Every other item on your counter is designed to be thrown away. That is not a criticism of it, it is the job. But it does mean the branding you print on a cup has a working life of about twenty minutes.
A jar is the exception. Somebody takes it home and it sits in their kitchen, and your name sits in their kitchen with it.
What the format is
Custom printed mason jars are a 16 oz reusable glass format printed with your own artwork, for milkshakes, cold brew, layered desserts and merchandise. That last word is the one that changes how you should think about it.
A printed cup is a cost of doing business. A printed jar is a product, and it can be priced as one.
Two ways shops run it
The first is the keeper drink. A signature milkshake or layered dessert served in the jar, priced with the jar included, and the customer takes both. The drink justifies the price and the jar goes home.
The second is straight merchandise, sold on a shelf next to the register with nothing in it. This works for shops with a following and does not work for shops without one, and the honest way to find out which you are is to try the first approach before the second.
Timing it to an occasion
Jars are made to order. Allow five to ten business days for proof approval and printing before the order ships, then four to eight business days for ground delivery. Call it three to four weeks and plan accordingly.
That lead time makes this an occasion item rather than a restock item. Anniversaries, a summer launch, holiday gifting, a shop birthday. Pick the date first, count backwards, and place the order with room to spare, using the same discipline set out in how custom printed cups work.
The artwork is different here
Artwork that works on a disposable cup will not necessarily work on something a customer chooses to keep on a shelf.
A cup only has to be recognizable for a few minutes. A jar has to be something a person is willing to look at in their own kitchen, next to things they chose deliberately. Loud promotional artwork, a phone number, a list of opening hours — all fine on a cup, all reasons a jar ends up in a cupboard.
The version that works is usually the quietest one you are comfortable with. Logo, maybe a year, and nothing else. Check the proof for how it sits on curved glass rather than how it looks flat on your screen.
Before you commit
Decide whether you are selling the jar or giving it away with a drink, because that decides the artwork, the quantity and the price. Then decide the occasion, and count back a month from it.
Jars sit alongside the printed cups and containers in the custom printed range. If you are unsure whether your artwork will translate to glass, call the shop during opening hours and ask before the order rather than at the proof stage.