Food - Drink
Why There Is A Circular Valve At The Top Of Your Coffee Bag
By MICHELLE WELSCH
You may have noticed a tiny hole or a piece of round plastic at the top of bags of coffee, and this opening isn't just so you can smell the caffeinated goodness inside. This circular valve helps to keep the roasted beans inside the bag as fresh as possible, because an airtight bag isn't the best vessel for packaging and selling coffee.
Coffee beans give off a lot of carbon dioxide during the roasting process, and since the beans are packaged not long after roasting, they continue to release this gas even after they're bagged. Thanks to a circular opening on top of the bags, the carbon dioxide has somewhere to go without damaging the package or the beans.
Since this valve is one-directional, the beans are still protected from oxygen, moisture, and other contaminants, prolonging the life of the coffee. This gives sellers flexibility in shipping and stocking the coffee, while also giving customers peace of mind that the beans haven't been compromised by excess CO2 or outside factors.