Coffee Accessories

M and I had this conversation this morning while I drove to work.

A: It's cold. You know what would make me feel warm?
M: You don't need Starbucks.
A: Oh, come on, it's so goooooood.
M: No, you don't need it. You have no willpower!
Barista over drive-thru speaker: Hi, welcome to Starbucks, what can I get started for you today?
M: Amy! Amy Margaret! You're talking to Starbucks!
A: Yes, I'd like a decaf, grande, non-fat, no-whip extra-hot mocha, please.
M: You're getting Starbucks! I can't believe it! Amy! Amy Margaret!

It's incredibly hard to order one's complicated coffee beverage when one's husband is yelling in one's ear and one is laughing at one's husband while he yells.

My barista handed me my lovely beverage and I noticed something sticking out of the sippy hole. WTF? What is that?

Apparently, it's a little stir stick thingy that also doubles as a cap for the sippy hole, so as to avoid dumping your beverage all over yourself in the car, or sloshing it out of the sippy hole as you careen around corners.

Any coffee-on-the-go drinker has figured out long before now the trick to keeping your coffee from sloshing while you drive. You must face the sippy hole towards the front of the car. No sloshing that way. Not a single drop of the delectable (and, apparently, addictive) mocha is wasted. Sippy hole facing either side of the car spells disaster. Lots of sloshing, and mopping up sticky coffee with Kleenexes, which, by the way, don't work so well for that purpose as they tend to sorta disintigrate upon contact with massive amounts of liquid.

So anyway, after years of enjoying Starbucks beverages, now I have a piece of plastic standing between me and the beverage, that isn't really needed as I figured out the trick long ago.

I inspected the stick further after arriving at work. It's got a design embossed on the top, what appears to be a cross between a weasel and a sea creature blowing the steam off a cup of coffee.

I have no idea what that is, but I must say this new development has thrown me through a loop. This is something new! Something different! What is the world coming to?

Okay, so maybe I'm not that fired up about it. But I am curious...and intrigued enough to write about it here and take a crappy picture with my BlackBerry's camera to share with all of you. Please forgive the blown highlights on the lid and the lack of weasely/sea creature detail. There's only so much one can do with a cell phone camera.

I just think it's funny that my coffee comes with its own jacket and now its own pet.