How to Select the Best Packaging for Your Coffee Beans: A Complete Guidance to Coffee Companies
How to Select the Best Packaging for
Your Coffee Beans: A Complete Guidance to Coffee Companies
【Excerpt】
Choosing the best packaging for
your coffee is about a lot more than just an attractive design – although
that’s important too.
Your packaging is what keeps your coffee
fresh for longer, meaning it has a direct impact on the taste of those coffee beans
you’re selling. It’s also what you have to work with every single day. And it’s
what your customer will picture when they hear your name.
So that means you really need to get the
packaging right. Of course, there isn’t one right type of packaging – it depends
on various factors such as the scale of your business, your filling processes,
and what you customers are like.
So what major
factors should you consider when selecting your coffee bean packaging? We would like to share six factors for
your reference. If you take them into account, you’re sure to choose the best
packaging for your business.
1. POUCH STYLES
There are a variety of pouch styles
available for coffee beans. The most common pouch styles favored by coffee
roasters are:
Stand Up Pouch
A common and convenient style of packaging,
the stand up
pouch is a bit round at the bottom, almost like a can, and flat at the top.
A preformed foot allows it to stand up nicely, regardless the filling weight,
and also makes the product stand out on any shelves. It also typically has a
zipper for reclosing it. All these features give consumers the impression that
what they buy is worth their money.
Side Gusset
Pouch
A more traditional style of packaging, the side gusset
pouch is cost efficient and easy to use, meaning most retail packaging in
larger weights is of this variety. The straight lines give it a characteristic
minimalistic look, and the pouch won’t stand up well but will have a solid feel
when you hold it. A side gusset pouch is typically closed by rolling up or
folded over the top and then using a label or tin tie after sealing; an
integrated zipper is not an option here.
*Quad Seal Side
Gusset Pouch
The quad seal side gusset pouch is of a
similar style to the side gusset pouch. The main difference is that, as the
name indicates all four corners are sealed. This gives the pouch more of a
square look, and makes it possible to integrate a zipper.
Flat Bottom
Pouch
(also
commonly named as Block Bottom Pouch / Box Bottom Pouch)
The latest popular pouch style available,
the flat
bottom pouches bear resemblance to the quad seal gusset pouches but have a
flat bottom. The name says it all: its square style makes it look almost like a
box. This gives it perfect stand-up properties and great marketing possibilities.
It also allows you a lot of possibilities in terms of zipper, sizes, and
designs.
In the US, where this type of bag is
common, it’s usually rolled up to create a tight brick-shaped package, while in
Europe and Asia, it’s commonly sold with a re-sealable zipper.
2. BARRIER PROPERTIES / SUSTAINABILITY
It’s vital that your coffee beans stay
fresh, which means that your packaging needs to be airtight. You can recognize
this by the presence of a degassing valve, which lets CO2 out of the bag after
the beans are roasted. However, it will only work if you seal the bags with a
heat sealer, so make sure you purchase a good one.
Your packaging will also need a barrier.
Coffee is very sensitive to external influences, and this will keep out oxygen,
UV, and other factors that might affect your beans’ profile.
1)
Nowadays, most stand up coffee
pouches come with a metalized or
pure aluminum barrier as a 3-ply laminate. The downside is that
creating these aluminum barriers isn’t great for the planet.
2)
Another option is a Fully Recyclable Pouch –
made of 2-ply laminate with a high-barrier polyester, which will keep your
beans just as fresh as a metalized film would do but has the advantage of being
made from 100% mono plastic –
including the valve and the zipper. In most Northern European countries, these
bags can be recycled in the recycling streams. And many countries are following
the trend by implementing regulations as well as building up recycling systems
to recycle these pouches.
3)
The most sustainable option is Fully
Biodegradable & Compostable Pouch – made of plastic
free plant-based materials such as PLA, cellulose films. This is still a niche
option at the moment – raw materials are rare, production techniques are
high-demanding, and costs are the highest among all packaging solutions. BPS, the industry-leading developer and producer
of compostable pouches, has just successfully managed to produce Compostable
Coffee Bags with wide options including: paper substrate, bio film substrate,
and even the zipper and degassing valve are fully compostable. Most excitingly,
there are no limitations to printing – up to 10 colors including matte finish
(the favorite solution to coffee brands).
To keep UV out of the package as much as
possible, you can also consider a black or white-based polyester or dense
artwork printing. However, for specialty coffee, which is typically consumed
within six months, it’s usually not a problem if the bag is a little
see-through so long as it’s kept out of direct sunlight or in a carton box or
tin.
As a note, the paper block bottom bags you
used to see years ago may look authentic and traditional but aren’t the best
way to pack your beans unless you’re planning to use them within several days
after roasting. A modern airtight variant of the block bottom bag would be the flat
bottom pouch or the side gusset pouch.
And an upgraded version for the traditional
paper bags is the flat bottom pouches made of high barrier laminated structure –
kraft paper laminated with aluminum or poly.
It creates a natural paper look while working as well as other laminated
pouches to keep the coffee fresh for a long time. Though this option is not
recyclable or biodegradable, it is plastic saving – about 50% plastic can be
saved compared with completely plastic laminated pouches.
3. THE FILLINE PROCESS
How do you fill your coffee bags? Many
start-ups and micro-roasters opt to manually or semi-automatically pack them,
meaning that bag design can really speed up – or slow down – the process.
If your bag comes with a zipper to reclose
it, chances are the bag has two corners on the top, like with a stand up pouch.
If your bag doesn’t come with a zipper, it’s more likely the bag has four
corners on the top, like with a side gusset pouch. And filling that is what’s
called an “open mouth execution” – as you can imagine, the opening of a side
gusset pouch is larger and therefore easier to fill manually or
semi-automatically.
Should you decide you want a stand up
pouch, but you happen to manually fill your bags, make sure the opening is wide
enough to fit your scoop or weigher funnel in. You’ll also want to check that
the bag itself opens up easily, either as a result of you inserting your hand
or the weight of the beans.
As for the flat bottom pouches, they could
come with a two-cornered top side and a “regular” zipper, or with a
four-cornered top side and a “pocket” zipper. This is a tear stroke which opens
up the zipper on the front or back panel of the bag to create a pocket. Make
sure to check before you commit.
Alternatively, if you do use – or are
considering purchasing – a packaging machine for automatic filling, make sure
you know what type of packaging the machine can handle. Fortunately, most
machines available nowadays can handle both types.
4. RESEALIBILITY
Consumers who use the beans straight from
the package will love a resealable feature like a zipper. Although the
packaging loses its airtight qualities as soon as it’s been opened, the ability
to reclose the bag will make a definite – and, some would argue, crucial –
difference to the freshness of the beans. You can let your customers know that
it’s best to push all the air out of the bag before closing it, leaving a
minimal amount of oxygen inside.
That doesn’t mean that you should never get
a bag without a zipper. However, this type of packaging is best for one-use
products, such as when you empty a full bag into a hopper or espresso machine.
This means that bags without zippers are often best for retail bags. Or for
home users who like to consume seriously large amounts of coffee each day…
When selecting a zipper pouch, be aware
that the package also needs to be consumer-friendly: users will need to be able
to get all the coffee out, and back in, down to the last bean. Some packaging
manufacturers like BPS even makes coffee
bags with Powder Resistant Zipper which is
more user-friendly for ground coffee.
5. DESIGN OF PACKAGING
Every company needs to distinguish itself
from its competitors – and one of the easiest ways to do that is through your
packaging. There are so many ways to create unique bags that will draw
attention.
Attractive artwork is one way to establish
your style. Another is to use different varnishes, metallic or neon colors, an
integrated zipper and valve, shaped pouches, and even distinctive measurements.
You could also focus on consumer friendliness, for instance by using laser
perforation to make opening the bag easier. Be creative, because the
possibilities are endless.
6. PRINTING / LABELS
The specialty coffee industry loves its
labels, and rightly so. Since you might deal with different origins and lots
throughout the season, you need a good label to communicate the origin(s),
processing method, roast date, and more of your beans. Don’t rush this design;
such a crucial element deserves your time.
For stock pouches, you might want to use a
larger, more complex label with a pre-printed logo and company details. But
with a customized bag, you’re by-and-large better off with a smaller, cleaner
label that communicates details about the coffee; the brand’s identity will be
better demonstrated by the packaging design.
Try to match the material of your label with
the bag itself. A matte plastic or paper label blends in nicely with a matte
surface. Shiny labels, on the other hand, go better with shiny bags. A matte
transparent plastic label suits a kraft paper bag
best, showing the paper texture through the label. And don’t forget to figure
out if you want to draw attention to the label, in case you can use a stock
pouch, or to the pouch itself if it concerns a customized bag.
Printing your own labels is cheaper and
gives you more flexibility than purchasing ready-to-apply labels. Buy a good
label printer and create a template in your own style, which you can then
easily change the details of. Decide if you want to use colors on your labels
or if you’re fine with only black. If you opt for color, it’s recommended that
you get the logos and artworks pre-printed by a supplier, since color
cartridges for label printers are quite expensive.
Having said that, colors and different font
styles will have a bigger impact on customers than plain text will – especially
if the customer doesn’t know a great deal about coffee. You can also use these
different colors and styles to distinguish your espresso roasts from your
filters, or your blends from your single origins. But be careful to keep it
consistent and intuitive: if the message your coffee bag communicates is
unclear, a consumer might just grab the next one on the shelf instead.
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the below link and connect with BPS that Offers a variety of coffee packaging
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Blog
Editor: Jasmine Zhang
Updated
on December 31, 2020
Reference:
Perfect Daily Grind
Contact
BPS Team: inquiry@bestpackagesolutions.net
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