Those cups became very popular in the 1970s, particularly amongst younger people living at home or going to college. If you and your buddies from college were having a big party, you could buy a sleeve of cups and a beer keg a have a good time. I remember going to parties like that. The law said people were not allowed to sell alcohol without a license, so to cover the booze costs, the hosts would sell cups at the door that people could drink from.
I sincerely think that Red Solo Cups beat out other disposable cups are because of the lines. They are actually measurements that you can use to measure mixed drinks if you’re not drinking beer or wine.
so to cover the booze costs, the hosts would sell cups at the door
I … what?!
Selling the booze is a crime - selling the cups is not. Loophole!
I never heard of this. Not at an age where this affects me anymore, but cool if true. Meanwhile, I will poor shots in shot glasses if we have company and just down my liquor without measuring otherwise.
Yeah. How else are you supposed to play beer pong?
Yes, but sometimes they’re other colors.
I see this question all the time. It’s just a disposable cup, why is the rest of the world so obsessed with it?
Red Solo cups
I fill you up
let have a party
These 7oz/200ml cups are the worst, the very worst. Holds two mouthfuls of drink and crack in half if you look at them funny, just terrible
Can confirm. Every vacation in my younger days, mom brought these along. Horrible crinkly plastic. I’ve never bought disposable cups ever, I do reckon it’s because of these.
How terrible!
I know this! https://youtu.be/ztHq1NLEbio?t=9m4s (note the timestamp, 9:04)
Short version: surprisingly, yes!
Family events with a sharpie so everyone knows which drink is theirs
They’re the first hit for “plastic cup”. They’re cheaper than the clear version. You can get store brand, or Solo brand if you want to go posh.
Solo brand if you want to go posh.
You have a VERY different definition of “posh” than any I’m used to…
And now I’m imagining Victoria Beckham drinking $10000/bottle champagne out of name brand disposable cups 😁
I drank cliquot veuve (? I think that’s how you spell it) out of a red solo cup one new years.
Veuve Clicquot. Nearly all the right letters, just the wrong order.
Reminds me of when my brother and I were 18-20 and asked our upstairs neighbors, Wanda and Lou from Austin, to help with buying us a case of beer for New Years Eve. They asked what kind we wanted and we said Budweiser. Wanda said “oh, splurgin!”. I guess standard was Natural Light or Busch or something and she saw Budweiser as somewhat elite.
Did you consider she might have been being sarcastic?
Yes, if you’re at the sort of party where there is a keg of beer, or at a large family picnic especially. They’re the standard disposable cup for situations where the hosts wouldn’t have enough cups for everyone and don’t want to deal with potential loss and breakage.
Also the Solo brand is popular for its structural integrity and perceived measurement lines. Now, the company claims that the distinct cup width changes aren’t for helping measure liquids for various alcoholic drinks so one can measure a shot versus a glass of wine or a glass of beer. However, I think that’s a bit of a legal cover.
And even if it truly isn’t for measuring a perfect shot for making a cocktail, it STILL IS a perfect equal measure if you want to hand out shots to a group of people. May not be a full shot but no one gets less or more than others.
Why would this be hard to believe
Edit: oops my privilege is showing, mb yall
Why does “privelege” have to do with it?
In ts just simple ignorance on your part - you didn’t realize what’s commonplace to you isn’t commonplace to someone outside the US, nothing more.
“Do Americans rally have McDonald’s everywhere or is that a Hollywood thing?”
“Is Starbucks really that popular or is that a Hollywood thing?”
Do Americans really eat hamburgers or is that a Holllywood thing?"
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
You right
My bad. It’s bc privilege. I work on it.
Idk what’s privileged about being aware the US has a ton of fast food and uses disposable cups, there is nothing unbelievable about a highly westernized ultra rich nation doing any of these things
Or, I mean, simply having disposable cups. Disposable cups are quite common in developing nations as well - just look on the side of any highway. The only “American” thing about it is the ubiquity of the red color, which is simply a cultural phenomenon
I only use
The peak of 90s design. Love me some jazz
I have a car near me painted like this. Can’t say I’m not jelly.
I had the exact same shirt!!
I have a shirt and shorts with it lol they’re always a hit at the bar
Everyone did
Ah, the dentist cup
It’ll always be the Taco Bell water cup to me.
Scrape that wax
Whiskey will destroy this cup in tens of minutes. I’ve done science on it.
Drink faster then
or skip the cup and chug the bottle instead.
Why would whiskey be in a cup for tens of minutes?
Tis designa cuppa ✨
It’s not like there aren’t other disposable cups used, but yeah, very common
It’s a real thing we do…is that weird?
I think everywhere else in the world, the go-to plastic disposable cup is transparent, I don’t really see the red ones unless someone has gone out of their way to get them from an American importer for some reason (usually beer pong, funnily enough)
One advantage of red cups is that you can more easily see names written on them with a Sharpie.
I mean I don’t really go to that many parties (shocking news, Lemmy user doesn’t like parties, also the Sun is hot and water is wet), but when my parents throw parties, usually they get whatever the cheapest disposable cups are.
White power in the Netherlands
Very occasionally transparent but yeah 99% of disposable cups you get here are white (and too small imo)
The adherence to one type of cup is the weird thing. Most other places it seems there are many different types of cups, so there wouldn’t really be any trope about a particular cup, because it would different from party to party depending on what they bought.
Most people don’t care about the color. For whatever reason the factory started making them in red so that is what people bought. Other colors exist if you look for them, but there is rarely reason to look. People just grab something cheap and move on without thinking. If the red was sold out they would grab the blue.
For a long time they were the cheap but reliable type of disposable cup. Also very common, like qtips and Kleenex.
No idea if that is still the case, but they were common for a good reason.
Yes. The rest of the world uses glasses because we’re adults and we don’t hide the glassware from our friends.
The only time I ever see disposable cups used is at kids parties, or to play beer pong.
Kind of weird to be simultaneously so aggressive and so wrong.
I’ve been served drinks in disposable plastic cups at bars and parties across Europe and Asia.
You all really have enough glasses for 30+ people?
Of course i do my family has eaten more than 30 glasses of mustard in my lifetime
We hire glasses for parties.
https://eventhireuk.com/product-category/tableware-hire/glassware-hire/
Your parties are much fancier than mine if you’re doing that
You never go to parties where there are more people than storage space for cups? Americans often do this. Often at a park. We can get this in a 100 pack for the cost of of 4 real glass cups.
One thing that gets me is someone i know has real cups, but they always use disposable plates and cups for parties with lots of people because they work in a restaurant and don’t want to do the dishes on their day off. So i sort of judge but also i get it.
So … in a situation like the OPs picture, you’re using glassware? I’m a backyard bbq/party, you’re using glassware?
When we sit down to dinner with friends/family, we use normal glasses, but when we’re having large get togethers we use the disposable cups. In my house, we’ve switched to aluminum ones though as they can be reused and when they get too difficult to clean, they can be recycled, but they’re basically the same thing as the red solo cups.
I appreciate the fire
, but in my parents’ house we invite more people than we have glassware, plus it’s less dishes to wash (which yeah, we should just wash the goddamn dishes and not create more single-user waste, but I don’t throw parties myself).Upvoted, but it’s “fewer” in this case (countable)
They’re called Solo Cups.
Solo is the brand that makes them. They make other colors too but red is by far most common
I got a pink one from some family friend for water while I was fixing her mini split. The red is better structurally for some reason cause the pink brook around the rolled top before I even got home.
100%
Still call them “Solo cups,” though.
Yeah, for me we have always got Costco Kirkland brand red cups which seem to be made by Chinet. 240 cups and used to be under $10 bucks was by far the best deal and the cups were just as good.
