James Hoffmann has a very similar reaction to the brand new $180 AeroPress Premium coffee maker. Last summer I wrote a love letter to my AeroPress, and I like nice objects for the things I use quite a bit, but this metal and glass version of the AeroPress really doesn't click for me. It's heavier, bigger, noisier, more fragile, and 4.5x more expensive than the one I use everyday. AS I said last year:

[T]here are many other ways to make coffee that are good, but they’re quite expensive. Not the AeroPress. The AeroPress currently retails for $39, making it cheaper than basically every other “coffee maker” out there.

But surely there’s a catch, right? Maybe the filters are expensive? Nah! The filters cost me about 2¢ per filter, and even using it most days means I only need to restock every 3 years at this rate.

Part of the appeal of the AeroPress to me is that it's a product anyone can get, treat like hell, and it just keeps making the best coffee possible. I'm sure this premium model will appeal to some people, and more power to you if it does, but to me this seems like an AeroPress that rejects most of the things that I personally really love about the AeroPress.

On the other hand, why the hell not make a more premium AeroPress? Maybe there's a healthy market out there for a nicer feeling AeroPress, it's just not me.