My daily Starbucks habit is a well-known weakness and often fodder for my posts.
Add this one to the many entries devoted to those gods of caffeination.
My walk from the parking lot to my building is kind of a long one – probably 200 yards over curbs and zigzagging around cars. Since I carry my coffee in, this trek would invariably lead to scorching hot liquid slopping out of the hole on top. So I started asking for a sticker over the mouthpiece – this worked well enough to at least get me to my desk, as the coffee would often loosen the adhesive, but there would be sticky residue left, and I was always paranoid about it being carcinogenic or something – how sad would it be to get cancer from sticker adhesive on your coffee cup?
Anyway, my Starbucks of choice recently introduced what they call a splashguard – it’s essentially medium-hard green plastic swizzle stick, with a notch towards the top so it fits nice and snug into the hole in the mouthpiece, and prevents the precious coffee commodity from slopping out. (It’s also got an outline of their mermaid holding a steaming cup of coffee on a tab at the top. Cute!) And it is awesome. I have a hard time with my words before 8 a.m., so I always ask for a “grande nonfat no-whip mocha with a thingy”, and bless them, the baristas know what the fuck I’m talking about.
In addition to the intended spill-prevention function, the splashguards are also very nice to chew on while thinking. I keep that thing and gnaw on it at my desk for most of the day. And it’s disgusting. And it’s probably terrible for my teeth. But it helps me think, even if I look like the suburban equivalent to a hillbilly chewing on a piece of straw.
Add this one to the many entries devoted to those gods of caffeination.
My walk from the parking lot to my building is kind of a long one – probably 200 yards over curbs and zigzagging around cars. Since I carry my coffee in, this trek would invariably lead to scorching hot liquid slopping out of the hole on top. So I started asking for a sticker over the mouthpiece – this worked well enough to at least get me to my desk, as the coffee would often loosen the adhesive, but there would be sticky residue left, and I was always paranoid about it being carcinogenic or something – how sad would it be to get cancer from sticker adhesive on your coffee cup?
Anyway, my Starbucks of choice recently introduced what they call a splashguard – it’s essentially medium-hard green plastic swizzle stick, with a notch towards the top so it fits nice and snug into the hole in the mouthpiece, and prevents the precious coffee commodity from slopping out. (It’s also got an outline of their mermaid holding a steaming cup of coffee on a tab at the top. Cute!) And it is awesome. I have a hard time with my words before 8 a.m., so I always ask for a “grande nonfat no-whip mocha with a thingy”, and bless them, the baristas know what the fuck I’m talking about.
In addition to the intended spill-prevention function, the splashguards are also very nice to chew on while thinking. I keep that thing and gnaw on it at my desk for most of the day. And it’s disgusting. And it’s probably terrible for my teeth. But it helps me think, even if I look like the suburban equivalent to a hillbilly chewing on a piece of straw.
There is no other point to this post, aside from extolling the virtues of a piece of plastic. It’s the little things, people!
2 comments:
Gin! I can just picture you chewing on that thingy. Kinda like my co-workers in GA with their toothpicks at their desk in the middle of the day!
So you're worried about the carcinogens in a minute amount of sticker residue on your coffee cup, but chewing on a piece of colored plastic all day, well, that's okay...
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