Hot Paper Cups

Three cups, three kinds of hot-drink service

Every cup in this collection is made for hot liquid, but they suit different places on the counter. The way to choose is to think about who is pouring and how fast the cups go.

• Paper Cups For Hot Drinks are the main cafe cup. They cover your full hot menu, from a small tea to a large latte, and they are the cup customers carry out of the door with your logo on it.
• Disposable Hot Cups suit self-serve and high-volume settings: an office pantry, a hotel lobby urn, a conference coffee break or a church hall after the service. They get stacked by the dispenser and used in bursts.
• Single Wall Paper Cups use one layer of board. They are the lightest option and take the least storage space, which is why coffee carts and busy counters like them.

If most of your drinks are made to order and handed over, start with the main cafe cup. If customers pour their own, a stack of branded disposables by the urn does the job. For carts and kiosks with little storage, take a look at our printed single wall paper cups first.

What heat does to a cup, and how to plan for it

Coffee from an espresso machine or a drip brewer is hot enough that the cup wall warms up within seconds. A customer holding a full single wall cup will feel that heat in the palm. There are three ways to deal with it: add a sleeve, use a heavier cup, or serve smaller sizes for the hottest drinks. Most cafes combine the first two.

Steam matters too. A lid traps it, which keeps the drink hot on the walk back to the office but also builds a little pressure. A lid that does not seat fully on the rim can pop up when the cup is squeezed. That is why the lid and cup should be ordered as a pair and checked together. Our matching paper coffee cup lids are sized to the rim of the cups you order.

Tea brings its own quirks. A tea bag string hanging over the rim stops some lids from closing, and water for black tea is poured close to boiling, so a sleeve is more useful on a tea cup than on a latte that has had milk added.

Hot cup options side by side

The last two rows sit in other collections but come up often when cafes plan a hot menu. If cocoa sells well for you in winter, our hot chocolate paper cups let you give it a design of its own.

Single wall or something heavier?

Single wall cups are the workhorse of hot-drink service. They are light, they nest tightly, and a sleeve takes care of the heat when it matters. For a coffee cart with one shelf of storage, or a busy counter that goes through cups by the hundred every morning, they are hard to beat.

A heavier cup makes more sense when the drink is held for a long time without a sleeve, when it travels in a car or a bag, or when the cup itself is part of a premium feel. Some cafes use both: single wall cups for the fast morning trade and a heavier cup for their signature drinks.

The quickest way to decide is to make your hottest drink in each candidate cup, hand it to someone without a sleeve and ask them to hold it for a minute. Then do the same with a sleeve on. Free samples make this test easy, and it settles the question better than any spec sheet.

Printing that holds up to heat and hands

Think about where hands and sleeves go before you place the logo. A sleeve covers a band around the middle of the cup, and fingers cover the lower half. Put your logo in the upper third, or print it twice on opposite sides, so it shows whichever way the cup is turned.

• Use high-contrast colors. A drive-thru cup is seen for a second at arm's length, so a dark logo on a light cup, or the reverse, reads faster than two mid-tones.
• Keep fine text to a minimum. A web address or social handle should be large enough to read from a car seat.
• Print in Pantone (PMS) if your brand color has to match the rest of your packaging, and in CMYK for photos or gradients.
• Matte, gloss and spot UV finishes all work on hot cups. Foil works best as a small accent on the logo.

We print with soy- or vegetable-based inks on FDA-compliant food-contact materials. Many cafes also run a separate design for fall and winter. Our seasonal and holiday cup designs are a good place to see how others change the look for the cold months without changing the cup.

Ordering hot cups without running short in winter

1. Write down every hot drink and the size you serve it in.
2. Check which sizes share a lid and which need their own.
3. Decide whether sleeves come with every cup or only the larger sizes.
4. Send your artwork, or ask for free design help.
5. Test free samples with your hottest drink, a lid and a sleeve together.
6. Approve the proof. Production takes 4–6 business days, and rush options exist for launches.
7. Plan stock for the season. Hot-drink sales climb from fall into winter, so order before demand peaks, not when you are down to the last box.

The minimum order is 100 units, and volume discounts help when you stock up ahead of the cold months. Shipping is free to the USA, Canada, the UK and Australia. To compare capacities before you order, the paper cup sizes from 2 to 20 oz are listed in one place. You can also set up your cup with the step-by-step order form on this page.

Where hot paper cups get used

Drive-thru coffee stands and walk-up windows go through the most cups per hour. Coffee carts at farmers markets and college campuses need light cups that store in a small space. Ski lodges, ice rinks and outdoor holiday markets sell hot chocolate and cider by the hundreds on a cold weekend. Hospital cafeterias, car dealerships and hotel lobbies keep a stack of branded disposable hot cups by the urn so every visitor sees the name on the cup. Office managers order them for the pantry, and caterers bring them to morning meetings with a coffee box.