With the increase in popularity of retail coffee establishments such as Starbucks, Seattle's Best Coffee, Dietrich's Coffee, and the like, the use of disposable paperboard coffee cups has increased dramatically. Such cups transmit heat fairly well, and as a result various types of disposable coffee cup sleeves have been devised to eliminate the previous practice of “double cupping,” wherein an additional paperboard coffee cup was used to insulate the heat of the coffee from the consumer's hand. Such disposable sleeves use far less paper or paperboard than an additional cup, yet provide even better insulating characteristics. As a result, use of such disposable sleeves has saved a significant amount of paperboard material and has considerably benefited the environment.
Examples of such sleeves can be found in the following references: U.S. Pat. No. 6,152,363 to Rule, Jr. on Nov. 28, 2000; U.S. Pat. No. 5,667,135 to Schaefer on Sep. 16, 1997; U.S. Pat. No. 5,857,615 to Rose on Jan. 12, 1999; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,315,192 to Marlow on Nov. 13, 2001. Of particular interest in the present invention is U.S. Pat. No. 6,182,855 to Alpert on Feb. 6, 2001, which teaches a translucent or transparent sleeve such that an indicia printed on the cup may be seen therethrough. Also, U.S. Pat. No. 6,814,253 to Wong on Nov. 9, 2004 teaches an opaque sleeve having a surface suitable for printing an indicia thereon.
While such sleeve devices have benefited environment by reducing waste, prior art sleeves are still designed to be disposed of after use. Moreover, if a consumer retains such a sleeve with the intention of re-using it, and since such devices are typically made from paperboard or corrugated paper stock, they are prone to becoming stained with coffee or other foodstuffs. Even if a customer's favorite drink has been printed on such a sleeve for the benefit of the barista making the coffee drink, the device is only re-usable a finite number of times before its living hinges wear-out or it becomes unsightly and an embarrassment.
To reduce still further the environmental burden caused by the large number of such disposable sleeves being manufactured, used once, and then discarded, other sleeve devices have been invented that are either designed to be non-disposable or biodegradable. Such devices are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,320,249 to Strech on Jun. 14, 1994; U.S. Pat. No. 6,286,709 to Hudson on Sep. 11, 2001; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,746,372 to Spence on May 5, 1998.
A significant drawback to the biodegradable devices is that one device must be used and purchased with each beverage purchase. As such, these products are still relatively expensive to supply to each customer and result in greater expense for the retail coffee establishment. Customarily, such establishments are typically expected to furnish such sleeves for free to their customers upon request.
A significant drawback to the non-disposable devices is that, when engaged with a beverage cup, they are typically opaque and do not allow a barista preparing the coffee drink to see the customization details that are typically written on the beverage cup by the order taker. As a result, such devices are impractical to use and would cause disruption in the normal work flow of a retail coffee establishment by requiring the barista to perform the extra labor step of removing the sleeve temporarily in order to complete the preparation of the beverage. But it is a further drawback that the order taker must write the customer's drink order on a new cup every time the customer visits, even when the customer orders the same drink with every visit.
As such, a non-disposable, translucent or transparent sleeve is needed. Such a sleeve would be made from a heat insulating material, would be relatively easy to clean, and would allow for quick reading of a customized drink notations printed thereon. Yet the printing on such a needed device would necessarily be protected from moisture, such as from liquid splashed or dripped down the side of the sleeve. The present invention accomplishes these objectives.