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How Nespresso Compatible Coffee Capsules Work

Nespresso Compatible Coffee Capsules

Coffee capsules are fascinating little pockets of science and engineering. A lot actually goes into designing these things. It’s not all for looks you know! There’s a surprising amount of thought that goes into their design and construction that all affect how they work. How exactly do coffee capsules work?

Coffee capsules are small single-serve containers for coffee that have to keep the grinds within the container and maintain their freshness until used. They work with a combination of a cup of good size and material, a watertight seal, and an easily recognizable and convenient design.

Keep reading to learn the function and general creation process for coffee capsules and what they can mean for you as a private label company.

How do Nespresso Compatible Coffee Capsules Work?

For the most part, the function of a coffee capsule is very simple. Enough coffee grounds for a single cup of coffee – usually between 5-7g – is poured into the capsule container before being hermetically sealed to the point of being watertight.

When the consumer puts a capsule in their coffee maker, the capsule is punctured from above and below to let the hot water in and out into their coffee cup.

What is Each Part of a Coffee Capsule For?

We’ve talked about the gist of the coffee capsule function, but what about how all of their parts work together? It seems kind of strange to say ‘parts’ since it’s just the capsule, right? Actually there are several notable and important parts & features of a capsule:

The capsule cup
The seal
The Filter
The design

The Capsule

Obviously, this is important because you need something to hold the coffee. What you might not consider is how important the material the capsule cup is made of is.
It’s important that the material be affordable while also being either recyclable or biodegradable. The material should also be strong so that the capsules aren’t damaged and the coffee compromised while in transit.
Lastly, the material surrounding the coffee can change the way it tastes over time, so coffee capsule manufacturers have to be careful with what they pick. We’ll discuss it more in a later section.

The Seal

The seal is just as important for coffee capsule manufacturers to consider. It’s job is to preserve the flavor and freshness of the coffee so that it tastes the same at the consumers home as it did in the factory. Without having a good seal, it’s pointless to have the best capsule cup.

The Filter

Most coffee capsules don’t actually come with filters. Some will have very thin ones at the top and bottom, but others do not because the material doesn’t break apart as easily as a paper pod.

The Container Design

The design of the capsule should accomplish two things:

Make the coffee choice easy to identify
Be conveniently stackable

A capsule of the same material should be easily identifiable in either its shape or color choices to distinguish it from their competition. The colors should also make it easy for the consumer to recognize instantly what coffee blend they’re grabbing. No one feels like reading a tiny label in the morning.
The stackable feature is a benefit for private label companies and their coffee capsule manufacturers. While in the factory, the capsules are stacked by a machine and taken apart one by one to be filled, sealed, and packaged. It’s important for efficiency that as many capsules as possible can be fit into the machine while each capsule also easily comes out of the sleeve.

Plastic V.S. Aluminum Coffee Capsules

Now we’re back to how materials change coffee tastes. Whether as grounds or as a proper drink, the container the coffee is in acts much like a filter and traps certain particles of the coffee or lets other particles in.

Plastic is more porous than one would think. Plastic is the worst for both the grinds and the drink. The grinds because certain gaseous molecules like oxygen actually pass through plastic very easily and affect the flavor of the grounds. Molded plastics also have left over monomers from their chemical process which can diffuse into the coffee once brewed.

Aluminum won’t give your coffee a new, unintended flavor. Aluminum also keeps any oxidizing agent out of the cup by its nature. The only drawback to aluminum is that it can take away some flavor, but that’s more of a problem with aluminum coffee tumblers. Coffee from aluminum capsules are also described as being more bodied with more pronounced flavors.

How Novo Capsules are Different

When NOVO capsules was born in 2016 with the partnership of a serial inventor and industrial entrepreneur.

It took a very long series of laboratory tests, roaster trials, 100s of “back to the drawing boards”, patent applications, and more to fulfill everything a coffee capsule had to do for both private label companies and consumers.

After all of that, they came up with a capsule with several advantages. First, it’s made of aluminum for durability, recyclability, and better coffee quality. They have nothing to do with polyvinylchloride (PVC).

Their design maximizes efficiency with a great stackable, geometric shape, a larger welding lid, and minimizes any leaks from the bottom with the perfectly sized dimple. That eliminated the need for a filter, saving us from using countless paper material.

Conclusion

Coffee capsules are a complex miracle of coffee of science that offers a lot to the at-home coffee drinker. There are a lot of people who don’t know what coffee capsules are and how they work, which is why we wanted to share this information. You do have options to get a delicious cup of coffee and coffee capsules are a great option to consider.

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