12 oz Paper Cups

The cup that carries most of your menu

Ask any café owner which cup they reorder most and the answer is usually 12 oz. It is the US "medium", the size that a regular latte, a drip coffee with room for cream, a chai, or a small iced coffee all land in. A 12 oz cup holds one and a half US cups, roughly 355 ml. For many shops it carries more than half of all drinks sold, which makes it the single most visible piece of packaging your business owns.

That volume changes how you should think about the order. A few cents saved per cup adds up across a year, but so does a cup that leaks at the seam, a lid that pops off in a car, or a print that looks muddy next to the sign above your counter. The 12 oz cup is worth specifying carefully.

Who buys 12 oz cups, and what they pour

Coffee shops and drive-thrus are the obvious buyers, but they are not the only ones. Bagel shops sell a coffee-and-bagel deal in this size. Food trucks use it for lemonade and iced tea. Convenience stores, hospital cafés and campus coffee carts stock it as their everyday cup. Smoothie bars sometimes use it as their kids' or small size. Here is how the most common drinks fit:

For takeaway soup on a regular basis, a dedicated container is better than a drink cup. Custom soup paper cups with lids are wider and steadier for a spoon.

Matte, gloss and UV: choosing a finish for your main cup

One of the searches that brings people to this page is "UV matte paper cups", and it is a fair question. The finish affects both how a cup looks and how it feels.

• Matte gives a soft, paper-like surface with no glare. Dark colors such as black, forest green and navy look rich in matte, and the cup feels pleasant in the hand. It can show fingerprints on very dark backgrounds.
• Gloss makes colors brighter and wipes clean easily. It is a good fit for bold, cheerful brands and for cold cups that collect condensation.
• Spot UV puts a glossy coat only on selected areas, such as the logo, over a matte background. The contrast catches light at the pickup counter and is a cost-effective way to make a cup look premium.

On white board, all three finishes show color accurately. On kraft board, colors print slightly darker and warmer, so a light brand color may need adjusting. We can show you both on the proof.

Single wall, double wall and the sleeve question

A 12 oz hot drink is held for ten to twenty minutes on a commute, which is long enough to make a single-wall cup uncomfortable. You have two ways to solve it. Keep single wall and add a cardboard sleeve, which keeps the cup cost low and gives you a second surface to print offers or seasonal art. Or move to double wall, which costs more per cup but saves the sleeve, speeds up service and feels more substantial. High-volume drive-thrus often pick the first route; specialty cafés often choose the second. If you go the sleeve route, branded paper coffee cup sleeves are made to fit standard 12 oz rims.

A 12 oz cup and the conversions people ask about

Recipes and nutrition labels often switch between ounces and cups, and a lot of people land here wondering how much 12 oz really is. For liquids, 12 fluid ounces is 1.5 US cups. For dry ingredients like sugar or flour, ounces measure weight, not volume, so 12 oz of sugar by weight is about 1.7 cups while 12 oz of flour is closer to 2.7 cups. Paper cups are sized by fluid ounces, so the 12 oz on this page always means a liquid volume of about 355 ml.

Ordering and reordering

Since this cup will be your workhorse, plan for reorders from the start. Keep your artwork file, PMS color numbers and the size of your matching paper coffee cup lids together so the next run matches the last one.

1. Pick construction: single wall, double wall or a cold cup.
2. Choose white or kraft board and your finish.
3. Send vector artwork, or let our designers prepare it for free.
4. Choose a quantity from 100 cups up. Larger runs earn volume discounts.
5. Approve the proof, then expect production in 4 to 6 business days. Rush options cover grand openings and promotions.

Free samples can be sent first, and shipping is free to the USA, Canada, the UK and Australia. When you are ready for prices, use the free quote form.