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Coffee Tips

How Many Ounces Are in a Paper Coffee Cup?

The demand for coffee hasn’t budged yet, especially among the working class. With the increasingly busy daily schedules come the need for people to have coffee takeouts. There isn’t enough time to sit back in a restaurant or a coffee house on a busy work day and enjoy a cup of joe. This situation is where paper coffee cups come in. Restaurants with a successful business in coffee-making make use of this method in coffee sales. Read on to learn about paper coffee cups and available sizes.

paper coffee cup ounces

What is a Paper Coffee Cup?

A paper coffee cup is a disposable cup for coffee beverages made on paper. To enhance durability, the paper is coated with plastic or wax to efficiently hold the liquid from leaking out or soaking the paper. This coffee cup is standard globally and the best way to get a takeout coffee.

There are varieties of paper coffee cup sizes. The small sizes are used for single servings of espresso, while the large coffee cups are for large lattes, other milk-based coffee, cappuccinos and americanos. These paper coffee cups are sturdy enough for hot and cold coffee servings.

Paper Coffee Cup Sizes

It’s said that the number of ounces in a cup of coffee isn’t the optimal capacity of the cup, but the number of ounces or liquid measure of coffee brewed into the cup. The following are the different paper coffee cup sizes available.

  • Four-Ounce Coffee Cups

There are the smallest disposable paper coffee cups available. Typically, this size is used for small servings of shots of espresso and espresso-based beverages like the espresso macchiato. The four-ounce coffee cups make it so that larger disposable cups aren’t wasted on smaller servings.

Another use of this size of coffee cup is that they’re used as a taste tester cup. This cup is perfect when customers can sample different coffee brews and blends to help them select the coffee they want.

  • Eight-Ounce Coffee Cups

This paper coffee cup size is designed for small to medium-sized coffee. This is the industry standard regarding small servings of coffee. These cups are enough to serve small to mid-sized Americano, cappuccino, latte and other milk or water-based coffee.

  • Ten and Twelve-Ounce Coffee Cups

These disposable cup sizes are medium-sized. They’re great options for mid-sized tea, coffee and hot cocoa beverages. Although these sizes differ a bit in dimension, they’re both bigger than the eight-ounce cups making them popular choices for customers. The ten-ounce disposable cup is shorter and broader in circumference, while the twelve-ounce cup is slimmer and taller in design. The more elevated twelve-ounce coffee cup design is adequate for lattes and drinks with a lot of milk foam.

  • Sixteen and Twenty-Ounce Coffee Cups 

These coffee cup sizes are on the larger side. They’re ideal as large and extra large sizes for customers. More than doubling the eight-ounce coffee cup, this size has more space to hold a larger supply of caffeine.

 

Disposable Coffee Cup Materials

Regarding what disposable coffee cups are made from, there are two different kinds of materials.

  • The Single Polyethylene Coated Paper (Single PE Paper)

The single PE paper coffee cup is mainly used for hot beverages as it’s built to withstand heat without weakening. The polyethylene coat doesn’t melt off and, as a result, won’t affect the taste or integrity of the beverage.

  • Plastic Cups

On the other hand, the disposable plastic cup is best suited for cold beverages like iced tea and coffee or smoothies.

Disposable coffee sizes variants and customisation

Coffee cup sizes differ across restaurants and countries. Some restaurants don’t offer all the exact sizes as others. Starbucks, for instance, comes in six different sizes.

  • The short is eight ounces in size.
  • The tall, which is twelve ounces
  • The grande or large comes in six ounces.
  • The venti hot comes in twenty ounces. ( Venti means twenty in Italian)
  • The venti cold comes in twenty-four ounces.
  • The Trenta cold comes in thirty-one ounces.

Dunkin’, formerly known as Dunkin’ Donuts and Tim Horton’s, a renowned Canadian fast food restaurant, have the following sizes.

  • The small with ten ounces
  • The medium with fourteen ounces
  • The large with twenty ounces
  • The extra Large with twenty-four ounces4.

Regarding customisation, each restaurant customises its disposables however they want. There’s no standard when it comes to art. Starbucks has a mostly white body with its logo imprinted, similar to Dunkins’ design.

Disposable coffee cups can be used for your pleasure at home too. While many coffee drinkers who make their beverage from home already have a thermos flask of fancy cups, if you desire, there are stores to purchase paper coffee cups in all sizes.

 

Conclusion

Paper coffee cups come in different sizes, each created to hold various amounts of coffee from the next. On a busy day, when you visit a restaurant to order a cup of iced coffee or a steamy hot cappuccino, there are takeaway cups to serve you so you can enjoy your cup of joe while on the move. Hopefully, this article has informed you about disposable paper coffee cups.

 

Related:

How Many Ounces in a Turkish Coffee Cup?