The AeroPress is one of the best inventions of the past quarter century.
And I know that that sounds like a lot, but it does everything so perfectly.
From its durable plastic construction to the exact length of the stir stick
that's allows you to stir your coffee without disrupting your filter, it is
basically flawless. So, what is there to possibly improve in a premium version?
Well, that's what we're here to find out. The AeroPress Premium. It's just
like the AeroPress you know and love, but premium. What makes it premium?
Well, apparently it does the exact same thing using the exact same patented
processes of the original AeroPress, but now it's an aluminum stainless steel and
doublewalled boro silicut glass, which is actually pretty cool. For those of
you who don't know, boroyicut is uh like the capital all caps Pyrex, which is
super durable and handles heat shock really well. Lowercase Pyrex is a lime
glass and it sucks. I will say that this is some premium presentation. We got
magnets on the box. And once we remove a piece of foam, pull out our manual, we
get the Aerop Press in all of its glory.
I thought it was broken for a second. This is just a tag. And it looks nice.
Like I I do appreciate that. And oh my gosh, it's heavy. It comes with a bunch
of filters. I'm not sure the exact number, but it's a plenty. We get a nice
stainless steel filter cap. And that's pretty much everything that is in the
box is right here. It looks very nice. And apparently it's handmade glass. I
don't really know what that means, but I one would hope that if you're going to be mass- prodducing a cylindrical
object, you'd want make it from a mold. But they do ask you to place gently on
countertop. There might be some variations. And it is handwash only.
Wow. Interesting. All of those don't sound like features. They sound like
inconveniences that I didn't have to deal with on my old classic Aerop Press.
In the top, we have our scoop for our coffee as well as our stir stick, which
do you see how it's like kind of pressed in like that? That kind of seems less premium to
me. Um, while I don't mind that it gives a little bit of extra grip at the top,
the fact that it's just like they use this to give it extra durability to
prevent it from bending, but it's not it's still very thin piece, but it feels
a little underbaked. Same thing when you look at this uh with this scoop. If you
can look closely, you can see that there's welds there. While probably it's
plenty enough for the use case of this, which is scooping coffee, it just looks
not very premium. I have measuring cups that look nicer than this, especially
even ones that use metal stamping on the back to get the actual bond done instead
of a a weld. So far, I'm not super
impressed, but I do love the look of it.
Uh, inside we have the plunger. I feel like I've gotten into this without
really talking about what the an Aerop press even is. And Belle rushed me.
Let's take it back a second. What the hell is an AeroPress? The AeroPress is a
coffee maker. Famous because it was so welldesigned and also very cheap. About
$40 for the original version. To make coffee in an Aerop Press is pretty
simple. You take your filter, you place it in the cap. The cap
screws onto the bottom, and then you can place that on the cup or whatever you're
going to be putting it in. This is the plunger. It comes with a silicone rubber
cap at the end that allows for a tight air seal so that you can press down the
water through your coffee. Let's just go through it by making a cup right now.
The AeroPress does come with instructions and a recipe for how to
make coffee in the AeroPress. I don't really like the coffee that comes out of
it using these instructions. I prefer the recipe by James Hoffman. He's an
award-winning barista and famous coffee YouTuber. One of the cool things about
the Aerop Press is that flexibility. Basically, unlike a lot of other coffee
creation methods, you can kind of control every single parameter really
easily. You can control the heat of your water by using a kettle. You can control
the amount of time that you brew. Uh, it looks weird that I'm just pulling this
from a a a Ziploc bag, but it's just because it's the coffee I ground at
home. You take a scoop out. The number of scoops you put in will correspond to the number here, and that will tell you
how much water to put in. So, we're putting in one scoop cuz we're just making one cup. We'll pour in our
coffee.
Now, I put in more coffee, more than one. That's okay. If you want to follow
the instructions, you put in the same amount. I like to let it sit for a little bit. Then, I will stir it with
the stirring rod. So, on top of the premium AeroPress, you can also get a
nice stainless steel organizer, which I think is really, really silly in a way
because one of the cool things about how the original Aeropress works and how
this one works as well, as you saw how it was packed, is that here is
everything I need. It's stored. I've put it away, I guess. Sorry, I don't have a
place for my filters. And actually, the original AeroPress came with a storage
container for my filters. It also came with a funnel. So, the original the
original air press came with this. It came with a little caddy for your filters that this sits into so that your
filters sit under here. It's already part of the package. And for the premium
version, they took out two things. So now, if you want to use this new premium
Aerop Press with your travel mug that
might be a little thinner than a coffee mug or thinner than this, you have to
make your own filter. And it's hexagonal, so it's not going to sit that
well in a normal funnel. Also, you might not want to use a normal funnel. This
was already so freaking good. Future Adam here. I just found out that they
don't actually ship the AeroPress with the funnel or the filter holder anymore.
I guess it's a cost cutting measure that happened once the company was acquired.
I'll talk more about that later. And it was $40. Anyways, let's get back to making
the coffee. We're going to give it a little
stir. I do say it is it's more
entertaining to watch because you can see through the glass. though you can
get a clear version of the plastic AeroPress. Now that it's stirred, we'll
let that sit. I need paper towel. One of the things I like about how the
AeroPress makes coffee is that it kind of is a blend between the French press
as well as having a filter. What you'll find with a French press is that it
gives more acidity and body as it maintains more of the oils that would
usually be captured in a filter. The downside of that is that you also get
the kind of grime and the tiny little bits at the bottom of your cup. But I'm
a fan of that extra full body and acidity, but your mileage may vary. So
now we press it down. So the James Hoppin strategy is if there's any
resistance, just give it a second. You just kind of want to keep it at constant pressure. Some people, if you want to
make it faster than 30 seconds, you just press it down. The air is now going to
be pushing all of the water out through the coffee, through the bottom of the
filter. And here is our coffee. We'll see if it's any good after this segment
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access if you buy the premium edition. This is my favorite part of the AeroPress experience is when you get to
take off the the little
puck. There you go.
Take the plunge out, rinse the bottom of it out with some water, wipe it with a
paper towel if you're worried about the grounds going down to the drain, and
you're basically good to go. I would recommend washing it like once a week,
but because of the plunger, it actually
just kind of like cleans itself. I pulled it up with some grinds on it, but
like you can see that it's basically clean on the inside. So, you don't have
to wash it that frequently. You can't put this one in the dishwasher. You can
put this one in the dishwasher. Also, something else I have not thought about
was the fact that there has to be a caution maybe hot warning on this
because it's metal and you are dealing with boiling or close to boiling hot
water. Something that the plastic handles really well on this where it's relatively thermally resistant. So, even
if I have like I'm making four cups of Aeropress with this, I don't have to
worry that much about heat. This is it looks like it's doublewalled boroylicate
glass. So, there is some level of insulation. It might just be the puck at
the end if you had a longer brewing time that you might want to be concerned
about for in terms of your safety. Outside of that, I don't know what to
say. I'm just not super impressed. And it's probably not going to brew better
coffee. I'm just going to top this off with some extra hot
water. It just makes good coffee. And as I said, I'm not even using a specific
recipe. I didn't even actually climb it cuz I can kind of do this by feel now
cuz I've made it so many times. I have a good idea of how to make coffee that I
like. And because it's so easy to control all of the variables here, you
can find a way to make coffee that really resonates with you using beans
that you like or maybe beans that you don't like. And you can save it by just
being able to easily fiddle with your settings. It's very smooth. It's not
oily thanks to the filter. Again, there's a benefit to the filter paper
that allows no grounds to get through, which allows you to experiment with
grind size. You don't want a super fine grind like an espresso grind with your
Aerop press because you can't get that much pressure when you are pushing this
down, but also a coarse grind will like worsen your extraction. So, they usually
recommend kind of like a medium fine grind. Again, something that you can
experiment with. But how does it compare to the old AeroPress? I think it's going
to be the exact same. One thing to note, there's nothing premium about these
filters. They are the same ones that would come with your normal $40 AP
press. But they do make a stainless steel reusable filter and I'm kind of
surprised that they didn't bundle that in as well. Sure, there's something to
be said about oh the taste as well as the ease of like cleaning it and stuff.
Like filter paper's just like as you saw super satisfying, but it is a little bit
more wasteful. It just feels like they're not trying that hard to make it
a premium experience outside of making it glass and metal, which kind of just
makes it less portable, less washable, more fragile. This almost certainly
won't break from a drop. This there is a risk. Let's get this coffee
brewing. While we wait for this coffee to cool down, let's talk about why they
may have created a premium version. For a long time, about 15ish years, there
was no new version of this except for when they switched away from a BPA
containing plastic. Then in like 2019, they introduced the AeroPress Go, which
is smaller and comes with a sealed mug specifically for camping and stuff like
that. But then after years of running a
company, the inventor decided that he wanted out and sold the company to a
private holding firm called Tiny. And now they've released this premium arrow
press. And to me, it feels entirely like
a cash grab. It comes with less stuff than the original. It does nothing more
than the original. It is less durable, less convenient, larger, harder to
travel with. You're more likely to burn yourself with this. And here's the
kicker. So, the original AeroPress is $40. And this premium version, how much
do you think it costs? Maybe $100. Try
this. 180. 4 12 times more expensive.
And what the hell are you getting? flimsy aluminum components, a worse
experience. It's insane. Future Adam here again. Now, you might be concerned
about microlastics, and I don't know enough to really speak on that. So, if
that's something you're concerned about, well, then maybe a glass arrow press
might be up your alley. I don't think it's really going to be an issue,
but it's 100% a cash grab. It looks
great on Instagram, but I have had this for 5 years. years. I've used it
probably more than twice a day, almost every day. It still works flawlessly.
The only thing I'm thinking about getting for it is a new seal, but
usually people expect those to last around 8 years. Okay? You could buy one
of these for every place that you work
or visit frequently for the price of an AeroPress Premium. And guess
what? It tastes the exact same. So,
please just don't buy this. And if you know anybody who's thinking about
getting this, please tell them not to and just get a normal arrow press.
Thanks for watching. If you enjoyed this ShortCircuit, maybe you'll enjoy our unboxing of the Ninja Creamy. It's an
ice cream maker, but like not. It's weird. That's cool.