MILAN – At the World of Coffee in Copenhagen, not only the world barista championships were played out, but also the Best new product competition: for the 2024 edition, one product in particular was awarded in the Consumer Coffee Preparation & Serving category. So here is Aiden, a machine by Fellow – a company founded in 2013 and based in San Francisco – that changes the game when it comes to drip coffee: for all the coffee nerds synonymous with the lowest quality cups, now comes the solution that makes no compromise between excellent extraction and ease of serving.
Aiden combines precision, control and speed at the touch of a button
So it is a home coffee machine that can suit both the average consumer and an insider. How? It starts with the variables you can monitor and play with:
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- Brew temperature
- Brew ratio
- Bloom ratio
- Bloom duration
- Bloom temperature
- Number of pulses
- Time between pulses
- Pulse temperature
Not bad, but with Aiden the fun for experts who don’t want anything less than a manual extraction doesn’t end there.
Because this machine has within it a dual vocation: Aiden can brew a single cup or a set of 10 cups (using the Specialty Coffee Association’s Golden Cup standard, i.e. a particular ratio of coffee to water) and this guarantees the exact result as the roaster originally intended, or the success of the user’s own customised recipe at home.
To make this flexibility possible, Aiden consists of two different brew baskets: a flat-bottomed one for batch brewing and a smaller cone-shaped one for single serve. The hand shower is also adjustable to optimise both brewing modes.
Separate heating unit and water pump
A feature that makes it possible to control the duration of the coffee blossom or to change the water temperature during the brew itself. Good news also for the warmer season: Aiden in fact also makes it possible to prepare a cold brew, thanks to the fact that the pump does not depend on boiling water to function, as is the case with most drip brewers currently on the market.
Aiden also takes into account the degree of roast (light, medium, dark): the Fellow company wanted to involve the specialty micro roasters themselves in order to create the most suitable extraction profile for a given roast.
Thus one can lengthen or shorten the brewing period or adjust the temperature from a higher one at the beginning of the cycle to a lower one, programming these parameters and then saving them on the Aiden profile via an app.
Another interesting feature for enthusiasts: the timer to set the start of the different brewing hours even during the night hours to have your own cup of cold brew or hot filter ready in the morning.
Some other technical details:
Filters: Including 15 cone filters and 15 flat bottom filters
Fits Melitta #2 cone filters and Melitta 8-12 cup basket filters
Dimensions (WxWxH): 8 15/16 x 8 15/16 x 12 inches | 227 x 227 x 304.8 millimetres
Weight: 9.6 lbs
Maximum capacity: 1.5 L
Cable length: 39 inches | 965.2 mm
Power supply: 110-120V | 1500W | 60Hz
App: available for iOS and Android
Materials: High-quality food-grade plastic (BPA-free), stainless steel and silicone.
Fellow Aiden is available for pre-sale here at $365 and will ship in October.
