What is the Best Packaging for Coffee?

Proper packaging is essential for your ground coffee or coffee beans. Getting this right protects your products from deterioration and extends their shelf life by up to nine months in the cabinet and three years in the freezer. Read on to find out what it takes to create the right packaging for your coffee.

You will find that dedication and authenticity are at the core of any successful coffee brand. These values help to offset the quality level of your product with the strategies you use to make them sell in the market.

Having a clear understanding of this allows you to gain a clear image of what your coffee product truly requires without taking any chances.

Proper packaging is essential for your ground coffee or coffee beans. Getting this right protects your products from deterioration and extends their shelf life by up to nine months in the cabinet and three years in the freezer.

If your brand is about preserving nuanced coffee flavors, you can achieve this through a unique preservation process. The packaging world created the current coffee bag and pouch technologies specifically to keep coffee products fresh at no additional cost or effort.

Today's coffee roasters have a plethora of innovative and practical packaging options. The possibilities are endless, from bags with clear windows to display the product, degassing valves to release excess gas, to elegantly designed flat bottom bags.

What is the best packaging for coffee? Continue reading to discover the best coffee packaging to match your product, budget, and brand.

Why is Coffee Packaging Important?

Coffee packaging is an essential component of your marketing strategy since it maintains the quality of your product on its way to the consumers.

Your chosen kind of coffee packaging serves as a brand ambassador, a transmitter of your values, and a means of preserving your coffee's freshness.

Good coffee packaging is the finest solution for any industry perfectionist and should not be treated as an afterthought. It largely impacts your product's quality, your brand's positioning, and your current operational efficiency.

Here are some of the most significant benefits of high-quality coffee packaging for your brand.

1. Protection - Packaging should keep your coffee products as fresh as the day they are packed.

The perfect coffee packaging is not only pleasing to the eye but also practical. More importantly, effective packaging should protect your coffee from damage.

When creating your coffee packaging, use materials and designs that guarantee your product's safety during shipment, storage, handling, and usage. When in doubt, leverage our free consultation.

Whether you choose modern or conventional packaging materials, high-quality packaging ensures that your coffee stays fresh and safe from the moment you seal your packaging.

2. Product Promotion - Packaging should market your coffee sufficiently and in the way you mean it to.

Together with your product's quality, the designs and features of your coffee packaging help to promote your brand even without any salespeople.

It is essential to highlight the fascinating and most unique aspects of your coffee business, such as where your beans are grown, the exceptional flavor quality of your blend, and any of your brand initiatives and values.

Your packaging is the first thing buyers see when they encounter your product on the retail shelf or online. If you use your coffee packaging to promote your brand's story and values, you create a more profound desire for your coffee, and prospects will feel motivated to buy it in the future.

3. Brand Identity - Packaging should reflect who you are and what you stand for, independently and compared to other similar brands.

When it comes to growing your coffee brand, making an excellent first impression is crucial.

Effective packaging is a literal reflection of your brand's identity. It acts as a fanfare, announcing the merits of your coffee product and emphasizing what sets it apart. It also lends an air of mystery to your product, piquing the interest of first-time customers.

Although your packaging can only preserve and not actually make the quality of your coffee better, the way your final product looks influences how shoppers accept its value. This statement is true for most of the products we purchase today.

If it isn't the type of coffee they were looking for, they would probably go for the most aesthetically appealing or fascinating product that speaks to their preferences.

Factors to Consider When Choosing Your Coffee Packaging Bags

Coffee packaging is a powerful tool for your brand. However, not every product's packaging is effective.

Coffee packaging is highly diverse, and a quick trip to the store will reveal various examples of both awful and brilliant designs.

Packaging can make or break a brand; it's crucial for making a good first impression, and it may help even new businesses stand out in a crowded and competitive market.

Here are some things you should consider when choosing a packaging design and format for your coffee.

1. The Types of Coffee Packaging

Although there are many various types of coffee bags available, we have four that serve quite distinct functions.

  • Quad Seal Coffee Pouch

The quad seal bag is a popular specialty coffee packaging that has been around for a long time.

It features two vertical panels, two side gussets that four crisp vertical side seals connect, and a flat box-shaped bottom that allows it to stand independently. Owing to its sturdiness and shape, the quad seal bag can hold heavier fills of coffee.

With four display panels that can feature brand messaging and graphics, this type of packaging pouch is any business owner's dream. Its modular design, ease of storage, and convenience features make the quad bag a top consumer choice. We then typically add a one-way degassing valve to keep the coffee fresh.

Even though it is more expensive than other custom coffee pouch types, the quad seal coffee bag is regarded as the face of coffee packaging and may continue to be so for years to come. 

  • Flat Bottom Coffee Pouch

Flat bottom bags are a flexible type of packaging renowned for their adaptability and ingenious design.

They are also known as box pouches, box bottom bags, and square bottom bags. These bags are a creative packaging alternative to corrugated boxes and folding cartons designed to combine versatility and stability. 

Compared to cumbersome boxes with ineffectual inside liners, these pouches offer a minimal footprint and keep your coffee fresher for longer. There is no more cramming large boxes onto cupboard shelves with flat bottom pouches. They make it convenient for consumers to store, access and use their beloved coffee. 

Additionally, flat bottom pouches use strong barrier material that is puncture-resistant and protects your coffee from odors, moisture, and other contaminants. As a result, your coffee retains its quality even after the package has been opened.

Flat bottom pouches may also accommodate more significant volumes of your coffee product and help it stand out in a crowded retail setting. Each bag includes five printing areas that are ideal for promoting your brand.

These bags are a popular choice in the flexible packaging world because of this apparent promotional advantage, paired with the flat bottom pouch's resealable feature.

  • Pillow Coffee Pouch/Flat Coffee Pouch

Pillow bags are available in various sizes, although they most commonly come in single-serve packaging. Despite their small size, they provide excellent branding potential since you can print on their entire surfaces. They are the most cost-effective and simplistic pouch used for single-serve coffee packaging.

However, there is a downside to this type of packaging; pillow pouches rest flat and need support to stand upright on a shelf. If you want to put it on display, you will need a stand or platform of some sort. The pillow pouch is by far the cheapest packaging bag to manufacture.

  • Doypack Coffee Pouch/Stand-Up Coffee Pouches

The Doypack has a triangular shape owing to its bottom gusset and two panels. It is popular among small to medium-sized coffee roasters because of its cost-effectiveness and high quality.

The stand-up coffee pouch can stand up on the store shelf without any support, thanks to the bottom gusset. The two panels also provide efficient branding space.

The Doypack is an alternative worth every cent because of its modern look, which stands up flawlessly regardless of size, content, or weight. It often features a helpful zipper that is both durable and practical.

Any competent packaging designer can produce eye-catching stand-up packaging, and this bag style is typically more expensive than other, more basic bag styles.

2. Convenience Features of Coffee Packaging

If you are a coffee roaster, you have high standards for your packaging. You want your product to stay fresh for as long as possible, stand out from its competitors on the shelf, be easy to store, handle, and use, and lure your first-time buyers into buying more.

You can achieve all these by incorporating add-on features such as zippers, hang holes, tear notches, and degassing valves for your customers' convenience and ease of use.

  • Zippers (<-- LINK TO ZIPPERS ARTICLE): Zippers are one of the most common reclosable solutions since they allow the user to fix your coffee packaging to its near original form once it has been opened. Reclosable zippers are an excellent staling barrier.
  • Hang holes (<-- LINK TO HANG HOLES ARTICLE): A coffee bag with a hang hole can hang on display hooks instead of getting stuck on shelves.

They give your coffee a marketing and promotional boost. The inclusion of a hang hole is ideal for coffee packaging exhibited in gondola ends and point-of-sale counters for display in front of a more captive market.

  • Tear notches (<-- LINK TO TEAR NOTCHES ARTICLE): A tear notch allows for quick access to a bag's content and acts as evidence that the package has not been tampered with.

Just below the top seal area is where the typical location of a tear notch is. This is an optional feature that doesn't have to be included in your coffee packaging. However, it is beneficial to your consumers since it allows them to open the bag to access the contents easily.

  • Degassing valves (<-- LINK TO DEGASSING VALVES ARTICLE): Once a coffee pouch is filled and sealed, it tends to expand and may even explode.

This essential valve allows carbon dioxide to escape while preventing oxygen from entering. Please remember, though, that for this to work, your bags must be thoroughly sealed, so invest in a good heat sealer.

Consumers nowadays are aware of this feature and will pass on your coffee if it has no degassing valve.

3. Professional Coffee Packaging Process

Will you fill your coffee bags by hand, or will you use coffee packaging equipment to automate the process? Choose a pouch design with a large enough top hole to fit your scoop or filling equipment if you want to hand-fill your coffee bags and pouches. 

The Doypack may not be perfect in this circumstance since its top aperture only has two corners, reducing the amount of space available for filling equipment. This is as opposed to a quad seal or flat bottom bag, which often has four corners at the top entrance and significantly more capacity for filling tools.

Also, keep in mind that while manual-packing has a lower upfront price, it dramatically reduces your throughput, precision, and capacity to ramp up production at any time. If you have automatic coffee bagging equipment or are contemplating getting it, your bag selections are virtually endless.

The majority of current coffee packaging machines can support a variety of bag shapes and sizes. Automated filling systems may function at a high precision; therefore, fill weights are not a big concern. Your throughput may skyrocket, and scaling up your production is no problem if you unexpectedly receive a colossal order.

4. Coffee Preservation Factors

Will your product be sold in supermarkets and cafés, or will it be sent to customers across the country or internationally? If this is the case, your coffee must remain fresh until the very last moment. You can employ Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP) technology to achieve this.

The most common modified environment packaging technology is one-way degassing valves, which enable carbon dioxide to exit naturally from newly roasted coffee while preventing coffee degrading elements such as light, moisture, and oxygen from entering the bag.

Other MAP techniques are the use of high barrier packaging film and nitrogen gas flushing, which removes oxygen from the coffee bag before filling. You may use any or all of these methods depending on your budget and requirements.

What is the Best Packaging for Coffee?

If your coffee packaging is functional, visually stunning, and on-brand, it will stand out from the crowd. Your best coffee packaging should draw a customer's attention away from competitors and toward your product.

While we'd like to think we're beyond assessing a product solely based on its look, we often make the majority of our decisions on its appearance.

According to the Ehrenberg-Bass study, individuals make purchasing decisions within the first seven to thirteen seconds of encountering a product. A consumer's decision to connect with your goods takes only a few seconds, and packaging plays a big part in that decision.

You can use this knowledge to your advantage by creating memorable, sleek packaging that stands out from the rest of the coffee products on the shelf. At Pouch ME, we offer several types of coffee packaging to help you break through the noise and market your coffee successfully.

If you need help determining the best type of flexible packaging for your coffee, reach out to us today and our packaging experts will consult for free.


- What is the Best Packaging for Coffee? FAQs -

What type of packaging is used for coffee?

There are four kinds of protective, flexible packaging commonly used in the market right now: doy packs, flat bottom bags, pillow bags, and quad seal bags.

What is the purpose of a degassing valve?

The degassing valve works to police the exchange of gases from inside and outside your coffee bag.

It "degasses" or allows the carbon dioxide gas from inside the bag (that's released slowly by the coffee beans) out to the exterior of the bag. 

As it lets CO2 out, it stops oxygen from getting in, removing any risk of oxidation and preserving the coffee's flavor and freshness. With the pressure successfully regulated, a degassing valve prevents the coffee bag from exploding or blowing out.

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