Choose The Best Cocktail Napkin Type For Your Business

Let's delve into the unique characteristics of the most popular custom napkins to help you make an informed decision that aligns perfectly with your service needs. The list below is tailored towards businesses who are looking for branded napkins, as opposed to wedding napkins or those meant for one off events. 

Natural vs White

Both napkins are the same, except for the bleaching process. Natural napkins are the raw paper color, while White napkins go through the added bleaching process to give them their white color. The benefit of a white napkin is that if you have branded specific colors, especially light colors, they will show more true to color when printed on a white surface. When printed on off colored materials, the material will impact the color tone. For example, printing bright yellow on natural paper will make the yellow appear dull and darker. 

1 Ply Napkins: Best Price

1 Ply napkins are the lowest cost option available and therefore extremely popular for takeaway service. While many customers would use their own napkins at home, they all will expect napkins to be included in the takeaway. For those situations, 1 ply napkins are the best choice. They also work really well for dining in service where the food is not overly saucy. These can handle smaller clean up jobs while still giving you the lowest cost. These are not recommended for BBQ or heavy sandwiches. Now while you can definitely use these as cocktail napkins, I personally wouldn’t recommend these because they can easily stick to a wet glass. Constantly removing the napkin from the bottom of your drink each time you enjoy a sip would be annoying to most people. 

If you’re needing edge to edge printing, these are a great choice since there is no coined edge to stop the printing. 

2 Ply Napkins: Most Popular 

2 Ply napkins are the most commonly used napkins as they provide better cleanup abilities than 1 ply, but still give you an economical price point. These can be used as cocktail napkins and for food service. That dual use makes them really popular since you can use one napkin type for all service needs, enabling you to increase your order volume to drive the cost down. 

All 2 ply napkins have a coined edge going around the entire napkin. When folded, you’ll only see the coined edge on two sides. This creates a non-centered printable area. Therefore many brands will print with their artwork diagonally centered. Something to keep in mind when ordering is if you’re ok with this off center design style. 

Air Laid Napkins: Ultra Lux

Referred to as ‘Air Laid’ or ‘Plush’ or ‘Linen Like’ napkins, they all mean the same thing. These are the napkins you’ll most often find in a high end restaurant or nightclub bathroom. They’re highly absorbent and maintain their integrity even when wet. These allow for edge to edge printing and do not have a coined edge. I recommend these for high end service where you are more concerned with the customer experience than cost.