What's Actually in Our Packaging (and Why We Made the Choices We Did)
Every week, we get at least a few customer questions about our packaging. Why is the bag matte instead of glossy. What's that little circle on the front. Why don't we use a zip closure. Why is the bag bigger than what's inside it.
Most of the choices were deliberate. Some were compromises. A couple we'd change if we were starting from scratch. This post is the honest version of what's actually in the packaging — both the things we're proud of and the things we wish we could do better.
The bag itself
Our coffee bags are matte kraft paper with a metallized interior lining. The exterior is unbleached kraft, which gives the bag a paper-bag texture. The interior is a thin layer of food-grade metallized film that creates an oxygen and moisture barrier.
Why kraft paper on the outside: It feels right in the hand. It photographs well. It signals "small batch" without us having to print that anywhere. It also makes the bag recyclable in most curbside programs — kraft paper and the metallized liner can be separated at most recycling facilities.
Why a metallized interior: Coffee stales fast when exposed to oxygen. The metallized layer keeps oxygen out for about 6 to 8 weeks after sealing, which is long enough for most home brewing cycles. The alternative is a plastic-only bag, which is a better oxygen barrier but doesn't feel or look the same.
What we'd change if we were starting today: We'd consider a fully compostable bag. Several suppliers now make plant-based liners that biodegrade in industrial composting. They cost about 25% more and have a slightly shorter shelf life, but the environmental case is stronger. We haven't switched yet because the supply chain for our current bag is reliable and the small-batch minimums work for our volume. It's on our roadmap.
The one-way valve
The small circle on the front of every bag is a one-way degassing valve. It looks decorative but it's functional.
Why the valve: Freshly roasted coffee releases carbon dioxide for 3 to 7 days after roasting. If the gas has nowhere to go, it inflates the bag and eventually pops the seal. The valve lets the gas escape without letting oxygen in.
Why it's important: Without the valve, we'd have two choices. Either let the coffee degas for 5 to 7 days in an open container before bagging (which exposes it to oxygen and degrades flavor), or seal it immediately and risk bag bursts (which happened in our first month of business — twice).
The customer benefit: When you receive your bag, the coffee has already degassed. You can open it, smell it, and brew immediately without waiting. The valve is what makes "roasted to order, shipped next day" work as a model.
The batch number
Every bag has a handwritten batch number on the bottom. The number is the date we roasted the coffee, written in YYYY-MM-DD format.
Why we handwrite it: A printed label would be faster, but a handwritten number forces us to handle every bag individually. That handling is the moment we check the seal, confirm the weight, and inspect the bag for defects. The 30 seconds per bag is the closest thing we have to a quality-control checkpoint.
What the batch number does for you: If you ever have an issue with a bag — the coffee tastes off, the valve is stuck, the bag was punctured — the batch number lets us trace exactly when it was roasted, which lot of green beans it came from, and which customer it shipped to. We've used the batch number to identify and replace bad lots multiple times. The handwriting is faster to add than a printed label and easier to read for our purposes than a scannable barcode.
The size of the bag
Our 12-ounce bags measure about 9 inches tall by 5 inches wide. The bag is significantly larger than what's inside it, which has caused questions.
Why we oversized the bag: Whole-bean coffee needs headspace in the bag. If you fill a bag completely, the beans at the bottom get crushed by the weight of the beans above them. The broken beans release more CO2 faster, which stresses the seal and the valve. A bag with about 30% empty space protects the integrity of the beans during shipping and storage.
Why we chose 12 ounces as the size: Most home brewers use 15 to 25 grams of coffee per cup. A 12-ounce bag holds about 340 grams of coffee, which works out to 13 to 22 cups depending on brew strength. That's a 2 to 4 week supply for most daily drinkers. The size is small enough that the coffee is used up before it loses freshness, and large enough that shipping costs per ounce stay reasonable.
What we'd change: We'd love to offer a smaller 8-ounce bag for solo drinkers and a larger 2-pound bag for heavy drinkers. Both have been on our wishlist for over a year. The 8-ounce requires custom bag minimums that we haven't hit yet. The 2-pound requires a different bag stock with a thicker liner. Both are still in planning.
The closure
Our bags don't have a zip closure. The bag is heat-sealed at the top, and the customer cuts across the top to open it.
Why no zip closure: Zip closures look convenient but they're a major source of customer complaints. The zips fail after a few uses. Coffee dust gets into the zip teeth. The seal isn't actually airtight once you've opened and closed the bag three times. We tried zip closures on our first production run and returned about 40 bags because customers reported zip failure within a week.
What we recommend instead: After opening, transfer the coffee to an airtight container — a Mason jar with a rubber gasket, a Fellow canister, or a Friis container. The bag is the shipping container and the freshness vessel for the first week, not a long-term storage solution.
What we'd change: If we could engineer a better resealable closure, we would. The current options all trade off durability against airtightness, and we couldn't find a closure that beat a simple airtight canister. We've been watching several suppliers who are developing better reseal mechanisms, and we'd revisit the question when one of them ships a reliable product.
The label
The front label has the coffee name, the origin, the roast date, and the brewing recommendation. The back label has the tasting notes, the weight, the company information, and the lot number.
Why we keep the label text-heavy: Some customers want minimal labels with just the name. We tested that and customers were frustrated when they couldn't find brewing temperatures or grind sizes on the bag. The richer label costs us about 8 cents more per bag in printing. That cost is worth the reduced customer confusion.
Why we list the origin but not the altitude: We list the country, region, and farm or cooperative. We don't list altitude because the number on most coffee bags is misleading — it's the elevation of the farm, not the elevation of the specific lot. Some farms have multiple elevations on their property. A "1,500 meters" claim on a bag is often a marketing number rather than a verified data point. We chose not to print numbers we can't verify lot-by-lot.
The cause claim: Our label says "1% supports animal rescue partners" with a small QR code that links to our impact page. We don't put the percentage or the partner names on the front because the brand research showed that big cause claims on the front label read as marketing, not as commitment. The QR code is there for customers who want to see the actual numbers and the partner list.
What's not on the bag
A few things we deliberately left off.
No "premium" or "artisan" claims. Those words mean nothing specific. They also trigger an allergic reaction in some specialty coffee customers who've seen them used on commodity coffee. We let the bag speak for itself.
No celebrity endorsements or "as featured in" claims. We've never been featured anywhere that mattered for our customers, and we'd rather not make claims that have to be updated when the press cycle ends.
No "best by" date. Most bags print a date 6 to 12 months out as a "best by" claim. We don't, because the date is meaningless — coffee doesn't go bad at 6 months, but it also doesn't taste the same as fresh. The roast date is the only date that matters, and we print that.
No "100% organic" claim. We buy organic when it's available and works for our pricing. We don't buy organic exclusively because some of the best lots we cup are not certified organic. Putting "100% organic" on the bag would mean either lying about our lots or refusing to buy the best coffees available. We chose honesty.
The tea packaging
Tea uses the same matte kraft exterior but with a different interior liner. Tea doesn't need the same oxygen barrier that coffee does — whole-leaf tea holds its flavor for 1 to 2 years in a basic paper bag. But the tins and the resealable pouches we ship tea in are designed to keep light out, which degrades tea faster than oxygen.
Why tins for our loose-leaf: Tins are heavier to ship and more expensive to source. They also keep tea fresh for 18 to 24 months, which matters because our tea SKUs turn over slower than our coffee SKUs. The tin is a long-term storage vessel, not just a shipping container.
Why pouches for our tea samplers: The sampler pouches are metallized pouches with a zip closure. The tea in samplers is meant to be used within 2 to 3 months, so a long-term vessel is overkill. The pouches are cheaper, lighter to ship, and recyclable.
The takeaway
Our packaging is the result of about 18 months of iteration. Every choice was deliberate, and most of the choices have a specific reason behind them that we can defend. A few of the choices (no zip closure, oversized bag, handwritten batch numbers) are unusual compared to most coffee companies, and we get questions about them.
The honest version: there are things we'd change if we were starting from scratch and had more capital. Compostable bags, smaller and larger size options, a better reseal mechanism. Those are on our roadmap. But the packaging we have works. It protects the coffee for 6 to 8 weeks, ships without bursting, lets the gas escape, and identifies every batch. For now, that's enough.
If you've ever had a question about the bag that I didn't cover here, send us an email. We read every one personally, and about a third of our product decisions have come from customer questions.
Brew slow. Sip slow. Every bag has a story, including the one it's packed in.