During the roasting process, ground coffee naturally releases carbon dioxide for many days after roasting. As the carbon dioxide can take weeks to be released, and we like to pack our roast and ground coffee as fresh as possible, the process is quickened along by flushing nitrogen into the coffee silos.
When the roasted ground coffee is tamped and packed into capsules, it is saturated with Nitrogen to preserve the organoleptic characteristics during shelf life.
The coffee can continue to release the naturally occurring carbon dioxide which impacts upon the internal atmosphere and increasing the internal pressure. This gives the capsule a ‘pillow’ top just as you would see in a bag of freshly roasted and ground coffee (This is also the reason why many coffee bags have a valve, to release the carbon dioxide).
The ‘pillow’ top doesn’t impact on the quality or the organoleptic characteristic of the coffee in any way and can change from capsule to capsule or batch due to environmental reasons such as weather, type of coffee and even the waiting time between roasting and grinding – all these factors can play a part in causing a ‘pillow’ top.
We can assure you there is no negative effect on the coffee or the delivery.