Heat testing
In a similar test, cup and food container specialist Contexpan found that the liquid in both cups dropped in temperature quite quickly during the first five minutes, from around 100 degrees centigrade to around 90 degrees. Due to their single-wall construction there is no additional layer to insulate the heat of the drink.

Double wall and Ripple cups are specifically designed for far greater heat retention, the dual layers work in a similar way to a thermos flask; trapping air and isolating the customers hand from hot beverages.This is a very common query; the answer primarily depends on the tempurature of beverage you Perfume Jars intend to use.

Single wall cups are perfect for warm drinks; however piping hot coffee would be rather uncomfortable to hold without the use of a cup sleeve (available seperately). However, companies such as Event Supplies are now producing ripple disposable hot drink paper cups with an air pocket in between to trap the heat and provide an extra barrier of insulation. However, at this point, the liquid in the polystyrene cup cooled at a significantly slower rate than the paper cup, remaining at around 80 degrees after 25 minutes compared with the liquid in the paper cup, which had dropped to around 70 degrees.

How to Test the temperature
You can use a thermometer to measure the temperature of the liquid. We all know each of these containers will provide a certain level of insulation, but this test can help show which is the best way to keep liquids hot.

Event supplies stock a huge range of quality catering disposable items used throughout professional catering businesses, whether you are organising a large event or small party, event supplies service, prices and product range ensure your catering disposable needs are exceeded.

Differences between hot drink paper cups and Polystyrene cups
The heat retention test involves pouring 200 ml of hot water into a polystyrene cup and the same amount into a hot drink paper cup to find out which cup provides the best insulation.

The results
The results state that the polystyrene cup is the better insulator, with the paper cup in second place. The key difference is the insulating properties of the specific cup type. For a broader comparison you could also use a plastic container as part of the test to see how its insulation capabilities compare. In addition to this, the extra rigidity is ideally suited to "coffee on the go". A third cup, a plastic cup, was used in the Contexpan test and this presenting inferior insulation properties, with the water temperature falling to below 70 degrees centigrade after 25 minutes.

With different coffee shop and drinks providers favouring different disposable cup materials, it is interesting to find out which is the most effective insulator. Taking a temperature reading every minute for ten minutes, then again at 20 minutes and 30 minutes, will help to show whether the paper cup is the best insulator. Although conclusive findings have not been compiled, early indications suggest that these new double walled cups will be even better insulators than their Polystyrene counterparts. We stock a wide range of cups from single-wall plain cups, to our newest triple wall "Ultimate" paper cups. You can record these readings as a bar graph if you wish to make the results easier to read. Perhaps the easiest way to show the insulation properties of a paper cup is to compare it with another commonly used disposable cup product such as polystyrene. This can be done by performing a quick test to show whether the polystyrene or paper cup kept the beverage it contained hotter for longer.