5 ms·

And no coffee shop these days wants to use your cup because they're worried about whether it's clean and they don't want to touch any of their coffee making too

by rnk 3y ago

And no coffee shop these days wants to use your cup because they're worried about whether it's clean and they don't want to touch any of their coffee making tools to your cup accidentally and contaminate them. Would it be hygienically safe and environmentally good to have the coffee shop make things in a ceramic cup and let you use that ceramic cup, and if you're leaving, you can pour from that ceramic cup to your ceramic cup. That seems like a big pain though. Doesn't work for drive-thru.

JohnFen 3y ago
I bring my own thermos to my daily drive-through coffee stand, and they make my drink in their own glass container, then pour it into my thermos. That works very well and doesn't slow anything down.
no_wizard 3y ago
They could employ a fast sanitizer. Starbucks does this en masse if I recall correctly as they encourage people to bring their own cups, even offering a small discount
vidanay 3y ago
The answer there IMO would be to use stainless steel preparation containers and then transfer to customer owned ceramic mugs. If the customers ceramic mug is disgusting, then refuse service.
jabroni_salad 3y ago
At the place I go, they make everything in a metal container and then pour it into my thermos on the counter. It's up to me to handle the lid. Also not to get too deep into the weeds on environmentalism but you all know the line reduce/reuse/recycle? the two first Rs it seems like we as a society have decided to just overlook. I've been using the same thermos for 10 years and I guarantee that in terms of footprint my thermos is doing better than literally any disposable solution you can come up with. People are wasting SO MUCH material, time, and money trying to sustain disposability when a real solution is on the shelf at every retailer right now ready to go.
- toxik 3y ago
  I’m not sure about paper cups but I know the numbers for plastic bags vs textile bags is something like you have to use the textile bag /several years/ for the emissions to even out. Let alone making any positive impact.
  - jabroni_salad 3y ago
    despite that, my canvas bags will never be blowing around in the wind or getting eaten by animals. If they do somehow get lost, they can just be washed by whoever finds them. At some point we can reach peak canvasbag and simply stop making them completely. People like to point at 'emissions' because they look sexy on a spreadsheet, but there is more to the world than just that.
    - toxik 3y ago
      Plastic bags certainly have their issues, but I don’t think that a textile bags won’t tangle and kill marine life and wreak havoc in new and unique ways.
      - RetroTechie 3y ago
        When's the last time you saw a durable textile bag hanging in a tree? Washed up on a shoreline? Stuffed with trash, ripped up by rats, birds or cats, next to a rubbish bin? Now same questions for a 'single' use plastic bag.
        toxik 3y ago
        About as often as I have seen them be used, I would say. People also don't throw trash in their textile bags, they use plastic bags for that as they are disposable, so this creates a pretty clear selection bias.
  - Jill_the_Pill 3y ago
    There are zillions of good, used, reusable bags and cups already made, emissions and other pollution already committed, available at thrift stores and garage sales.
egman_ekki 3y ago
A coffee shop I go to allows you to purchase a glass to-go in store (with some silicone wrapping on the outside to not burn your hands). I quite like the idea.
JCharante 3y ago
I worked at a Dunkin Donuts when I was 16 and this is what we did (and does work for drive through). However instead of a ceramic cup we used a normal plastic cup to mix the drink, then poured it into the customers cup. If it was just black coffee then we could pour straight into someones mug. A ceramic cup would be better (because we threw away the plastic cup after pouring). I’m struggling to recall if any drink except the chai tea could be entirely mixed inside the metal cups which are used on the steam wand. I’m not sure if the SOPs have changed in the past 7 years.
dundarious 3y ago
Customer provided stainless steel is the ideal, IMO. Glass also, if someone can make a glass container that's not hot to the touch and doesn't shatter on the go, and that isn't enormous. And as for the increased energy required to create and clean these stainless steel and glass containers, the goal should be that this soon becomes a "who cares" problem as we fully transition to renewable energy and storage. Admittedly, "soon" very much seems to be a material possibility, but a political impossibility. And of course there is always opportunity cost when deciding how to divvy out grid capacity, so I am smoothing over some of the complexities of the issue here, but I don't think unreasonably so.
FirmwareBurner 3y ago
>And no coffee shop these days wants to use your cup because they're worried about whether it's clean and they don't want to touch any of their coffee making tools to your cup accidentally and contaminate them. Not true everywhere. Where I live now in EU, at my fav hipster coffeeshop they definitely let you bring your own to-go reusable glassware (basically jars with screw-on caps) where they pour your finished coffee drink, and I think in some hipster Berlin coffee shops as well where they push for the environmentalist friendly mentality. I've noticed in some cases America(the US) tends to be way more hypochondriac than necessary, for some reason. Probably because how easy you can get sued.
- apsurd 3y ago
  U.S. is very litigious. In high school I dreamed of being an entrepreneur. I still have that dream it's just wow the reality of the cost of doing business is brutal and disenchanting.
  - Aurornis 3y ago
    I’m sorry to say that if the mere possibility of a lawsuit is stopping someone from pursuing a dream, they weren’t that serious about it. Either that, or they’re greatly exaggerating the threat of lawsuits in their mind. It’s not just a United States problem. I’ve worked with several startups in the EU and other countries where founders were jealous of our business freedoms in the United States. The very idea that you can start a business, have it fail, and not be financially ruined for decades or the rest of your life in the United States is a foreign concept to many. We have it good in the US.
    - apsurd 3y ago
      Oh, I meant that the cost of business includes all the overhead of compliance, insurance, and legal retainers. I'm not exactly complaining. I'm still trying to start a business :P. It's just the purity of "making a better product" is gone. You have to do it within the law and compete with incumbent that have influenced that law in their favor after having maybe broken it at first. I'n not completely cynical. Just disenchanted! Pedantic edit: "we have it better in the U.S" means it's worse elsewhere, not that the U.S. is "good". Just saying. I do agree that the possibility of even starting business is very good in the U.S. aside: I hang out at local spots a lot. On a regular cadence the owners mention they're being sued for ADA (Am. disabilities Act) violations. The law is good. But the thing is the law firms spray the notices to spook people into settling. It's just the cost of doing business. Even and especially the cognitive-drain cost.
beezlewax 3y ago
Or like a metal coffee pot
athenot 3y ago
The shop I go to offers a 50¢ discount to people who bring their own coffee cup. It's not that hard from a hygiene perspective: they have the cashier (who is already handling "dirty" money) walk over and fill the cup. (I drink black coffee so I don't know if that applies to the specialty drinks; those are made by someone else.)
timeon 3y ago
> environmentally good > drive-thru So which one?
RetroTechie 3y ago
Society has really gone mad here. There is this scene in countless movies, where a waitress comes up to a customer, and refills their cup from a coffee pot. No germs transferred from customers' cup to coffee pot. How would modern take be any different? Because waitress has to pick up customers' cup? Then let customer place it under whatever machine it needs placing. And pick up when done. This just businesses being lazy, regulatory red tape, or fear of litigation. NOT a real-world problem. Yes there's situations where "bring your own cup" simply isn't practical. But where it is, businesses (and government!) should embrace that.
KolenCh 3y ago
Not true. During the pandemic when I went to Starbucks in the US, they will use my cup, but wouldn't "touch" it. They would ask me to open the cup (and I will hold the lid) and they would use something to hold my cup and then pour drink into it.
hawkguy 3y ago
I’d be happy if coffee shops were required to have mugs for use within the shop. Most of the shops near me offer paper cups regardless of whether you plan to stay in.

by rnk 3y ago

JohnFen 3y ago

I bring my own thermos to my daily drive-through coffee stand, and they make my drink in their own glass container, then pour it into my thermos. That works very well and doesn't slow anything down.

no_wizard 3y ago

They could employ a fast sanitizer. Starbucks does this en masse if I recall correctly as they encourage people to bring their own cups, even offering a small discount

vidanay 3y ago

The answer there IMO would be to use stainless steel preparation containers and then transfer to customer owned ceramic mugs. If the customers ceramic mug is disgusting, then refuse service.

jabroni_salad 3y ago

At the place I go, they make everything in a metal container and then pour it into my thermos on the counter. It's up to me to handle the lid. Also not to get too deep into the weeds on environmentalism but you all know the line reduce/reuse/recycle? the two first Rs it seems like we as a society have decided to just overlook. I've been using the same thermos for 10 years and I guarantee that in terms of footprint my thermos is doing better than literally any disposable solution you can come up with. People are wasting SO MUCH material, time, and money trying to sustain disposability when a real solution is on the shelf at every retailer right now ready to go.

toxik 3y ago
I’m not sure about paper cups but I know the numbers for plastic bags vs textile bags is something like you have to use the textile bag /several years/ for the emissions to even out. Let alone making any positive impact.
- jabroni_salad 3y ago
  despite that, my canvas bags will never be blowing around in the wind or getting eaten by animals. If they do somehow get lost, they can just be washed by whoever finds them. At some point we can reach peak canvasbag and simply stop making them completely. People like to point at 'emissions' because they look sexy on a spreadsheet, but there is more to the world than just that.
  - toxik 3y ago
    Plastic bags certainly have their issues, but I don’t think that a textile bags won’t tangle and kill marine life and wreak havoc in new and unique ways.
    - RetroTechie 3y ago
      When's the last time you saw a durable textile bag hanging in a tree? Washed up on a shoreline? Stuffed with trash, ripped up by rats, birds or cats, next to a rubbish bin? Now same questions for a 'single' use plastic bag.
      - toxik 3y ago
        About as often as I have seen them be used, I would say. People also don't throw trash in their textile bags, they use plastic bags for that as they are disposable, so this creates a pretty clear selection bias.
- Jill_the_Pill 3y ago
  There are zillions of good, used, reusable bags and cups already made, emissions and other pollution already committed, available at thrift stores and garage sales.

egman_ekki 3y ago

A coffee shop I go to allows you to purchase a glass to-go in store (with some silicone wrapping on the outside to not burn your hands). I quite like the idea.

JCharante 3y ago

I worked at a Dunkin Donuts when I was 16 and this is what we did (and does work for drive through). However instead of a ceramic cup we used a normal plastic cup to mix the drink, then poured it into the customers cup. If it was just black coffee then we could pour straight into someones mug. A ceramic cup would be better (because we threw away the plastic cup after pouring). I’m struggling to recall if any drink except the chai tea could be entirely mixed inside the metal cups which are used on the steam wand. I’m not sure if the SOPs have changed in the past 7 years.

dundarious 3y ago

Customer provided stainless steel is the ideal, IMO. Glass also, if someone can make a glass container that's not hot to the touch and doesn't shatter on the go, and that isn't enormous. And as for the increased energy required to create and clean these stainless steel and glass containers, the goal should be that this soon becomes a "who cares" problem as we fully transition to renewable energy and storage. Admittedly, "soon" very much seems to be a material possibility, but a political impossibility. And of course there is always opportunity cost when deciding how to divvy out grid capacity, so I am smoothing over some of the complexities of the issue here, but I don't think unreasonably so.

FirmwareBurner 3y ago

>And no coffee shop these days wants to use your cup because they're worried about whether it's clean and they don't want to touch any of their coffee making tools to your cup accidentally and contaminate them. Not true everywhere. Where I live now in EU, at my fav hipster coffeeshop they definitely let you bring your own to-go reusable glassware (basically jars with screw-on caps) where they pour your finished coffee drink, and I think in some hipster Berlin coffee shops as well where they push for the environmentalist friendly mentality. I've noticed in some cases America(the US) tends to be way more hypochondriac than necessary, for some reason. Probably because how easy you can get sued.

apsurd 3y ago
U.S. is very litigious. In high school I dreamed of being an entrepreneur. I still have that dream it's just wow the reality of the cost of doing business is brutal and disenchanting.
- Aurornis 3y ago
  I’m sorry to say that if the mere possibility of a lawsuit is stopping someone from pursuing a dream, they weren’t that serious about it. Either that, or they’re greatly exaggerating the threat of lawsuits in their mind. It’s not just a United States problem. I’ve worked with several startups in the EU and other countries where founders were jealous of our business freedoms in the United States. The very idea that you can start a business, have it fail, and not be financially ruined for decades or the rest of your life in the United States is a foreign concept to many. We have it good in the US.
  - apsurd 3y ago
    Oh, I meant that the cost of business includes all the overhead of compliance, insurance, and legal retainers. I'm not exactly complaining. I'm still trying to start a business :P. It's just the purity of "making a better product" is gone. You have to do it within the law and compete with incumbent that have influenced that law in their favor after having maybe broken it at first. I'n not completely cynical. Just disenchanted! Pedantic edit: "we have it better in the U.S" means it's worse elsewhere, not that the U.S. is "good". Just saying. I do agree that the possibility of even starting business is very good in the U.S. aside: I hang out at local spots a lot. On a regular cadence the owners mention they're being sued for ADA (Am. disabilities Act) violations. The law is good. But the thing is the law firms spray the notices to spook people into settling. It's just the cost of doing business. Even and especially the cognitive-drain cost.

beezlewax 3y ago

Or like a metal coffee pot

athenot 3y ago

The shop I go to offers a 50¢ discount to people who bring their own coffee cup. It's not that hard from a hygiene perspective: they have the cashier (who is already handling "dirty" money) walk over and fill the cup. (I drink black coffee so I don't know if that applies to the specialty drinks; those are made by someone else.)

timeon 3y ago

> environmentally good > drive-thru So which one?

RetroTechie 3y ago

Society has really gone mad here. There is this scene in countless movies, where a waitress comes up to a customer, and refills their cup from a coffee pot. No germs transferred from customers' cup to coffee pot. How would modern take be any different? Because waitress has to pick up customers' cup? Then let customer place it under whatever machine it needs placing. And pick up when done. This just businesses being lazy, regulatory red tape, or fear of litigation. NOT a real-world problem. Yes there's situations where "bring your own cup" simply isn't practical. But where it is, businesses (and government!) should embrace that.

KolenCh 3y ago

Not true. During the pandemic when I went to Starbucks in the US, they will use my cup, but wouldn't "touch" it. They would ask me to open the cup (and I will hold the lid) and they would use something to hold my cup and then pour drink into it.

hawkguy 3y ago

I’d be happy if coffee shops were required to have mugs for use within the shop. Most of the shops near me offer paper cups regardless of whether you plan to stay in.