Like many people, I drink a lot of coffee. I find myself wandering into a Starbucks, Peets, or my local Los Gatos Coffee Roasters quite often (usually multiple times a day) and it never seems to iritate me that the cream and stir sticks are always at the end of the line --the assumption being that you will pour your coffee first, and then add cream and/or sugar.
I've always hated this. It's like an extra step that you do at the end only because you haven't figured out that you can do without the step entirely if you just rearrage the order. There's no need for a stir stick if you put your cream/sugar in first. Then, when you pour your coffee in, it's mixes automatically. Viola!
At conference buffets it's the worst. I'm the guy you see take his cup, walk around all the coffee dispensors to the cream table, pour in some half & half into his cup, and then walk back to the coffee dispensors. Seems silly, but I've been doing this for YEARS (because it's well, just the right way to do it).
I asked myself... Why do we all accept this less-optimal process of cream & sugaring last? And then it occurred to me: It's the stir stick industry. They have a lot invested in this backwards process... If we all changed our behavior, the industry would collapse overnight.
I found this interesting blog by Bill True (http://billtrue.wordpress.com/2011/04/18/wood-stir-sticks-for-coffee-an-environmental-impact-analysis/) where he does an ad hoc environmental impact analysis on stir sticks:
"There are five stages in the lifecycle of a wooden stir stick: 1. Growing and harvesting white birch trees (the wood primarily used for stir sticks), 2. Manufacturing the sticks, 3. Distributing the sticks, 4. Using the sticks, 5. Disposing of/recycling the sticks. Although one could find red flags at any step in the process, the types of concerns raised in stages 2-4 are common across today’s commercial spectrum. The rise in the amount of white birch to accommodate increased demand, however, presents a real and immediate environmental concern."
It's very clear that there is a lot of money at stake here. So, I call on all my coffee-quaffing, environmenally-minded, process perfectionists like me to skip the swizzle stick, wood or plastic, and add your cream & sugar First!
--Larry
I've always hated this. It's like an extra step that you do at the end only because you haven't figured out that you can do without the step entirely if you just rearrage the order. There's no need for a stir stick if you put your cream/sugar in first. Then, when you pour your coffee in, it's mixes automatically. Viola!
At conference buffets it's the worst. I'm the guy you see take his cup, walk around all the coffee dispensors to the cream table, pour in some half & half into his cup, and then walk back to the coffee dispensors. Seems silly, but I've been doing this for YEARS (because it's well, just the right way to do it).
I asked myself... Why do we all accept this less-optimal process of cream & sugaring last? And then it occurred to me: It's the stir stick industry. They have a lot invested in this backwards process... If we all changed our behavior, the industry would collapse overnight.
I found this interesting blog by Bill True (http://billtrue.wordpress.com/2011/04/18/wood-stir-sticks-for-coffee-an-environmental-impact-analysis/) where he does an ad hoc environmental impact analysis on stir sticks:
"There are five stages in the lifecycle of a wooden stir stick: 1. Growing and harvesting white birch trees (the wood primarily used for stir sticks), 2. Manufacturing the sticks, 3. Distributing the sticks, 4. Using the sticks, 5. Disposing of/recycling the sticks. Although one could find red flags at any step in the process, the types of concerns raised in stages 2-4 are common across today’s commercial spectrum. The rise in the amount of white birch to accommodate increased demand, however, presents a real and immediate environmental concern."
It's very clear that there is a lot of money at stake here. So, I call on all my coffee-quaffing, environmenally-minded, process perfectionists like me to skip the swizzle stick, wood or plastic, and add your cream & sugar First!
--Larry
