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Milkshake glasses are tall, footed glasses built to hold thick milkshakes without spilling or losing their built-up look, typically around 35cl (12oz) so cream, sauce and garnish fit without overfilling. ADS Coffee Supplies stocks a set of six 35cl glasses suited to café-style milkshake and thickshake service.
Glassware is the part of a milkshake menu most operators think about last, usually after they have chosen a blender, a powder and a price point. That is the wrong order. The glass decides how much product goes into each serve, how the drink photographs, and how much you lose to breakages over a summer.
What size are milkshake glasses used in cafés?
The standard café milkshake glass is 35cl, or 12oz. That capacity holds a full-strength thickshake made to the manufacturer’s recipe, with enough headroom left for whipped cream, a drizzle of sauce and whatever you are putting on top.
Go smaller and you either short the customer or you overfill, which means cream sliding down the outside of the glass and onto the counter. Go much larger and the shake looks thin and unfinished, and your cost per serve climbs because staff top up to fill the space.
Why the shape matters as much as the volume
A milkshake glass is tall and relatively narrow, with a footed base. The narrow bore keeps a thick shake standing proud at the top rather than spreading out, and it supports a straw upright instead of letting it lean against the rim.
The foot does two useful things. It gives the customer somewhere to hold the glass without warming the drink, and it stops the base sliding on a wet counter or a tray.
The quick answer
- Standard café size: 35cl / 12oz
- Shape: tall, narrow, footed base
- Headroom needed: enough for cream, sauce and garnish without spillage
- Typical pack: six glasses, so you can scale stock in sensible steps
Our 35cl milkshake glasses come in packs of six at £36.50 ex VAT, which is a sensible unit to buy in and easy to top up as volumes grow.
Glass or plastic: choosing the right material
This comes down to where the drink is being served and who is drinking it. A seated café with table service and a family-facing outdoor terrace have different priorities, and plenty of sites end up running both materials for different parts of the day.
Glass wins on presentation, full stop. A thick shake in a proper footed glass looks like something worth paying premium money for, and customers photograph it. Plastic wins on safety near children, on outdoor seating, and anywhere breakage risk is high enough to be a real cost.
| Consideration | Glass | Plastic / polycarbonate |
|---|---|---|
| Presentation | Clear, weighty, shows layers and cream well | Acceptable, but scratches dull the finish over time |
| Breakage | Will break if dropped on a hard floor | Survives most drops |
| Outdoor and child-friendly service | Higher risk, may be restricted by licence or policy | Better suited |
| Lifespan in a busy wash cycle | Long, if the glass is toughened and handled properly | Shorter, as scuffing accumulates and clarity drops |
| Perceived value | Higher | Lower, reads as takeaway rather than sit-in |
What most cafés actually do
Sit-in service on glass, takeaway on a disposable cup with a domed lid. That keeps the in-house presentation strong and means you are not chasing glasses out of the door. If you are building a takeaway side to the menu, the disposables range covers the cold cups you will need alongside your glassware.
How many milkshake glasses does a café need?
Count your peak hour, not your average day. If a Saturday afternoon in July puts out 18 milkshakes in an hour and your glasswasher cycle is a few minutes, you do not need 18 glasses on the shelf, but you do need enough that nobody is standing at the wash-up waiting for one.
A sensible rule is to hold roughly one and a half times your busiest hour’s volume, then add a breakage buffer. For most independents that lands somewhere between 12 and 24 glasses.
Working it out
- Small café, milkshakes as a secondary line: one or two packs of six is usually enough
- Family-facing café with a summer rush: three to four packs, so 18 to 24 glasses
- Seaside, holiday park or leisure site: budget higher, and expect 10 to 15 per cent annual attrition from breakages
- Multi-site operators: hold a spare pack in the stockroom so a broken glass never costs you a sale
Buying in packs of six makes the maths straightforward. Start with one pack of 35cl glasses, run the menu for a month, then top up once you know what your real volume looks like rather than guessing in February what August will bring.
Serving milkshakes: straws, spoons and garnish
A thickshake is not a drink you can sip through a narrow straw. Use a wide-bore straw, and keep them at the pass rather than on the table so the customer gets the right one every time.
Long-handled spoons earn their keep too. If you are topping with cream, crushed biscuit or chopped chocolate, the customer needs a way to reach the bottom of a tall glass without upending it.
Keeping presentation consistent
Decide on one build and write it down. Inconsistency is what makes a milkshake menu look amateur, and it usually comes from three different staff members interpreting “a swirl of cream” three different ways.
A workable house standard for a 35cl glass: shake blended to the recipe and poured to about two fingers from the rim, cream piped in a single spiral, sauce drizzled in one pass, one garnish only. Anything more and it stops looking deliberate. Our topping sauces and purées hold their line on cream rather than sinking straight through it, which is the difference between a finished drink and a mess.
If you are still building the menu itself, the full milkshake range covers powders, bases and the accessories that go alongside them.
Pairing your glasses with Shmoo milkshake flavours
The glass only does its job if what goes in it is thick enough to hold its shape. Thin shakes settle, separate and leave a ring down the inside of the glass within a couple of minutes, which is exactly what a tall clear glass will show off.
Shmoo milkshakes are built for this. The consistency is thick enough to support cream and garnish, and the colour holds well in clear glassware rather than going grey at the edges.
Flavours that present well
Strawberry and banana give you strong colour that reads across a room, which matters for the sell-by-sight effect when a table nearby sees one arrive. Chocolate and honeycomb are darker but hold a very clean cream line on top.
The full line-up, including the powders and the seasonal additions, sits on the Shmoo brand page if you want to compare flavours before you commit to a core menu.
Where to buy milkshake glasses with fast UK delivery
The 35cl/12oz glasses are in stock and ship in packs of six at £36.50 ex VAT. Orders placed before 4:30pm Monday to Friday are dispatched the same day via DPD, and delivery is free on orders over £69 ex VAT to mainland UK.
That threshold is worth knowing when you are reordering. Two packs of glasses clears it, as does a pack of glasses alongside a case of powder, so it is usually worth consolidating your milkshake order rather than placing three small ones across a month.
Glassware is a small line on a stock order that has an outsized effect on how a drink is received. Get the size and shape right, hold enough of them to cover your busiest hour, and the rest of the milkshake menu becomes a lot easier to run consistently.
Frequently asked questions
Can milkshake glasses go in a commercial dishwasher?
Most café-grade milkshake glasses are toughened for commercial dishwasher use, but always check the manufacturer’s care instructions first. Toughened glass resists thermal shock better than standard glassware, which matters when it goes from a hot wash straight into cold storage during a busy shift.
What’s the difference between a milkshake glass and a sundae glass?
Milkshake glasses are taller and narrower, built to hold a straw and keep a thick shake looking full to the top. Sundae glasses are wider and shorter, designed for layering ice cream, sauce and toppings that need to be eaten with a spoon rather than sipped.
Can I use milkshake glasses for other drinks?
Yes. Their tall shape works well for iced coffees, smoothies and layered cold drinks, not just milkshakes. Many cafés use the same glassware across their cold drinks menu to keep presentation consistent and reduce the number of different glasses they need to stock.
How many milkshake glasses should a small café order?
As a rough guide, order enough to cover your busiest service without needing an immediate rewash, plus a buffer for breakages. A set of six is a sensible starting point for a smaller café, with additional sets added once you know your actual milkshake volume.
Ready to order? The 35cl/12oz glasses are in stock at £36.50 ex VAT for a pack of six, with same-day dispatch on orders placed before 4:30pm. View the milkshake glasses
