Adler began developing the brewer in 2004, with the intention of reducing acidity and bitterness in his daily cup of coffee.

[3] The brewer consists of a translucent cylindrical chamber, and a plunger with an airtight silicone seal, similar to a syringe.

[5] The company claims that in lab testing, no BPA leached from these early models into brewed coffee.

This is constructed of a new material called Tritan, and comes with only the measuring spoon, stir stick, and 100 paper filters.

[10] The championship resumed in 2021, with both in-person events and a new online format, in which competitors create and submit their recipe remotely.

[11] According to the instructions, fine-ground coffee is placed in the bottom of the larger cylinder on top of a paper microfilter.

This method is more similar to the French press, particularly the extended brewing time in which the grounds and water sit together.

Pressure is used by the AeroPress to aid in extraction, unlike the French press, the Siphon brew, or most other immersion coffee brewers.

In 2017, the manufacturer explicitly recommended against using them, claiming that coffee brewed with paper filters had tested better for taste.