This morning the team at work was in early (before 6AM) in case of problems with a power wiring upgrade. There were no problems and we all went to breakfast at Bob's Big Boy, a local coffee shop (in the pre-Starbucks coffee shop sense, meaning a restaurant that serves basic food).

Besides my hash browns, bacon, and rye toast, I also had a cup of coffee. I carefully added the proper amount of sugar, stirred and happily sipped away as we debated the fine points of HVAC design and the risk of running on split generators.

I had drank about half the cup when waitress walked by with coffee pot in hand and refilled my cup. I hate that shit.

Yes, I know she's just trying to provide good service, but to me, it's a disservice and here's why.

Note that with a fresh cup of coffee (or iced tea) you add the proper amount of sugar and/or cream (or in Sean's case, soy) and once you find that perfect combo, you can enjoy the entire cup.

When you get halfway through the cup, the coffee to sugar ratio remains correct.

Now, when a waitress pours more coffee into the cup, they have diluted the ratio and you need to add more sugar. It's not the end of the world, but at some coffee shops, they'll try to refill your cup everytime you take a sip.

The same problem occurs with iced tea, and it's even worse. With hot coffee, the sugar dissolves easily. In saner countries, they give you sugar syrup to sweeten cold liquids, but here in the good ole USA, you get granulated sugar. Dissolving granulated sugar is a pain and requires much stirring to accomplish properly. The last thing you want is to spend more time re-sugaring and stirring your iced tea everytime the waiter walks by and 'tops off' your iced tea.

You may be saying, "Mike, why do you worry about these things?" and I'll agree, I am a wee bit eccentric on a few select topics, but this is a problem that happens to everyone. Many just suffer in silence, drinking poorly sugared beverages.

Not surprisingly, I think I have the solution. I took an old beer coaster and drew on it a bit. The idea is to place this over the coffee cup to ward off the evil refillers.

This could be worth millions! What do you think?

Posted by michael at February 10, 2006 06:02 PM