to not know what to do with my coffee cup?

[HedgehogintheFog]

I love using my reusable coffee cup, especially since covid, as so many places around me seem to have defaulted to providing disposables only, even if you're sitting there to drink. However, when I am out and about for a weekend of shopping or a day out on holiday, I don't know what to do with it once I've finished my coffee. Sometimes I want a second coffee in the afternoon, but my cup is in the bottom of my bag with grimy milk and chocolate powder from my morning cappuccino. Is it weird to ask the coffee shop to rinse it out? Is it too gross to do it in the loo? If I'm in a pub and getting them to refill my water bottle, is it odd to also ask them to rinse my cup? Genuinely curious as to others' opinions.

P.S. I also have a weird thing about drinking out of paper cups (and eating with wooden cutlery), so it's not solely for altruistic environmental reasons!!

I work at a small coffee shop and have no problem with people asking for their cup to be rinsed out! It takes 30 seconds!

I don't get this. If you are in a coffee shop, the staff are more than used to cleaning cups that someone else has drank out of surely? What's the difference?

@tigger1001

I have tried to explain the concept of keeping food preparation areas separate.

The person you come in and speak to, the one who takes your order, is the one you would hand your cup to. Over the counter into the food prep area.

Usually one person is working the front and doing everything. Sometimes, and as it was most often before covid, there are two and one will take my order and sort the food and the other will take my cup because they are doing the coffee.

It has never been an issue, I rarely ask it just gets done.

But you've entirely missed the realities of the usual coffee shop set up.

Your coffee cup gets rinsed in the coffee prep area, doesn't touch any surface other than the final counter, where all sorts of unhygienic things will sit during any given day - bottom of handbags being one case in point!

You have indeed tried to explain it - multiple times. But people who have worked in coffee shops and restaurants and pubs are completely baffled by the insanity that you're trying to explain. What you're saying makes no sense.

In a restaurant, your food comes from the kitchen and your dirty dishes go back into that exact same kitchen - carried by the same person. In a cafe, your slice of cake is served by the same person who made your coffee - and they'll clear your plate away too and put it behind the counter, in the dishwasher, right next to the cakes and the coffee machine. In a bar, your drinks are served into clean glasses, which are then dirty when you drink from them, collected by the same barman who served your drink, put into a glass washer behind the bar, next to the clean glasses, and washed...the clean glasses are removed and, guess what, the dirty glasses go into the exact same place that the clean glasses just came from.

This "separation" you think is so important does not exist.

And none of those people should be taking dirty cups, from customers or tables, into the food prep areas.

At McDonald's we wouldn't be able to, unless you asked one of the dining area/customer experience leaders. There's no sink or water in the bev cell, apart from what's plumbed into the machines. (I'm a customer experience leader and wouldn't mind washing your cup but some might)

I normally just wash mine in the loo. Bit of soap and a paper towel then rinse. Job done.

@WorriedWagon

Oh. Ok.

"think the companies would much prefer the staff spent seconds rinsing out a reusable cup so that customers can buy the second coffee."

Exactly!

Like others I have worked in many cafes and restaurants, posh and greasy spoon. What you seem to be trying to describe doesn't sound like anywhere I have ever worked, or eaten in.

KPs work cleaning all the dirty stuff in the kitchen, alongside the food prep areas. Just like kitchens at home they are not usually fully segregated.

And, as waiting staff, my job was to collect plates of food from one area of the kitchen and take dirty plates etc back to another area of the same kitchen, to clean down tables, chairs, the floor and then go to the next table and take orders, take money. Same hands touching clean plates, dirty plates, pen, notepad, money, till keys etc etc etc. There is no segregation of tasks.

Lots of coffee shops offer a discount if you bring a reusable cup to use. I can only imagine they have thought that through that people will then ask for their cup to be rinsed out if it's already been used.

If the shop is willing to let customers bring their own cups then this just isn't an issue. For the posters worried about customer cups in food prep areas - doesn't the same issue exist for any cup given to them by the customer? They have no idea how clean it is. What difference is it if the customer rinses it in the sink in the toilet before handing it over or asking the staff to rinse it?

There's a reusable cup scheme in my local large town. A number of the independent coffee shops are members. You pay initially for the cup (they're all the same) and each time you go for a coffee you take your dirty cup back, hand it over and get another one. So the cafe still does the washing up, it dispenses with disposable cups but it's not your personal cup - just a scheme cup. Gets over your problem OP.

I'm not so sure you get it.

The same staff do clear tables then serve customers. They are not washing their hands every time they touch a dirty plate before then serving again.

I

Has no one ever offered to rinse it out for you? Most places I go, they say something like 'would you like me to rinse it out first?' or just do it automatically. If I'm having the same drink twice (normal), I usually don't clean the cup in between unless the coffee came with a napkin, in which case I'll use that to wipe it. If I'm having a different drink the second time, I'll probably rinse the cup out in a loo somewhere because not everywhere offers to clean it for you, but most do.

Otoh, I wouldn't clean the coffee mug at home in between cups, I just use one coffee and one tea cup for a day and put them in the dishwasher at the end of the day, so clearly my standards are low.

I am confused by the “separate areas”. I use a reusable cup. I give it to the coffee maker who makes coffee in it. How is it different if they rinse it first?

Nothing wrong with asking.

I was on a training course yesterday. The cafe had a sign saying their staff weren't allowed to touch reusable cups for "health & safety". They made up the drinks in a jug and then poured them into the open cup, then you took them. So they wouldn't be allowed to rinse the cup out. Not sure if that's a left over covid thing or always been the case.

Imagine working in a coffee shop and being so precious you won't touch a used coffee cup . Honestly, get a grip.

@HedgehogintheFog I normally rinse in the sink in the loos if I can, partly so I'm not accidentally dripping in my own bag but I would equally ask a worker if they could rinse for me. If they won't then they won't.

Clearly I'm overthinking it. It's not gross to rinse it in a toilet sink - although not the actual toilet, which I now realise my original statement could be interpreted as! I could also rinse it with water from my bottle outside as long as there's a handy plant to chuck the water in. I should get over the embarrassment of handing over a not-sparkling-clean cup and perhaps say something like, "It might need a quick rinse if that's okay?" 😁Thanks for all the help!

if i'm out all day i carry a bottle of water with me, so I'd use that water to rinse it out. You can do that in the washroom but the idea of my cup being open in there grosses me out.

IME cafes are happy to rinse it before they use it for your coffee. Many places offer to. Those saying you shouldn't ask, people don't want your cup etc , well maybe some places have very stringent Covid/H&S rules in place, but I wouldn't think of that as the norm at all.
If in doubt, just ask nicely.

So - if the goal is to reduce waste and most people use reusable cups - are the staff of costa ect going to be happy potentially standing there washing up a steady stream of dirty cups before they serve?

And are we all happy to wait while they do it?

@Laiste How is that in any way similar to what OP was asking? A quick rinse of an already used cup while they wait for the coffee to drip through, or the blender to stop is hardly standing there doing the dishes!

The staff of Costa have been rinsing out people’s reusable cups for them for years now. The company positively encourages people to use reusable cups.

I worked on my own in a coffee shop and the dishwasher and sink were next to the coffee machine.

Was always happy to rinse out cups