Ice Cream Paper Cups With Lids

For Ice Cream That Leaves the Shop

An open ice cream cup is made to be eaten at the counter or on a bench. Once ice cream needs to travel, whether in a car, a delivery bag or a home freezer, it needs a lid. That covers hand-packed pints, pre-scooped cups in a grab-and-go freezer, gelato for a dinner party, kids' cups packed for a school event, and every ice cream order that goes out through a delivery app.

A lid does three jobs. It keeps the ice cream from picking up freezer smells and ice crystals, it stops drips in the bag, and it gives you a flat, visible spot to label the flavor. That last one sounds small, but in a freezer case full of cups, a clear flavor label on the lid is what lets a customer find mint chip without lifting every lid.

We make these cups in 4 oz, 8 oz, 12 oz, 16 oz and 20 oz, with custom sizes, in white SBS or kraft. The board is double wall in the 280 to 320 gsm range, with a moisture-barrier lining for frozen food.

Picking Sizes and Lids

The size you need depends on whether the cup is a single serving or a take-home container. The table below shows the usual split.

Clear lids let customers see the ice cream, which helps sales in a self-serve freezer. Dome lids are for anything with toppings. Flat lids are the stackers, which matters both in your freezer case and in the customer's freezer at home. All three can be ordered with your cups so the rim fit is matched.

The 4 oz cup with a lid is popular for schools, birthday parties and catering, where a portion has to be scooped ahead of time and served later. If you want a small cup for other uses too, such as sauces or tasters, take a look at our 4 oz paper cups.

Designing a Cup That Lives in the Freezer

Lidded cups often spend days or weeks in a freezer, then come out into a warm room and frost over. Design for that:

• Pick a gloss or moisture-resistant finish. Frost and condensation can blotch a matte surface.
• Print a flavor area on the lid, either a blank panel to write on or a set of preprinted flavor names with a box to tick.
• Put your logo on the cup wall large enough to read through a freezer door.
• Use colors that stay bright when cold. Saturated pinks, blues and greens hold up; very pale tints fade into the frost.
• Add a short "keep frozen" line and your shop name for repeat buyers.

Full-color CMYK printing suits playful designs. PMS gives you an exact match to your shop's brand color. Spot UV and foil are available for premium gelato and pint lines. If you also print the lid, keep its design simple and centered, since the lid has a small surface.

Packing, Freezing and Delivery

Hand-pack pints to just below the rim, then press the lid on evenly around the edge. Avoid overfilling: ice cream pushed against the lid gets stuck to it and looks messy when opened. For pre-scooped cups in a display freezer, fill, lid and freeze them flat on a tray so they set level.

Give each cup a minute to firm up before the lid goes on if the ice cream is very soft. Lidding soft-serve or freshly churned ice cream too soon traps warm air, which turns into frost under the lid. A short rest in the hardening freezer before lidding gives a cleaner look when the customer opens it.

In storage, keep empty cups and lids in a dry room, not inside the freezer. Moving board between cold and warm air too often makes it damp. Pull the cups you need for each packing session.

For delivery, pack lidded cups upright in an insulated bag and keep them away from hot items. Our guide on keeping ice cream fresh and organized covers more on handling and storage.

A clear system helps when you sell many flavors. One way to keep it simple is to print a short run of lids per flavor family, such as a brown band for chocolate flavors and a cream band for vanilla bases, so staff can restock the case fast.

Ordering Ice Cream Cups With Lids

1. Decide how you will sell: single servings, sundaes to go, hand-packed pints or all three.
2. Pick cup sizes and a lid style for each: flat, clear or dome.
3. Send your logo and any flavor list for the lids. Our design team helps for free.
4. Approve the digital proof. Free samples let you test fit and freezer performance with your product.
5. Production takes 4 to 6 business days after approval, and shipping is free to the USA, Canada, the UK and Australia.

Orders start at 100 units, so a new pint line or a summer event can begin small. Volume discounts apply as you scale up. For open cups to serve in the shop, see our open ice cream paper cups.