‘Nobody like lukewarm coffee;’ this is a popular saying among coffee lovers. No wonder they would rather make a quote every morning for the barista to pour them a hot cup of coffee. Today’s coffee drinker can have theirs on the go thanks to hot paper cups that have sleeves.

History of hot paper cup sleeves

This simple solution, to burning your hands in the morning, was invented by a simple coffee lover in 1991. One morning, Jay Sorensen’s coffee cup burned his fingers and he ended up spilling the hot drink on his lap. After getting over the pain and the frustration, Sorensen figured out how to have coffee on the go without the pain. That is how hot paper cups sleeves were ‘born.’

5 Advantages of using hot paper cup sleeves

1.   The obvious benefit of using the sleeve when drinking your hot beverage is it protects your fingers from getting burnt. They actually do prevent even bigger accidents like third-degree burns because if you don’t burn your fingers you can’t release a hot cup of coffee on yourself.
2.   Thermal insulation for times when the content in a cup is cold, the sleeves protect the content from the warmth of your hands. People are usually very warm and that can melt a frozen yogurt or ice cream pretty fast. With sleeves, your body warmth won’t reach the cold ice cream and it can stay cold and solid for long.
3. Prevents hand slips as hot paper cups are made of a very smooth material and if your hands are sweaty or oily, you may lose your grip on the cup. Using a sleeve adds some texture to the cup so it’s easy to hold and prevents a slip.
4. Save on costs, as before sleeves became widely known, coffee houses and restaurants used double-cups. This is using two or more nested cups to serve the same purpose as sleeves. A double-wall cup is more expensive than using a sleeve so you will save plenty of cash.
5. Branding and marketing over the years in coffee shops, diners and restaurants have started using their packages to advertise their brand along with the products. While some brand the paper cup itself, it seems to be much more effective to just brand the sleeves because of their material and ease of printing. You can put the name of your brand out there using a very affordable method of advertising and brand your coffee cup sleeves. In fact, some companies charge extra for coffee just because of the brand name and people flock there just to get that coffee.

Hot Paper Cup Advertising

Unlike billboards, TV ads and even magazines, branding your custom printed paper cups have proven to be the most cost-effective advertising strategy in the world. A study done in two universities found that as the person sips their coffee, enjoying the warm and delicious sensation, they are also looking at the branding. With time, unknown to them, the images, wording and everything in the branding stick to their mind and they associate the warm delicious feeling with that brand of coffee.

Why use sleeves for branding and not the cup itself?

There are many reasons why you should use the coffee cup sleeve for branding instead of the cup. These include:

1. Leaving the cup blank - If your coffee cup is fully printed with images and words, there will not be space left to write customer names and order type. Drive through orders, especially, require the client’s names to be written on the cup so it’s better to print the sleeve and leave the cup blank for other purposes.
2. Endless options - Unlike hot paper cups where you are limited as far as printing is concerned, with sleeves you can go all out as far as your imagination can hold you. Some sleeves even get 3D printing and make the cup look like it has coffee spilling out. Sleeves are versatile and easy to print and manipulate the way you want.
3. Cost-effectiveness - It is obviously less expensive to order plain paper cups and then brand the sleeves separately.

If you are a growing brand that sells coffee and other dessert items, you can diversify your hot paper cups branding using sleeves because it is cost-effective, and the options are endless.