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Anyone who knows me is very aware that I love of coffee. I particularly love it when it has unexpected and interesting tasting notes. Coffee with hints of jasmine and tangerine? Sign me up. Tropical notes of pineapple and papaya? I’ll take 10 pounds.
Admittedly, I also have poor impulse control when it comes to buying coffee. No matter how many already-opened bags I have at home, there is always room for another on the shelf. This, despite my multi-cup-a-day habit, leads to a kitchen filled with various coffees in many levels of not-so-freshness. I could just buy less coffee, sure, but where’s the fun in that? No, a more realistic solution for me is better storage for my precious caffeinated beans.
Fellow, a company best known for its chic, modern-minimalist kettles, coffee grinders and pour-over rigs, has recently released a line of vacuum sealing containers called Atmos, and they’re my new obsession. It’s no secret that vacuum sealing food keeps it fresher for longer, so I could have just gotten any other brand of storage container with that capability, but Fellow designed its containers to be different in a few ways that made me have to try them out.
The first thing that differentiates Fellow’s Atmos Vacuum Canisters is that they come in both glass and stainless steel. Oxygen isn’t the only enemy of freshness—sunlight can also have a negative effect on food. That’s why experts recommend storing things like spices and herbs in cool, dark spaces. As of right now, Fellow offers its stainless-steel containers in only black or white, which is pretty on-brand aesthetics-wise and, honestly, more than enough for me. I opted for the matte black finish.
What really sold me on wanting the Fellow canisters, though? The integrated pump in the lid. Most vacuum sealing containers require a separate pump to suck the air out of them, which is just another unitasker taking up space in my cabinets. That’s space I could be using for more coffee beans, darn it!
Once you’ve got your precious dry goods in the container and topped it with the lid, you just twist it back and forth. As you twist, you can feel the tension increase as the air gets pumped out of the canister. There’s a little indicator on top of the lid that drops to reveal a green spot once the canister is fully sealed. When you’re ready to retrieve your coffee, you just push the button on the center of the lid and bask in the aroma of your still-fresh beans.
I bought the smallest coffee container, the 0.4 liter option, and it took about 10–15 quick twists (about 5 seconds of effort) to fully seal each time.
The integrated pump is simple to use and it creates a very strong seal such that, when you push that button to release, it creates a very dramatic sound, like Darth Vader gasping for air.
To test the fresh-keeping capabilities, I bought a brand new bag of coffee from my local roaster—the beans had been roasted that day, so they were at peak freshness. I dumped half the bag into the Atmos Canister and left the other half in the bag. I then made a cup of each once a week for a month, measuring everything to the gram, heating water to the same temperature each time, and brewing with the same method.
After a week, unsurprisingly, there wasn’t a huge difference in taste, but by the end of the month, it was pretty clear that the canister was doing its job. Every cup of coffee made from the beans in the canister tasted exactly the same week to week, whereas the beans from the bag showed a decline in quality each week when compared to the canister coffee.
There was such a marked difference between the smell of the beans when I opened the canister that I really looked forward to making coffee on each test day.
I use my second canister to store “herbs,” which the Fellow website cheekily suggests is also a good use of the containers. While I didn’t include this as part of my official testing method, there was a very clear difference between those “herbs” stored in my container versus the containers from the dispensary. If it’s your jam, I highly (sorry) recommend these.
Fellow customer service is also responsive, friendly, and helpful. I had an issue with one of the containers I ordered, which I’ll expand on in the section below, but it was resolved almost immediately.
I bought two containers to test, and it was pretty clear right out of the box that one had a somewhat faulty pump. It took twice as long for the indicator to drop, and even then it was clear that the seal wasn’t as strong on it as the one that was working properly because the audible “gasp” wasn’t as strong or loud when I broke the seal. Should you notice something similar, good news: I contacted Fellow’s customer support, and it replaced the lid for free. When the new lid arrived, it performed exactly like the other canister, taking 10–15 twists to seal with an equally loud “gasp” after breaking the seal.
Cleaning the container lids is a little fussy. Neither the lid nor the canister are dishwasher-safe, but the canister can be hand-washed like anything else. The lid can’t be washed under running water, but it can be taken apart so you can wash the gasket and filter separately. The rest of the lid has to be cleaned gently with a damp sponge or cloth. That said, I haven’t really felt the need to wash the canisters yet, since I’m just storing whole bean coffee in them, but your mileage may vary.
You can’t store fine or powdered food in them. Because the pump is integrated into the lid, things like pre-ground coffee, spices, or flour can clog it up and disrupt the vacuum sealing process. Again, this is pretty minor for me since I tend to prefer whole spices over pre-ground, and I go through flour fast enough that freshness is rarely a concern.
I really like these containers. They’re simple and stylish, which is a kitchen aesthetic I can get behind, and they do exactly what they’re supposed to do. Now that I’ve had a chance to really test them out, I plan on getting sets of both the stainless and glass canisters for use in my kitchen and pantry. While you are somewhat limited as to what you can store in them, I’m still pretty thrilled that I can vacuum seal coffee, nuts, whole spices, herbs, and a host of other pantry items in attractive containers without needing a separate pump.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have several pounds of coffee beans to grind and brew.
