I like coffee, and I’ve always thought making it manually tastes better than any drip coffee maker is capable of. The xBloom Studio has proven me wrong. This $499 smart kitchen appliance weighs, grinds, and brews fresh coffee from whole beans, and the results are smoother than anything I’ve been able to pour with a gooseneck electric kettle and a Chemex. It can do this thanks to precision water temperature control, a movable nozzle that can dispense water in multiple patterns, and multi-step brew recipes that can adjust each pour before it hits the grounds. It’s expensive for a drip/pour-over coffee maker, but it’s made some of the best cups of coffee I’ve had at home, and it earns our Editors’ Choice for smart coffee makers.Design: A Towering Coffee MachineThe Studio looks like a cross between a coffee maker and a modern skyscraper. It’s a tall, blocky, black (or white) obelisk with sharp right angles and a large cutout for the flat, nozzle- and spout-equipped overhangs. At 16.8 inches it’s very tall, but keeps a fairly small footprint of just 8 by 6.7 inches (WD).
A removable grate and drip tray sits on the floor under the overhang of the front half of the machine. This isn’t only for holding your coffee cup (and catching spills), but also for weighing your beans. The surface is a scale, one of the Studio’s three functions. The overhang features a spout for the grinder on the left and a nozzle for the water dispenser on the right. A recessed track with a magnetic connector runs horizontally along the wall between the overhang and the floor. The connector can hold the ring-shaped pod holder if you’re brewing using xBloom pods, or the Omni Dripper 2 filter holder if you’re using your own beans.
(Credit: Will Greenwald)
The minimalist look of the front of the studio is barely marred by the three pushable knobs on the right half of the face, or the white LED matrix display that sits above it, invisible until you turn on the machine. The top is similarly flat and features flip-up lids for the grinder slot and the water tank, and an unmarked surface for scanning NFC cards or tags. The 32-ounce water tank sits in a slot behind the machine and easily lifts out of its slot for filling and washing. You can optionally run a water line directly into the Studio thanks to its built-in pump, but if your water system is pressurized or filtered, a $129 internal pressure regulator accessory is necessary.
You’ll probably use the xBloom app much more often than its physical controls, but the three knobs are still there if you want to dial in grinder or brewer settings. I also found the built-in scale function useful when preparing my own beans for grinding.Modes and App Controls: Many Ways to BrewPressing any of the knobs on the Studio will illuminate the LED display, offering three cryptic icons for its functions: grinder, coffee maker, and scale. Pressing the scale button enables and calibrates the scale, and the display shows the weight reading. The scale module also shows a T button for setting the tare if you want to measure using a container you’re going to fill, and a back button for returning to the three icons.The machine’s grinder module is a bit more complicated, letting you dial in your grind size and grinder RPM. The brewer module is the most complex, working with the grinder to enable the Studio’s Freesolo mode that lets you “brew like a DJ.” Here you can turn the left and middle knobs to control the pouring pattern of the moving nozzle and the water temperature of the pour (pressing the right knob starts brewing, and pressing any of the knobs while the machine brews will pause it). This is for fully manual brewing, and all of these options are automated with the Studio’s other modes.
(Credit: xBloom)
If you want to really tweak your coffee without directly controlling every drop, you can use the xBloom app (available for Android and iOS). The app will walk you through connecting the Studio to your phone over Bluetooth, then will let you access any of the three modules you can control on the machine itself. It will also let you brew using the second mode, Copilot.Copilot uses recipes to automate both grinding and brewing your coffee. These recipes determine how much coffee to grind and precisely how to pour water into the pod or dripper. Most recipes include multiple pours, and each pour can have its own temperature, water flow rate, and nozzle pattern. The nozzle can pour straight down like a basic coffee maker, rotate in a circle around the edges of the dripper, or spiral in and out from the center. The app comes with three recipes for three-, four-, and five-pour brews of about 8.6 ounces (255ml) each. Making your own recipes is easy, with simple sliders and buttons for adding steps and setting the details for each step.
(Credit: Will Greenwald)
Besides using the knobs or app, the Studio also has its third brewing mode, Autopilot. xBloom coffee pods, called xPods, come with an NFC card or have a built-in NFC tag with a recipe designed specifically for the coffee you’re brewing. Tapping the card or the pod to the top of the Studio loads the recipe, so you can start brewing just by pressing the right knob without entering any settings yourself. The Studio itself comes with a card for a basic three-pour recipe that’s suitable for most coffee.Choose Your Coffee: Single-Serving xPods, or Your Own BeansxBloom’s single-serving xPod coffee pods are far better and less environmentally or gastronomically offensive than any other coffee pods I’ve tried. They’re compostable paper pods with integrated filters, serving as their own drippers. That’s already much greener than most other coffee pods, plus they taste better because they use whole beans. Instead of packets of grounds, each pod has a measured amount of coffee beans, which you pour into the Studio’s grinder slot before inserting the pod itself into the holder to start brewing. The machine grinds those beans and pours the grounds back into the pod for dripping, ensuring much fresher coffee than any other pod I’ve used. The taste rivals the discontinued Bonaverde Berlin, which roasted its whole beans before grinding but was also much more expensive and didn’t let you use your own beans at all.
(Credit: Will Greenwald)
xBloom offers xPods filled with coffee from small roasters, including Bean & Bean, Joe Coffee, and Proud Mary Coffee. Some provide the xPods roasted to order, meaning they only roast your coffee after you place an order and deliver it within two to three weeks. xPods are available in eight-packs of single-origin coffee or blends, or 32-packs of two or four different coffee types. They cost about $2 per cup, with a few exceptions like Moonwake Coffee’s Zarza Jhonatan Gasca Bourbon Ají single-origin Columbian at $24 for an eight-pack, or $3 per cup. This is more expensive than the $1 to $1.50 per cup most K-cups and Nespresso pods cost, but they use pre-ground beans and aren’t compostable.Thanks to the included dosage cup and dripper, you can use your own beans with the Studio, too. Measure the beans (15 grams for the preset recipes on the Studio), pour them into the grinder, attach the Omni Dripper 2 with a filter, and you’ll get your own freshly ground and brewed coffee without the need for pods. The Studio includes a sample pack of 12 single-use basket filters for the dripper. When you run out, xBloom sells a pack of 100 for $9, though you can use any #1-size filters that fit the dripper. I could not find any #1 basket filters at my local grocery stores, but #1 cone filters worked perfectly well.The Automatic Pour-Over ExperienceUnless you’re using the manual Freestyle mode, you simply set up your brew, and the machine will spring to life and do the rest. The dripper or empty pod will slide left on its track as the grinder starts and pours in the correct amount of grounds. The pod will then slide back under the brewer spout, which will dispense the desired amount of water at the desired temperature using the desired nozzle movement. It will pause between each pour, giving the coffee time to drop before dispensing more water into the dripper. It can even gently agitate the dripper if the recipe calls for it. After the Studio runs through its pours, your cup of coffee is ready.
The grinding step. (Credit: Will Greenwald)
The entire process takes between two and four minutes, depending on the recipe, and results in one cup of coffee. This is bespoke pour-over coffee, after all, and the precision of the pour is a big part of the appeal that can get lost if you’re brewing a whole pot in a single pour using a large filter. This isn’t a coffee maker for large quantities. It’s coffee by the cup, exactly as ordered.The built-in scale is used when brewing coffee as well as measuring grounds. This is important to remember, because if you disrupt the scale while the machine is running it can get a bit confused. When I used a cup that was too small for the pour and switched it out for another cup mid-brew, the Studio didn’t know what to do and hung for several minutes until I manually stopped it. The Result: A Great Cup of Joe Maybe I’ve grown too used to pre-ground coffee or maybe I’ve poured too sloppily when using my own Chemex, but the Studio’s coffee tastes far better than any coffee I’ve made myself in years. I’ve been using xPods from Counter Culture Coffee as well as some of my own whole beans from Brooklyn Lab Coffee (17.5 G’s blend) and Spawn Point Coffee (FPS Chocolate Cake Comfort), and they all brew excellently.The Counter Culture tastes incredibly fresh and smooth when brewed using the included NFC card’s recipe. I can happily sip it without any milk or sweetener. It doesn’t taste noticeably worse using the basic three- or five-pour recipes in the app, either. It’s a lighter taste than I usually go for, but its smoothness really stands out.
The pouring step. (Credit: Will Greenwald)
The Brooklyn Lab and Spawn Point roasts also come out great, with notably deeper and more complex notes than the Counter Culture. They aren’t better or worse, but different; the contrast between the three has given me a new appreciation for considering single-origin coffee and lighter roasts when I want a smoother cup. The three-pour recipe for both comes out strong, while the slower five-pour is a bit more mellow. Being able to automate and customize my brews is fun and eye-opening. Verdict: The Best Coffee at HomeIt takes a lot for a smart kitchen appliance to justify its extra expense in my eyes. App control often seems like an afterthought and I’m leery about any coffee maker that uses pods. The xBloom Studio addresses all of those concerns and makes me appreciate pour-over coffee so much more. The machine’s programmability through the app makes it far more useful and precise than any drip coffee maker I’ve seen, and the NFC recipes that come with xPods refine each brew to get the most out of the beans. The pods’ loose beans and compostable design also make them some of the best I’ve used, and more importantly, I can use my own coffee and filters as well. The xBloom Studio simply makes a delicious cup of coffee. At $500, it costs a lot for a coffee maker, but if you love drip and pour-over brew, it’s worth the money and it’s our Editors’ Choice.
Pros
Weighs, grinds, and pours
Brews excellent coffee
Extensive programming options
Well-designed, compostable pods
Works with loose beans and filters
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The Bottom Line
The xBloom Studio smart coffee maker can freshly grind and brew a fantastic cup from whole beans, and offers tons of options to customize your pour.
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About Will Greenwald
Lead Analyst, Consumer Electronics
I’ve been PCMag’s home entertainment expert for over 10 years, covering both TVs and everything you might want to connect to them. I’ve reviewed more than a thousand different consumer electronics products including headphones, speakers, TVs, and every major game system and VR headset of the last decade. I’m an ISF-certified TV calibrator and a THX-certified home theater professional, and I’m here to help you understand 4K, HDR, Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, and even 8K (and to reassure you that you don’t need to worry about 8K at all for at least a few more years).
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