Paper cups and alcohol

Due to a higher focus on sustainability, paper cups are being used more and more for serving drinks, alcohol tastings at events, and so on. We have helped customers with custom paper cups for festivals and companies with samplings in supermarkets. Paper cups are a great way for spirit brands to promote their products as the paper cups can be printed all-over with a design that precisely matches the brand’s look and conveys their story. Paper cups are not only great because of the many design opportunities—there are so many different sizes, so they can be used for handing out sample tastings or for serving mixed drinks with alcohol in them.

Paper cups are coated with a thin plastic coating, while the rest of the cup is paper. This is in contrast to plastic cups that are made entirely of plastic. When switching from plastic cups to paper cups, there’s some key considerations to keep in mind. The reason why we are writing this article is because we want to prevent situations where your paper cups start leaking. This can occur due to some different factors that may lead the plastic and paper in the paper cups to start dissolving.

The difference in alcohol percentage

When it comes to alcohol percentage, it is important to know that standard paper cups should primarilly only be used to serve alcohol that has a percentage under 5 %. We have found this to be the typical treshold.

We have had some customers who have been using our standard paper cups to serve stronger alcohols without mixing it in our standard paper cups, without having any trouble with the cups leaking. But these cases have been where our customers have been doing samplings, and the drink was finished rather quickly after it had gotten poured up. Another situation where our standard paper cups are great, is when they are used to serve mixed drinks. We have helped Malibu, Campari, Absolut Vodka and other alcohol brands with making paper cups for events they were hosting or attending to serve their drinks.

PLA- vs PE-coating

The other primary thing to take into consideration if you want to serve alcohol in paper cups, is the coating on the paper cups. There are two types of coating; PLA coating and PE coating. PLA coating is a biodegradable coating, so the paper cups can degrade in industrial compost. PE coating is the standard plastic coating that is used for almost all paper cups. The reason why it is important to know the difference between these two types of paper cups is that the PE coating is stronger than PLA coating, so when it comes to making sure that the paper cups do not leak, a PE-coating is better. It’s also very important to choose PE-coating when the alcohol percentage is higher. Our alcohol proof paper cups can only be made with a PE-coating.

Conclusion

Paper cups are a great way of showcasing your brand and serving your products. But if you are not careful when choosing the paper cups, it can end up in a bad experience for the ones tasting your products if the paper cups start leaking. The two aspects to have in mind when it comes to alcohol and paper cups, is that you should ask for alcohol-proof paper cups if the alcohol concentration is over 5 %. And remember that PLA coating is not as strong as PE-coating when it comes to alcohol percentages.