That is a one-way degassing valve. Coffee keeps releasing carbon dioxide for days after it comes off the roaster, and in a sealed bag that gas has nowhere to go. The bag balloons and can split a seal. The valve vents the CO₂ outward and shuts again, so air never gets back in. What that buys you is simple: you can bag coffee the day you roast it, ship it without split packs, and your customer opens a bag that still smells like the roastery.

If the coffee has fully degassed before it goes in the bag, the valve is doing nothing and dropping it takes cost straight out of every unit. Most roasters pack within a few days of roast, though, which is exactly when CO₂ output is highest, and that is where the valve earns its place. One thing either way: a valve only works on a barrier film. On a plain clear bag oxygen comes through the film itself, so you pay for a valve and still get stale coffee.

Side gusset is the traditional coffee bag and the one that takes a tin tie. Flat bottom gives the squarest shelf presence. Stand-up pouches sit in the middle. The minimum follows the format, not the product: stand-up, flat and pillow pouches start at 100 per design, and side gusset, quad seal and flat bottom start at 500 per design. That means you can put a new single origin on shelf at 100 units, see whether it sells, and scale into the bigger format once it does.

No, but it needs a barrier layer. Our standard is a metallised structure, very good on both moisture and oxygen, and it blocks nearly all light. Solid aluminium foil is the step up: a total light block and the strongest barrier we build. Kraft is the same decision behind a paper face, since the liner does the protecting rather than the paper. Choose by where the coffee ends up. Metallised covers normal retail, and foil is what you want when a bag sits in a hot warehouse or crosses an ocean first.

Weight alone will not settle it, because grind changes the volume. Whole beans pack denser than a coarse French press grind, so the same 12 oz needs more room ground coarse. We also design in headspace for degassing rather than filling to the brim, normally around 60 to 75% full. Getting that right stops the two expensive mistakes: a bag that will not close on the line, and a bag that looks half empty next to a competitor. Send the weight and grind, or run it through our bag sizing tool.

Foil will not, because it is a solid metal layer and the detector reads it every time. Metallised film is usually described as too thin to trigger one, but we have seen it stop a customer's line, so we treat it as a risk rather than a safe bet. Tell us before we quote if your filler runs inline detection: the clear barrier films contain no metal and pass. Catching that at quote stage rather than on delivery day is the difference between a run you can fill and a pallet you cannot.

You can, and it is worth knowing the cost. A window carries less barrier than the rest of the bag, and the coffee behind it takes the full light dose however good the surrounding film is. Coffee is light-sensitive, so on anything sitting months under shelf lighting we would rather show the beans with print and keep the bag opaque. You get the same shelf appeal without the bag closest to the light being the one that tastes flat. If you want the window anyway, keep it small and we will quote it.

No. Design, prepress and shipping are free, and digital printing carries no plate fee, so a second or third blend costs nothing extra to set up. Send whatever you have: an Illustrator file, a PDF, a Canva export, even a logo and a rough idea. Our team builds the print-ready artwork onto the dieline for your bag size, and you approve a proof before anything goes on press. The money goes into coffee and bags rather than into artwork fees.