by Think of your Nespresso capsule and imagine it being a thousand times better. I’m talking about whole beans, ground and made on the spot, with an automated process that happens all within the same machine. What xBloom does is not entirely different from your average coffee machine, however the method it employs and the underlying technology it uses is simply remarkable. A Tesla is no different from other cars: both get you from A to B… but one of them is much more visually, technically, and emotionally sophisticated. That’s why we call the xBloom the Tesla of coffee makers.
Designers: Richard Xu, Rui Zhou and Yuan Hong
Click here to buy now: $449 $799 ($350 discount). Hurry, less than 72 hours left! It raised over $530,000.
Designed to sit elegantly on your counter, the xBloom is an all-in-one coffee machine that takes care of grinding, brewing, and dispensing all in one device. It does this in a way that is almost entirely automated and expertly tuned, so you don’t really need to do anything once the machine takes over. Simply pour in your beans, sit back and watch your coffee brew as if a robot barista were at work. Its overall design is also sublime, with simple geometric shapes that break the coffee machine down into its separate functions, and a metallic finish that feels luxuriously pristine.
Place the Pod on the sensor pad to activate bean recognition.
Pour the beans into the grinder and place the empty pod on the dock.
Press the Dock and let the machine take care of the rest.
The xBloom follows the pod-based model popularized by Keurig and Nespresso, but instead of having little metal pods filled with flavored, pre-ground coffee powder, each xBloom comes with real coffee beans inside, measured for a single serving. . The pods are handpicked by expert roasters, with specialty coffee types from around the world delivering the whole world of coffee right to your kitchen counter. How do you prepare these pods? Well, that’s maybe my favorite part!
It’s not often that kitchen appliances and RFID tags intersect, but they do with the xBloom. Each capsule comes with coffee beans inside, but at the bottom of each capsule there is also an RFID tag that allows xBloom to identify the type of coffee. Simply touch the bottom of the pod to the xBloom and you instantly set the grind size, brew temperature, coffee to water ratio, and even pour style. Once xBloom identifies the coffee, simply remove the pod lid, add the beans to the device’s inlet, and place the empty pod in its designated holder for later.
The professional-grade grinder features 48mm conical titanium nitride-coated burs, allowing for 20 automatic grind size settings, perfect for pouring (each step is accurate to within 18.75µm).
Super easy to clean.
The beans enter the grinding chamber, where 48mm conical grinding wheels grind them to the perfect consistency. The grounds are then dispensed back into the empty capsule (which also comes with its own built-in filter liner). The xBloom then automatically transports the capsule from the grinder to the preparation area, almost like a robot on a factory line. It’s quite entertaining to see how the machine literally choreographs the process of making coffee. The xBloom then pushes heated water into the coffee, brewing it right in your pod (so you don’t need a separate filter), with holes in the base of the pod allowing the coffee to drip right into your empty cup or glass. Unlike any coffee maker I’ve seen in the past, the xBloom even possesses the ability to pour in different patterns, mimicking a straight pour, spiral slow pour, and spiral fast pour depending on roasters preference. The pour is quite unlike any other machine, with the laminar water stream electrostatically controlled by 4 energized electrodes, resulting in a curved flow of water that appears almost magical to the eye. Plus, the pod holder can even shake the pod, helping your coffee brew more evenly. The most remarkable part of all of this isn’t that it’s possible, it’s that it happens with just a simple RFID scan and absolutely no human intervention on your part.
A scale built into the capsule holder detects the amount of water left in the capsule. This prevents xBloom from accidentally overfilling the pod and spilling water. Different grinds filter coffee at different rates: a coarser grind allows water to pass through faster than a fine grind, and the xBloom can detect this by weighing the pod. It then automatically controls the speed of water dispensing to ensure there is absolutely no error. Water filters through the pod directly into your cup or glass below, leaving you with a fresh cup of coffee. The capsule, which now contains the used coffee grounds, can be easily removed from the xBloom and elegantly disposed of.
It should come as no surprise that xBloom’s design team is made up of tech veterans, including former Apple product designers. With the level of sensitivity to design, detail and user experience, xBloom literally turns a coffee machine into a luxurious ritual that is sure to delight any coffee drinker. The device is simply a work of art that houses technical wizardry underneath, echoing exactly the kind of sophistication seen in Apple’s own products.
The user experience is brought to the forefront: there are no visible buttons, knobs, cables, or even screw details on the device. It looks as if Jony sculpted the machine with his bare hands. The xBloom’s interiors use high-quality parts and rely on vendors that also supply Apple and Tesla. The pods are expertly curated with a wide variety of coffee bean types, and each pod is made from sugarcane and bamboo fiber, so you can throw it away in its entirety (with the coffee grounds) and not worry about generate plastic waste (the RFID tag is also mostly biodegradable, since it is made of paper with very small traces of aluminum). Maintaining your xBloom is also remarkably easy, with a drop-down magnetic cover that collects any leftover coffee grounds from the grinder.
The xBloom stands 16.9 inches tall, like a polished metal obelisk. It comes in two colors, Obsidian Black and Silver White, with a 700ml water tank inside its main chamber, allowing you to make almost 3 cups of coffee with a full tank. While xBloom’s true mark of excellence is its ability to automate the entire process for consistent, expert results every time, each xBloom also comes with a smartphone app that lets you play around with brew settings, creating and saving recipes that are unique to your taste, preferences and mood. The xBloom starts at $449 for early backers, with 32 pods included along with the machine. Once depleted you can buy more pods through xBloom or get the reusable drip cup that is compatible with Kalita Wave 155 filters.
Click here to buy now: $449 $799 ($350 discount). Hurry, less than 72 hours left! It raised over $530,000.
