Vacant Lot

Coffee in paper cups

Earliest definitive proof of coffee in paper cups is from a newspaper article advertising a military cooking tournament (???) in 1920. Honestly bring this back. Less gun shows, more logistics shows.

There's also this 1920 article about how to organize a picnic, where they specify using paper cups for coffee and cocoa. You could reasonably extend this backwards a year or two as "it was known before being published".

While the luncheon is being eaten, coffee and cocoa may be passed in pots to fill the paper cups found in the baskets.

Paper cups as portable drinking implements

This collapsible paper cup set c1920 was distributed to travelers by Socony automotive service stations. The text indicates portable use of paper cups: paper cups / for picnics and motoring— / traveling, too.

Drinking milk from paper cups in the transit terminal in 1922. This indicates that it was common to stand while drinking from a paper cup, as opposed to sitting at the booth or tables near it, which was common for conventional dishware.

Paper cups marketed to concession stands, 1918

Paper cup technology

This bit is a speculative, but the vibe I get pre 1918 is that paper cups were mostly considered too low quality to actually sell beverages in. I think it was a matter of not seeming like a quality experience to be paying for, with people preferring glass over paper cups in 1911. But this changed with the Spanish flu in 1918, where health officials demanded that soda fountain shops either sterilize their glasses or switch to individual paper cups. By 1919, Dixie was advertising using paper cups for soda foundations.

Paper cup technology actually did not develop enough to withstand hot drinks until 1922. This is when many ads for heat resilient paper cups by F. N. Burt Co. show up in trade publications. Earliest is 30 Mar.

Luellen, the man behind Dixie Cup, filed a patent on 6 May 1922

[The previous paper cup] has been restricted in use primarily to cold drinks and liquids, and has been unsuited for hot drinks for several well-known reasons. The paraffin which is relied upon to retain the pleats or folds in proper position, is susceptible to melting under the heat of the hot liquid when poured into the cup, and which on account of its lighter specific gravity will float on top of the liquid and spoil the drink. Furthermore, the melting of the parafin permits the cup folds to open up, thus breaking down the walls under the weight of the liquid and destroying the usefulness of the cup.

My present invention eliminates the objectionable characteristics alluded to, and has for its object the construction of a one piece paper cup, that will be serviceable as a holder for heated or hot drinks or liquids, and which will, when filled therewith, retain its rigidity and shape for the time necessary for the consumption or use of the contained liquid.

This was a noted weakness in the invention in 1907. It could withstand cold or room temperature drinks indefinitely, but could only be used for hot drinks like tea or coffee once or twice. They were picked up for soda fountains very early on.

Note: there is one earlier ad in Billboard in 1920 for a hot drinks paper cup, but I assign it less credibility given that it's not a trade journal, and it didn't really catch on. Likely an overstated marketing claim.

I think mid to late 1922 is a reasonable start date for when vendors could begin selling coffee in paper cups, as opposed to charitable organizations distributing it for free.

Sale of coffee in paper cups

There was a patent filed in 1953 for a paper cup that resembles a traditional coffee cup. The author comments on difficulty in public adoption of paper cups for hot drinks.

For the most part, the paper hot drink cup has been used only where dish-washing facilities are not available, as at outdoor picnics, the serving of emergency food rations and the like. Only infrequently, if at all, does one find a paper hot drink cup used in restaurants, cafeteries or similar public eating places. On the other hand, paper cups and dishes are quite commonly used in such establishments for cold foods and beverages. It is not unreasonable to suppose that the reason for this difference in usage is to be found in the tastes and preferences of the eating public.

The evidence I've been able to find throughout the 20s corroborates this. Nearly every establishment used ceramic cups and saucers: factory cafeterias, railway cars, even self-serve automats (like 7-11). I was only able to find two definitive use cases of paper cups for coffee:

Racetrack, 5 April 1930

The race-track lunchers, with paper cups of coffee in one hand and hot dogs in the other,

House republican cloakroom in 1929.

The Speaker conferred with his advisers, medical and otherwise, and it was decided that the lunch counter might be recommissioned on condition that it comply with modern rules of sanitation. Under the old order, the cloakroom dispensary used common drinking cups in supplying coffee and sandwiches were sold unwrapped. Now coffee is served in individual paper-mache cups and all sandwiches are carefuly encased in paper wrappers."