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xbloom is my favorite :)

I have an XBloom. It creates fantastic coffee and the built in grinder is legitimately good. Apart from weighing the beans, it’s effectively a one click ‘all-in-one’ filter/drip machine. For context I have a $1,500 Zerno Z1 grinder that I use for espressos and don’t find that I’m missing it when using the XBloom built in grinder for my filter coffees.

My wife and I use the XBloom every morning. I've programmed one button for her to simplify it and I use the app for me. Love being able to get a pourover using my own choice of locally roasted beans.

Not the quietest grinder. Kind of a higher pitched sound. A brew can take anywhere from 2:30 to 3:30 depending on your recipe, but it's one click, walk away and come back to a cup of coffee.

I bought a Moccamaster KBTS last week when it was 45% off during Prime Day. At under $200 for an appliance handmade in the Netherlands with as solid a reputation as the Moccamaster has, it was a compelling value. Mine is dialed in - and right smack dab in the sweet spot of measured EY and TDS. Is it as good or better than my pour overs? Hell no. Period. You must be doing something wrong with your manual pour overs if the Moccamaster is beating you, and you’re using the same beans/grinder. The above said - I also got a new high end grinder last week, and with that properly dialed in to the beans running through the Moccamaster, it is absolutely as good or better than what someone can do with a manual pour over using mid-range equipment like an Ode 2, K Ultra, etc. If I use that same new grinder with a dripper and do a manual pour over - it is certainly better than the Moccamaster. Bottom line: with a good grinder and dialed in properly - a Moccamaster can do an extremely good job and make a large pot of delicious coffee. So can a Ratio and an Aiden though. If you’re changing the coffees you drink on a daily basis, dialing in the grind to perfection on a full pot of coffee isn’t easy and when you miss you miss on 60gr of coffee and a whole pot. The grind setting for a Columbian vs Kenya vs Ethiopia is going to be very different. It’s also not amazing for ultra light roast coffee - and if you have something fancy/expensive - it’s not easy to fiddle with all the variables (water, agitation, temp, etc). I like mine, and it serves a purpose - but the Aiden (returned), xBloom (in a closet) and Moccamaster (in use) haven’t convinced me to put away my drippers.

I will say, it is highly grinder (and grind) dependent and how much you want to faff around with the Moccamaster. If I use a Baratza Vario grinder with the Moccamaster it’s not great and there are too many fines to dial it in perfectly. If I use my Comandante C60 it is a big improvement and while it’s not as good as doing a carefully executed pour over with a $100 K6 manual grinder - it’s still superb. If I use my Lagom 01 with 102mm SSP ULF Brew burrs - and it’s properly dialed in, it makes a pot of coffee that will smoke most pour overs unless the pour over is using very good equipment. I do start the Moccamaster with the brew basket in the closed position, wait until it fills above the grounds and give them a stir - then put it in the open position. As long as I do that - I get a pot of very good coffee with excellent clarity and flavor notes that is far better than what you could do with a C40, K Ultra or ZP6 via manual pour over.

I also leased an xbloom before returning it. It is almost a great machine but falls short in a few key areas. First the grinder isn’t great. It isn’t bad but I wasn’t pleased with the muted profile. Second, no matter how clean the exit area of the grinder was, it never evenly dispersed into the filter. It would always be very uneven to one side. Third, the water doesn’t get hot enough for light roasts. I got some decent cups out of the machine but they were never consistent. Wanted to like the machine but a clever dripper with a good stand alone grinder makes way better coffee imo.

Have you considered an xBloom? I found that to produce the closest comparable to a hand pour over.

You can do some pretty sophisticated recipes which was fun to program/experiment. Once you get them dialed in, your workflow is soooo fast so it does pay off. Not trying to sell you on the xBloom but from what you described in your initial post it might be a good fit (minus the price point which you said was high). I ended up returning mine (used their lease program) because it wasn’t a good long term fit for me but I’m very happy I tried it with minimal risk/investment.

All very good points! Something that surprised me was how limited you were on maximum brew size as well as flow rate. Hopefully they look at increasing those for their next version.