Blog Archive

Packaging

Why Your Coffee Bag Zipper Won't Close at the Ends, and How to Fix It

A coffee bag zipper that won't close at the ends is crushed into the side seals on purpose. Here is how to fix the corners, the fill and ...

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Packaging

Why the Small Print on Your Coffee Bag Is Blurry, and How to Set It So It Prints Sharp

Blurry fine print on a coffee bag is a file setting, not a bad press. Set small text in one ink, give reversed type size, and put fine co...

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Packaging

Ship the Coffee, Not the Water: Why Hawaii Cold Brew Belongs in a Concentrate Pouch

A Hawaii cold brew is mostly water, and every ounce crosses an ocean. A concentrate in a spouted pouch ships less water, arrives flat, an...

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Packaging

Minimums Are Not a Sales Tactic. Here Is What a 500-Bag Minimum Is Made Of.

A packaging minimum is made of three physical things: tooling, the film a press wastes getting up to color, and machine changeovers. Here...

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Packaging

Your Kona Blend Bags Have an Expiration Date. It Is July 1, 2027.

On July 1, 2027 the minimum Hawaii-grown content in a blend goes from 10 percent to 51 percent. That number is printed on your bag, which...

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Troubleshooting

Film Has a Grain. That Is Why Your Bag Tears Crooked.

A tear notch decides where a tear starts, not where it goes. Why packaging film has a grain, how web layout sets it, and when laser scori...

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Troubleshooting

You Cannot Scale a 12 oz Bag Up to a 5 lb Bag

Bag panels do not scale proportionally, and artwork shrinks well but grows badly. Why the same file fails on a bigger bag, and why you de...

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Troubleshooting

Ink Does Not Weld. That Is Why Your Seal Opened.

Artwork that runs into the seal zone leaves ink inside the weld, and ink does not weld. Why the bag still looks perfect, why it fails lat...

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Troubleshooting

Somewhere in Your Roll Is a Joint. Those Bags Are Scrap.

A splice in a roll of film is deliberate, not damage. Why it costs you a few bags mid-run, why it reads as a defect, and what flagging an...

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Troubleshooting

Your Bags Did Not Get Fragile in Transit. They Got Cold.

Cold film loses impact strength, so gussets split and zippers tear under normal handling. Why it looks like transit damage, and the free ...

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Troubleshooting

Your Bags Are Not Stuck Together. They Are Charged.

New coffee bags that cling carry a static charge from the converting line, not humidity. What it costs you, and why settling time is buil...

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Packaging

Coffee Is Actually a Cherry. You're Drinking the Seed.

The bean you grind was never a bean. It is the seed of a small red fruit called a coffee cherry, picked ripe on a farm, and everything ab...

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Packaging

The Little Black Rectangle on Your Coffee Bag Is an Eye Mark

That small solid block of ink low on the back of your bag is an eye mark. It is the one thing on the package printed for a machine, not a...

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Packaging

Your Coffee Bag Barcode Changes in 2027. Not Because Anyone Will Make You.

Retail checkouts are moving to 2D barcodes by the end of 2027. It is a target for retailers, it is voluntary, and the old barcode still w...

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Troubleshooting

Your New Bags Have a Faint Smell. Coffee Is Very Good at Absorbing It.

A fresh carton of laminated coffee bags often carries a faint chemical note. Where it comes from, why coffee of all things will pick it u...

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Packaging

One Bag, Several Coffees: The Wrap-Around Sticker, and Which Bags Can Actually Take One

A wrap-around sticker turns one printed coffee bag into a whole product line. The four shapes a wrap can take, why a horizontal 360 band ...

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Packaging

Roast to Order Does Not Make the Bag Matter Less. It Makes It Matter More.

Roasting after the order means bagging coffee at peak CO2 output, so the valve, the headspace and the seal all matter more rather than le...

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Troubleshooting

Your Coffee Bag Is Already Glossy. The Matte Varnish Is What Takes It Away.

On a rotogravure bag the PET is glossy to begin with, and matte varnish is what removes that shine. Applying less of it in selected areas...

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Troubleshooting

Why Your Coffee Bag Barcode Won't Scan, and How to Make It Part of the Design

A barcode has only four rules: dark bars, a clear quiet zone, full height, and a flat spot on the back panel. Everything else is yours, w...

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Packaging

Coffee Bag Label Materials and Finishes: Kraft, Film, Foil, and What Sticks Best

What coffee bag labels are made of, from kraft and paper to glossy film, clear film, and metallized stock, the finishes they carry, and t...

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Packaging

Die Cut Coffee Bags: How to Break Out of the Rectangle Without Breaking the Seal

Your coffee bag does not have to be a rectangle. How die cutting works on coffee packaging, the one area you cannot cut, when a die-cut l...

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Troubleshooting

Why Your Coffee Bag Has a Seam Down the Back (and What It Does to Your Art)

The seam down the back of a coffee bag is how a flat roll of film becomes a tube. What a fin seal and a lap seal are, why the seam matter...

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Packaging

Soft Touch Is the Best Feeling Finish You Can Buy. It Also Shows Every Fingerprint.

Soft touch matte is the finish that makes a coffee bag feel expensive, and the same microtexture that creates that feel holds skin oil an...

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Troubleshooting

You Approved Your Color on Foil. Compostable Kraft Is a Different Canvas.

The same artwork prints differently on compostable kraft than on a conventional laminate. The substrate is not optically bright, the inks...

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