Airscape Coffee Canister Review

At Basic Barista we love simple coffee gear that delivers results and when it comes to no-frills budget coffee gear that improves how your coffee tastes, we get very excited!

We've had the Airscape 8" Kilo Coffee canister for quite some time now (20 months from writing). It's taken us this long to write a review for a couple of reasons, the first being we forgot and the second being we completly underestimated the Airscape canisters when we first got them.

So How Does The Airscape Work?

When it comes to correctly storing coffee beans theres a handful of variables that increase the rate that your coffee ages, Air, Temperature, Sunlight and Humidity all accelerate the coffee ageing process and the Airscape adresses most of these variables to prolong your coffee beans.

The Airscape is essentially a metal bucket with a lid, but the genius lies in the plunger. This plunger is a tight fitting inner-insert that slides into the Airscape and is compressed down to force out as much extra air as possible. This system also seals the canister to shield your coffee beans from new air, humidity and sunlight. The solid steel container is also a great insulator to help keep your coffee beans cool and dry.

Does Airscape Actually Keep Coffee Fresh?

Yes, well sort of... Let me explain.
The moment after coffee is roasted it goes through a degassing stage, this takes 1-2 days and is important for the coffee beans to be exposed to some air. Once coffee is degassed it's considered its freshest, depending on the coffee and what your coffee roaster suggests it's usually ready to drink 3-7 days after roasting. 

After the first and second weeks from roast date this is where your coffee storage has the most amount of impact, ideally you will want to shield your beans from as much fresh air, moisture, heat and light as possible.
We've had coffee sitting in an Airscape for well over 4 weeks and it still smells great when opening the canister up.

What does stale coffee taste like?

As coffee ages you may start to notice that your coffee starts to taste bland, if you're brewing espresso you might first notice that the colour of your shot is lighter, watery and flows much quicker. Unfortunately there's no way around this when brewing espresso, you can grind finer, brew hotter and at higher pressures but your coffee won't have that same colour and strength to it as freshly roasted coffee does.

Other than this, coffee can taste weak or light, resemble more earthy and woody notes rather than chocolatey or fruity notes. So if you've noticed that your coffee doesn't taste the same as it used to when you first bought your coffee beans, now you know why.

What Size Airscape Should You Get?

There are 3 sizes in the Airscape range, 4" Classic, 7" Classic and 8" Kilo. As the name suggests, the 8" Kilo canister can hold a little over 1kg of roasted coffee beans and is the most popular sized canister. The 7" Classic can hold up to half a kilo of coffee beans and the 4" Classic can hold up to 250g of coffee beans.

The Airscape canisters are stackable, great for kitchen use or storing different coffees in multiple canisters. If you do plan to stack these please note that the 4" and 7" canisters are the same diameter and can be stacked on top of each other, however the 8" canisters can only be stacked on other 8" canisters.

Buy Airscape Coffee Canister

Alternative Coffee Storage To Airscape

Fellow Atmos Canisters

The Fellow Atmos range of coffee canisters revolve around the lid, with a flick of the wrist you have fresh coffee (sort of). Built into the lid of the Fellow Atmos is a pump, simply rotate the lid back and forth to pump air out of the container and to create a vacuum seal inside.

While this is arguably a better system than the Airscape's air-displacement system, we find the Fellow Atmos to be best for storing smaller amounts of coffee beans.

Fellow Atmos Electric Canisters

We can't mention the Fellow Atmos with out also touching on the recent electric upgrade. In mid 2025 Fellow released the Electric Fellow Atmos canisters, just press a button and the pump will automatically suck the air out. 
As well as this the lid will detect when the canister starts to re-pressurise and will automatically start topping the canisters vacuum up by removing even more air. 

Here's the good news, we sell the lids seperatly! 
So if you already have a Fellow Atmos, there's no need in re-purchasing the body of the containers, just buy the Electric Lids.

Ultralight Titanium Coffee Container

Basic Barista Ultralight Titanium Coffee Canisters only weigh 50g but can hold up to 90g of coffee beans, this makes them an ultralight option (lighter than some Tupperware) that can store 3-5 day camping trip / hike.

Comandante Glass Jars

Comandante Glass Jar are sold as replacements for the Comandante C40 Grinders, however with a capacity of around 40g they are a great size for holding single doses of coffee beans. Whether it's for a 20g pour over or a 40g batch brew. Often you will see these glass jars pop up in cafes for this purpose.