<p>If I can smell coffee coming from the pack I don't buy it, the packs on the shelf in the shop often look badly handled or even crushed. From experience I find these have lost flavour when I get them home. For a while now I've been buying Lavazza ground coffee which is vacuum packed and providing that the pack is hard like a brick, it never fails to keep fresh. I don't understand why all ground coffee can't be sold this way.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-07-27T19:56:51.430Z
Stephen, welcome! Please take the [tour] and browse through our [help], especially [answer], and you will notice that this post doesn’t fulfill one of the basic requirements, namely “answer the question”. Coffee SE, like all Stack Exchange sites, is quite different from the standard web forum you may be familiar with, this is a Q/A site with a specific format. If you have questions about how the site works, we’ll be happy to explain.
Stephie
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-07-27T05:47:42.317Z
2019-07-27T05:47:42.317Z
STEPHEN HYDE
<p>Its nothing but a marketing gimmick, enabling the user to use the degassing ventilation hole as <em>aroma hole</em>. If the coffee is super fresh you will be smelling a very bad gas while squeezing the coffee bag, but this is rarely the case as <em>many</em> consumer coffee products have been laying in the shelfs for more than one week.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-01-28T09:37:23.653Z
2015-01-28T09:37:23.653Z
JavaCake
<blockquote>
<p>It's actually a one-way valve &amp; it's critical to the shelf life of the coffee and the preservation of the bag itself.</p>
<p>When coffee is fresh roasted, it releases carbon dioxide. It's basically a by-product of the roasting process. When the coffee is ground, carbon dioxide is released expeditiously. If you simply place fresh roasted coffee in a completely sealed bag, the bag will expand and in most cases rupture.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="http://beanfruit.com/blogs/news/15152773-whats-that-thing-on-my-coffee-bag" rel="noreferrer">http://beanfruit.com/blogs/news/15152773-whats-that-thing-on-my-coffee-bag</a></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-08-11T07:00:20.800Z
2016-08-18T21:05:18.887Z
2020-06-18T08:36:22.093Z
Diesel1017
<p>If it's recommended that coffee should be stored in an <a href="https://coffee.stackexchange.com/questions/1/how-should-i-store-whole-bean-coffee">air tight container</a> then why do coffee bags have an aroma hole.</p>
<p>Apart from being able to smell the coffee is there another purpose to this? I would've thought that it would be better to not have a hole at all and that it should be air tight.</p>
<p><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/tAzpR.jpg" alt="enter image description here" /></p>
<p>It seems the hole at the bottom is probably for degassing but I have seen on some packages that they call this an aroma hole.</p>

<storage><aroma>
Why do coffee packs have an aroma hole if it is recommended to store coffee in an air tight container
EdChum
# Why do coffee packs have an aroma hole if it is recommended to store coffee in an air tight container

(Asked by: username_0 on 2015-01-28)

If it's recommended that coffee should be stored in an [air tight container](https://coffee.stackexchange.com/questions/1/how-should-i-store-whole-bean-coffee) then why do coffee bags have an aroma hole.

Apart from being able to smell the coffee is there another purpose to this? I would've thought that it would be better to not have a hole at all and that it should be air tight.

![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/tAzpR.jpg)

It seems the hole at the bottom is probably for degassing but I have seen on some packages that they call this an aroma hole.

**Tags:** storage, aroma


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## 3 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2015-01-28. Score: 5 | Accepted answer

Its nothing but a marketing gimmick, enabling the user to use the degassing ventilation hole as *aroma hole*. If the coffee is super fresh you will be smelling a very bad gas while squeezing the coffee bag, but this is rarely the case as *many* consumer coffee products have been laying in the shelfs for more than one week.


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### Answer by username_4 on 2016-08-11. Score: 8

> It's actually a one-way valve & it's critical to the shelf life of the coffee and the preservation of the bag itself.
>
> When coffee is fresh roasted, it releases carbon dioxide. It's basically a by-product of the roasting process. When the coffee is ground, carbon dioxide is released expeditiously. If you simply place fresh roasted coffee in a completely sealed bag, the bag will expand and in most cases rupture.

<http://beanfruit.com/blogs/news/15152773-whats-that-thing-on-my-coffee-bag>


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### Answer by username_1 on 2019-07-27. Score: -3

If I can smell coffee coming from the pack I don't buy it, the packs on the shelf in the shop often look badly handled or even crushed. From experience I find these have lost flavour when I get them home. For a while now I've been buying Lavazza ground coffee which is vacuum packed and providing that the pack is hard like a brick, it never fails to keep fresh. I don't understand why all ground coffee can't be sold this way.

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: Stephen, welcome! Please take the [tour] and browse through our [help], especially [answer], and you will notice that this post doesn’t fulfill one of the basic requirements, namely “answer the question”. Coffee SE, like all Stack Exchange sites, is quite different from the standard web forum you may be familiar with, this is a Q/A site with a specific format. If you have questions about how the site works, we’ll be happy to explain.  

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