specifically Greek symbol was no accident; most of the to-go coffee in 1960s New York City was sold at Greek-American family restaurants, and the design’s homage to Greek culture made it appealing for merchants, while its warm slogan, “We Are Happy to Serve You,” soon satisfied customers of all backgrounds.

The Anthora was the first of its kind, introducing the to-go coffee cup as we know it. Not to say that this was the first disposable cup; William F. Dart invented the styrofoam cup in 1957, and disposable paper coffee cups with handles (still popular in parts of Latin America) have been available since the 1930s. But the Anthora was the first handleless paper to-go coffee cup, innovating a basic design that nearly all coffee shops have come to use since.

Initially standing at a very squat 10 ounces when debuted by Sherri Cup in 1965, the contemporary version, sold by infamous red cup creator Solo (ironically now owned by Dart Container, the company started by the same William Dart who created the styrofoam cup that Buck’s invention would overtake), is both taller and slimmer than the original, reflecting the aesthetic stereotype of the City that the cup is most associated with. Today, both 8-ounce and 10-ounce versions are available.

Materials and manufacturing

Historically, the paper cup used materials from a relatively unregulated network of paper product suppliers. Now, industry leaders such as Dart/Solo source paper from suppliers who have received certification from the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), a nonprofit created by the timber industry to encourage compliance with state and federal laws regulating the trade.

Dart Container has 33 manufacturing plants throughout the world: 23 in the United States (including the corporate headquarters in Mason, Michigan), two in Canada, four in Latin America, three in the United Kingdom, and one in Australia. Paper cups are manufactured using a universal method, which is almost entirely automated and requiring little direct human labor. First, the design is printed onto a long roll of the polyethylene-coated paper, which is then cut into individual pieces, called “flats”. As the name suggests, flats look as though you’ve cut the side of the cup down from top to bottom and flattened them out. The flats are then heat-sealed into cylinders, with bottoms made out of the same polyethylene-coated paper heat-sealed on the bottom. The finished product is a watertight and relatively heat-resistant container made of plastic-coated paper.

Marketing and pop culture



In this case, the Anthora Cup essentially sold itself; New Yorkers needed coffee, and the Greek diner or deli was where they were getting it. As the first disposable cup without obtrusive handles, it was a matter of convenience for a population known for being on the go. With this in mind, it’s obvious why the cup has become synonymous with New York; Anthora has appeared in countless films and TV shows set in New York City, including, but by no means limited to Law & Order, NYPD Blue and Men in Black. In fact, the design was so important to the aesthetic of NYC that production designer Bob Shaw used it to help convey a convincing ‘90s-era NYC atmosphere for The Wolf of Wall Street.