Starbucks, Intelligentsia, Stumptown and dozens of other U.S.A. coffee companies have followed Asia’s example by serving takeaway cups in light of COVID-19.
BY KATRINA YENTCH
BARISTA MAGAZINE ONLINE
Feature photo by Rainier Ridao for Unsplash
When COVID-19 first swept through China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and other Asian countries in January, cafés immediately mobilized into emergency mode—this included banning the use of ceramic mugs and personal cups. Over the last week, coffee shops across the United States have taken many similar measures on sanitation to make sure that cross-contamination does not happen inside their spaces.
In addition to Starbucks locations across the world, Portland, Ore.’s Stumptown Coffee has suspended the use of personal cups at their locations across the United States. They’ll still honor their discounts for personal cups brought into cafés, but will continue to serve all drinks in takeaway cups. More statements on Stumptown’s heightened cleanliness procedures can be read here.
Intelligentsia, Chromatic Coffee, and George Howell Coffee have also enacted similar policies toward personal mugs; Intelli, Chromatic, Blue Bottle, and Stumptown have also canceled all public cuppings for the time being.
Bay Area roaster Blue Bottle Coffee has closed all U.S. locations indefinitely. They will still be paying their employees full rates and providing health insurance. Blue Bottle will reassess the closure in two weeks. To read the full statement, click here.
Nossa Familia in Portland, Ore., remains committed to keeping their cafés zero-waste at a time in which America’s carbon footprint will likely heavily increase. “While health, safety, and sanitation are absolutely our highest priorities right now, we also believe that sustainability and sanitation are fully compatible—it just requires a bit more creativity,” says Karen Lickteig, director of sustainability for the company. “We definitely considered going the easy route and using all to-go cups, but that didn’t seem right to us, or in line with our values and all the progress we’ve made.” In an email to patrons, Nossa Familia confirms that their baristas will also not handle personal mugs at their cafés. The company will continue to serve beverages in their own ceramic cups. However, in regards to personal mugs, the following procedures will be followed:
- You may still bring in your personal mug, and we will continue to honor our regular 25-cent discount. Instead of making your drink directly into your cup, we will pour your drink into a special, separate container designed for easy pouring that can then be used to transfer to your own mug.
- We can continue to dispense drip coffee into personal mugs by pouring directly from our server to your cup—we will take extra precautions not to cross-contaminate spouts and surfaces.
- We will no longer be able to directly handle, clean, rinse, or pre-heat personal mugs.
Nossa Familia is using products that were already on hand, so it has been a low-cost strategy with positive feedback thus far. To continue reading Nossa’s full set of actions around coronavirus and personal cups, head here.
If you are a barista, manager, or business owner still deciding what to do about ceramic mugs, it is likely that you’re also considering the impact that this will have on your paper goods orders.
If this is the case, find your own way to incorporate a handful of measures that other businesses are taking. If it’s too costly to increase your takeaway cups or if it disrupts your commitment to sustainability, consider offering pastry gloves for your staff. These are much more readily available, come in sets of 500, and are a little less out of stock than hand sanitizer and soap at the moment. However, be sure to change out these gloves regularly, as they are ineffective if you touch things other than the used mugs while wearing them.
Encourage employees to bus tables by picking up mugs by the handles, not the tops where mouths touch the cups, and sanitize your bus tubs when you take the used mugs out of them, too.
For consumers in the United States, the question of whether businesses will stay open or not is up in the air, but for now, continue to patronize your local café. Tip well, and recognize that the service industry does not have the privilege of working from home.
