XBloom: new pour over pod machine launching on Kickstarter

Newdent

Coffee pod things are nothing new but what scares me is that they’ve got all the coffee influencers on payroll.

DavecUK

Newdent Except me <lol>, no one asked me.

lancehedrick

Newdent So, I have been approached by dozens of brands to be “on payroll.” I have turned down every single one. This one I consulted quietly on for about 6 months. They asked me to be an advisor. I only agreed because 1) they listened to every critique I made of it and implemented my suggested changes and b) they included a reusable pod from the material I suggested, meaning one doesnt need a subscription to their pods for coffee.
I am not sure what other “influencer” is on their payroll besides Brian Quan, who literally is employed there, and Scott Rao, who is head of roasting quality control.

Newdent

DavecUK they only asked the ones who they thought they could throw $ at to forget about their conscience! 😅

DavecUK

Newdent Well I suppose I would tell it how it was…from my unconsciously biased perspective….I should watch the video though, as I am now intrigued!

LMSC

DavecUK Please don’t tell us you has this on your counter! 🤣

DavecUK

FadedFrontiers The thing that really baffles me is that they talk about how each pod is biodegradable yet each one has an individual NFC chip that certainly won’t be. Totally all for smart integration if that’s your thing but making it entirely reliant on an app or single use chip is just really really short sighted.

There’s a few things that immediately tick me off about the pod.

It’s Biodegradable because they don’t want you reusing it (the best form of recycling). I’d be pretty sure you would only get one use out of the pod.
They want to tie you into to an even more expensive way of enjoying coffee
The recognition is via RFD because they again want to tie you to the pod and the roasters (from who they may well take a cut).

How should it have been designed:

non biodegradeable pod (you can buy extra ones)
Filter paper inserts, like for cupcakes
recognise something other than RFD e.g. a barcode etc..
Roasters can place on their 250g or 500 bags as a peel off label you can stick on the pod (or simply swipe before a coffee
Take a small cut from the roasters

You then get the coffee packaged properly, from any roaster in your country that signs up to them. You are not making and transporting loads of little pods all the time.

@LMSC No, I don’t have one on my counter…“I’m not the reviewer they are looking for”

Giphy - Obi Wan Mind GIF by Star Wars

lancehedrick

DavecUK your wishes are true!

Newdent

I’m no expert on this side of things but some people were very concerned on discord because who the venture capitalist backers are and what the company is valued at and what that means regarding the margins.

As has been mentioned, who will suffer the most like always, the producers.

Del_UK

I’m curious as to how that have managed to “produce” a 100% Biodegradable pod that contains an NFC chip, likely containing a PCB and some form of metal antenna…?

DavecUK

Del_UK I suspect you have to peel the chip off and dispose of it in the normal waste.

The one little issue, as with many councils, our recycling rejects the whole batch if there are not recognised recyclables in it e.g. Those pods!

Del_UK

DavecUK yea, after a few comments on a a different youtube video, someone ( I can only assume someone who worked on/with it) replied saying it indeed needs to be removed, so definitely not 100% biodegradable…

I can’t imagine the average person is going to go through the ‘hassle’ of peeling off a tag from their hot damp coffee cup thingy.

I think there’s the basis of a great product here; imagine an open source version where any roaster could send you a bag of beans, the brew method and grind setting got sent via Wi-Fi to the machine, and you use a simple paper filter to brew incredibly repeatable and accurately made coffee.

DavecUK

Del_UK I think there’s the basis of a great product here; imagine an open source version where any roaster could send you a bag of beans, the brew method and grind setting got sent via Wi-Fi to the machine, and you use a simple paper filter to brew incredibly repeatable and accurately made coffee.

Of course, but they are not trying to make a great product, they are trying to make great money. So it will never happen.

It’s similar to what printer manufacturers did.

Newdent

I’ve seen it compared to the printer and ink business model.

Del_UK

My thoughts exactly, it’s no different to that, only you’re not getting the unit for cheap then paying a lot for the refills in this case, the unit and the refills are expensive. I saw one post saying it’ll be about $2 a pod!

DavecUK

Del_UK I guess there will be some who get sucked in as it is allowed to be promoted hard on forums they choose to advertise on and the online influencers of course.

It’s not the sort of product I could review (except negatively, which I don’t publish), as I don’t believe in it. The whole thing isn’t right, it feels to me that it’s been done for the love of money, not the love of good coffee.

Del_UK

DavecUK it’s like when every kitchen gadget seemed to be a solution-in-search-of-a-problem, but now its a solution-in-search-of-a-subscription.

MWJB

I haven’t seen any actual testing of this device as yet, am I looking in the wrong places?

It does say on the FAQ there will be a reusable dripper avilable for a development program. So there is the possibility of not having to use th biodegradable RFID equipped drippers?

No UK roasters appear to be involved, shipping to Canada & US only.

Target achieved already, so many concerns seem to be somewhat moot?

FadedFrontiers

MWJB no it’s all been promos and demos so far. Safe to say they’ll flood the usual outlets with review units in due course.

I’d disagree that concerns are moot now that it’s reached targets given the sheer amount of Kickstarters that go on to fail following the initial funding run. As mentioned elsewhere too it looks like a slick operation with hefty financial backers, so getting things running with the help of several prominent names in coffee wasn’t ever going to be the issue.

There may well be some unhappy customers if this then fails to transition to the wider market and as a result support is gradually dropped for things like the coffee pod system and app which were major selling points. Then you’re just stuck with a big machine that has gotten a lot less smart very quickly.

MWJB

Sorry, I meant moot from the aspect of the Kickstarter campaign & reservations (clearly very few by the uptake) and that it probably won’t come to UK/EU anyway.

Who are the backers?

I can’t imagine why anyone would need an app for a drip brewer other than to turn it off/on.

FadedFrontiers

MWJB Looks like a couple of venture capitalist funds from China, couldn’t find any links to other coffee products at all but lots of tech and apps which probably explains the approach: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/xbloom