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Cocktail Straws

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A cocktail straw is cut to sit in a rocks or hi-ball glass without towering over it, and in a stirred drink it doubles as the stirrer. That length is the whole reason cocktail straws are a separate item from a drinking straw.

Material is mostly a regulatory and brand question now. Single-use plastic straws are banned or restricted across Australian states, so the practical options are paper, compostable PLA, and reusable stainless or glass. Each behaves differently in a drink and each changes what the bar has to do afterwards.

Paper is cheapest and softens in a long drink. PLA holds up better and still goes in the organics stream where one exists. Reusable steel and glass look the best and cost nothing per serve, but they have to be washed, and a glasswasher does not reliably clean the inside of a tube.

Straws sit in the commercial drinkware range with cocktail glasses and cocktail spoons, and the single-use lines are under commercial kitchen disposables.

Pricing paper against PLA and reusable before you switch? Ask for the price guide and work out the cost per serve on the lengths your glasses actually take.

These are the top FAQs for Cocktail Straws

Are plastic straws still allowed?

Single-use plastic straws are banned or restricted in most Australian states, with exemptions that typically cover people who need them for medical or accessibility reasons. The rules are set at state level and worth checking against your own state.

Most venues keep a small supply of flexible straws behind the bar for that exemption and use paper, PLA or reusable for everything else.

Paper or compostable PLA?

Paper is cheaper and widely accepted, and it will soften in a drink that sits — which in a cocktail bar is often fine, because short drinks do not sit.

PLA keeps its structure far longer and feels closer to the old plastic straw. It needs the right waste stream to actually compost, so check what your collection accepts before paying the premium.

Are reusable metal straws practical in a bar?

They work where the bar is willing to run a brush and a dedicated wash. The problem is the inside of the tube, which a glasswasher does not reliably clean, so each straw has to be brushed.

A venue doing a small number of signature drinks can manage that. A high-volume bar generally cannot, and the straws quietly disappear as well.

What length should I buy?

Short enough to sit at or just above the rim of the glass it goes in. A straw that stands well clear of the glass looks wrong and gets knocked.

Buy to the glass, not the other way around. If the bar runs hi ball glasses and rocks glasses, that is two lengths.

Do I need a straw at all?

Only where the drink needs it. Stirred drinks and anything over crushed ice do; a short, strained drink in a coupe does not, and a straw in one looks like a mistake.

Deciding that per drink on the list reduces cost and waste more than switching material does. A cocktail spoon does the stirring where the straw was only a stirrer.

How are straws stored behind the bar?

In a covered holder, not loose in a glass on an open bar. A straw someone has touched the end of cannot go back in the pile, and an open container of straws is a hygiene finding waiting to happen.

Keep the holder away from the pour station so it does not catch spray. Bar accessories cover the holders.

What do they cost per drink?

Little individually and enough to notice over a year at volume, which is why venues look at reusable. Run the numbers on your actual drink mix rather than on the straw price.

The other variable is waste collection. A venue with an organics stream gets more value out of compostable lines than one sending everything to landfill; see eco friendly disposables.