12 ms·

"Stop handing people cups of coffee so hot that spilling it requires skin grafts," is apparently a difficult-to-learn lesson.

delfinom 3y ago
Given these companies keep their coffee scalding hot on purpose, the profit must worth it
- gruez 3y ago
  AFAIK people like it hot, so it doesn't get cold on the way to the office or whatever, and companies oblige.
  - olyjohn 3y ago
    I prefer it hot as fuck. Maybe that's just me. I don't want a luke warm cup of coffee. I think drinking coffee while driving is dumb as fuck if I'm perfectly honest. They said they the problem was the lid was not secured, what if the lid was secured, and she got in an accident because she has one hand on the wheel when both should be on the wheel? Is this lady 70 years old and never had a place serve a hot as fuck cup of coffee? It just feels like common sense to me that coffee is hot, and driving with a cup of hot liquids is dangerous.
    - dudul 3y ago
      You've never driven a stick? You can perfectly operate a wheel with one hand.
      - dharmab 3y ago
        Heck, I've driven a stick with one hand when I've had splints.
- adamomada 3y ago
  Maybe it’s just fresh coffee? I don’t understand half these comments, it’s like they never made a pot of coffee before in their lives. How do you expect them to cool down a fresh brew anyway, put it in a fridge for 10 mins before serving? I could imagine a busy coffee shop going through batches so quick that the pot is < 5 mins old before it’s empty Fresh coffee is HOT, like 95 Celsius hot!
  - crazygringo 3y ago
    You don't need to be silly, nobody is putting it in a fridge. It already loses temperature as it slowly drips into the pitcher. And then it continues to lose temperature quite quickly if it's not being actively kept hot. So all you have to do is reduce the temperature of the hot plate underneath the pitcher. This is a setting that already exists. And no, coffee shops don't empty out pitchers every five minutes. If they have that level of business they use the larger coffee machines that brew and hold a much larger volume, and again, it's a setting for what temperature to hold the coffee at. This is an extremely solved problem.
    - adamomada 3y ago
      I think we’re thinking of different kinds of coffee shops here. I’m making an assumption Dunkin is like Tim’s in Canada: they use regular size coffee pots and rotate them extremely quickly to keep the coffee fresh, usually discarding it if it’s > 15 mins old even. Their machines brew a pot in something like two minutes flat, from a commercial machine that has a boiler ensuring that the water is consistently 95 degrees C when it hits the grounds. You can’t get around having the brewing temp being damn close to the serving temp when you have a traffic jam on the road from the drive-thru backlog
    - inefficient 3y ago
      I worked in an extremely busy coffee shop on campus when I was in university. It made more by lunch than many of the restaurants I worked in made all day. We had 5 large plastic insulated containers the coffee was brewed in. No hot plate at all. They were nice because they were easily moved, held a lot of coffee, and no hot plate needed. They could keep that coffee hot all day without cooking it down making that stale coffee sludge people expect from old coffee. Also made it easy to make them and carry them to an event we catered. But it also probably meant that they stayed incredibly hot for a good 2 hours. I've always had mixed feelings about these law suits. I know so many people who had their minds changed after seeing the effect that the McDonald's coffee had on that woman's legs. I didn't. She was balancing it on her legs while driving. Why do people keep putting something they know is dangerously hot in a place that can severely hurt them. Even moreso if they are driving. It only took me a few (dozen) burns to my tongue before I learned to not drink coffee immediately after purchase. But I wouldn't hold a hot coffee between my legs anymore that I would hold a knife between my legs. At what point does personal responsibility kick in? Knives don't need a warning label, because they are considered to have a knowable danger. Why not something that boils water in the process of making it? I have to wonder if it would have made me liable when a person wanted his fresh coffee extra hot and I heated it up even more for him (real person, regular customer, like 80 years old). I am really not anti lawsuit for negligence. The original McDonald's case just always stuck with me. Even if it hadn't been that hot, but was just hit enough that your skin might get red, that's still hot enough that she could've easily gotten into an accident if some spilled on her leg. If something is ice cold, the same thing could happen. We really shouldn't be balancing things on or squeezing them between our legs as if our legs are a shelf and not a part of our body.
- Woodi 3y ago
  Yep, selling just very hot water instead of ~90^oC milk in cappuccinos is quite a difference...
shiroiuma 3y ago
Since obviously people can't trust these businesses to provide a quality product in a safe manner, it would be better if people kept expecting them to.
- shiroiuma 3y ago
  Edit: "it would be better if people stopped expecting them to."
- mjbeswick 3y ago
  It's reasonable to assume that any coffee that is served fresh will be scalinging hot, and that if you grip any disposable coffee cup too tightly, then the top wil pop off. The staff didn't spill the coffee on the lady, she did it to herself. I doubt this would go to court in other developed countries where healthcare is free!?
  - shiroiuma 3y ago
    They don't have drive-thru coffee service in other developed countries, in my experience. That's an American thing. And according to other coffee-drinkers here, DD serves their coffee much hotter than other places, so no, it's NOT reasonable to assume it'll be that hot.

delfinom 3y ago

Given these companies keep their coffee scalding hot on purpose, the profit must worth it

gruez 3y ago
AFAIK people like it hot, so it doesn't get cold on the way to the office or whatever, and companies oblige.
- olyjohn 3y ago
  I prefer it hot as fuck. Maybe that's just me. I don't want a luke warm cup of coffee. I think drinking coffee while driving is dumb as fuck if I'm perfectly honest. They said they the problem was the lid was not secured, what if the lid was secured, and she got in an accident because she has one hand on the wheel when both should be on the wheel? Is this lady 70 years old and never had a place serve a hot as fuck cup of coffee? It just feels like common sense to me that coffee is hot, and driving with a cup of hot liquids is dangerous.
  - dudul 3y ago
    You've never driven a stick? You can perfectly operate a wheel with one hand.
    - dharmab 3y ago
      Heck, I've driven a stick with one hand when I've had splints.
adamomada 3y ago
Maybe it’s just fresh coffee? I don’t understand half these comments, it’s like they never made a pot of coffee before in their lives. How do you expect them to cool down a fresh brew anyway, put it in a fridge for 10 mins before serving? I could imagine a busy coffee shop going through batches so quick that the pot is < 5 mins old before it’s empty Fresh coffee is HOT, like 95 Celsius hot!
- crazygringo 3y ago
  You don't need to be silly, nobody is putting it in a fridge. It already loses temperature as it slowly drips into the pitcher. And then it continues to lose temperature quite quickly if it's not being actively kept hot. So all you have to do is reduce the temperature of the hot plate underneath the pitcher. This is a setting that already exists. And no, coffee shops don't empty out pitchers every five minutes. If they have that level of business they use the larger coffee machines that brew and hold a much larger volume, and again, it's a setting for what temperature to hold the coffee at. This is an extremely solved problem.
  - adamomada 3y ago
    I think we’re thinking of different kinds of coffee shops here. I’m making an assumption Dunkin is like Tim’s in Canada: they use regular size coffee pots and rotate them extremely quickly to keep the coffee fresh, usually discarding it if it’s > 15 mins old even. Their machines brew a pot in something like two minutes flat, from a commercial machine that has a boiler ensuring that the water is consistently 95 degrees C when it hits the grounds. You can’t get around having the brewing temp being damn close to the serving temp when you have a traffic jam on the road from the drive-thru backlog
  - inefficient 3y ago
    I worked in an extremely busy coffee shop on campus when I was in university. It made more by lunch than many of the restaurants I worked in made all day. We had 5 large plastic insulated containers the coffee was brewed in. No hot plate at all. They were nice because they were easily moved, held a lot of coffee, and no hot plate needed. They could keep that coffee hot all day without cooking it down making that stale coffee sludge people expect from old coffee. Also made it easy to make them and carry them to an event we catered. But it also probably meant that they stayed incredibly hot for a good 2 hours. I've always had mixed feelings about these law suits. I know so many people who had their minds changed after seeing the effect that the McDonald's coffee had on that woman's legs. I didn't. She was balancing it on her legs while driving. Why do people keep putting something they know is dangerously hot in a place that can severely hurt them. Even moreso if they are driving. It only took me a few (dozen) burns to my tongue before I learned to not drink coffee immediately after purchase. But I wouldn't hold a hot coffee between my legs anymore that I would hold a knife between my legs. At what point does personal responsibility kick in? Knives don't need a warning label, because they are considered to have a knowable danger. Why not something that boils water in the process of making it? I have to wonder if it would have made me liable when a person wanted his fresh coffee extra hot and I heated it up even more for him (real person, regular customer, like 80 years old). I am really not anti lawsuit for negligence. The original McDonald's case just always stuck with me. Even if it hadn't been that hot, but was just hit enough that your skin might get red, that's still hot enough that she could've easily gotten into an accident if some spilled on her leg. If something is ice cold, the same thing could happen. We really shouldn't be balancing things on or squeezing them between our legs as if our legs are a shelf and not a part of our body.
Woodi 3y ago
Yep, selling just very hot water instead of ~90^oC milk in cappuccinos is quite a difference...

shiroiuma 3y ago

Since obviously people can't trust these businesses to provide a quality product in a safe manner, it would be better if people kept expecting them to.

shiroiuma 3y ago
Edit: "it would be better if people stopped expecting them to."
mjbeswick 3y ago
It's reasonable to assume that any coffee that is served fresh will be scalinging hot, and that if you grip any disposable coffee cup too tightly, then the top wil pop off. The staff didn't spill the coffee on the lady, she did it to herself. I doubt this would go to court in other developed countries where healthcare is free!?
- shiroiuma 3y ago
  They don't have drive-thru coffee service in other developed countries, in my experience. That's an American thing. And according to other coffee-drinkers here, DD serves their coffee much hotter than other places, so no, it's NOT reasonable to assume it'll be that hot.