Hello to you all and happy March! May your weather app begin showing warmer days, your windows sit comfortably open for the breeze to roll in, and iced coffees magically find their way to your hands as Spring finally approaches. As a Minnesotan, I probably still have another month or two until I experience this for myself - but that’s okay, the cooler weather lends itself to more hot-drink-with-cup-sleeve types of adventures.

This month, I did not find myself in many situations to pick up sleeves in person, but there were still a few times I manufactured some opportunities. I was on a business trip in a suburban area just outside of Oklahoma City in early February, and, let me just say - the pickins were pretty slim out there. I am usually very limited by the fact that I don’t fuss with renting cars or really straying away from the location I’m working at much at all, and the only cafes nearby were either smaller coffee shops without a strong enough brand identity to tout their own sleeves, or generic we-serve-Starbucks hotel cafes.

There was, however, a Swig nearby, which is a delightful little drink place I have visited in the past just outside of Salt Lake City. The chain is mostly known for their dirty sodas, but they had a limited menu for the Valentine’s season that included a few different hot chocolates, and my interest was piqued. A good friend and I stopped in for dessert sodas one evening so I decided to shoot my shot and see if they had anything for me. I was initially disappointed that the sleeve they gave me didn’t include their Swig logo, but upon further examination I realized they had given me an eco-friendly generic I didn’t yet have, so I suppose it is still a victory in some way?

So that was cool. Shortly after returning home from Oklahoma (which had stunning weather in the 60 degree range in the beginning of February by the way, genuinely mindblowing to me), Sean and I went out for a quick errand in south Minneapolis and I did a little research for a cup sleeve-related side mission in the car ride over (as one does). I found a very cute little place called Unwind Corner Cafe a few streets over that had some promising pictures in their Google reviews, and he humored me and let me lead him on a twenty minute walk in nineteen-degree weather so I could get a hot chocolate there and see if they had any silly paper for me (yes, Sean is very nice to me).

When we got to the Unwind Corner Cafe, it was only about thirty minutes before closing and it was completely empty. I realized as we got to the register that their display cups on the counter were the dreaded double-walled kind which do not fit cup sleeves. I say dreaded here with humor - I think it’s a great thing that cafes and coffee shops are making a pivot toward more eco-friendly solutions than custom printing their sleeves, which I’m sure is not very environmentally friendly and has also just gotta be a pain to deal with for the employees sometimes. That said, I want cool stuff! So I was pretty bummed out about it, but went ahead and ordered a hot chocolate anyway since I also just wanted one. It was really good! But I also kept repeating that I was pretty bummed there was no sleeve for me because that’s what I do, I complain. Well, Sean was brave and loves me very much so he asked the employee if they had any left over in the back from when they transitioned to the double-walled cups. I was basically cowering in fear behind him when he asked, but to my genuine shock the employee emerged from the back room moments later with a cup sleeve for me! I guess you really do miss 100% of the shots you (or your husband) don’t take.

This was technically not in February, but since I didn’t write a blog post for January, I will stick it in here so it looks like I was able to do more in-person collecting this month. We went to the Mall of America to celebrate my birthday at the end of the January and stopped by at the Barnes & Noble cafe because I am OBSESSED with their peanut butter cookies and so it is, logically, a mandatory stop whenever we’re at the MOA. The cup sleeves they were handing out at the counter are a design from last year that I already have, but as we were leaving I stopped by the condiments island to double check and found a different design I didn’t have yet promoting some of their Teavana teas. I think it is so cool how the design ranks their caffeine levels, and I like that it’s less flat-graphic centric than the last few designs that the Barnes & Noble cafe has been using. It’s beautiful! The year listed on the copyright is 2024, so I’m not entirely sure if this is a new thing they’re promoting or just an older sleeve they had laying around. As always, I wish that information like this was more readily available.

I think that is all for my in-person adventures, but I did have a lot of luck with online swaps and such this month. Here are three very unique collaborative cup sleeves from boba tea shops that I was able to get my hands on! I have been a passionate Neopets fan since my childhood, and was delighted to see that they’re finally cashing in on the fact that we are older now and love fun and fruity drinks by collaborating with popular boba tea chains. Neopets is doing another collab with Gong Cha this month and I am fighting hard to get my hands on the (apparently Canadian-exclusive) sleeve from that as well! Next, I just want to say that I have long appreciated Omori for its rich artistic direction and apparently-complex narrative, although I have never gotten to actually play it (it is high on my list!!). I was blown away to see that there was an official collab with the west coast-based Sunright Tea Studio. It looks like this mini-chain does a lot of collabs, and every single one has a cute cup sleeve to go with it, so I have a lot of work to do! Lastly - while I am not terribly involved in the K-Pop world at all, I know the fandom’s cup sleeve community is pretty passionate and there are a lot of collab sleeves featuring all of their little guys. I think the one I got is pretty cool, even if I don’t know much about the group on it!

My final big splash for this month is that I had a devious little idea that is actually more of a devious big idea. I run my own art business and have, in the past, requested sample packs from printing companies to evaluate quality before spending money on an order. These sample packs range from something like two stickers in an envelope to a whole bubble mailer of different varieties of merchandise, and I suddenly started wondering if the cup sleeve printing companies had something like that - and y’all, they totally do! I was able to find two different companies that were willing to send me samples, completely cost free. And I don’t want to brag, but this was kind of the best idea I’ve ever had!

The first company, Good Start Packaging, sent me a box (of mostly tissue paper) with four sleeves from their previous client work, plus two Your-Logo-Here generics with some (honestly really helpful if I was actually ordering customs from them) specs and font size recommendations printed on them. I was actually so thrilled that the samples they sent me are from real businesses they worked with - while I have a bit of homework to do on the very vague Aria sleeve to determine where it’s actually from, it’s crazy that I was able to get such nice sleeves so easily and at no cost. The Coraline one from the collaboration with Stumptown Coffee Roasters in particular is just, for lack of better words, fucking awesome. Also, the sleeve for the Nest Kitchen & Cafe is from a cafe in New Hampshire that appears to no longer be in business, so I literally could not have gotten it anywhere else (unless someone randomly hoarded one and happens to find out about me and sends it to me, which seems crazy).

The Nest Kitchen & Cafe, 2025 (no longer in business)

The other company that I ordered samples from, Your Brand Cafe, approached things a little differently. They do it all, so they have kind of made up their own brand as though they’re a coffee shop themselves and use their own design logo all over everything, which is honestly a pretty cool solution for advertising while sending out marketing samples. Their box also included stuff beyond just cup sleeves, including hot and cold cups and lids. I’m sure we will use these all over the house for art supply and trinket storage! But most importantly, the fact that they use their own logos on everything gives all of their sleeves a very specific exclusivity that is hard to describe. I probably shouldn’t be this excited about these - I’m not like Coraline x Stumptown collab excited, but I’m definitely into the sleeves they sent. In a very different way from the Good Start Packaging sleeves, these are also an example of something I couldn’t get anywhere else!

And with that, there’s my February report! In total, I collected 16 sleeves this month, which is pretty good. It does feel like cheating that 10 of them came from sample packs, but I’m still going to count it because I made up this whole site and I don’t care. In March, I have a business trip to Los Angeles that I’m hoping I can get something from, and I hope to have secured some kind of mail swap for the Neopets x Gong Cha collab sleeve by then. Other than that, you’ll be just as surprised as me to see what happens!

Until next time, stay safe & warm and enjoy a fun drink for me!

January

february 2026 in review