The search for better coffee storage.
For years I have thought that if Sweet Maria’s ever stopped selling coffee, we should go into the bag business. People love bags! So many types of bags from paper to plastic to cloth to burlap – and so many things to put in them!
Of course, I jest. But basically as a re-packager of unroasted coffee – taking coffee from a very big 60kg or 70kg bag and putting it in little bags – we spend a lot of time thinking about bags. The current zip bags we use are #4 recyclable, and are sturdy enough to be re-used, washed and re-used again quite a few times. That is what I do.
But for some time now, we have been looking for biodegradable bags with a zip and the options have not been good. But that is changing and we hope to start introducing biodegradable bags for some of the smaller sizes of coffee. For larger sizes, our focus is on more durable bags that provide good barrier protection for coffee and can be re-used. – Maria
4 Responses
Why not just encourage people to reuse all the little glass jars they have kicking around? Your research has shown it is one of the, if not THE best ways of storing coffee, correct? You certainly convinced me, and I would never go back. (I’ve made a collection of little jam jars, all pleasingly identical, small enough to hold just a couple of days’ worth of beans. A new roast gets sealed into 4-5, and used within 2 days of when the top is taken off. Can’t do any better than that, and no more f___ plastic!) Not as fun since there is nothing to buy, but isn’t there more to life?
Exactly – I think every video etc I have made encourages people to use what they have in terms of glass. For both green and roasted coffee.
I received 20 pounds of beans in a single Ecotact Hermetic bag. I really dislike the new bag, much preferring the cotton bags that you used to provide with 20 pound orders. The new bag is sealed and the design allows for cutting into the bag to open, then resealing twice with built in sticky sealant. Home roasters will certainly need to access the bag more than twice, so after the second access there is no way to reseal and take advantage of the “hermetic” quality of the bag. There is mylar attached to the bag as well, which I think must prevent it from being recyclable. If it were up to me I’d much rather have the smaller cotton bags, which are dynamite for use as produce bags in the refrigerator.
I really don’t like these bags.
I need to access my green beans frequently for roasting and have not had a problem with the beans losing their flavor. Fortunately I saved old bags and can transfer the shipment that just arrived into them., but that seems to be a waste of time while also adding plastic to the environment. I didn’t check to see if there was an option for shipping bags when I placed the order, but if there isn’t there should be.
Storing 20 lbs of beans takes a lot of jars.