The Fellow Aiden Coffee Maker Review
When it comes to coffee, I really enjoy the ritual of a Sunday morning brew with my Chemex, or toying around with different brewing apparatuses. The Clever Coffee Dripper, the wonderful Aeropress (with "espresso" attachment from Fellow), Moka pot, making batches of cold brew, and the Vietnamese Phin. Then there are days when I'm feeling particularly stubborn and just want to start the day. Now, there's nothing wrong with using a Mr. Coffee coffee maker if that's what you have on hand; coffee is coffee, and I firmly believe there is nothing more American than grabbing gas station coffee before a long drive (would recommend 7-11 coffee, even though it's not a gas station in most parts).
Some people may turn their nose at the fact how pointless it is to automate single serve of pour over. I don't necessarily disagree with them, it's quite an expensive machine to be doing such a small task, and if you enjoy the process, you're removing a good part of the experience. When it comes to brewing batch coffee, however, I end up finding myself refilling the electric kettle and resetting the entire process to complete out the rest of the batch. Not super ideal (or really that drastic) for people waiting for their cup of coffee.
One of the main reasons I grabbed an Aiden was to see how good at pour over Fellow claims it to be. The Aiden basically a fancy, more involved, Keurig, with brand name recognition and aesthetics. Instead of pods and the handy pod disposal, you're the one to measure out the coffee and clean up the filter and grinds when finished.
A good cup of coffee is the sum of its parts of the process, so having good water, coffee beans, and grinder help. Aiden lets you customize brewing profiles specific to your overall coffee-to-water ratio, bloom time, bloom ratio, bloom temp, number of pours (pulses), and water temp (even at specific pulses). Once you build out the profile, it's as easy as selecting the Guided Brew option on the main screen, selecting your coffee profile, then add as much coffee as the Aiden tells you to, based on how large or small of a cup you want.
One suggestion I read online was to create a profile that was tuned for hot water only – no bloom time, one pulse, one temperature. Excellent for single serve tea or hot cocoa, but I probably wouldn't use it to heat up a significant amount of water, but perhaps a small teapot.
Ultimately, it's an excellent piece of coffee brewing gear. Good for those with a passion for pour over, and want the flexibility to make pour over quality in batches.
What I loved
- Customizable profiles, water temp, bloom, etc.
- Scheduling
- Unit is light, but doesn't feel overly cheap. Decent weight to it.
- Ease of use, when switching from single to batch servings
- Carafe is high quality
- Silicone gasket for the brewing basket makes a good seal, but will retain moisture unless aired out
- Used standard filter sizes instead of specialized ones (I was able to sneak chemex filters in as an emergency)
- You can 'tweak' a profile to make the Aiden act as a hot water dispenser
What I disliked
- Single serve basket leaks a little bit after drip finish, be sure to clean up after
- My unit experienced an issue with the water pump (more on that later)
- Water tank is mildly awkward to fill up due to the position of the handle
Issues with the water pump
If you're unlucky, your unit may complain of the lack of water in the tank, even though there may already be some. According to Fellow, this is an issue that effected less than 1% of distributed units. They also recommended to fill up the tank, unplug the unit, wait 5 minutes, and to try again. That ended up not working, but luckily I stumbled upon this link. Bouncing the tank roughly 20 times while smashing the "continue brew" button eventually cleared the error, which led me to believe that there was just air in the lines. The issue has not since returned, and I'm confident in the solution!
