What does your coffee mug say about you?
Reading through my feeds tonight, PZ had a post about his coffee mugs and what they may say about him which was inspired by his fellow Scibling David Ng’s post about the same thing. David posited three simple questions about your mug:
1. Can you show us your coffee cup?
2. Can you comment on it? Do you think it reflects on your personality?
3. Do you have any interesting anecdotes resulting from coffee cup commentary?
3. Can you try to get others to comment on it?
(I believe the second #3 is either supposed to be #3b or #4)
So, what’s my mug? It’s a Starbucks 16oz write-on tumbler in the fashion of their paper cups:
This is my 4th tumbler from Starbucks and is the second one like this I’ve actually bought. I broke the first one by first giving it a nice drop kick in the dark when I dropped it and mistook it for a cat — no, I wasn’t trying to kick my cats — and I also dropped the top and broke its sealing arm. Does it reflect on my personality? I don’t really think so. If it spoke of my personality, it’d simply say that I’m a herd-following coffee guzzler that’s “hip” and likes to be in the “third place” according to Starbucks. Those who know me know that I’m anything but a herd follower and much prefer to do my own thing. I think the cup simply reflects on my fondness of convenience of coffee. For #3a, I’ve had quite a few comments made about the cup. A spry barista at Town Center’s new Starbucks commented on how “cute” and “awesome” it was that I had my order written on the cup, ready for them to prepare. She doesn’t realize that I got it because I’m tired of people mucking up what I want and prefer a more streamlined experience of getting my coffee. Most baristas love the fact that they don’t have to hear my psychobabble about my order and then have to transcribe it to their own shorthand. Now, there’s an easy formula for them to follow written right there: SFV S L (and I wrote Grande at the top so they know what size it is after being asked about 15 times “Is that a venti?”). This too makes it easier for them to ring me up although, most still get the price wrong. Down here, it’s $4.10 after tax and the paltry $0.10 cup discount. I only get $0.10 for trying to save the environment!?
As for others commenting on it, I get lots of looks at the local Starbucks from patrons and workers alike. Many people still comment on the “cool” aspect of having a cup that looks just like the regular cups. Shocking! I just like having an always available cup for whenever I want coffee, whether it’s at my office or out on the town.
