went with plastic not only because it is cheaper, but for coffee brewing a lot of people prefer the plastic pour over devices because it's got better thermal stability (it has low mass so doesn't need a preheating and keeps the heat in nicely), metal like aluminum dissipates heat quickly, ceramic or glass have a higher mass which when cold will drop initial brew temp dramatically, and are also more fragile.
We appreciate your reviews. They're all detailed and informative. Keep up the good work.
I love my xBloom.... I have been doing various pour-over methods for 10+ years. Still have all my gear on the counter (kettle, grinder, brewers, etc...) Love the convenience relative to the quality of the cup.
100% the reusable pod is worth it. Yes, there is effort in dialing in everything just right, but once you've dialed it in, you don't have to go through the work of grinding and brewing it. And I can imagine that, if it gets popular enough, coffee companies might even have recommendations built-in, or else you can find other people online who have used the same coffee as you have and have recommendations.
This is something I would love to get for my mother. I can help her dial in the settings, and then whenever she wants coffee, it's just a little extra work compared to a Keurig and she'll get much better coffee out of it.
One thing that immediately jumped to me with regard to the disposable rfid tag. They could replace it with a permanent one that isn't attached to the pod but shaped like a casino chip that you can tap on top of the machine, and maybe have a storage location on the machine or on a keychain. Also to consider is most people would be trying at max 2 or 3 roast for daily coffee so would only require few of them. Maybe even have blank ones that can be attributed to certain roast in app. So even if you change the roast, you just need to make that change in app and now buy new rfid chips.
Also if thye can get a community started where people share their recipes for different roasts. It will make it easier for beginners to try the machine and not be intimidated with all the setting options. But this is for the future, a best case scenario I would say.
Like I stated in a different comment. They should've used 4 digid codes with numbers ranging from 1 to 4 in my opinion. They can write it in big letters on the packaging and that way you have 256 options of water strength, temp, bloom length etc. And the only thing the device needs is a tiny numpad with 4 numbers.
I wonder if they could just attach it to the packaging the pods come in (maybe even perforate around it so you can tear it off and keep it separate if desired)
@@Jules-bass That is a good idea. I was just thinking along the lines of me just waking up and what would be easy for my sleep-muddled brain to do. Without much changes to the machine.
But your idea is even better from a waste standpoint. Maybe have physical numbers like in the number lock of suitcases(but more refined), which won't required to be input each time. Only requires manual input when you change the roast.
@@user-bc7cb8uu7e Maybe have packaging options with and without the tags, so you don't need to buy it everytime you get a refill.
That casino chip (that would have to come with each box!) probably has a bigger footprint than the tiny rfid stickrr
I have been using the xBloom for a few weeks and love the coffee it produces. I will take your advice and experiment with grinding the the beans a bit finer. I live alone and drink about 2 cups a day so the water tank issue is not a problem. I use the machine every 2 days with another method in between. Thank you for the excellent videos. I have learned so much from you over the years and have read your books.
If I had the money I would buy one in an instant 🎉
Seems like a QR code on the paper lid would be the best solution. It's already being printed on and you could even use invisible ink with and IR or UV scanner to see it, so it wouldn't interfere with the roasters logo or other information. That way, you don't have to worry about ink or stickers that need to be food safe and you can just lay the paper on the top, or put the cup on the top, upside down. (For that matter, why aren't the RFID chips on the lid so you don't have to worry about the coffee running all over it and taking it off to compost?).
The RFID chip just seems excessive and an obvious point of contention. You could even offer a function in the app to make a QR code image to print or bring up on the phone so you could have little recipe cards that you scan for different coffees w/out having to open the app up.
Very cool product, overall. Far too expensive for me, but a hard-line option in an office seems like the best place for it.
I came here looking for this comment, thank you
My money says version 2.0 will have a completely different mechanism to identify the pod and a slightly stronger "stream".
400 is cheap....
This definitely feels like an office machine, but then you could just get an industrial drip maker for less money.
@@petervansan1054 I'm referring to the $800 list price.
In an office setting, the coffee machine will often be plumbed in (much like the water/ice dispenser on a fridge). So they might want to make sure it's compatible with that connection if they want it to fit that niche.
Just got mine about a month ago. Have used it exclusively, replacing my chemex. Very happy with it!
Going to go out on a limb and wonder if they could put the RFID chip on the top label so you could simply put the pod on the top upside down and once it's read, pull off the cover (and RFID chip) as I assume the top is not compostable...
Or whether it needs a chip at all? I'd say a QR can easily contain enough data to instruct the machine..
It's kind of genius to use the technology from a cathode ray tube to control water.
Definitely feels good when you heard James Hoffmann call your local roaster a "great roaster" 😅
Also, I guess Fisher Price wasn't too far off with only including the paper cone in their set...
You had me at "moving water drop flow" and "the shake". I'm sold. I want it!
i admire your transparency and passion. You do fantastic reviews.
This is one of your best reviews yet. Very thorough and thoughtful, thanks James.
Honestly this machine is kinda my jam. I love making good coffee but the whole process is too fiddly for me to make it every morning. I can totally handle dialing in a new brew setting with the custom cup when I get a new bag of coffee, and letting that carry me through until the next roast I buy.
If you're gonna do the RFID reader, why not just stick it to the packaging that the pod comes in. Reduce the number of RFID labels needed and still is easy.
Or do something like capacitive buttons like Red, Green, Blue, Yellow. Then you just hit the buttons in a combo to denote the info. A lot can be included in a database that then is recalled via a key which the RFID is undoubtedly using.
What a great review, you asked all the questions the makers have to answer to make a better machine in the future. This is a machine that I’ll keep an eye on… maybe version 2 or 3 if they upgrade will be a great coffe machine…
This is a very cool and intuitive device... i absolutely love the implementation and personally, as a technologist i believe NFC is the best, easiest, and most consistent implementation for these cups... my ONLY issue with this, is the cost. at $800, that is very steep.
Great review, James. I bought these on the Kickstarter program, and you gave me an excellent idea for under-extracted coffee. Just go in and lower the grind setting a couple of settings. There are 30 grind settings and then save it, and then when you do that, make that coffee again; it will be dialed in.
The xBloom is an excellent machine for people who aren't coffee nerds because then they don't have to get a Pearl scale, Fellow GEN two grinder with SSP upgraded burrs, and a Stagg pro kettle, which is what I did. That's $870 US, and I am a coffee nerd.
If you are a coffee nerd, the xBloom will let you dial in your coffee and save it so you don't have to write it in your coffee log. I primarily bought it to see how the roasters brewed their coffee, and if I didn't like the coffee, I didn't have to have 10 ounces of it.
I also roast my beans on an Ikawa, so this is fun to make coffee that I roasted and plug in recipes that work for similar beans.
You can use 155 filters or Orea small flat filters, and there is an Etsy creator that makes a negotiator that flattens to filter to the removable pod.
One comment was that there could be a community for the bloom, and there is one on Discord.
Finally, xBloom has incredible customer service, similar to Decent Espresso, which is some of the best. I saw that Caleb Schwarz, the community manager at xBloom, tried to answer some questions from posters of Comments.
It could be better, but with two Apple engineers as the creators and some UA-cam personalities working on it, they got pretty close.
I paid $399 for mine, so I bought two, and someone will get a great Birthday present. So if $800.00 is too much, they have it on their website for $699, and you get the reusable dripper and eight pods of coffee. Probably Only in the US. Enjoy
A QR code on the seal seems like a better solution, a low res camera where the RFID reader is could scan it. That would be more expensive since you'd need hardware on board to do the image processing. I wouldn't worry about the camera in this case since a dedicated QR code camera would probably be pretty poor for anything else and if it's on top pointed up that would also contribute to it being bad for nefarious purposes.
I suppose if it has wifi a barcode on that top would also work and not require a camera, but a QR code has the advantage of being data dense enough to encode a recipe directly so the machine could be entirely stand alone.
My exact thought. Not sure why they went with the RFID chip rather than a barcode / QR scanner.
An throwaway RFID chip under the cup is a huge amount of Ewaste compared to a QR code. Each of those tags has a small computer chip in them that takes tons of resources to make. Compared to some black ink that could be printed directly onto the bottom or side of the cup.
Exactly my thought. A QR code or matrix code would do the trick. At the end you need maybe 4 to 5 variables and that's it.
Same idea
@@oODomeeOoeven a barcode could work probably
This machine is highly tempting for me, though the price is a bit of a stretch. I would actually enjoy having a sort of "baseline" recipe to start from, like a basic V60 recipe, and even if i never dial it further it can probably get me pretty far. I feel like the convenience of "push-button coffee" is extremely compelling, even if there's a bit of initial fuss for a non-pod option, like you said. There are ways around it that could still get decently far.
Some metrics takeouts from James:
1. Autotune water mineral machine -> Complementary blue ocean strat for producer (machine + minerals pods + water filter + descaling cleaner + etc)
2. Brew metrics are fine but add final 20-23% extraction window KPI.
3. Appstore DLC subscription for fine tuning existing features e.g. a little agitation from water drip, plus points for creating reverse fountain show!
4. Scrap RFID from pods, use barcodes instead while maintaining pricing for better margin.
5. Cooling fans may have upgrade quieter options, supplied from better OEM fans, custom passive water cooling cage, or those Germany Fan Motor Driver custom quiet algorithms with premium subscription.
Coffee producers brew recipes only reached 19.5% extraction probably due to differences in machine calibration used by Hoffmann & Coffee producers.
I have never drank coffee in my life, but your voice makes my gooseneck firm, so I watch your channel.
17:33 If I would buy that machine, I would probably use it exclusively with beans and not with pods.
I’d use the RFID chips from the accompanying pods as presets for my beans.
Just wanted to take a moment to appreciate the iOS app overlay showing while James changes settings and sets the pod on the brewer. It's that attention to detail which takes a lot of work to get right and makes these videos excellent.
i have the xbloom and i love it! i love building recipes with the reusable dripper. i think james is wrong when he says people who want the machine don’t want to fiddle with recipes. it’s one of my favorite parts of the machine!
I think the idea is that if you want to fiddle with the recipe and have to dial in, you're better off doing your own manual pour over instead of paying $800 for a machine that just has you do it yourself anyways.
@@wretchedpkmn i get that viewpoint, but i personally find it more fun to fiddle with the machine than mess with a whole pour over setup. fiddling with a whole setup and fiddling with an app are 2 very diff things. i also only paid 400 from kickstarter. if we incorporate the retail 800 dollar price, then i think everything becomes a new convo
I rarely every say anything on a UA-cam channel. I have Nespresso machine at home, that I feel does just fine for my needs. You seem like an absolute coffee snob, but in the best possible way. You're presentation and delivery of the information is fascinating and fun to listen to. I am honestly thinking of getting this machine now. They have a $100 promotion, but it still seems quite pricey. If I could have paid $400, I'd be much more interested. Subscribed.
I have a Bunn MCU, that has four trays. One for grounds, one for kcups, one for hot water, and one for coffee pods/tea bags. The water reservoir in the back keeps water hot at all times. Just pour the amount of water in your cup, pour it in, and what you pour in is what comes out. No measurement required. Just like the big Bunn machines. The water you pour in goes to the reservoir and is heated. The coffee maker you are showing looks really nice! Thank you for posting.
ngl, I've been waiting for this. Since, as we all know, coffee gear doesn't actually exist until it's been reviewed by James Hoffmann.
I enjoy mine, wouldn't pay full price but the kickstarter price was worth it imo.
I use mine every day and love it! Its consistency is so awesome in the morning when I'm too tired to do a pour over properly. Also I use the reusable pod everyday lol. Because I only drink a cup a day, a bag of coffee lasts a good 2 1/2 weeks so I can dial in a new bag in a day or two and then the rest of the bag I don't have to worry about it.
There are a few things that I do find annoying about it. The "anti-static" grind funnel still has pretty bad static issues if you don't spray the beans first. This would normally be fine since the cleanup is relatively easy, but the problem is while the coffee is brewing, the chaff or grounds that have stuck to the grinding funnel will sometimes fall off of the grind funnel and land directly into the cup! It's happened more than once now, and I find the only ways to fix it are to:
a) move the cup further to the right so only the left edge of the cup is under the pod whilst brewing (potentially causing messes while pouring)
b) spray the beans before putting them in the grinder to reduce static
c) pause the brewing process before water starts pouring, clean the funnel, then resume brewing
A minor inconvenience, but an inconvenience nonetheless. I imagine many people who buy this product won't know about the spraying beans trick to reduce static so it could cause some frustration. Also, you can't really fit anything besides a small mug or tasting cup under the pod while it's pouring, I do wish it had a bit more height to it.
Great machine review so convenient and nice design.
With the recycling becoming a must. The pod rf chip could go Into a tin (bean) can scrap bin, the paper into tiny little pieces and thrown into your own home compost. I believe they thought a lot about consumers and the hurdles we face recycling..
Failing all that pop round to someone else's kitchen and get them to make it for you , they dispose of the waste!!
Like the perma cup !
The "shard building of coffee"
😁
This product is insanely appealing to me because I love coffee and building the recipe but I struggle to find the time to make coffee each morning with a V60 and a kettle (I work on average 50+ hours a week from 9 am to 7 pm) and being able to take some time to make a recipe and then use the same coffee every day to enjoy it seems great!