Buying guide
Cups for a coffee cart: sizes, counts and cost per drink
Updated
Short answer
Most coffee carts serve iced drinks in clear PET cups, in 16 oz as the standard size and 20 oz as the large. A cart that sells 50 iced drinks a day for 5 days needs about 290 cups and lids a week, three 100-packs, with 15% spare. Oojami's cups with sip lids come 100 cups and 100 lids per pack: your cup cost per drink is the pack price divided by 100.
Coffee carts and small coffee shops use clear PET cups for iced drinks. The cup shows the drink, stays rigid when full of ice, and takes a snap-on lid. Hot drinks go in paper hot cups with hot lids. Clear PET cups are for cold drinks only.
Sizes to stock
Start with two sizes, not four. Every size you add takes space on a small cart and needs its own lids.
| Size | Use it as | Drink left after ice (our assumption: ice takes a third to a half of the cup) |
|---|---|---|
| 12 oz | Optional small | About 6 to 8 oz |
| 16 oz | Standard iced drink | About 8 to 11 oz |
| 20 oz | Large | About 10 to 13 oz |
| 24 oz | Extra large, only if customers ask | About 12 to 16 oz |
16 oz or 20 oz? Make 16 oz your standard size. It holds two shots, milk and ice, and it uses less milk and coffee per drink than 20 oz. Add 20 oz as the large for customers who want more. If you sell only one size, sell 16 oz.
What to buy to start
- 16 oz clear cups with matching lids
- 20 oz clear cups with matching lids
- Paper hot cups and hot lids, if you serve hot drinks
- Cup sleeves, napkins and a marker for names
- Straws only if your lids need them
A strawless sip lid lets customers drink without a straw, so you have one less item to buy, stock and hand out. Keep a few straws for thick drinks.
Oojami's cups are clear PET, BPA-free and recyclable, with 100 cups and 100 snap-on sip lids per pack, in 12, 16, 20 and 24 oz. Every cup has a lid in the same box, so the lids always match the cups.
Cups for a week
Our planning assumption: add 15% spare for spills, remakes and dropped cups. Count iced drinks only; hot drinks need hot cups.
| Iced drinks a day | Days a week | Cups a week with 15% spare | 100-packs |
|---|---|---|---|
| 25 | 5 | 144 | 2 |
| 50 | 5 | 288 | 3 |
| 75 | 5 | 432 | 5 |
| 100 | 5 | 575 | 6 |
Split the total by size. For example, if 70% of your iced drinks are 16 oz and 30% are 20 oz, a week of 288 cups is about 200 of 16 oz and 90 of 20 oz.
Cups for a 4-hour event
Our planning assumption: each guest has about 1.5 iced drinks over 4 hours, plus 15% spare. If the event also has hot coffee, count only the share you expect to drink iced.
| Guests | Iced drinks | With 15% spare | 100-packs |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50 | 75 | 87 | 1 |
| 100 | 150 | 173 | 2 |
| 150 | 225 | 259 | 3 |
| 200 | 300 | 345 | 4 |
Also check how many drinks your team can make in an hour. If one barista makes about 30 drinks an hour (a planning assumption), 4 hours is about 120 drinks, whatever the guest count.
Cost per drink
Work out the cup cost from the pack price:
- Find the price of the pack. The price of each size is on the product card above.
- Divide by 100. Each pack has 100 cups and 100 lids, so this is the cost of one cup with its lid.
- Add a straw, a sleeve or a napkin if you give them. With a sip lid, the straw is not needed.
Add this cup cost to your coffee, milk, syrup and ice cost to get the full cost of one drink.
Clear PET or paper cups for iced drinks
| Clear PET | Paper cold cup | |
|---|---|---|
| Shows the drink | Yes | No |
| Stays rigid with ice | Yes | Can soften if it sits for a long time |
| Sweats | Yes, on the outside | Hides it better |
| Room for a printed logo | Less | More |
| Hot drinks | No | Only paper cups made for hot drinks |
For iced drinks, clear PET is the usual choice. Paper cold cups are the better buy if your brand needs a printed cup, or if a local rule limits plastic cups.
When a foodservice case is the better buy
Our 100-pack suits a cart that is starting out, a cart that is still testing sizes, and a cart that works a few events a month. It is also a good backup stock.
When you sell several hundred iced drinks every week, a case of 1,000 cups from a foodservice supplier, such as WebstaurantStore, is usually the better buy. Check that the lid you order is made for that cup.