Custom Double Wall Paper Cups.

Both insulate, but the double wall keeps its outer surface flat and printable while a ripple wall texturises it. The construction is two plies with a sealed air gap between them. The inner ply holds the drink, the outer ply stays cool enough to hold and carries the print.

Speciality coffee shops tend to choose double wall for that reason: the branding quality is as good as the heat protection, and no sleeve is needed at the counter.

No, the air gap does the sleeve's job, and dropping the sleeve is the main commercial gain of the format. Against a single wall cup the drink holds roughly 15 to 20°F more heat at the twenty-minute mark, and the outside stays comfortable in the hand throughout.

You also get the whole outer wrap for artwork, with nothing covering it. The trade-off is that a double wall is never the cheapest cup per unit.

A single-sided PE coating on the inner ply only, because a hot drink cup needs the inside sealed and nothing else. The inner ply is virgin food-grade paperboard, since recycled content is restricted next to hot drinks. The outer ply never touches liquid.

PLA is available as a compostable alternative to PE. It breaks down in commercial composting rather than a home heap, so check the facility exists before you print the claim.

Full CMYK across the whole outer ply is the most requested, and it prints as one uninterrupted wrap. Matte is the speciality coffee standard for a non-reflective, premium feel. Gloss gives saturated colour for high-street and chain service. A kraft outer with one or two spot colours suits natural ranges.

Soft-touch coating is available as a premium detail, and spot colours are matched to Pantone references so a reprint looks like the first run.

8, 12 and 16 oz are the core ladder, with 4 oz espresso and 20 oz large at either end. Rim diameters run 3.2 inches on the 8 oz, 3.5 inches on the 12 oz and 3.6 inches on the 16 oz, and those rim sizes are what your lids have to match. Cup and lid are specified together, always.

Give us the lid you already stock and we will confirm the rim before printing.

Five hundred cups per size and design is where we start. Each size is a separate 500 because the blank changes with the diameter. Past 1,000 the per-cup price drops, and we produce up to 100,000 on a single order.

Standard production is 7 to 10 business days, and rush is 5 to 7 business days. A sample cup takes 5 to 7 business days, and we suggest filling it with your hottest drink and holding it for twenty minutes before you approve the spec.

The cost of that sample is credited back on the production order.

They are built for hot drinks, and we do not recommend them for cold. The single-sided lining seals only the inside, so a cold cup sweats condensation on the outside and the outer ply softens. Cold service wants a double-sided PE cup or a clear cup instead.

Where the drink is hot, the format earns its cost: the second ply insulates, the rolled rim snaps to standard lids and the whole outer surface is print space.