Coffee cup sleeve

A paper coffee cup with a cardboard sleeve

Coffee cup sleeves, also known as coffee sleeves, coffee clutches, hot cup jackets and cup holders, are roughly cylindrical sleeves that fit tightly over handle-less paper coffee cups to insulate the drinker's hands from hot coffee. Coffee sleeves are typically made of textured paperboard, but can be found made of other materials. Coffee sleeves allow coffee houses, fast food restaurants, and other coffee sellers to avoid double-cupping, the practice of using two (or more) nested paper cups for a single hot beverage. Most paper cup holders carry advertisements.

The coffee sleeve was invented and patented by Jay Sorensen in 1993^[1] (under the trademarked name Java Jackets), and are now common fixtures in coffee houses that use disposable paper cups, like Starbucks. The Starbucks coffee sleeve is produced under a different patent (as there are a number of patents that cover coffee sleeves). Jay Sorensen (Java Jacket) is only one of many people or companies who 'claim' this invention and been granted patents for various aspects of the coffee sleeve.

There are a number of companies that manufacture coffee sleeves - the top four companies by volume of coffee sleeves in the US in no particular order are International Paper, BriteVision, LBP Manufacturing and Java Jacket but the biggest manufacture of coffee sleeves is Labansat & Schulz Manufacturing.

Coffee sleeves should not be confused with fixed cup holders.

In the 2008 movie Made of Honor, Patrick Dempsey's character Thomas 'Tom' Bailey invented the coffee cup sleeve and calls it the "coffee collar."

See also

• Cup holder
• Drink carrier
• Zarf

References

1. ^ US patent 5425497, Jay Sorensen, "Cup holder", issued 1993-11-09