I like my coffee black.

Today I walked to Starbucks for a cup of coffee. When I worked in the city this was no big deal. Now I work in an industrial park, surrounded by pavement, parked cars and perfectly placed trees. I rarely walk to any destination outside of the office. So taking 25 minutes to walk to and from the nearest Starbucks is a rare occasion for me, unfortunately. But it boosts my energy, gets me out in the open air, gets me away from my hunched desk posture and most importantly helps my Nike Fuel points for the day.

I ordered my usual, a grande drip coffee, black. I used to splash it with milk but have removed dairy from my diet. Sometimes I miss the milk. It helps to cut the bitterness when I’m drinking bad coffee like Peet’s. But when the coffee’s good, like Blue Bottle or Stumptown or any Clover from Starbucks then milk isnt’ needed.

Starbucks drip coffee is somewhere right in the middle. It’s not awful. It’s serviceable. I’ll go out of my way to avoid Starbucks on the weekends but will happily drink it during the week. I always say I love everything about Starbucks except the coffee. I love the brand, the experience and always being shocked that the Classic Coffee Cake is 480 calories. Who knew?!

When you say ‘no room for milk’ those perky baristas love to fill the drink as close to the brim as possible. So for the walk back I grabbed one of those green little stoppers for the lid to avoid any spillage. When I got to my desk, I pulled out the stopper and to my amazement/disgust/shock it had melted. Not enough that it came off, but the plastic was definitely soft and malleable.

What. The. Fuck.

I do my best to never microwave anything in a plastic container. I only heat in containers which are glass or oven safe. Hell, I’m even skeptical of heating plastic which is labeled BPA free. You can imagine how this makes bottle washing a chore…and girl have I got the dish pan hands to prove it!

But I never thought about the little green stopper. Those sneaky fucks. No more melted plastic in my drink.

I like my coffee black.