Soulhand Electric Vacuum Coffee Container

Airtight containers are not very new to the coffee industry with other vacuum canisters coming on to the market around 2018. However, I haven’t ever seen anything like this Electric Vacuum canister from Soulhand! 

Full disclosure, Soulhand sent us this canister for free but these opinions are ours and have not been swayed by the freebie. 

So what even is an Electric Vacuum container? Well, it's just like a regular container that you might store tea/coffee/condiments in, however going beyond an airtight seal, Soulhand has added an amazing battery-powered (USB rechargeable) vacuum sealer! Simply press the button and you’ll hear the motor going off as it sucks the oxygen out of the container! Brilliant!

I don’t know that much about Soulhand so I can’t tell you much about the company themselves other than this isn’t their first coffee product. They have designed and manufactured several coffee accessories such as Gooseneck Kettles, USB coffee grinders, Cold brewers and much more. When it comes to coffee innovation they seem to be creating some really lovely accessories. 

The EV container looks beautifully crafted and is up there with the Airscape Canister. It has a clear glass body (although, for coffee storage, I wish they sent me the solid body) and a glossy black airtight lid that has just one button to control the whole device. 

EV CONTAINER SPECIFICATIONS:

Standing tall at 19.5cm / 7.7in with a diameter of 12cm / 5in the canister has a 1.6ltr capacity which holds about 500g / 17Oz of coffee beans. That is ok, but I really feel they need to release a 1kg version for coffee, as most people who are purchasing a kilo are the ones needing to store it for longer. (500g of coffee is gone in a week in my household!). However, it’s a great size for other condiments and treats that you might want to store in multiple containers and because the footprint is nice and small, you could fit up to 3 or 4 in your cupboard very easily. 

It features a powerful vacuum that can reach 30KPa of pressure at the press of a button. This can hold pressure for up to 4,000 hours (almost half a year! Although I didn’t get a chance to prove that just yet.) This seems incredible considering it only takes a mere 3 hours to charge. It does actually say 4,000 hours STANDBY so that could suggest that it’s not when it has to hold a vacuum, but when you’ve just got it sitting idle. 

One full charge says it can also unlock and seal 250 times which does seem to coincide with the 4000 hours (let’s say you opened it once a day). So perhaps with one single charge, you can literally have this vacuum-sealed container last for half a year! I’ll let you know how it all goes in an update in 6 months time. 

The technology seems pretty solid and after testing it out I could definitely see the air getting sucked out (you can see the seal get pulled in as the air is sucked out)

The icons on the lid are all labeled clearly and by tapping the power button (when charged) you can see: 1) If it’s vacuum-sealed or released, 2) whether the battery is full or needs charging. Simple!

One other function, that I didn’t realise it had, is the ability to recognise when the vacuum is changing and automatically start the motor again to pull more oxygen out. This is a fantastic feature for people wanting to store coffee in it as coffee releases CO2 and if that’s kept inside the jar it will actually speed up the degradation of your beans. So by detecting the levels of oxygen in the canister, it turns on, sucks the air out and creates a fresh vacuum seal. 

I didn’t know this feature but while I was experimenting with fresh fruit preservation, the motor went off after two days and I wondered what was going on. Searching it up I saw this little feature. Seriously impressive!

Lastly, the scoop. Not much to say here but for me, the scoop seems kind of superfluous. That’s to say unless you’re going to keep ground coffee in the canister you’re not really going to have a need for the scoop and it just gets in the way when tucked into its slot in the lid. I just put it in the draw and have forgotten about it. It looks a bit weird sticking up out of the lid but that’s just my personal opinion of course. 

THE EXPERIMENT

Since I wanted to see the effects of the electric vacuum, I chose to experiment with fruit as it visibly degrades making it much easier to see the efficacy of the vacuum. 

I put half a banana and apple into the canister, pressed the button twice to start the vacuum motor. It’s been two days since I started writing this blog and the apple has barely changed in colour. The banana has definitely degraded however, I’m sure it would have gone completely brown if I left it exposed to oxygen for two days (I wasn’t prepared to stink out my house with rotting banana to prove this). 

I’m definitely convinced the vacuum seal is working and holding its content in stasis and so I can say the experiment so far is a success. This is the state of the fruit 3 days after putting it in the container. Pretty much exactly the same state.

After I took out the fruit, I wanted to test the marshmallow trick. That was fun! Who knew, marshmallows were just full of air?! The most extraordinary thing happened though, instead of shrinking as the air was pulled out of them, they expanded! 

One final trick I saw the manufacturers do was create a vacuum with coffee beans and then swirl the canister around and the beans seem to not move. This seemed weird to me so I gave it a try myself. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work and the beans still fly around. 

FINAL THOUGHTS

This canister will translate to coffee very nicely when they release the solid stainless steel version, so if you’re considering getting a storage container for your coffee beans (or any other condiment for that matter) then the SoulHand EV container is perfect. 

Washing and cleaning are easy, simply detach the inner seal ring from the lid and then gently wash it with the insides of the canister with soapy water and leave it to dry. 

Pros:

The electric tech that creates a perfect vacuum

USB charging in 3 hours

4000 hours (almost half a year) of battery life

Simple to use

Automated vacuum to remove CO2 build-up

Cons:

Not that cheap but considering it’s a tech product I feel it’s worth it. 

Scoop holder design seems clunky

Glass version does not protect coffee from the light exposure