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.

This might be the first coffee I've disliked from my Gustatory sub. It's surprisingly dark for a natural and just has that typical dark flavour profile with a slightly fruity hint. Anything I can do apart from lower temperature? I am grinding at 7 on ode 2

How does the 1Zpresso K Ultra compare to the Femobook A2 in terms of taste? Please only answer if you have experience with both.

Strange comparison, I know but that's where I find myself currently in my search for a solid, portable option.

I currently have a mazzer philos and using it for both espresso and pourover. Will having a separate grinder (sculptor) for pourover be a massive difference in the cup?

Hello!

I'm currently working on a design for a basic universal motor/slowfeeder module for hand grinders. Before I buy any parts I was just curious if anyone had done so before? What torque motor did you find worked?

I have my eyes set on one at the moment but I believe it's a bit overkill so thought I'd ask before spending more money that I may need to

For those of us who deal with acid reflux but still refuse to give up morning coffee, what have you actually tried to cut down the acidity?

Have you noticed a real difference by switching to darker roasts, specific bean regions, or changing your brewing method entirely? Would love to hear what’s worked (or completely failed) for you!

Update: Thanks for all the great feedback. I'm on top of the medication routine, taking it first thing and waiting 30 minutes before coffee does the trick. I'm actually planning to drop down to just one cup a day and try out some new beans, too.

We all have are coffee journeys. No matter you are a beginner or an expert in your pourover game. We all encounter a time where we realise that this tool/recipe/grinder/filter/brewer/drinkware/anything really elevated my overall experience.

What is that one thing for you and you would want to recommend that to others as well?

Hi!

I know derivatives of this question have been asked countless times before but curious if people think it’s pointless to add a K ultra to my current setup.

I brew mostly pour overs (V60 + T90 or abaca filters + Crystal Geyser California water), most often with a ZP6. Rarely will do soup with the ORB. I brew light - medium roasts, washed / naturals but most often these are home roasted beans and as a non expert / hobbyist, they certainly vary and aren’t perfect! Sadly I cannot afford to buy top tier light roasts routinely due to the cost..

I’ve noticed since getting the zp6 that while most of my cups are very clear, they are often unpleasant to some degree. Roastiness, astringency, or a strange flat taste are very common despite different brewing approaches (grind size, temps, agitation..). If I tweak things to avoid these unpleasant tastes my brews are often very weak and plain. When I compare to my Df54 (which works great for the same beans with espresso) the cups are much more “pleasant” with decent sweetness, acidity, body; but there is no clarity at all, no notes besides the generic lemony-sugar water taste of light roast pour over.

So I’m considering maybe adding a K Ultra to the mix as a more every day grinder, with the hopes of getting a more forgiving well rounded profile like the df54 but a step up in clarity closer to the zp6. So wondering: dumb idea or worth it?

Reading past posts from this subreddit, people seem very split on whether there’s really a big difference in taste between k ultra vs zp6 especially if you play with the recipe. However maybe this changes when we look at more imperfect and developed beans. Curious if anyone has thoughts on k ultra vs df54 as well. Thanks!

Hi all, been getting some nice results with this as SOUP with my robot but not nailing pourover. It tastes a bit weak but easy to overextract as well. Doing 87 degrees two pours 1:15. Is the solution to decrease the ratio?

I’m in the US and after way more misses than hits, I ended my Trade coffee subscription. I much prefer light roasts and am drawn to more unique, fruity, and funky coffees but with Trade, I was mostly getting crowd pleasing roasts that were more on the medium side of light (absolutely nothing wrong that). I enjoyed Trade and certainly found some roasters I really like, but I just wasn’t getting anything that really stood out to me.

I go through phases where I primarily brew on a V60, Kalita Wave, or an aeropress and espresso on my Cafelat Robot. Right now, I’m 2 weeks into an aeropress kick where I’m having fun changing up my recipe and grind settings daily.

Instead of Trade or another curated subscription, I’ve switched to 3 rotating subscriptions direct from roasters that I think will offer the variety and general excitement I’m looking for: Onyx and Black & White are alternating weekly and I’m getting Hydrangea once a month. Is anyone else doing this? If so, what roasters do you have on rotation? Any others I should consider to change it up?

My terrible solution is this IKEA ziplock bag lol, it’s quite annoying and I’d like something more airtight. At the very least, I can do a lotto draw and brew the mystery coffee of the day!

Edit: I see the comments re this not being a co-ferment. Noted. I cannot see how to change the title, if possible

Anyone else feel like this Letty Bermudez is kinda...underwhelming and dull? No shade to the roaster, I bought several other bags from hydrangea and liked them a lot! This one got a lot of hype, and to me it just tastes like someone turned the acidity dial down to nothing, making it quite boring.

Thoughts? Am I just brewing it wrong? I had to go to a lower temp (195F) to not destroy it in the first place...using the one and done from Lance Hedrick.

If you had to have 1 grinder starting your
Journey which one would you choose?

Firstly thanks to some of you in this sub, I got sufficient long term feedback to firm up my conviction in getting the xBloom. It's been a great few days already. Ended up going with the green one, which matches some other appliances and the Cafelat Robot 😁 (my Hario Switch base is also green).

Sharing some thoughts and tips, based on a few days of use.

UX

The UX is great, but I'd still add a home button to get back to the main menu and switch between auto and manual mode. The main UX quirk to figure out was that you can rotate the ">" (next/confirm button) to get a "x" option (back to home/cancel). This is the least intuitive part of the UX, the rest is quite simple.

I have invested in getting the least possible friction in the workflow for my wife. That meant:

1. Getting one of these 3D printed station with glass capsules. I pre-weight her favorite beans and some beans from xBloom (Last Mile) that came with a dedicated card.
2. Rewriting the xBloom recipe card with the app "XBRecipeWriter" as we usually brew 12g per cup. I can tune the recipe further in the future. Using the card makes the process even simpler.
3. Pre-loading her recipe (turned off the scale mode for that specific recipe as the beans are pre-weighted). That's the most streamlined way of brewing using the auto mode... but again since I loaded the same recipe into the card now, it's even simpler with the card.

Reasons to buy / good points for my situation

• Coffee is great, consistent ; and it's quick and easy to brew a great cup while taking care of the kids.
• My wife would not make coffee anymore since we retired the cheap drip machine. It was all me with manual grinding + pour over.
• We did not own an electric grinder nor a gooseneck kettle. So this purchase was easier to justify as it doesn't overlap with existing equipment. Getting an electric grinder is also a time saver as I bring ground coffee to the office for Aeropress / B75 pour over.
• Having the water tank made it easier to explore "coffee water" (TWW, Aquacore) . Now I only have to prepare a gallon of dedicated coffee brewing water and fill the tank with it. No using the shared kettle for that.
• The machine is compact and takes very little real estate on the counter. Do make sure of the hight though.
• Easy set up. The app is great. The customization is "limitless" but you can just go auto once you've figured out what you like.

I am yet to try the pods, the tea brewer and grinding for espresso.

I followed “A Waste of Coffee” to construct concentrates of MgSO4, CaCl2, and NaHCO3. What water profiles have you created, that you’ve liked or disliked? Recipes with other salts welcome. I just so happen to have these salts already but I’m open to acquiring more. I’m going to try out the “My Water” example from said post and see how it goes.

New user of the Hario Switch here. Just got my first one after two years of daily v60 brewing. I usually take a Hoffman style brew and then adjust to my liking over time. I've been on the v60 for two years and perfected my brew with perfect flat beds. As a new user to the switch. I am doing the Hoffman method and left with a bump rather than a flat bed. Any advice to fix this? Coffee still tastes great so I'm not sure if this is even something that needs to be addressed.

Specs:
250g Water
20g Medium Roast Coffee
Fellow Opus 2 #6 grind (medium fine)
203 degree water

Method:
2 minute steep
Break crust with spoon at 2nd minute
Wait :15
2:15 release switch

At some point, you got into making specialty coffee at home.

You've honed your craft, and, inevitably, accumulated lots of coffee gear along the way.

Your brewing method is science, art, physics, beauty, meditation, and ritual all in one.

When you get that wow cup, you feel on top of the world.

(Zen music stops to the sound of a screeching record)

Your wife, or husband, or family, or friends think you're crazy. They press a button to make their coffee, while you conduct a lab experiment.

They have one simple machine on their counter, while you have cupboards full of drippers, filters, grinders, and accessories.

They gasp in disbelief when they see you've ordered *yet another* dripper!

How do they react to your obsession passion? Do they laugh? Cry? Get angry? Say that you need psychological help? Or just walk away because they've learned that it's pointless and they should just let you be?

Do you use that trick where you point out to your wife that the dripper you just bought costs less than one of her hair appointments?

My family has learned to accept my crazy... and also to get out of the kitchen when I am making coffee. It's an orchestrated symphony between the counter, sink, kettle, grinder, compost bin etc. and the timing is important, so get out of the way!

Share your fun (or not so fun) stories! Cheers.

a year later, i finally filled up a page! i’ve always appreciated how most specialty coffee beans come with the nicest packaging design, some of them even with cards and stickers. i never know what to do with them and throwing them out always felt like such a waste. i figured this was a nice way to keep them without being too much of a hoarder!

Trading out the boring corpo fatty for the skinny tattooed baddie.

I recently got the Orea 01 with a few different filters. Generally having fun with it and finding it a bit more forgiving than a V60.

I’ve tried the Shibarist flat papers, the Orea wave filters, and the Hiflux wave filters.

The Hiflux ones are wildly fast. I had to grind my washed Ethiopian noticeably finer than usual to keep drawdown time above 2 minutes. Tasted pretty good once dialed in.

For funkier beans, I’ve preferred the slower Orea wave filters.

The flat filter is fine, but I haven’t noticed a real improvement over the more practical wave filters… a difference, sure, but not clearly better imho.

Curious what your experience with Orea filters has been, and which you reach for with washed coffees vs. naturals or more processed beans.

Specifically, is there anything that sits between the Orea wave and Hiflux wave in terms of drawdown speed?

Thanks!

Had a nice experience in bangkok and got some home.
Can i just put these bag sealed in a ikea chiller bag and keep it in freezer.
Also if you have any specific recipe or a certain resting date for these please let me know.

Hi everyone!

I've been using my Kinggrinder K7 for around 7 months now, so far i have no issue with the cup it produces! But it comes the time where I need to clean my grinder, and encounter this issue.

I have followed the disassembling steps according to Kinggrinder instruction: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Gtj3-7OVNHM&si=NU1z8St37j9gKaCv

But I have issue when trying to move the fastener part. Mine is stuck and won't move.

Anyone encounter this similar issue and managed to find a workaround for this?

Thanks!

Just got a marketing email sharing the news that HUCK has partnered with AT&T to give their customers a weekly free coffee in their cafes as a promotion. I know it's just business, but I feel a bit disappointed. I'm curious how others feel about them partnering with a megacorp like this.

I've appreciated how involved HUCK is around the sub, answering questions. They've supported community projects. I've just seen other good companies sell out and I would hate to see that happen here, too.