Germs, bacteria, baristas and coffee shops
When purchasing coffee, at your favorite coffee shop have you ever noticed how the barista serves you that coffee? Virtually every time I am served a cup of coffee the barista either picks the cup up with fingers holding the edges where I am about to put my lips or when placing the plastic cap the full hand and fingers are used to lock the cap in place.
Now here is the part that makes my stomach turn and is the reason why I have sent coffees back or wipe down the rim of the mug with a napkin or remove the plastic lid or limit my coffee experience to the self-serve containers.
The baristas hands have touched the hands via the transfer of money from the 10 people who were in front of me in the line. They have touched the damp rags that clean the counters and with their serving techniques have just put all of those germs and essentially the fingers of those ten people right into my mouth.
Not that I am a germaphobe, but if you take time to really think about what I just said suddenly that cup of coffee does not taste very good. Do you really want to put the fingers and all that goes with those fingers of the person in front of you into your mouth? No offense to those in front of me in line, but my answer is no.
By the way, I have asked baristas to not handle my coffee cups in the manner described, I have mentioned this poor serving technique to coffee shop managers. Recently, I even called the headquarters of a major coffeehouse chain and the person on the phone listened politely and told me that she would pass on my concerns to the appropriate person.
I am sorry for potentially destroying your coffee shop experience, but with a little attention to this topic, maybe we can reduce the incidence of illness transmission and whatever else it is that we are ingesting through this massive bacteria transfer.