Coffee snobbery is a world of interrelated and occasionally warring tribes. There are light roast and dark roast people, pour-over and espresso people, and fiercely partisan fans of various grinders (Baratza brothers unite, we will wash our beans in the blood of the Fellow fellows).
AeroPress people are among the quirkiest lots on the farm. Invented by the same guy who invented the Aerobie flying ring, the AeroPress is a unique single-serve coffeemaker that uses pressure applied by hand to extract a smooth but richly flavorful cup of coffee. A well-made AeroPress brew resembles espresso in its lack of bitterness but comes by the cup instead of a shot. Best of all, the plastic device will last a decade and cost only as much as five Starbucks mochas. The WIRED team has long admired AeroPress; columnist Steven Levy profiled the inventor in his Palo Alto office a decade ago and contributor Joe Ray is on the record calling the AeroPress “ingenious.”
The one obvious downside—and sensitivity to this issue will vary widely by person—is that the device is made of plastic. That plastic is repeatedly exposed to near-boiling water and a half-bar of pressure. It is worth mentioning that the plastic AeroPress uses is free of BPA, free of phthalates, and has approval for food contact from the FDA and EU. But … well, you know.
Heart of Glass
Back in 2021, the flying-ring guy sold a stake in AeroPress to a Canadian holding company that has been capitalizing on the venture by rolling out a much wider suite of products including big Aeropresses, green Aeropresses, clear Aeropresses, and its own branded metal filter to rival the ones created by cottage brands that made all the accessories the company itself declined to offer. (The AeroPress brand metal filter is great and a clutch addition to the Premium, as will be discussed below.)
The most anticipated of those products is the AeroPress Premium. At last, AeroPress offered a brewing system that’s totally free of plastic. The chamber that holds the water is heat-proof clear borosilicate glass, like European Pyrex. The tube you use to apply pressure is made of aluminum. The cap that holds the filter (paper or metal) is stainless steel. The plunger cap that forms a seal with the glass chamber is made of silicone.
The first run of the Premium debuted back in October and sold out fast. After months of backorders, it’s now readily available directly from the company or from Williams-Sonoma. The Premium’s price has sparked heated debates among AeroPress fans—a small tribe may be splitting into two even smaller tribes—but after three weeks of testing I’ve relegated my old trusty brown plastic AeroPress to a crate full of camping gear.
Metal Militia
It’s worth stating clearly up top that I really like AeroPress coffee. I tend to alternate between a few different brewing methods (Chemex, Hario, French Press, AeroPress … Keurig) for a few months at a time but always find myself coming back to AeroPress because of the uniquely clean espresso-ish flavor, the ease of use and cleanup, and the fact you can brew a cup at a time, meaning your second cup of coffee isn’t sitting around getting cold when your colleague in London schedules a 7 am meeting. But AeroPress brew is uniquely rich and robust and may not be for everyone—it’s less crisp and more bitter than proper espresso made using much more pressure, and it has a thicker mouthfeel than regular drip or pour-over coffee.
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