The only advert in the room that people pick up.
Custom Bar Coasters prints pulpboard drink mats to order — round, square, die-cut, heavyweight, recycled and two-sided — with the board and the grain written on the quote.

A bar coaster costs almost nothing, gets thrown away by the night, and is the single piece of print in a venue that a customer voluntarily picks up, turns over and reads. No poster in the building gets that.
It is also bought with less specification than anything else on the bar. Board is described as standard or premium; grain direction is never mentioned; and half the mats printed in the world hand their brand a blank second face for free.
So we write the numbers down — grammage, caliper, grain, inks, fibre content — and we print both sides as standard.
Why we exist
Three things decide whether a mat does its job for a whole evening, and the category prints none of them on the box.
**Which face gets wet.** A beer mat absorbs on one side only. The top drinks, that face swells, the dry underside does not, and the mat cups into a shallow dish that rocks under a glass. Board choice and grain direction control most of it, so both are on our quotes.
**How much board there is.** Grammage is weight, caliper is thickness, and you need both — a compressed board and a bulky one can weigh the same and behave nothing alike under a wet glass. Two numbers, on every quote.
**Whether anyone used the back.** The reverse is read close up by somebody with time on their hands. It is the best-read surface in the venue and it is usually blank.
What we actually make
Round pulpboard beer mats — the classic. Squares, rounded rectangles and full die-cut outlines proofed on the die line. Heavyweight board for rooms where a mat has to last a session. Two-sided campaign coasters built around the reverse face. Recycled and compostable board with the claim in writing. And brewery supply runs by the pallet against a held file.
Every quote states the grammage, the caliper, the grain direction, the inks and coatings, and what is printed on each face.
What we do not make
Solid cork coasters. Stone and slate coasters. Wood and ceramic coasters. Neoprene drink mats. Each has its own maker — several inside our own family — and we will point you to the right one.
We also will not quietly drop a fraction of a caliper to win a price war. It is the easiest saving in print and the least visible, right up until your mats start curling harder than they used to and getting binned twice as fast.
The tests you can run yourself
Wet the top of any beer mat in your cellar and come back in ten minutes. Flat is a board somebody specified. A shallow dish with lifted corners is not.
Press a thumb firmly into a wet mat and drag slightly. A properly specified board takes it. An underspecified one fuzzes, pills and leaves fibre on your thumb.
Run a fingernail round the cut edge. Clean and compressed is a sharp die on the right board; furred and fibrous is neither.
Turn the mat over. If the back is blank, somebody gave away the most-read surface in your venue for nothing.
How we price
No dollar figures on this site. Price moves with board, size, shape and quantity — and printing the second face is standard at every tier, because charging for it separately would be charging you for the best part of the product. Send the details and a real quote comes back the same day, with a lowest-price guarantee if you are already holding a cheaper one. Ask that supplier for their grammage and caliper; enjoy the pause.
On printing
The front is read across a table by somebody who is not really looking, so it wants to be bold and simple. The reverse is read at close range by somebody waiting for a round, so it can carry actual sentences — an offer, a quiz, serving notes, a message from the brewer, a date. Designing the two faces as one job is the most common mistake in the category.
Colours are matched to your PMS references, recycled board is shown on the proof so its warmer tone is never a surprise, and artwork, board, grain, inks and packing are all held on file so the next pallet matches the last one.
How we work
QUOTE
Send your artwork, your quantity, and where the mats will be used.
MOCKUP
Free proof in 24 hours, both faces, on the die line.
REVISE
Unlimited free revisions — corners radiused where they should be.
MAKE
About 2 weeks; real express for launch and festival dates.
SHIP
Wrapped, cased, split by account, venue or region.
Who we serve
Get in touch
Text or call George at (929) 605-4397, or email info@custombarcoasters.com. Free mockups, low minimums, and a lowest-price guarantee.
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