Paper Sauce Cups

The cup that decides how your fries taste at home

Ketchup with fries, ranch with wings, salsa with chips, honey mustard with tenders, cheese sauce with pretzels. For many orders, the sauce is half the experience, and the sauce cup is the thing that gets it there. A good paper sauce cup holds the right amount, keeps the sauce in place in a delivery bag, and is wide enough that a fry or a nugget can be dipped without the cup tipping over.

Paper sauce cups (also called dip cups or ketchup cups) are used by burger joints, chicken shops, taquerias, pizza places that send garlic butter with every box, ballpark and fair concession stands, and food trucks of all kinds. They are also a quiet branding opportunity, because a sauce cup sits right in the middle of the food in every unboxing photo a customer posts.

Sizing by sauce and dish

We make sauce cups in 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.5 oz. How thick the sauce is, and how much people dip, matter more than the dish name.

If you are portioning sides and spreads rather than dips, such as coleslaw or butter for bread, look at our printed paper portion cups, which are sized around measured servings.

Thin sauces, hot sauces and delivery

Most sauce cup problems come from three things: thin sauces, heat and travel. Thin sauces like hot sauce, soy-based dips or vinaigrettes wick into weak seams if the cup is poorly lined. Warm sauces like cheese or gravy soften light board. And delivery bags tip, squeeze and sit in a warm car.

• For thin or oily sauces, ask for a heavier board (toward 280 gsm) with a full PE lining.
• For hot sauces, choose a cup that stays rigid when warm and pair it with a tight-seal lid.
• For delivery, use snap-on lids, and place sauce cups upright in a corner of the box or bag, wedged by the food.
• For dine-in, lids are optional and add cost; most restaurants skip them.

The bag matters as much as the cup. A flat-bottomed bag that stands up keeps sauce cups level all the way to the door, while a narrow bag forces them onto their side. Many delivery-first kitchens pair lidded sauce cups with custom printed food delivery bags sized for their most common order.

Tamper-evident lids are available for delivery brands that want customers to know the sauce has not been opened.

Extra sauce as a menu item

Many restaurants now charge for a second or third dip, and a branded sauce cup makes that charge feel fair. A plain cup of ranch feels like it should be free; a printed cup with the restaurant's name and a flavor label feels like a product. If you sell a signature sauce, the cup is also the cheapest way to get customers asking for it by name next time. Some shops go further and sell larger cups of house sauce to take home.

Printing sauce cups

A printed sauce cup turns a generic side into part of your brand. Print your logo around the wall, or go further and print each sauce flavor in its own color: red for buffalo, orange for honey barbecue, white for ranch. It speeds up packing and helps customers find their favorite in a bag of six. Some restaurants print a short line like "Our house sauce" or the name of a signature dip. PMS printing keeps sauce colors consistent; CMYK suits fuller artwork. Gloss finishes resist the occasional sauce smear; matte looks more natural on kraft.

Design tip: the visible wall is tiny, and the lid hides the top edge. Center a single bold mark in the middle of the wall.

Packing and storing

Fill sauce cups during prep and keep them chilled and lidded, then add them to orders at the last step. For warm sauces, fill to order or keep filled cups in a warmer only briefly, since long holding softens any paper cup. Keep empty cups stacked in their sleeves, away from fryer steam. When building a combo, put the sauce cup inside the food carton or next to it in a tray, not loose in the bag. Pairing sauce cups with custom French fry containers keeps a fries-and-dip order neat in the bag.

How to order

1. Choose sizes for each sauce on your menu.
2. Decide on lids: none, snap-on, tight-seal or tamper-evident.
3. Pick white or kraft board and plain or printed.
4. Send your logo and flavor list. Our designers help with color coding for free.
5. Choose a quantity from 100 cups per size, then approve the proof. Cups are ready 4 to 6 business days later, with rush options.

Free samples are available for testing with your own sauces, and shipping is free to the USA, Canada, the UK and Australia.