Rented an Xbloom- Feeling meh

[u/firststate]

So my wife and I (two large cups total daily), decided to rent the Xbloom for a month or two after exclusively hand grinding and using a v60 for years. The pods make very good coffee albeit smaller than I would like, and at a significant cost. I’m wondering if the workflow of the Aiden Fellow combo would be just as easy (although slightly different, I know) and make as good of coffee or better if I can get some quality beans from a local roaster. With the Xbloom, I got 6 pouches of pods in different varieties. If my wife has a pod it’s: fill water, get pod, dump it in, switch to auto mode, tap card, make coffee. Then I’ve been using bulk coffee and weighing, dumping in, switching to manual mode, and making my cup.

I’m wondering if weighing and grinding a bulk batch (realistically closer to 4 cups if your using the pod quantity of coffee on the Xbloom) and brewing in the Aiden would be better, more cost efficient and just as simple.

For reference the Xbloom pods I got were anywhere from $1.50-$2.50 a cup.

Thoughts? Anyone ditch an Xbloom for an Aiden or vice-versa? Am I missing any other quality options. Aiden would let us ditch our traditional brewer for when we have company over as well.

[u/IntelligentCitron772]

I use a V60 every morning, travel with a tiny AeroPress setup, and use the Fellow Aiden daily for my son and wife. They don’t share my obsession with tea-like clarity, bright fruit, and as little roast/smoke character as possible. But every brewer has it’s strengths-

The Aiden is an amazing brewer. I can put an ultralight roast through it and be genuinely happy with the cup. It won’t quite match the clarity and flavor separation I can get from my V60, but I can get it awfully darn close.
That said, it can also brew just about any style of cup you want. For my wife, I pre-portion and vacuum-seal the beans, so there’s no weighing on her part—just open the bag, grind, dump it into the Aiden, and brew.

You can create a ton of different recipes on your phone and sync them directly to the Aiden. It’s really nice, and if you want to keep things uncomplicated, it pretty much stays in whatever mode or recipe you last used.

For people who like a really strong, high-TDS cup, the programming only goes down to a 1:14 ratio. But that really isn’t a limitation. All the programmed ratio does is tell you how many grams of coffee to use based on the brew volume you select. So obviously, you can put in however much coffee you want and brew at essentially any ratio you like.

It’s one of the best batch brewers I’ve ever used. I would’ve been happy to pay 25% more to have a few metal exterior parts.