![](https://design-milk.com/images/2022/09/7XBloom-coffee-.jpg "Xbloom") Seen a few coffee influencers have been teasing the XBloom, looks like a slick over-engineered pod machine with an inbuilt grinder for single cup filter coffees. Hard to find specifics on the grinder but I'm guessing some kind of 30ish mm conical. Here's Rao providing an overview, ironically pouring a demo cup with very clear signs of channelling: https://youtu.be/4IsyND_CHH8 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. Is there enough of a market for techbro speciality coffee hobbyists who will be prepared to pay above the odds to avoid any of the effort involved with coffee making? Edit: quite the pricetag, early bird Kickstarter price is 399usd, apparently a 50% saving off RRP.

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

@"Newdent"#p27920 Except me , no one asked me.

@"DavecUK"#p27922 they only asked the ones who they thought they could throw $ at to forget about their conscience! 😅

@"Newdent"#p27923 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!

@"DavecUK"#p27925 Please don’t tell us you has this on your counter! 🤣

> @"FadedFrontiers"#p27789 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"#16 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](https://media3.giphy.com/media/l2JJKs3I69qfaQleE/giphy.gif?cid=bb77869fv7yxd4gg0zvjn962k56mx55eymp6ojxrlsagtzq4&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g)

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.

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…?

@"Del_UK"#p28004 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!

@"DavecUK"#p28008 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.

XBloom: new pour over pod machine launching on Kickstarter

Newdent

Yeh it goes without saying that sending out coffee in 15g doses isn’t going to be ideal and I don’t remember what the recyclable material is but many of these materials aren’t widely recycled and need to be recycled at specialist facilities with methods that require additional energy to accelerate decomposition.

I think it’s great that they’ve included a reusable dripper but that’s by no means the target market. I find it curious that they deem it acceptable for the pod to sit in the holder on the piss, you’d assume after putting all this effort in they would resolve something as basic as that.

Let’s not pretend this is anything other than venture capitalists trying to pedal cheap Chinese ‘specialty’ coffee but I do hope I’m wrong and that the industry will be revolutionised!

I’m certainly not against a great machine that brings consistency and accessibility to speciality pourover coffee and I think the machine itself could do that but I’m not yet convinced that it’s the goal off xbloom the company, even if that is the intended goal of the influencers that are backing it. That’s why I have no qualms with the influencers themselves.

lancehedrick

Newdent sugar cane and bamboo!

tompoland

Newdent don’t remember what the recyclable material is but many of these materials aren’t widely recycled and need to be recycled at specialist facilities with methods that require additional energy to accelerate decomposition.

Think the idea is that they are biodegradable as opposed to recyclable. I’ll let you know how they go in my compost bins. Sugar cane will compost pretty quickly as will bamboo leaves if that’s what they are using, as opposed to bamboo fibre which would take longer.

lancehedrick

Newdent tbh I agree. But any chance to potentially unseat nespresso/keureg sales is a win!

MWJB

lancehedrick Newdent tbh I agree. But any chance to potentially unseat nespresso/keureg sales is a win!

At ten times the price, it’s optimistic to think there’ll be much in the way of inroads there.

Nespresso original platform is already open to compatibles, compostibles, recycables etc. and specialty roasters haven’t really followed through on the quality/consistency front there.

Not that it’s an issue for me, like Keurig, it’s not available here anyway.

lancehedrick

FadedFrontiers with these, mine began decomposing in the trash can… haha! It was quite gross to be honest. One can plant flowers or other plant life in them, etc.

hornbyben

The other part of this I’m not a fan of is the reliance on an app. It looks like it will work standalone with paired capsules, but to use manually all the controls appear to be in the smart app.

This approach pretty much guarantees a limited lifetime. No app, no use from the machine (even if the hardware works perfectly). If it uses the cloud it’s even worse, as this means ongoing cost to the supplier. During a growth phase this is probably ok, but it usually isn’t long before the cost starts to out weigh the benefit, and changes in approach like a subscription model start to look more attractive, or old versions of appliances stop being supported. This is true generally, but I do think it’s a shame this approach is so fashionable even with products I expect should have a long lifetime.

hornbyben

MWJB I suspect the issue here is the massive investment that you’d need to grind well. The pods are quite tolerant of putting varying amounts of water through, and you get a surprising amount of flavour out of 6-7g of coffee. I remember seeing a factory tour video, and from memory the particle size distribution was very narrow due to the use of very expensive roller mills.

For speciality roasters I don’t think they could get enough consistently ground coffee into such a small pod to make it that much better.

DavecUK

hornbyben it’s hard to imagine a great grinder in the machine, but you never know.

MWJB

DavecUK A grinder for filter brewing would need to seriously sub par to not deliver at least a decent drink.

Newdent

DavecUK I’ve got a feeling it’s a burr very similar to C40, sptk38, lagom mini, etc

hornbyben

DavecUK my great grinder comment was referring to what you need to get good results from a nespresso compatible pod, not the xbloom. I should have made that clearer.

tompoland

DavecUK it should be a cracker if Rao and LH have any say in it. BTW the Gevi 4 in 1 has a superb grinder. Surprisingly good.

MWJB

Newdent And the earlier iterations in grinders like the Ascaso I2

DavecUK

tompoland A user of this forum had a Gevi and I was hoping they would post more about it.

lancehedrick

tompoland Yes. It is very good! I found the manufacturer of their 60mm burrs and bought some for testing with other grinders (like the incredible value Urbanic 070)

tompoland

DavecUK I have one, what would you like to know?

tompoland

lancehedrick Lance I’m interested in learning more about burr geometry, do you know of any articles, websites or whatever? Thanks in advance.

DavecUK

tompoland Just some vids and comments on real world use. It seemed an interesting thing, then the world went quiet?

tompoland

Update received today from KS

$500K Funded by 1,100+ Backers & New Stretch Goal Announced!

Dear Backers,

As our campaign has reached the $500K milestone, the stretch goal for the Orea Sense Glass 275ml is now unlocked. All backers will get 5 sticks of Third Wave Water Supplement and the Orea Sense Glass for free along with your reward of the xBloom Coffee Machine.

During the ongoing campaign, quite a few backers discussed with our team and expressed the wish to use the xBloom grinder independently as a standalone module. We heard you and have now made this the next stretch goal in line at $600K!

Using the grinder as a standalone tool makes the xBloom a more versatile coffee partner. You can tweak the grind size using the app and brew anything ranging from AeroPress, Pour-Over, to your favorite Chemex, and French Press. You can even use this to grind beans for cupping purposes!

Looking forward to using the xBloom with grinder along with other inspirations of coffee brewing? Make sure to back our campaign if you haven’t yet, and please help us spread the word!

———————- xBloom Named as A CES 2023 Best of Innovation Awards Honoree ———————

The CES Innovation Awards program is an annual competition honoring outstanding design and engineering in 28 consumer technology product categories. This year’s CES Innovation Awards program received a record-high number of over 2100 submissions. Today it was announced that xBloom has been named a CES® 2023 Best of Innovation Awards Honoree!

We appreciate your support as always, and please stay tuned for our future updates!

Yours with love,

xBloom Team

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