AeroPress Coffee Maker Review

The AeroPress is a versatile brewer that can offer the full-bodied flavor and richness of a French press or the clean clarity and brightness of a pour-over. It's durable and easy to clean, making it a fantastic option for car camping, glamping, van-living, road trips, and traveling — though you may love it enough to use it as your homebrewer too. We certainly do.

Performance Comparison

The AeroPress is durable, easy to clean, and delivers the best flavor of all our coffee makers.

Photo: Penney Garrett

Brew Features

This unique coffee maker facilitates total immersion of your coffee grounds, followed by consistent but rapid filtering. Depending on your mood, you can alter your brewing style to achieve a stronger, more full-bodied flavor or a cleaner and brighter one (more info and resources on this below). Say goodbye to bitterness and muddiness and hello to a consistently delicious cup. Whether you're new to craft coffee or an experienced veteran, the AeroPress is a great brewing method, regardless of your kitchen locale.

Making coffee with the AeroPress is easy peazy lemon squeazy.

Photo: Fumie Hiromitsu

Taste

Properly brewed coffee from the AeroPress has no bitterness and an extremely clean, rich flavor. When used correctly, it slayed the competition in all of our taste tests.

The AeroPress has captured the heart of novices and professionals alike, to the point that there are now national competitions. The brewing process is delicate but forgiving and provides enough versatility to tweak the final flavor and consistency. There are a plethora of online resources and tips on how to properly use your AeroPress and hone your technique to achieve your desired flavor profile.

The Aeropress is versatile and fun to use - and delivers an amazing cup of coffee.

Photo: Penney Garrett

Ease of Use

This brewer involves a more elaborate process than many other coffee makers, though once you learn how to use it, it is fairly straightforward.

There are many ways to use an Aeropress, and detailed information comes with your purchase or can be found on the Aeropress website. It can be used in both an upright or an inverted manner and is able to produce everything from a clean full cup to a smaller, stronger brew resembling espresso. Lots of options abound, and they're all delicious.

The only reason the AeroPress does not score higher for ease of use is that it does require some finesse to develop the proper technique. However, you will love how easy it is to clean this little buddy: simply remove the bottom filter and push the coffee puck out of the bottom of the chamber. Best-case scenario, you won't have any grounds on the plunger, and worst-case, you'll need to wipe off the plunger with a dry rag. Either way, it's super easy.

Linda Long pushing water through the AeroPress on a cool morning in the Upper Pines Campground in Yosemite Valley.

Photo: McKenzie Long

Group Cooking

This isn't really an ideal brewer for large groups, though you can serve 1-3 people fairly efficiently.

Since the AeroPress is ridiculously easy to clean, the turnaround time between cups is pretty dang fast. If you prefer to use the technique to make an espresso-like brew, then brew time is less than a minute, and your crew can split the coffee from one pressing and add water or milk for an Americano or latte-style beverage.

The AeroPress being put to use on a car-camping morning.

Photo: David Mackey

Portability

This brewer isn't large, heavy, or awkwardly shaped, so it's definitely portable. It doesn't earn top marks in this category, though, simply because it does come with several small parts, and it is on the heavier side.

To make transporting your AeroPress a little easier, you may find that you don't need the funnel, scoop, or large stirrer that it comes with. You may, additionally, decide to ditch the paper filters for a reusable stainless steel filter, in which case you won't need to keep track of a stack of paper filters either.

Weight

The AeroPress without the added accouterments weighs 7.98 ounces, which isn't exactly featherweight. If you include only a few of the more vital accessories, like the spoon and stirrer, then it weighs 9.39 ounces. If you leave behind the unnecessary stirrer and the spoon, the AeroPress still is not the ideal choice for a gram-counting backpacker but could make the cut as a luxury backpacking item. Better yet, it is an ideal option for a car-camper or van-lifer craving a gourmet cup of coffee.

Value

The Aeropress is a little bit of an investment, but nothing outrageous. There are certainly cheaper options, but this unique device is versatile, highly durable, and produces one of the most flavorful cups available. It does require a filter, but your initial purchase comes with a package of 350, enough to keep you going for a hot minute before having to re-purchase. Once you burn through all of your filters, you can buy a reusable cotton or a reusable stainless steel filter if you'd like to ditch the paper. Be fair-warned, many folks prefer the flavor produced with paper filters over other options. Beyond just the press, your purchase of the Aeropress will also include a funnel for easy filling, a stirrer, and a scoop. When you consider all of that, the price is actually kind of a bargain.

Along with everything else, you'll need to make sure you bring a cup with a wide enough mouth to allow the AeroPress filter to nest inside - otherwise, you won't be able to properly press your brew.

Photo: Penney Garrett

Conclusion

This press is so wonderful that several of our reviewers use it for making coffee every day at home. It also works superbly for car-camping, glamping, or traveling, but is not our go-to for backpacking, as it is on the heavier/bulkier side. While the AeroPress is pricier than many other options in our review, we love how versatile, durable, and easy to clean it is, and the taste just can't be beaten. This is our reigning Top Pick for Gourmet Taste several years running and with good reason.

You can brew with the Aeropress in many different ways - here it's being brewed in the inverted style often preferred by coffee professionals.

Photo: Penney Garrett