Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Tea spoon / coffee spoon

89 replies

Gotstuckwiththisname · 07/01/2019 08:41

In my house, we drink a lot of hot drinks.

I think it's perfectly reasonable to have one teaspoon to stir tea and a different teaspoon to stir coffee (machine or occasionally instant. I know IABU to drink instant Grin). This is because I don't want coffee essence in my tea or tea essence in my coffee. I can taste it!

DH thinks this is weird and you can't taste the tea / coffee in the other drink. He regularly uses the coffee spoon to stir the tea and I can tell!

Who is BU, me or him?

OP posts:
Bluelady · 07/01/2019 13:36

A clean spoon every time.

IncomingCannonFire · 07/01/2019 13:36

He won't learn unless you send him back to make the tea papain properly every time. Or just each make your own drinks from now on. He's purposefully doing it to avoid the task.

SpoonBlender · 07/01/2019 13:37

Tea spoon in coffee I can't tell, but coffee spoon in tea is a hard no. Awful.

We don't have milk in our teas (fruit or green 99% of the time), so we have a teaspoon on a small plate by the kettle that gets used for de-teabagging. Anything with milk gets a fresh spoon that goes straight in the dishwasher if it's not going to be used again for the same drink immediately.

If we used milk in our teas we'd use a fresh spoon every time.

TheRealJoseph · 07/01/2019 13:44

3 spoons,
1 for coffee
2 for tea
1 for sugar

I hate wet spoons put back into the sugar bowl/jar.

TheRealJoseph · 07/01/2019 13:45

1 for tea not 2

adaline · 07/01/2019 13:46

Teaspoons for coffee are fine, but you can definitely taste coffee in tea! YANBU.

BollocksIsNoACompleteSentence · 07/01/2019 13:47

Doesn't it take all of two seconds to rinse the spoon before re-using it? I insist on a rinse as I could detect the coffee too and it's a running joke in our house. I've just had the most MN convo with DH off the back of this thread..

Me: "Ha there is a MNer's DH that doesn't rinse the teaspoon between making coffee and tea and she isn't happy, see, it's not just me?"
MrBollocks "doesn't he know you should always rinse your spoon before dipping it in again"
Me: "Did you mean to sound so rude?"
Grin

BollocksIsNoACompleteSentence · 07/01/2019 13:48

Although, if you find a single fucking teaspoon in our house, you're winning...

anniehm · 07/01/2019 13:48

Weird man - if course you need two spoons! Though in my house I use the burn your fingers getting the teabag out technique as we all drink black no sugar tea, saves on washing up Grin

Yabbers · 07/01/2019 13:52

I can taste coffee stirred in my tea but not tea in my coffee. As long as you stir the tea first.

user1468942365 · 07/01/2019 13:55

Oh my word - my husband (tea drinker) has this fear too. I now do his before I stir my coffee. I can't taste tea in my coffee!

He also likes a bag that floats so that he can burn his fingers as well annie He has rejected whole boxes of fancy tea based on sinking bags...

Glittertwins · 07/01/2019 13:55

The taste of coffee definitely transfers to the tea. We simply rinse the spoon off between making the drinks.

Gth1234 · 07/01/2019 13:58

I use one spoon, but I do other peoples drinks, and them my own, to ensure they don't get the taste of both.

Gotstuckwiththisname · 07/01/2019 14:22

Problem is, I'd happily rinse a spoon but DH wouldn't.

This is never going to get resolved in our house. I just wanted the MN jury's verdict! Grin

OP posts:
Housewife2010 · 07/01/2019 14:22

Don't you brew your tea in a teapot? Unless you add sugar you don't need to stir the tea.

BaronessBomburst · 07/01/2019 14:25

Clean spoon every time and chuck it in the dishwasher.
This only works if you have at least 30 tea and coffee spoons.
I had over 40 last time I counted

Confusedbeetle · 07/01/2019 14:25

It's easy, stir the coffee, rinse the spoon, stir the tea

MonoClue · 07/01/2019 14:38

I’m definitely on your side OP.
Although there’s only me and youngest DD now and the only hot drinks she has are hot milk and honey or hot lemonade and honey🤔
I drink black coffee and I can even taste if the spoon was used to stir sugared or milked coffee, never mind if it had been dipped in tea😖

chrisrobin · 07/01/2019 14:47

Two spoons- definitely.

One of my IBS triggers is coffee, even the little bit that clings to a spoon that is then used in my tea sets it off. DH and DF are very good at remembering but DM forgets sometimes which gets very painful!

DeathyMcDeathStarFace · 07/01/2019 14:58

I am not alone! I thought I was the only one who could tell if spoons had been used in different drinks.

Dh tends to drink coffee, very very rarely drinks tea. I don't drink coffee at all, only tea. If dh makes a drink each and stirs my tea with either coffee dust on the spoon or a tiny bit of coffee on it from having stirred his cup before mine I can always taste the coffee in my tea.

Not having seen him do it I asked him if he had stirred his coffee before my tea and used the same spoon without washing it. He said he had, how did I know? I told him I could taste the coffee in my tea.

He was a bit sceptical, so every time it happened after that i would mention it to him so he knew I could taste it. He eventually accepted I could taste it so doesn't do it any more. (I have wasted the odd cup of tea before when the coffee taste was too strong to drink it so he eventually stopped doing it.)

Whenever I make drinks I either use different spoons or rinse/wash the spoon between mugs. I can't stand the idea of contamination between the drinks.

(Also, he couldn't deny doing it most of the time either. I realised, as we don't have matching crockery for everyday drinks, the mugs he use sound different to the mugs i use when being stirred. His tend to be bigger or tapered towards the bottom, mine more a standard size and straight sided, different sounds. When he stirs them and the kitchen door is open I can tell if he stirs his mug first and then immediately stirs mine - no time to clean the spoon. If he uses two spoons I can hear if he's put two down, he's noisy. Also, if using two similar/exactly the same mugs, it sounds different when stirring tea to coffee. Anyone else noticed that or am I just odd?)

Boy, I must be terrible to live with.

tiggerkid · 07/01/2019 15:00

I am the same. I can definitely taste coffee in my tea if the same spoon is used. This is also the reason why I could never have tea from the office vending machine that we used to have in my previous job: it dispensed both tea and coffee by way of pressing different buttons to order either drink. Plus hot chocolate, soups and God knows what else. I never used that machine for tea despite the fact that all drinks in it were free. Why? Because the tea tasted of whatever else the machine served. I am sure all other drinks did too.
However, I am not sure whether tea overpowers coffee as much as coffee seems to overtake tea. But I am quite sure that tomato soup didn't go with any of those :)

jelliebelly · 07/01/2019 15:00

YANBU DH does this all the time and I hate coffee!!!

Smeeeeeee · 07/01/2019 15:00

I always use separate spoons. I'll also make sure I stir ones with sugar after doing ones without because you I can taste a taint of sugar too.

MTBMummy · 07/01/2019 15:54

YANBU - LTB

We have 2 spoons (occasionally 3, when the kids get into hot chocolate)

It's not difficult, the tea one lives with the tea bags that have been removed from the pot, the coffee one rests on the spoon rest.

And yes you can definitely taste it

Doyouthinktheysaurus · 07/01/2019 16:00

Using the same spoon for both tea and coffee is disgusting.

I never do that and I am a complete slattern.

We have loads of teaspoons and I use a fresh one for different drinks and for each subsequent drink.

We have a dishwasher so it's no bother.