xBloom Studio Review

Design and features

• Can use as standalone grinder
• Can use a water line
• App makes it easy to operate

The xBloom Coffee Maker arrived in a company-branded brown, cardboard box. Inside, the machine was cushioned well, and there were several cutouts in the styrofoam for the various accessories.

Those accessories include the power cord, xPod dock, magnetic dosing cup, omni dripper 2, 10 paper filters, cleaning brush, NFC recipe card, and quick start guide.

For testing purposes, in a separate box, I received a bag of Last Mile xPods, and a bag of Last Mile Whole Bean Coffee.

The xBloom Studio’s appearance is striking. The midnight black machine has a sleek, minimalistic appearance that at first glance, doesn’t necessarily look like a coffee maker. That’s because most of the compartments are recessed or hidden.

I’m a big fan of black (and stainless-steel) appliances. If you’re not, the xBloom Studio is also available in sage green with gold accents (knobs and xPod dock), twilight with black accents, sage green with green accents, moonlight white with white accents, and offline blue with black accents.

The grinder is on the left side of the machine. There’s a recessed door on the top that slides to the right to reveal the grinder chute. The grinder has 80 settings.

Below the grinder, on the right side, is the display panel along with 3 manual knobs.

Below that is the kinematic spout (more on that later).

The water tank is positioned discreetly in the back, and has a recessed flip-top lid. The water tank has a 32-ounce capacity – which doesn’t seem like a lot, but keep in mind that you can only make 11-ounce drinks at one time. And honestly, who wants to go through all of the trouble to freshly grind coffee beans each day, and then use left-over water?

One interesting note: on the back side of the machine is also the water inlet. This allows you to connect the water tank to a water line, and never worry about refilling the tank again. If you decide to use an external water source, you’ll need to purchase a water purification pipe for a non-pressured water source, or a pressure feed fitting (xBloom sells those) for a pressurized water source.

The power plug is also on the back side. It’s removable, which is helpful when you want to store the coffee maker flush against the wall.

On the inside of the water tank lid is a very useful coffee grinder cheat sheet. The grind size chart provides grinder setting recommendations, depending on the coffee drink (1 – 15 for espresso, 15 – 40 for Aeropress, 30 – 70 for pour over coffee, 55 – 80 for cold brew/French press).

The display panel is on the front right side of the machine and includes three icons: Grinder module, Brewer module, and Scale module. Below each icon is a knob.

Pressing the knob under the Grinder module let me adjust the grind size, rotational speed, and other grind settings.

Pressing the knob under the Brewer module let me adjust the water temperature, pour style, and other brewing functions.

Pressing the button under the Scale module let me weigh coffee (and I could also weigh other food items). When the display is on the home screen, this is also where I could access preference settings (by holding the button for 3 seconds). In this mode, I could then press either the left or right button to toggle between options, and rotate the middle knob to toggle between unit options (for example, Celsius vs Fahrenheit; or grams, milliliters, or ounces; or water tank or tap water intake method).

The knobs can also be used to calibrate the grinder, calibrate the scale, and descale the machine. This is such a feature-rich machine; however, some features can only be changed via the app, such as adjusting the pouring radius – although the company recommends using the default setting, since adjusting the angle to make it wider could cause the hot water to spill over past the mug.

The display panel also shows error messages, such as No Water when the tank needs to be filled, Add Beans when there’s an insufficient amount of beans – or beans are jammed in the grinder, Error – which is usually a power voltage alert, and Wait if there’s a potential overflow issue, like no cup being underneath.

Above this section are two icons for Water Line mode and Bluetooth paired.

Connecting to the xBloom Coffee App allowed me to control the grinder, brewer, and scale from my smartphone, and also select from various recipes. I could change the dose, grind size and RPM for the grinder – and there’s also a recommended grind size chart in the app. In addition, I could change the display (bright, brighter, brightest), calibrate the grinder, and the app (as well as the onboard display panel) would also tell me how long a recipe takes to brew, and provide the quantity.

Beneath the controls is the kinematic spout, which can be customized for one of three pouring patterns: spiral, center, or circular.

At the bottom of the coffee maker is the drip tray, and underneath that is the scale.

When thinking of something to compare the xBloom Studio to, I’m coming up short. The Terra Kaffe TK-02 has a similar sleek design with recessed compartments, includes an integrated grinder, and makes single-serve coffee beverages. However, it also makes espresso drinks and has a milk carafe attachment for espressos and lattes. And the Terra Kaffe TK-02 is almost 3 times as expensive.

The Aarke Coffee System is also a feature-rich option, has a stand-alone grinder – and is actually a SCA-certified brewer. But it costs a couple of hundred dollars more, and makes a full carafe of coffee. The Ratio Four brews up to 20-ounces of coffee into a carafe (which could be considered a single serving depending on the size of your coffee mug). But it doesn’t have a grinder, and the one button operation doesn’t even include a digital panel.

Performance

• Consistently delicious coffee
• Built-in scale weighs coffee beans
• Plenty of customization features

For my first test, I wanted to grind and brew coffee, as opposed to using an xPod. From the middle button, I chose Auto Mode, and then selected between light roast, medium roast, or dark roast. xBloom sent me the Good Company bag of coffee beans, which is a medium-dark roast from Mexico, with caramel, apple, citrus, hazelnut, and chocolate notes.

I pressed the Scale item, set it to Tare (to account for the container), added coffee beans, and then pressed the arrow to weigh it – with a goal of 15 grams. When I reached that weight, I poured the coffee beans in the grinder, placed the omni dripper 2 (with included paper filter), and pressed the Start button.

The coffee was delicious – owing in part to the fact that the caramel, apple, citrus, hazelnut, and chocolate combo was my absolute favorite, and was nutty, sweet, citrusy, and chocolatey – all at once. The balanced brew was flavorful and had a medium-silky body.

The precision grinding process (80 grind settings), along with a precise temperature, and pacing during the brewing process, also contributed to the cup of coffee tasting like I’d purchased it from a coffee house.

However, since the xBloom Studio was so much fun to use, I also experimented with various other types of coffee beans (light, medium, dark, decaf), and tinkered with the volume, temperature, flow rate, and more – both manually and via the app. Sometimes, the coffee was too strong, other times, it was too weak, and one time, I was seriously concerned that it was going to overflow – but the coffee stopped brewing just in time to avoid making a mess on my countertop. In the photos, you can see that I used very large coffee cups to overcompensate for user errors.

I enjoyed the learning process. When in Grinder mode, the 3 buttons on the coffee maker could be used as follows: rotating the 1^st button let me select a grind size between 1 and 80; rotating the 2^nd button let me rotate between the RPM (60 to 120 – although it defaults to 120); the 3^rd button is pressed to select Start or Exit.

When in Brewing mode, the 3 buttons on the coffee maker can be used as follows: the 1^st button let me choose the pouring style, the 2^nd button let me select the temperature, and the 3^rd button was pressed to either Start or Exit this module.

One feature that I particularly liked was the ability to change the flow pattern (how the coffee flows out of the brewer). There are three options: centered – which dispenses vertically in a single line; circular – which dispenses with the largest radius, and spiral – which dispenses in a circular motion starting at the center moving outward, and then from the outer edge moving inward. Just another way that I felt like a true barista when testing the xBloom Studio.

Now, on to using the xPod, which was also a fun experience. The company sent me a bag of their Lychee Candy Lemonade xPods. It’s a light-medium roast that combines the flavors of Lychee candy, strawberry tea, and lemonade.

The first step was to scan the recipe card over the top of the machine (or I could use the app instead).

Next, I took the lid off of the xPod capsule and poured the coffee beans into the grinder. Then I placed the empty xPod onto the dock, and put a glass mug underneath. Pressing Start began the Autopilot brew process, or I could choose to fine-tune the water ratio and grind size. And then, I simply pressed Start. A coffee cup icon appeared when brewing was complete.

I’m not a big fan of pod-based coffee because I don’t like to sacrifice taste for convenience. However, the xBloom xPod delivered the level of flavor I would expect at a coffee house. Since this was a lighter roast, it was brighter and more acidic, but had a clean, and rather sweet taste.

Another cool feature was the dual coffee grinder. I could grind directly into the omni dripper 2 and then brew the coffee. However, I could also grind into the magnetic container, and then use those coffee grounds with an espresso machine or some other type of brewer.

I also brewed tea in the xBloom Studio. The company actually sells an Omni Tea Brewer (which looks like the Omni Dripper 2, except it’s made of BPA-free Tritan and stainless steel), that’s great for tea leaves. However, I was just using a tea bag – and really, just wanted to test this feature.

The first time, I just put the tea bag inside of the glass coffee mug, and the second time, I put the tea bag inside of the omni dripper 2. Both times, the tea turned out pretty well; however, since I wanted a stronger tea, I still dunked the tea bag several additional times when I removed the mug from the machine.

Maintenance

If you want to use xPods, xBloom sells 8-pod coffee packs that range in price from $12 to $30.

Those tiny xBloom paper filters for the omni dripper are $10 per box of 100 filters.

The xBloom Studio is pretty easy to maintain. I used a damp cloth to wipe the machine’s exterior. There’s a cleaning brush included to whisk away grounds from the drip tray, grinder chute, and dock arm area, and this maintenance should be performed on at least a weekly basis.

The xBloom Studio should be descaled every three months (or 300 brewing cycles). The company warns against the use of vinegar or commercial cleaners, instead recommending dedicated coffee machine descaling products.

If the machine’s grind size is inaccurate, you can select Calibrate Grinder in Settings on the app. The process takes around 120 seconds.

Should you buy it?