Custom Coffee Bags With Degassing Valves

Sizing by Weight and Grind

Coffee bags are sized by weight, but beans and ground coffee take up different volumes. Whole beans from a light roast are denser than dark roasts, and ground coffee packs tighter than either. A bag that holds a certain weight of dark-roasted whole beans might be generously full with the same weight of ground coffee. Tell us your roast style and if you sell beans, ground or both, and we size the bag to suit, following the same clearance rules as the guide to measuring for custom packaging.

Common retail weights cover home brewers buying a week or two at a time, while larger bags serve offices, cafés and wholesale customers. If you sell several weights, keep the design consistent so a customer can recognise your coffee at any size on the shelf.

Headroom matters as well. Leave enough film above the coffee for a clean heat seal and for the zip to close without catching beans in its teeth. A bag filled right to the zip looks generous but is awkward to reseal, and ground coffee trapped in the track stops the zip closing properly, which defeats the point of having one.

Designing a Coffee Bag That Sells

Speciality coffee customers read the bag. They want the origin, farm or co-operative, process, roast level, tasting notes and roast date, and they want them in that order of clarity, whether printed on the bag or on a coffee bag label. Many roasters keep the main design fixed and print a clear panel or leave space for a label that changes with each lot. That way one print run serves many coffees, and the label carries the details.

The front panel should show your roastery name and the coffee's identity at a glance. The back panel can tell the story: who grew it, how it was processed and how to brew it. A tear notch and zip make opening easy, and printing the roast date clearly builds trust with customers who care about freshness.

Valves, Zips and Closures

The valve is placed high on the front or back panel, above the coffee line, so beans do not block it. Some roasters prefer the valve on the back to keep the front design clean; others place it on the front as a visible mark of quality, as they would on a printed stand-up pouch for any other dry good. Either works as long as it stays clear of the fill line.

Press-to-close zips are standard on stand-up and flat-bottom bags. Pull-tab zips are easier to open neatly on flat-bottom bags. Side-gusset bags use tin ties, which fold over to reseal, or a heat seal with a tear notch for one-time opening. If your coffee goes to cafés and is used in a day or two, a zip may be unnecessary and a heat seal will save cost.

Degassing valves come in slightly different styles, and the one you need depends on how soon after roasting you pack. Coffee bagged within hours of roasting releases more gas than coffee rested for a few days, so tell us your usual packing routine and we will make sure the valve suits it.

Labels, Stamps and Small Batches

Small roasters often start with plain or lightly printed bags and a custom label, then move to fully printed bags once a coffee becomes a regular. That is a sensible approach, and the tin-tie coffee bags work the same way: a printed bag with a blank label area gives you a professional look on every coffee, and the label handles the changing origin details. We can supply labels to fit the bag panel, and rubber stamps and tied cards look right at home on kraft.

When a coffee sells consistently, a fully printed bag with no label at all looks most polished and saves packing time. Plan your designs so the move from label to full print is a natural step rather than a rebrand.

Weigh a Filled Bag of Each Roast Before You Confirm the Size

Coffee bags are ordered by weight and filled by volume, which is where sizing goes wrong. A 250 g bag of a light roast whole bean takes more room than 250 g of a dark roast, and ground coffee packs tighter than either. So fill a sample bag with each roast at your retail weight, check that the top still seals with a clear margin above the beans, and send us the bag that was tightest. Decide the valve position and the zip at the same time; cafes buying wholesale rarely use a zip.

Send the bag style, fill weight, coffee type, outer finish, valve and zip preferences and your artwork, and a custom quote comes back by email within one working day, from £0.25 a bag depending on size, materials and print, low minimums quoted per job. Food-contact grade inner films are available on request if you say so in the enquiry. A free design proof follows, production takes 4 to 7 working days after approval and free tracked delivery reaches UK mainland addresses in 2 to 3 working days. Roasters who sell pods as well usually add matching coffee pod boxes to the same order.