Customer Ratings & Reviews

The machine looks sleek and doesn’t take up much space. The preset coffee function ensures a perfect brew every time. Also, the app is an added bonus! My only complaint is the coffee doesn’t stay hot because there is no heating element for the carafe. So any brewed coffee must be drank right away for a hot cup.

If you are one that really likes coffee and wants to experiment or try a variety of brew profiles then the Fellow Aiden Precision Coffee Maker is for you. The price is an investment that users of some other high end coffee makers would consider affordable, but to the average coffee drinker it’s a bit steep. When the box arrived it definitely makes an impression with its unique closure system and sturdy packaging. The aesthetic of Aiden is one of the most unique things about it given its square form. It definitely has a modern vibe in black or white, but I’d suggest the black is the more practical option for a coffee maker. Build materials include food-grade plastic (BPA-free), stainless steel and silicone. We like the look and feel of the stainless steel, thermal carafe, yet it takes some getting used to that one cannot readily see the coffee level in the carafe. The hidden wrap cord on the underside of the coffee maker is a nice touch to minimize countertop clutter. The size of the coffee maker is great for easily fitting under upper cabinets and we especially like the fact that a seal ensures that no steam rises from the top of the coffee maker during brewing. We do have to pull the coffee maker out to lift up the water tank for refills, but then return it to its place at the back of the counter and no steam during brewing to affect our upper kitchen cabinets. We’ve found Aiden easy to use in terms of very clear instructions using the dial and digital read out to select light, medium or dark roasts, and specific coffee measurements related to selected cups of coffee. In operation, the coffee maker is very quiet as it controls water flow, and temperature to bloom cycles to produce a pour-over quality of coffee. The Aiden works without the app, but I’d definitely utilize the app to upgrade the firmware. The app will also provide features to schedule brews, automatically synced Fellow Drops profiles, create custom recipes and download profiles from your favorite roasters. This coffee maker provides flexibility to make single servings or a 10-cup batch, in addition to featuring a cold brew preset. The required coffee filters (depending on single or batch) are all standard sizes. You may very well find yourself using more coffee though as we feel the guidance provided by the Aiden is about 25% more than we had previously used. By all means the coffee tastes great and somewhat stronger, but we may experiment a bit to dial back the coffee quantity just to see what we think of the difference. Also, do register the Aiden with Fellow and they will lengthen your standard warranty period to three years.

The Fellow Aiden is the newest entry in Fellow’s brewing lineup. Fellow is known for their elegant, and innovative designs in the home coffee brewing scene. The Aiden aims to be a fairly traditional drip coffee maker, but with the taste and flavor complexity of a pour over. Moreover it brings the ease of use, and accessibility with niceties like user profiles, and high precision capabilities to the countertop. The end result is a coffee maker you can live with day to day, but also use as a precision machine in making everything from a traditional dark roast pot of coffee to a cold brew that takes hours to make. Inside the box, it’s immediately apparent you have a machine that’s bringing a lot of flexibility to the table. You don’t just get a normal coffee basket with a particular filter style; you get both of the major types (narrow cone, and full basket). Fellow also includes a starter set of filters for your coffee. The carafe is a nicely insulated design, which is cool to the touch. In fact, the entire coffee maker does a great job of insulating you and family from the heat generated by this machine and the resulting energetic liquid. I found no place that was even uncomfortable to touch during the brewing process, which is a testament to the engineering of Fellow. No steam is released as well, which means they’re super efficient with their heating, surgically distributing near boiling water without losing much in the form of vapor. The Aiden has a very unassuming look. It blends into pretty much any countertop layout with a fairly small footprint, and an overall rectangular cuboid shape. The black matte plastic doesn’t have a super premium feel, but what it lacks in appearance, it makes up in design. The water tank has a nice deep handle that makes it easy to grab and fill. The flap on the tank, while somewhat overengineered, makes sense after you work with it. The baskets and both the large and narrow baskets provided are super easy to lock in and out and are identified by the software. The Aiden may be understated, but certainly it brandishes its sophistication in all the details. Speaking of sophistication, the term that really stands out is precision. The coffee maker lets you fine tune to almost a ridiculous level. Even on the guided brew settings, the precision just oozes, as the amount of coffee, what basket, and what shower setting are called out specifically for prep. The narrow basket is used specifically for lower amounts of coffee, and the shower head setting matches the basket. The Aiden sports a color screen and a simple clickable jog dial control. Unlike your more common drip coffee maker, the Aiden hides its extraordinary options behind this dial accessed via this small screen. While that may seem like a backstep in usability, given most people just ‘hit’ the brew button on their maker and go (which the guided brew adds a few steps, but is fairly easy); I feel like this is the perfect solution to the advanced capabilities of this maker. Unlike most makers, the Aiden proscribes a plethora of options, details, and comes pre tuned for most of your coffee brewing needs. Do you happen to have some medium roast beans, and you want to make 3 cups of this for your commute to work? The Aiden recommends the narrow basket, uses a coffee to water ratio and calculates the precise weight in grams of grounds to use, tells you to swap the shower to the correct setting and presets the temperature to 205F with an initial bloom at 205F. Do you have some light roast for breakfast with friends and want a full pot? The Aiden will tell you to use the large basket, 82.5 grams of coffee, and swap the shower to the wide setting. 11 minutes later, you’ll have a pot of coffee precisely brewed. All these options come both predefined - through a simple guided interface, or through custom profiles that let you dial in exactly the temperature and bloom settings you want. I found that while overwhelming at first, the Aiden’s guided brew eases you into this. I found that I’m a much bigger fan of dark roast on lower temperatures for a smoother texture. Higher temps have a more burnt flavor, and while I’ve known this - actually having a coffee maker provide the option in a configurable profile is next level. The Aiden is a smart coffee maker. While that statement may throw some people off, this isn’t about adding WiFi and telling Alexa it’s time to make coffee (which it can do, but who does this?). The Fellow app makes it easier to manage these user profiles instead of being locked to the little screen. The one thing I wish the app offered was history with notes (so that I could annotate each pot I’m making with thoughts on the beans, and variables used in brewing). Now, on to the actual coffee. Who cares how fancy and precise if the coffee is bad right? Well, good news: The coffee is spot on the most flavor true to the pure smell/taste of the beans. I feel like I’m getting the best possible version of whatever coffee I’m brewing - be it Italian Roast Starbucks beans I just ground, or Folgers breakfast blend pre ground (I know sacrilege, but more on why I feel like this is a good compromise for daily brewing). Cold brew is one of the cool (see what I did there), features of this maker. Brewing cold brew takes time - in the realm of at least 1 hour for a given 2-3 cup amount. However, the resulting cold brew was surprisingly good and definitely could pass as slow steeped cold brew after cooling it appropriately. I’m very impressed by that feature. Now what are the cons? Well, being that this endeavors to deliver a pour over experience it seems as though additional grounds are required. I found adding the recommended amounts of coffee (coffee to water ratio of 1:16), used a TON of grounds. This is where my Folgers recommendation came from, because you’ll go through a ton of coffee with the recommended ratios. Almost 85g of coffee grounds (which nearly fills the large basket) is a lot to use. As I mentioned, you get a great brew, so compromising on beans for your daily cup of joe is probably not a bad way to bring balance. That said, you do you, but Black Silk is a good pre-ground. Lastly, I’d say price is a con, as the precision comes at an eye watering cost for what a more traditional unit could be found for less than a high end bag of beans. That said, buy this for that precision and you’ll be rewarded. If you’re just wanting a standard pot of coffee, this is a waste. Overall, the Aiden is an expensive but precise coffee maker. If you feel like you want to tune your brewing to plus or minus 50ml and 5 degrees fahrenheit - then you won’t find many coffee makers that live up to the Aiden. If you’re looking for a standard pot of coffee, it can certainly brew an amazing one.

This machine is primarily focused to coffee afficionados, yet it's so simple to use. From the looks it appears like a standard coffeemaker yet very stylish with a minimalist design in a cube shape with all square lines except for the coffee carafe. Unlike other coffeemakers that keeps the coffee warm by keeping the carafe warm with a heater at the bottom, this is a double-walled staginess steel carafe that keeps the coffee warm for hours without additional heat. The coffee maker is made for both batch brewing (up to about 45 ounces) or individual brew. It comes with two coffee baskets. One for individual serve and other for batch. The individual serve accepts #2 cone filters, while the batch basket accepts basket filters. The machine recognizes which basket is inserted and adapts accordingly. Like all good coffeemakers, it uses a 'showerhead', which adapts to the different baskets. The control is a single knob with a bright color circular display that's very easy to read. It has two modes, a one-push mode that's way too simplistic and a guided mode that's all I use and has three simple steps to start the brew, which consists of selecting the type of brew, quantity and then a confirmation which suggest the amount of coffee to use. A single brew of about 10 oz takes about 6 minutes to complete. It's very easy to clean and wipe off. The basket is easy to remove and the water tank is also easy to remove. The drip showerhead can also be removed for occasional cleaning. The machine of course connects via WIFI to be used with a phone app. The phone app provides all the steps to brew coffee like one would do in a pour over, including the different temperature for every step, blooming water and time, and pulses of water. One can also control schedules as well, and time is automatically set via the internet connection. It allows to set up multiple, customizable brewing profiles as well as a rotating pre-sets of coffees sold directly by Fellow, which is an on-demand service but it's not a subscription. Once the machine is configured with the phone app I don't need to use it at all for everyday brewing, however it notifies me every time the coffee is brewed, which is a nice touch. Two things I'd like to see improved is that coffee can be poured to either the carafe or your own mug for single serve, but it's not tall enough to fit a travel mug. It works well for me using a large glass measuring cup to hold the fresh brew and then fill the travel mug however a single step would've been nicer. The other issue is that the water tank although it holds a respectable 50 oz (1.5L), could be a bit larger, and I find it difficult to clean because the cover is not removable so it makes it more difficult to use a bottle brush. Overall those are small issues I can handle. This is by far our best coffee maker yet, for brewed coffee. I particularly like that it does great at blooming the coffee which cuts down on the acidity.

I’ve had the Fellow Aiden Precision Coffee Maker for about a week now, and honestly, I’m loving it. The coffee tastes amazing, and it makes it super easy to brew the perfect cup every time. If you’re in a rush or just want that classic drip flavor, you can hit Quick Brew, and it does exactly what you'd expect—fast and familiar. But what I really love is the Guided Brew option. It walks you through the process step by step: you pick your roast (dark, medium, or light), choose how many cups you want, and it tells you exactly how much coffee to use. I set it to imperial units, and I love that it not only tells me to use 65 grams but also breaks it down into 13 tablespoons—super convenient if you don’t have a scale handy. It also makes cold brew, which is a nice bonus! Brewing a full 10-cup carafe takes around 10 minutes, which feels pretty average to me. But if you really want to nerd out and fine-tune your brew, the Fellow app is where it’s at. You can adjust things like bloom temp, bloom time, coffee-to-water ratio, single serve settings, cold brew options—it’s loaded. Plus, you can schedule everything through the app and even get a notification when your coffee’s ready. Waking up to that is such a nice touch. I’m also a fan of the sleek, modern design. It looks great in my kitchen. The double-wall carafe stays cool to the touch, which is new for me—I’ve always used glass carafes with a warming plate. This machine doesn’t have one, but honestly, I’ve come around to the idea that reheated coffee just doesn’t taste the same, so I’m fine with that. The design is tight, clean, and feels super well-engineered. Even the hinged lid has this really satisfying hinging motion to it. You can tell a lot of thought went into every part of the machine. Overall, I’m genuinely enjoying this coffee maker. I’ve had some incredible cups of coffee this past week, and it’s got me exploring new blends and roasts. It’s been a fun little journey so far, and I’m excited to keep experimenting with it.

The Fellow- Aiden Precision Coffee Maker in matte black is a refreshing take on Coffee Maker design. The first thing out of my wife's mouth was that’s a cool-looking coffee maker and I agree. This Fellow Aiden Coffee Maker is like no other Coffee maker we have ever had. Not only does it look cool but it acts cool as well and is the most high-tech coffee maker to grace our countertop ever. At first, the High Tech part concerned me because while I am very technical, my wife is not, so I was hoping for simplicity and ease of use. I have to say that Fellows really delivered on simplicity and functionality with this Coffee Maker. I was pleasantly surprised by the ease of use that the color screen and rotary dial presented to me. Scrolling through the menus could not be more simple just turn the knob to scroll up and down and push the knob in to select. It was very easy to learn how to use it, due to it being so intuitive and by the self-explanatory menu, do to good word choice. I was quickly able to set up the clock and the date as well as my customized brew for the next morning using advanced mode. My wife was happy to hear that she did not have to worry about making the coffee in the morning and that it would turn on and make it itself and be waiting for us when we got up. Really cool and it also sends you a notification on your phone once you have the app set up. I saw some reviews on Google Play saying it was difficult to get connected to the coffee maker. However, I did not have any issues connecting my phone and the app to the coffee maker. As a matter of fact I did not hit one snag during the whole process from set up to morning brew. Great job Fellows! The Fellows Aiden makes a 10-cup pot and other smaller portions depending on what you want as well as different strength brews and it even makes cold brew coffee. I can not wait to try out every different function on this marvelous machine. It even has different baskets for use of different filters, depending on how much coffee you want to make. This Coffee Maker is very versatile and best of all very well executed. I look forward to enjoying it for years to come. Thanks Fellows!

The Fellow Aiden Precision Coffee Maker is a sleek, modern drip coffee machine that delivers an exceptional brewing experience. The coffee maker comes securely packed in a sturdy shipping box and inner box, ensuring safe delivery, which is not always common these days. Setting up the unit was straightforward, though the Fellow app initially had trouble finding the device. A quick restart resolved the issue instantly, and after allowing the firmware to update for about an hour, the app worked seamlessly but doesn't seem necessary. One of the standout features of the Aiden is its clean, streamlined design. It looks great on the countertop and is simple to navigate. The machine offers versatility, allowing you to brew either a single cup or a full pot. While it may feel a bit sophisticated for just a standard cup of ground coffee, the fine-tuned adjustments seem to pay off—the coffee is incredibly smooth and flavorful. Beyond its brewing capability, it’s the small details that make this coffee maker a pleasure to use. The one-dial control simplifies all settings, and features like the attached cover on the water tank, visible water level indicator, and magnetic cover on the coffee grounds basket add convenience. Additionally, the brewer provides guidance on the correct amount of coffee grounds, making the process even easier. One minor inconvenience is the separate filter boxes for single versus batch brewing. While not a major issue, having to keep track of two different filters can be slightly cumbersome. Another minor drawback is that the unit continues to drip even after the display says "Ready," requiring a short wait or a napkin to catch any lingering drops. (These are the only reasons I gave it 4 stars instead of 5, but I would still recommend this coffee maker). Despite these small quirks, the Fellow Aiden Precision Coffee Maker is an outstanding drip coffee machine. It delivers smooth, rich coffee, looks beautiful, and is easy to use and clean.

I have been a pour over coffee brewing maker since medical school days, where prodigious volumes of coffee was necessary to keep up with the long days and nights. Surgical residency was even more demanding, often with sleep measured in minutes only, until the next trauma hit the ER. Of course, the coffee that was available on hospital wards at 0300 AM, was probably brewed 6 hours before, and sitting on the hot plate becoming scorched and stronger by the hour. But that was what was available, and beggars cannot be choosers. At home, and after the training years, the paper filter and cone pour over was the only way to go. As I matured, and branched out to grinding my own beans fresh each morning, trying out several different coffee mills, from the simple “spice grinder” with a whirling blade inside the chamber, maturing to a burr adjustable grinder as I went along. I confess to be a loyal fan of the Fellow company, from the first I heard of them on Kickstarter in 2013. Their introduction of a hybrid of filter cone drip and French press was genius. Over the years since 2013, they have added new products, which I added to my household. My armory includes the pour over Stagg kettle, and a precision scale to properly dose the amount of ground beans, and I added their Ode grinder most recently. What possibly can be added to this line up of coffee preparation science? Automation is the obvious answer. My spouse would occasionally offer, “can I make you a cup of coffee?”, as if it was a two step process. Now it can be reliably handed over to the helper mate. You just follow the clues as they appear on the machine. I won’t start on my diatribe against disposable plastic pods. Enough said that I compost the spent grounds and paper filters via my basement worm composting towers, and our garden thrives with the worm castings and the liquid fertilizer of the “worm tea”. The Aiden brewer is a beauty on the countertop. Sleek modern design without multiple knobs and dials, such as the ethos of an espresso machine. The thermal carafe is simple in style, but with its dual wall body keeps the coffee warm without scorching it on a hot plate. Please hand wash the carafe, however. The drip cone inserts quickly change from a smaller (one cup or two) cone delivery to a basket mode full carafe capacity. The shower head lid switches from the pour over for smaller volumes to the broader spray for the basket. Aiden doses the hot water via the barista regimen. You start with moistening the grounds with just a bit of hot water, and then let it “bloom” for a minute. Subsequent water is dosed slowly over the grounds, allowing maximum contact of water to the grounds. When you turn the dial to your desired volume you wish to make, the dial tells you how much coffee grounds you need to use, measured in fractional ounces or grams. A kitchen scale is very helpful here, rather than just using the ‘coffee scoop”. The water reservoir easily removes for refilling and periodic washing out. I found the lid to be a bit small to get my bottle brush into the opening for a vigorous washing, however. The lighted dial on the side walks you through the steps of your “guided brew”. However, you can take control on your own for optimization to your own preferences, as you customize to your own desired strength, brew times, etc. The Aiden has been awarded certification from the SCA, the Specialty Coffee Association, having met the precise water temperature, optimal brewing time, and consistency within the SCA “Golden Cup” recommendations. Coincidently, as I was testing out the Aiden, a review of coffee makers came in my monthly issue of a national consumer reporting magazine. Of the 65 models in the category of “drip coffee makers with carafe”, the Aiden was #16 in the rankings, with highest marks for brew performance. Since it is a newly released item, there was no data for predicted reliability or owner satisfaction. The Aiden, with the flexibility of brewing and automation features, was in the higher price range of all the tested models, but was about 2/3 the cost of the highest priced model tested. As noted in the review, the “coffee makers with a high brew performance score will extract the most flavor from the beans”. No one wants a weak cup of coffee. Additionally the Fellow company has a mobile phone app, which offers portable monitoring and notifications, with remote ability to start a brew cycle and let you know when the brew cycle has finished. Also, firmware updates of the brewer are automatically installed via your WiFi network. In the setup cycle, you enter your choices of metric vs. imperial temperatures and measurements. You also set your local altitude, for adjustments, just like you need to adjust baking time and temperatures at higher altitudes. It’s this level of precision that creates a reproducible delicious cup of coffee. And, as I writing this in April in New Hampshire, it is still barely Spring, but Cold Brew season is coming up. I have not tried the cold brew setting yet, but feel certain it will deliver full flavor without the sitting in the refrigerator overnight to extract the clean robust flavor. Yes, I’m biased in favor of Fellow’s expertise in coffee creation, but I feel they have earned my trust and allegiance, for a dozen years now.

I consider myself a daily coffee drinker, enjoying a 15oz cup each morning and occasionally one in the afternoon. My usual coffee maker is my trusty Moccamaster Technivorm (thermal carafe), renowned as one of the best drip coffee makers on the market. Having used it for many years, I was curious to try Fellow's new Aiden, especially since I already own Fellow’s grinder, electric kettle, and several mugs for manual pour-over coffee. Upon arrival and setup, the Aiden impressed me as a classy-looking modern coffee maker that would complement any kitchen. Connecting to Wi-Fi and updating the software was straightforward. Navigating the options is intuitive, thanks to the large, user-friendly knob/power button. I typically don't brew a full pot daily, so I appreciate that Fellow designed the Aiden to brew directly into a coffee mug (or pot) using a smaller basket insert, in addition to a "normal" basket for larger brews. I often use the smaller basket to brew directly into my Ember mug (something I couldn't do with the Technivorm). Simply dial in the desired water volume, and the Aiden automatically determines the appropriate basket and brew time. For larger batches, selecting the water volume with the knob also displays the required coffee amount in grams. I measure, grind the beans, and then add them to the Aiden. One crucial step is to ensure the drop lid is set correctly. When open, green and blue indicators correspond to the smaller and larger baskets, respectively. One standout feature I've never seen on another coffee maker is the water pump/shower head functionality. Traditional coffee makers surge hot water up the shower head, resulting in the familiar "gurgle…gurgle" sound. The Aiden, however, utilizes a continuous (linear) pump that distributes water evenly over the grounds, closely mimicking a manual pour-over technique. This leads to a more consistent brew, as the Aiden employs shower cycles (pulse, bloom, drip finish) that emulate the stages of a manual pour-over. Once finished, the maker chimes, and you receive an alert on your phone/watch that your coffee is ready. I can confidently say that the Fellow Aiden brews an exceptional cup or pot of coffee, and in my opinion, it surpasses the taste of my Moccamaster, which is a significant statement. One key reason is the temperature accuracy. The Aiden's display shows the set water temperature, and my testing confirmed that the actual water output matches the machine's stated temperature. This ensures the water reaching the coffee grounds is at the correct temperature for optimal extraction. The resulting taste is consistently amazing, never bitter or too strong/weak, provided you grind the beans correctly and follow the Aiden's instructions. This consistency eliminates the need for manual pour-overs. Additionally, I appreciate the timer feature, which allows me to schedule when I want my coffee ready. It's user-friendly and high-quality. In my view, the price is justified by its features, accurate water temperature, and consistent pour-over quality. One noteworthy feature I'll mention is the steam recapture system. While coffee brews, steam typically rises from the basket. However, the Aiden has rubber seals that prevent steam from directly impacting the underside of your cabinets. It's very effective, but when the brew is finished, I recommend opening the lid after brewing to allow any remaining water vapor or droplets to dry. To brew, simply twist the dial to your desired water volume, and the screen displays the exact amount of coffee (in grams) required. Since I also own Fellow's Opus grinder (purchased separately), I weigh the recommended amount, grind the beans, and add them to the filter basket. It's very easy, and the coffee it makes is among the best I've had from a consumer coffeemaker. I can easily recommend it to anyone serious about good-tasting coffee!

Why didn’t anyone tell me that drip coffee could be this good? This machine is dialed in to make the perfect cup of drip coffee. I’m more than addicted to my espresso machine, but when I work from home I like to brew drip coffee and drink it throughout the morning. Too many lattes makes for a racing heart. Very modern design, so it doesn’t look like any other coffee pot I’ve ever seen. That said, it’s the design that’s well thought out. Everything about this design was well thought out and just works well together. The top brew cap of the machine is spring loaded. The lid for the water reservoir is spring loaded as well. The brew cap lid opens all the way under my cabinets which makes it nice. It’s a tight fit though, I can see where if you have low cabinets this might not open all the way for you. (see pic). This machine comes with a small brew coffee basket, and a large brew coffee basket for times you may not want to brew a full pot. The nice thing is that it’s fool proof. Whatever size in the “guided brew” function you choose to brew, the led screen will change from the single green dot, to the 3 blue dots, depending on how much coffee you’re going to brew. (see pics) Lower amounts you’ll use the small coffee basket ( noted by the green dot), and larger amounts you’ll use the large coffee basket (noted by the 3 blue dots). The baskets themselves even have the different colored dots marked on them. Like I mentioned there’s only 2 settings and it’s foolproof. To change the brew cap setting manually depending on the amount of coffee you’re brewing, simply flip the little toggle switch under the lid of the brew cap back and forth between grteen to blue. I REALLY like the water reservoir, as it lifts up and out the side to fill. No fuss with trying to fill a coffee reservoir on the top of the machine by trying to pour into the small hole provided by most drip coffee machines. Makes it all that much nicer if you use your filtered water from your fridge for your coffee maker. Bad thing is that it didn’t fit in the slot on my fridge to push the lever and fill. I have to fill a pitcher and then pour. (see pic) That’s not a problem though, very manageable. I highly recommend getting your own scale and using the guided brew. You don’t have to use the guided brew, you can just brew manually. This machine asks you during set up to input the elevation for where you live. If you have an apple watch or iPhone, it’s listed on your compass app. I don’t really know what this does, but I’m here to tell you oh my lawd, between that and weighing your coffee grounds precisely, you’ll have the best drip coffee experience ever! That’s the other thing, get a scale if you don’t have one. We got one for our espresso grounds measuring. Everything done on the machine through the screen, programming and brewing, is done using the dial at the bottom of the machine. Very easy to use and get used to. Again, a well thought out intuitive design. There are only 2 things I don’t particularly care for with this driop coffee machine, and they are def NOT deal breakers. I’ll gladly take the annoyances if the coffee is this darn tasty. The first thing is that there’s no hot plate. There’s an insulated carafe with a tight sealed lid, but once your coffee is brewed, the machine is done. I’ve seen people complain online about it, and I understand why. If you’re entertaining people, they better drink the coffee within a few hours or it will be luke warm. Not much of an issue for me ,as I drink coffee pretty quick and besides I have an Ember mug to keep mine warm. The second issue is that when you go to clean the machine or empty the brew basket, you better bring a napkin or paper towel. I almost forgot to mention, the brew baskets both have little handles that lightly snap down when loaded and prevent them from shifting around like any other drip coffee basket does. When you lift them up and out simply dump out in the trash or save if you compost. The paper towelk will come in for the brew cap. Every single time I’ve used this machine, I have to wipe off coffee sludge and grounds off the bottom of the cap. I fear that if I leave it, it will get gummed up. Fellow is aware of this though for those of you who read the manual. They instruct you to wipe it off before and after use. I would without a doubt say this is the best drip coffee maker I’ve ever owned in my life. Fellow did a great job with design, and dialing in the science of brewing a perfect cup of coffee each and every time. I will for sure look at getting another one if something happens to this machine!

My wife and I have been pretty simple batch brewers most of our lives, with our mornings shaped into a speed slalom of waking up and getting kids and ourselves ready for school, work and the day ahead. For a good while, coffee was just a means of getting going in the morning as quickly and efficiently as possible, and we brewed for speed and volume on lo-fi drip brewers for years. More recently, as the kids got older and the morning slowed down a bit, we became more coffee curious. First buying outside of the house at various cafés, dabbling in various flavors and intensities and finding a curiosity in trying to bring some of that customization home. We invested in a decent grinder and a French press, and were slowly able to learn a bit more around how to elevate our coffee experience on slower mornings while batch brewing when we still had to fuel up for an ‘on-the-go’ day. The Fellow Aiden Precision Coffee Maker is quite an exciting step up for us, marrying our need for volume in a batch brew capacity with the sophistication of being able to dial down on the customization of a specific coffee profile, whether it is one of our design, one of a varied set of presets in the machine, or one yet to be dreamed up by another self-made barista and shared through the Fellow app. Out of the box, the Aiden has a pretty deliberate and spartan look to it that I absolutely love, a matte black unit with little distraction to it. There is a small dial on the lower left, and a small round color LED screen of about the same size just north of it on the upper part of the machine. It is an intentionally simple cube in design with a carveout for the pot, and I enjoy its stark aesthetic simplicity. We’ve had myriad brewers that looked like the inside of a space shuttle, too busy with buttons and large screens that honestly had me more confused and annoyed than informed. I personally love the operational simplicity of this unit, which belies the fact that there is so much functionality below the surface. Off to the side of the unit there is a detachable water tank that can be filled in place or removed and filled from a sink or another source. The construction of the brew chamber looks really solid, with a fitted showerhead lid that doesn’t allow for heat and steam to escape. The showerhead itself can be removed to clean, and provides an even dispersal of water that enables thorough saturation and extraction of flavors in the ‘pour-over’ model of brewing. Included are two brew baskets (for batch or single brew) that the unit recognizes when placed inside, which accept readily available filter types that are not proprietary. Diving down into the settings, the spin-wheel dial takes you down into deeper functionality to select brew types, brew profiles, scheduling tools and various settings to customize your coffee experience. You can customize brews to the gram and ounce, teasing different brew strengths and flavor profiles out with measured accuracy and consistently repeatable outcomes. While we have only used the Aiden for about a week, and tested a few different brew profiles at batch or single-serve, consistency seems to be a hallmark of the unit when asked to perform the same types of brews. My wife and I are by no means sophisticated baristas, but we were scratching the surface with a desire to learn more about coffee alchemy before finding the Fellow Aiden, this coffee machine supports our most basic needs at a much higher level while giving us a whiteboard to play around and design and experiment with coffee at a really sophisticated level. While it is a really sound unit with very little to criticize, there are a few things that could improve the overall experience but are by no means any type of deal-killer. These are more personal reflections, your mileage may vary based on your own needs. I understand that the small circular LED screen is a part of the aesthetic, but it really begs a square shape. Much of the info gets cut off, and it could be easier to read with just a shape change. The water reservoir is just a bit small. I would take a unit that is an inch or so wider, taller and deeper to get a bit more water. To that same effect, the carafe is similar to a Yeti in construction, it has decent heat retention, but lacks the heat retention of a traditional double walled design with an air gap. My last cheap drip machine had a thermal carafe with a thicker wall that held coffee a LONG time, a slightly larger unit may accommodate a better carafe design. My wife brews every day at 6 AM, and I get my first cup at 8 AM. While it is relatively hot, it was definitely cooler than the initial brew, and by 10 AM (my refill) it had noticeably lost some heat. Not all folks need a batch to last four hours, so take that with a grain of salt. We are totally thrilled to be a part of the Fellows family now, and are excited about what we can learn and how we can grow our coffee tastes and skills with the addition of the Aiden to our family!

The Aiden Precision Coffee Maker, from Fellow, is not just a work of art in a black cube, it’s your personal barista on your kitchen counter, which makes the most incredible cup of coffee you could hope for! It’s beautifully packaged as you would expect of a coffee maker which costs this much. But it’s also very simple to set up. Pull it out of the box (after unlocking the two locks on each side of the box), remove two pieces of tape, open the brew basket area, where the round basket is holding filters for your first use. You get an additional cone basket and filters (for smaller brews) and an easy to follow user guide, safety information and a card with a QR code you can scan to register your coffee maker. Once you plug in the coffee maker, use the round controller below the round digital screen to set your coffee maker to the correct time, language, units [imperial (oz’s) or metric], elevation (who knew your elevation can affect the brew of your coffee?), turn on or off Bluetooth and Wifi (for updates or to access brew profiles) and the end of brew chime and how loud. It’s really simple and intuitive. Next download the Fellow Aiden app on your smart phone and set it up via Bluetooth and connect to your home WiFi network. This took a few minutes and once you sign into the account you created when you registered your device, it started an update from Fellow to download the latest version to the coffee maker. The app from Fellow is pretty simple and includes the ability to set a custom schedule and brew profiles. I say pretty simple, but truth be told, I haven’t quite figured out how to use a custom profile. And being even more honest, thus far, I’ve simply used the controller to use what Fellow calls Guided Brew. Press the controller, choose Guided Brew, tell it how many cups you’re brewing, the coffee profile (light, medium or dark roast or cold brew and more), then start. Of course, you need to have water in the side chamber, the drip basket, filter and grounds already in place. NOTE: Before you brew, you need to tell it whether you’re using the round basket or cone basket. When you lift the lid where the basket lives, there is a switch in the top to choose the pattern for the basket you’re using. Turn it to the left for the cone basket or to the right for the round basket (one dot for single brew – three dots for batch brew). We like dark roast, pretty-bold coffee flavors. We also have our own burr grinder. What works perfectly for us is to grind 4 coffee scoops of beans to a medium grind, for 6 cups of coffee. This is the perfect blend to fill two large Yeti insulated tumblers. Over time, I’ll play with the profile options, but honestly, making coffee doesn’t need to be overly complex. You can make it simple or geek out to your hearts content with a machine as capable as this. I will say, this work of art is pretty much high-grade plastics. Other than the carafe it’s all plastic that you see and touch. I guess time will tell if they hold up. But we’re very careful with our devices, so I’m not really concerned. And while the carafe is supposedly insulated, it really wouldn’t be suitable for making a large carafe of coffee and hoping it will keep your coffee hot. Once brewed, the carafe is immediately ready to pour from. This means there is nothing to lock the heat in the carafe. Fellow could have easily put a lock on the lid to prevent this, but they didn’t. So, I would either make just enough coffee to enjoy a piping hot cup of coffee OR have another Thermal Carafe handy to hold the coffee in after brewing. Otherwise, I’m mightily impressed with this Aiden Precision Coffee Maker. No, it's not inexpensive, but quality often costs more. If you want your own personal barista on your kitchen counter, which makes a sublime cup of coffee, which offers customization features few other coffee makers can match (if there are any), you simply WON’T be disappointed in this beautiful machine. No, you won’t!

While I’m not much of a coffee connoisseur, my 90 year mother that lives with us, is. She’s been drinking coffee since she was 6 years old and owned more coffee pots and coffee brewing machine than I can think of. She’s pretty tech savvy for her age, too. She’s on her 5th smartphone and second iPad, so, reading the directions to set it up and use it wasn’t a problem for her. Even the app. In short, she loves the thing! It did take her a few tries to get what she was looking for taste wise, but when she did, she was elated with it. Then experimented around with the different ways you can brew with it. I’m going to start the review from unboxing to her thoughts on it and to a conclusion. The Fellow Aiden was shipped in a box in a box with a handle attached to the inner box and a couple of knobs on opposite sides to release them so you can pull one out of the other. There are No instructions anywhere on the box that tells exactly how to do this, but it seemed like a no brainer. At least to me, since I take apart and repair commercial HVAC and electrical equipment for a living. Anyways, it wasn’t as simple as it appeared. The knobs show locked and unlocked, but twisting to the unlocked position didn’t release the boxes. You must twist them to unlocked, of course, and pull them out. Fellow, please print PULL OUT next to those knobs. After you remove the inner box from the outer you have a very well eco packed item. The product looks and feels very well made. I especially like the clean and simple Bauhaus styling of it. The power cord is approximately 40 inches long and can be wrapped up and hidden in the base on a hub for it. The carafe is stainless steel, but not dishwasher safe. No glancing at it to see how much is left in it either. Comes with 2 filter baskets for cone and flat bottom filters, and 15 filters of both types. Water tank fits on the side and shows how much water is in it. However, it can be difficult to see how much water is in the tank due to the dark color theme and you can only see the water level from one side. A lighted tank like another machine she had, would have been a very nice touch. The round screen is a nice style touch, high enough resolution that it’s easy to read with good brightness and contrast. Aiden has a 2 year warranty and Fellow will add an extra year when you register it. Setup and the first cup of coffee. I read over the instructions and then passed to mom and let her do the rest. She had no problem setting the language, units and time / day. Onto making coffee. She told it light roast and followed the directions such as switching the spray from single to triple. However, she had preloaded the filter with coffee in the amount she was used to using in previous machines. So, she skipped across the weighing part and let it brew. That coffee was so strong she couldn’t drink it. So, she poured it out and tried again. I got her a scale to weigh the coffee light the instructions said, which she did. The next cup was very good. Since then, she had tried several different settings and brew styles and says it’s by far the best coffee maker she’s ever used. From stove top peculators decades ago, Mr. Coffee in the 70s, Bunn units, and Keurig K-cups, to name a few, this is her new favorite. Conclusion concerning mom is that it’s easy enough to use that anyone should be able to use it without any problems. She also says she uses less coffee with the Aiden, too. See photos for her hand written comments, if interested. If you’re really into coffee, specialty blends and lots of brew options, the Aiden should have you covered there as well. The flexibility of this brewing machine is unlimited! With the ability to create coffee to your personal taste is amazing. The temperature of the water can be from the room temp water in the reservoir for a cold brew to heating it from 122 to 210 degrees. You can customize the coffee to water ratio 1:14 to 1:20. You can choose the number of blooms 1 to 3 and the temp of each, the number of water pulses 1 to 10 and the temp for each of those. These are easy to set up on the app and they will transfer to the Aiden to be used there. I wasn’t able to brew from the app. The app is so new it’s still limited to what it can do other than create custom profiles and schedules to brew. When using the app, it will notify you when your coffee is ready. Aiden is not compatible with Alexia or Google. We make 6 cups to have half for breakfast and then later in the day the other half over ice with a flavored creamer. If anyone else wants more, it’s easy to brew a single cup as needed. You only have 6.3 inches of room for a cup or a travel mug to fit to be used instead of the carafe. The carafe will stay warm for hours but only hot for a short while. When using the flat basket, you can remove the carafe before brewing stops and basket will stop the flow until the carafe is replaced. The cone basket will not shut off until brewing is completed. Only a few gripes such as opening the lid to put the coffee basket in can be a problem under low cabinets, hard to see water reservoir due to dark color theme and limited app functionality. Conclusion: From basic use to exotic brewing, you're covered.

I have a Fellow Ode Brew Grinder, so I knew the brand made some quality coffee products. When I saw they had the Aiden Coffee Maker I had to give it a try! The machine is simple and boxy, included is two different baskets one for cone shaped filters (smaller cup count) and flat bottom filters (for larger cup counts) 15 of each filter included. You get a couple informational and quick guides included otherwise. I downloaded the Fellow app, this allows you to update the firmware on your brewer, manage your Roast Profiles, get Fellow Drop profiles and manage your schedules (I have it set on once so it doesn't brew automatically if I forget to load it). After updating the firmware I ran some water through the machine, always feel better knowing I have ran some water through. The machine is very simple to use, changing the cup size will show one green or three blue dots, indicating which filter you need also tells you how many ounces will be brewed. After selecting the cups, it will then take you to the next screen stating how many grams of coffee are needed, it will tell you the tablespoon amount but I use a kitchen scale to weigh it out. Then you simply brew! I have used my coffee tumblers (That fit under) when brewing smaller portions but the included coffee pot is great also. The wife has started using this daily and is even now considering putting away the single brew machine she was previously using! It's great Fellow used standard off the shelf filters, you can brew any coffee you'd like and get the tools to create your own brewing profiles or download from the Fellow community!

The 12 inch height of this Fellows Aiden coffee maker was exciting because I thought I finally found a coffee maker that would fit under the counter. But it has to be pulled out to open the door to add water or to insert the coffee filter, so it is more practical to leave it out in the open. The sleek design makes it difficult to find something to grasp to open the reservoir and coffee basket doors. The instructions are written in good grammatical English, but they were hard to follow because they aren’t in sequential order and they don’t explain the menu settings and sequence. I thought maybe I needed the app, so I installed it from the Play Store, but all it does is let me fine tune the light, medium, dark and cold brew nitty gritty like temperature, number of pulses, time between pulses, bloom (initial water pulse) time, etc. The actual set up is done using the tiny window on the coffee maker itself. The coffee maker can be set to imperial or metric measurements. The booklet is in metric. The menu and settings are accessed by turning and pushing the unmarked knob. You have to turn the knob to scroll up and down and push it in to confirm a highlighted setting. I finally got everything set in the Instant mode like my husband likes - 4 cups and dark. The next morning he made coffee and all that came out was 2.5 cups. It turns out that whoever designed this coffee maker can’t do math. When I set it for 4 cups of coffee, I got 2.5. When set to 5 cups, I got 3. The 8 cup setting yielded approximately 5 cups. All the water that goes in from the reservoir comes back out into the carafe, so it made no sense. I then used a measuring cup to fill the reservoir and found the problem. Although the markings say that the max fill of 1.5 liters is 10 cups, 1.5 liters is actually 6 cups. Another clue that something is off is that the carafe only holds 8 cups filled to the brim. The number of cups in the settings correspond to the reservoir markings so to get the correct output the number of cups in the settings has to be adjusted by the 6/10 ratio. 6.5 cups in the settings will yield approximately 4 cups of coffee. That worked for a few days. Then suddenly on day 5 the coffee maker decided to add 6.5 cups of water instead of 4 so the coffee was extremely weak. I immediately ran another cycle, and only 4 cups came out. I don’t know what caused the change, but I deleted the app just in case some wireless connection was changing things remotely. There are 2 interchangeable baskets - one for flat bottom filters and one for cone filters. The cone basket uses #2 filters, which are fairly small and are for single serve only. The instruction booklet describes a single serve as “450 ml or 3 cups”. 450 ml is actually 1.9 cups. The instruction booklet says that the “maximum coffee dose” when using the basket filters is 82.5 grams, which is also wrong. I weighed out 82 grams of coffee grounds and it was over 1.5 cups, which filled up the basket without leaving any room for expansion after the water was added. The grounds from just ⅓ cup of coffee (25 grams) for a 4 cup batch come within 2 inches of the top of the basket after processing. The most that would fit in the flat bottom basket and not overflow the basket after processing is ⅔ cup or closer to 40 grams. The timer is wacky. At the start of an 8 cup/dark roast brew (which is really 4.8 cups) the display starts counting down from 9 minutes. But with about 4 minutes remaining, the display changes to 59 seconds. At the 6.5 cup setting, the timer flips to 59 seconds at the 3 minute mark. An initial estimate of 9 minutes is actually 6 minutes. There is no heated plate to keep the coffee warm, so there is no danger of forgetting to turn the coffee maker off. The carafe is very well insulated and keeps the coffee hot for a long time on its own. The outside stays very cool. The empty carafe weighs almost 2 pounds. When filled with 6 cups of coffee it weighs 4 pounds, which is quite heavy. But since the outside of the container is always cool to the touch, 2 hands can be used to lift and pour if needed. The reservoir can be kept full and the machine will only use the amount of water it calculates that it needs. It only uses everything in the reservoir when making 6 cups of coffee. If there is not enough water in the reservoir, the display will show “add water” and will not continue until water is added. This coffee maker is highly overrated. It was shipped in a very heavy outer shipping box with an over-packaged locking inner box to give the impression that there was something very special inside. But inside was just an overpriced, ordinary coffee maker. Or maybe below ordinary considering the defects. The selling point is the app which lets you fine tune the coffee making process, but I don’t think a couple of seconds difference between pulses or in the length of the pulses makes any difference in the taste of the coffee. The coffee tastes no different than when made in a coffee maker that costs ¼ of the price and doesn’t have math issues.

Outstanding batch pour-over coffee with a 10-cup carafe (Fellow defines a cup as 5 ounces). Connecting to a modern mesh Wi-Fi network is, at best, problematic, making the upgrading of any available firmware (containing fixes and newly added features) also problematic (a chicken or egg scenario). Brew time for a full carafe is just under nine minutes. It comes with a large basket for batch brewing and a smaller cone-shaped basket for individual cup brewing. For those who know coffee and want to be about to dial-in their brewing preferences, they can set water temperature, bloom time, number of water pulses as well as the pause time between pulses. It is very versatile for pros and has user friendly "guided brew mode" for those who just want their morning caffeine fix. UnIt's build is rather cheap for the price. I suspect the price of the unit covers the brains and development.

It's a good drip coffee maker. It's stylish and performs well. But it's grossly over priced compared to other drip coffee makers with marginal change to taste. It also doesn't have a heater, so you need to use the coffee fast after brewing. One big plus if your looking for it is the different pot sizes. That's one of the main reasons I bought it because I just make myself coffee in the morning and I don't want a kcup maker. It's a total splurge item.

This makes very good coffee. A few issues though. The carafe does not keep coffee hot long. I find grounds in the carafe every time I brew. I bought this mostly because of the removable water tank and the smaller footprint. I was also hoping to switch from a maker with the burner so the taste would not be compromised in the second cup, but cold coffee doesn’t taste better

This coffee machine has elevated my daily coffee. I'm at the point where I don't like buying coffee from Dunkin’ Donuts or Starbucks anymore.

This is such a beautiful product. Works as it should with great tasting coffee. Couldn’t imagine any other coffee maker.