Custom Coffee Boxes
A coffee carton does nothing for freshness — the bag inside does that. What it buys is shelf presence, a flat surface for the story, and a shape that stacks. Knowing that changes what you should spend on it.
- Builds
- Tuck-end retail carton, subscription shipper, tasting tray and lid
- Board
- 16–24pt SBS or kraft; corrugated for shippers
- Outside, inside, or both
Get a price for Coffee Boxes
Send the size and quantity — we reply the same working day with a price, a dieline and a date. Artwork optional at this stage.
- Free dielineThe flat drawing comes with the quote, before you commit.
- Proof before pressNothing is printed until you have seen it laid on the dieline.
- Die kept for reordersTooling is paid once. Every reorder skips straight to press.
- Quoted in four marketsUS, UK, Canada and Australia, in the delivery currency.
Do not ask the carton to be a barrier
Board is porous. A carton will not slow oxygen and will not hold aroma, so paying for a heavy coated stock in the hope that it does is money in the wrong place. The barrier is the bag — its structure is set out in our notes on valves and laminate layers.
Spend the carton budget on the surface instead. An uncoated stock with a deboss reads as specialty far more convincingly than a laminated four-color box.
Three jobs, three shapes
The subscription shipper is where most roasters lose money without noticing. A box 5 mm too deep for a letterbox moves every parcel into a doorstep tariff, and that is charged on every delivery for the life of the subscription.
For beans sold online rather than over a counter, a mailer sized to the bag is the format that decides the postage.
| Retail carton | Holds one bag upright on a shelf. Square footprint, tuck-end. |
|---|---|
| Subscription shipper | Two or three bags, letterbox depth if possible. |
| Tasting set | Four to six small bags in a tray, lift-off or drawer lid. |
Letterbox depth limits differ by carrier and country. Get the number from yours before the dieline is cut.
Sizing around a bag that changes
Bean density varies by origin and roast, so the same 250 g bag is visibly fuller with a dark Brazilian than with a light Ethiopian. A carton built to the fullest bag looks slack around the lightest one.
Build to the middle and add a paperboard packer for the loose end, or build to the fullest and accept a little movement. Either is better than two cartons.
Where the information goes
- Origin, process and roast date want the front panel — they are what specialty buyers read.
- Brew guidance works better on an inside face than on a leaflet nobody keeps.
- A batch or roast date needs an unvarnished patch, because inkjet will not key onto gloss.
- Leave the base clear for a barcode and a net weight rather than squeezing them in later.
Coffee Boxes — specification
The rows that are specific to this build first, then what applies to every job we run. Anything not listed is a question, not a limit — send the brief.
This build
- Builds
- Tuck-end retail carton, subscription shipper, tasting tray and lid
- Board
- 16–24pt SBS or kraft; corrugated for shippers
- Outside, inside, or both
- Finishing
- Uncoated with deboss, matte lamination, foil
- Minimum
- 100 cartons
- Note
- Barrier comes from the bag, not the carton
On every job
- Print process
- Flexo in one to six colors, printed on the outer face only and before any lining goes on.
- Color
- Food-safe inks throughout. Kraft mutes color; a white board or liner is needed for anything photographic.
- Tolerance
- Cutting plus or minus 1 mm, and fit confirmed by filling a plain sample from your own kitchen or line.
- Tooling
- A cutting die per size, kept. Molded pulp needs a tool per shape, which is a longer lead and a larger one-off.
- Food contact
- Every board food-contact grade, with grease resistance built into the sheet and never a PFAS treatment.
- Sustainability
- Aqueous linings and unlined boards repulp with ordinary paper. PE-lined cups need cup collection, and we say which you have.
- Artwork
- Vector PDF or AI, 3 mm bleed, 4 mm safe area, fonts outlined. We check every file and send a proof before press.
- Dieline
- Supplied free with the quote, before you commit. Yours whether or not you order.
- Sample
- A plain unprinted sample at the finished size on request, for fit and construction.
- Reorders
- Skip the tooling and go straight to press at a lower unit price.
- Lead time
- Quoted with the price against your fill date rather than promised before we have seen the spec.
- Markets
- United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia — priced in the delivery currency, freight included.
Boards and films we build coffee boxes on
Food packaging is chosen for what the food does to it: grease, steam, heat and time. Every board here is food-contact grade, and none of them uses a PFAS treatment for grease resistance.
Food-grade virgin board
Bleached board made for direct food contact. Clean, bright, no recycled fiber and no mineral-oil risk from recovered paper.
14–24ptGrease-resistant board
Resistance built into the sheet rather than sprayed on. Holds fries, pastry and butter without darkening. PFAS-free.
16–24ptPE-lined cupstock
Board with a polyethylene film for hot and cold liquid. Microwave-safe for reheating; recycled only where cup collection exists.
260–350gsmAqueous-lined cupstock
A water-based lining instead of PE. Repulpable in ordinary paper recycling in more places, and compostable; a slightly shorter hold time.
260–320gsmGreaseproof and glassine
Dense, calendered paper that resists fat through the fiber. Wraps, liners and interleaves; breathable, so pastry stays crisp.
30–55gsmFood-grade corrugated
E and B flute with a food-contact liner, vented where steam has to leave. Pizza, catering and anything hot and heavy.
E and B fluteMolded pulp and bagasse
Fiber pressed into a shape. Holds heat, resists grease with no lining, composts, and takes only an embossed or one-color mark.
Molded to shapeRecycled board
Post-consumer fiber. Used for outers, sleeves and anything that does not touch food directly — not for direct contact.
Non-contact onlyNot sure which? Say what goes in it and where it is sold — the material follows from that. Our notes on recycled, recyclable and compostable cover which claims each stock can honestly carry.
- 01
Send what you have
A dimension, a photograph beside a ruler, or the product itself. No technical drawing needed — that part is ours.
- 02
We quote and draw
A price, a dieline and a date come back together. If a different build would suit the product better, that is in the reply too.
- 03
Approve the dieline
The flat drawing is yours to check: which panel is the front, where the folds fall, how deep the cavity really is.
- 04
Artwork on the dieline
You place your design on the flat we sent, or we place it for you, and you see a proof before anything goes to press.
- 05
A sample if you want one
A plain unprinted sample at the finished size shows fit and construction — the things a drawing cannot.
- 06
Cut, printed, shipped
The die is cut once and kept, so every reorder skips the tooling and goes straight to press at a lower unit price.
Format
Vector PDF or AI where possible. Raster artwork at 300dpi at final size, in CMYK.
Bleed
3 mm past every trim line, so a fraction of drift on the cutter never leaves a white edge.
Safe area
Keep type and anything important 4 mm inside the cut and away from every fold.
Color
Convert to CMYK before sending. Uncoated stock prints lighter; a spot color is the only exact match.
Fonts
Outline them or supply the files. A missing font substitutes silently and the proof will not match.
Barcodes
On a light, matte, unvarnished patch with the quiet zone clear — a code on gloss fails the scanner.
Not set up that way? Send it anyway — fixing a file is a short conversation, and we check every one before press. Our guide to preparing print files covers each point.
Food finishes are limited by what may touch food, and that is the point.
Food-safe inks
Printed on the outer face only. Every food pack we make uses them, laminated or not.
Uncoated kraft
No coating at all. Breathable, so pastry stays crisp, and it takes one or two colors.
Aqueous varnish
Scuff resistance without a plastic film, so the pack still repulps.
Molded emboss
A logo pressed into pulp or bagasse. No ink, nothing to rub off, and it survives grease.
Grease-resistant face
Not a finish you can see. It is in the sheet, it is PFAS-free, and it is why the print stays clean.
Matte lamination
Available on outers and sleeves that never touch food — a cake box lid, a carrier, a gift sleeve.
Not sure which suits the shelf it sells from? Say where the product is sold and we suggest one — our notes on specialty finishes show them on real boxes.
Sizing food packaging around a portion, hot: coffee boxes
Food is sized by serving, not by dimensions, and it is served hot, heaped and in a hurry. Send us the portion — or better, the box you use now with the food in it — and we size to how it is actually filled.
- Portion, heaped
- Fries, popcorn and salad are served above the rim. A box sized to a level fill looks mean and spills in a bag.
- Lid clearance
- Enough that a loaded burger or a topped cake does not touch the lid. This is the single most common complaint about a food box.
- Venting
- Hot food steams. Vents in the lid keep pastry and fries crisp; a sealed box is right only for cold food.
- Grease path
- Where the fat sits decides the board. Say if the food is fried, buttered or sauced, and whether it is held for minutes or an hour.
- Stacking in a bag
- Delivery boxes are stacked five high on a bike. The lid has to hold the box above it off the food below.
- Sample fill
- A plain box filled from your kitchen settles the size in one try, and we send one before the run.
Not sure your numbers are right? Send the product dimensions rather than the box dimensions and we work the box out — the full method is in our guide to measuring for a box.
Interactive · five steps · no sign-up
Build your Coffee Boxes in 3D
Pick a shape, type a size, choose a board and a finish. The preview on the left redraws as you go, and the spec lands with us exactly as you set it.
Frequently asked questions
Got a question about coffee boxes? The answers below cover what we get asked most. If yours is not here, send it with a brief, message us on WhatsApp, or call +1 503-461-4788 — we reply the same working day.
What is the minimum order?
100 boxes, printed to your artwork.
Does a carton keep coffee fresh?
No. Board is not a barrier — freshness comes from the sealed bag inside it.
Can the box hold bags of different sizes?
With a divided insert, yes, and that is usually cheaper than a second box size.
Do you make subscription mailers?
Yes, sized against carrier bands so the postage does not eat the margin.
Can I print inside?
Yes — on a subscription box it is seen by every customer, every month.
What board suits a 1 kg pack?
E or B flute corrugated, with the base specified for the filled weight rather than the size.
Will a carton keep coffee fresher?
No. Board is porous and does not slow oxygen. The bag inside is what protects the coffee; the carton is presentation and protection from knocks.
What depth fits a letterbox?
It varies by carrier and country, typically 20–25 mm. Get the exact figure from yours — one millimeter over moves every parcel into a more expensive band.
Can one carton fit different roasts?
Usually, if you build to the middle of your density range and add a thin packer for the lightest. Two cartons is rarely worth the second die.
Should I print the roast date or inkjet it?
Inkjet, onto an unvarnished patch. Printing it fixes you to a batch and wastes the rest of the run when the date passes.
Same range
