There are three things at play. 1. Styrofoam cups are good heat insulators, so touching the cup does not communicate how hot the contents are. 2. Management i

There are three things at play. 1. Styrofoam cups are good heat insulators, so touching the cup does not communicate how hot the contents are. 2. Management intentionally made the coffee too hot. Making the coffee too hot to drink meant people would not get refills because they would drink it more slowly. This is the company knowingly do something unsafe for profit. 3. The award was the amount of money McDonald's makes on coffee in a single day. It seems like a lot of money, but a very small amount for the giant. The real nail here is that mgmt sent emails explicitly about number 2.