A New Sleeveless Design

So long, sleeves.

Starbucks Coffee Co., the Seattle company that brought cappuccino to the masses, is testing a new cup that it says will single-handedly, as it were, protect customers’ palms from the heat of its joe. The new tazza, it says, comes without the bother of the brown wrapper or the waste of a double cup.

The paper cup, made by Solo Cup Co., has a polyethylene lining and a second paper layer around it for insulation, Starbucks spokesman Chris Gimble said. The new, light-brown, recycled-materials cup will be tested for four weeks beginning in mid-March, at 60 San Francisco and Washington, D.C., stores, Gimble said.

The company introduced the brown wrapper “sleeve” as a way to discourage consumers from doubling up on paper cups that alone never seemed to protect hands as well as the more common, environmentally incorrect, polystyrene ones. The new cup’s paper lining, Gimble said, uses no more paper material than the sleeves.

Company officials promise that customers won’t have to ask for the new cup in Italian.