AeroPress Premium Coffee Maker Review: Brewing Luxury on the Go

For years, the AeroPress has been the scrappy hero of coffee lovers everywhere. Light, compact, and brilliantly simple, it became the go-to brewer for backpackers, digital nomads, and anyone who wanted to escape bad hotel coffee without carrying a machine around. It didn’t look glamorous, but it was ingenious: a plastic tube that could brew smooth, strong coffee in under two minutes. The AeroPress proved that form doesn’t have to be flashy when function is flawless.

Now we have the AeroPress Premium, a device that keeps the same brewing magic but cloaks it in luxury. It’s heavier, sleeker, and designed with upgraded materials that turn the ritual into something you savor. For coffee lovers on the go, this isn’t just a tool. It’s a statement that your daily cup should feel as indulgent as it tastes.

A New Look, A New Feel

The AeroPress Premium is unmistakably different the moment you touch it. Gone is the utilitarian plastic shell, replaced by a double-walled borosilicate glass chamber that lets you see your brew unfold. The plunger is no longer lightweight plastic but aluminum, cool to the touch and engineered for a smoother push. The filter cap and accessories are stainless steel, adding durability and shine. Every detail feels intentional, like it has been reimagined for coffee drinkers who want the ritual to feel just as satisfying as the end result.

This change in material is more than cosmetic. Glass doesn’t hold on to lingering flavors the way plastic sometimes can, which means each cup tastes clean, pure, and exactly how your beans are meant to taste. The glass chamber also holds heat more steadily, giving your coffee a consistent extraction from start to finish. It’s not a reinvention of the wheel, but it’s a refinement: the kind that makes you realize how much of a difference it makes when the materials are as considered as the method.

Brewing Becomes a Ritual

The classic AeroPress has always been celebrated for its speed. Two minutes from kettle to cup, barely any cleanup, and you’re done. The Premium keeps that speed but adds a visual and tactile layer that changes the vibe entirely. Watching the bloom through the glass, stirring with a metal wand instead of plastic, pressing down with an aluminum plunger that carries just the right weight, the whole thing feels like brewing in high definition.

And the taste? It’s still unmistakably AeroPress: smooth, rich, and remarkably low in acidity. But the upgraded build seems to bring out a touch more clarity, especially when you’re working with delicate beans. It won’t transform your Ethiopian light roast into a different coffee entirely, but it does feel like the flavors are sharper, the sweetness more noticeable, the body just a little more balanced. For coffee nerds, those marginal gains are the stuff of obsession. For casual drinkers, it simply means your morning cup tastes fresher and more alive.

Designed for Coffee Lovers on the Go

At first glance, you might think the Aeropress Premium’s heft makes it less portable than the original. It’s true that it weighs more and needs to be handled with care, it’s glass, after all. But what you lose in ruggedness, you gain in travel confidence. The AeroPress Premium still slips into a backpack or carry-on with ease, and when you set it down on a hotel nightstand or an Airbnb kitchen counter, it immediately elevates the space.

This is where its innovation really matters. Unlike a French press, it won’t leave you with gritty coffee or a sink full of grounds. Unlike a pour-over, it doesn’t demand precision pouring or a steady hand. Unlike an espresso machine, it doesn’t need electricity, plumbing, or an entire counter to live on. You bring the beans, the hot water, and the AeroPress Premium, and you have café-quality coffee anywhere: on a train, at a campsite, in a co-working space, or even on a long-haul flight if you can charm the crew into giving you hot water.

For coffee lovers who are always moving, this makes it more than just a gadget. It’s a passport to consistently good coffee, no matter where you are.

How It Stacks Up Against Other Brewers

Comparisons are inevitable. Against the original AeroPress, the Premium feels like stepping from everyday into luxury. Both deliver fantastic coffee, both are easy to use, both are versatile enough to brew everything from espresso-style shots to cold brew concentrate. But the Premium adds weight, style, and refinement, making each cup feel more ceremonial than functional.

Compared to a French press, the Premium is cleaner, quicker, and far less messy. French presses can be charming, but they often leave sediment in the cup and require a bit of scrubbing afterward. The AeroPress Premium, by contrast, pops its puck straight into the compost and rinses clean in seconds.

Pour-over fans will argue for the artistry of slow drips and swan-neck kettles, but let’s be real, not everyone has time for that every morning. The Premium brings a similar clarity of flavor without the fiddling, and it does it in a fraction of the time.

As for espresso machines, they’re wonderful, but bulky and expensive. The AeroPress Premium won’t give you a true crema-topped shot, but it does create a concentrated brew that mimics espresso closely enough to build Americanos, iced lattes, or cappuccino-style drinks if you have a milk frother. And while espresso machines stay bolted to the kitchen, the Premium is just as happy on a hiking trail as it is on your counter.

Living With It Every Day

The AeroPress Premium isn’t just about taste or looks. It’s about how it changes the way you feel about your coffee. The glass chamber makes brewing something you actually want to watch. The materials give each step, from stirring to pressing, a satisfying weight and presence. Even cleaning feels easier, because the puck releases cleanly and the materials rinse quickly without holding onto stains.

And then there’s the emotional side. If you’ve ever had a morning derailed by bad office coffee or a bitter hotel brew, you know how much it means to start the day with something that feels like yours. The Premium gives you that assurance. It’s a little daily luxury that travels with you, reminding you that good coffee isn’t a location, it’s a habit.

Conclusion: Is It Worth It?

The AeroPress Premium isn’t cheap. At more than triple the price of the original, it asks you to think differently about what a coffee maker can be. It’s not just a device, it’s an upgrade to the way you experience coffee itself. For some, that will be too much. The original AeroPress is still a marvel, still beloved, still a champion of portability and practicality.

But for coffee lovers who want more: more style, more refinement, more joy in the act of brewing, the Premium is worth every penny. It takes a gadget that already transformed how people make coffee and pushes it into a new category: not just convenient, but aspirational.

For the traveler who refuses to compromise on taste, the remote worker who wants their desk to feel like a café, the weekend adventurer who wants luxury even in the wild, this is the coffee maker to beat. The AeroPress Premium is not just an accessory, it’s an experience, and it makes every cup feel like a little celebration.