Things We Love: Bringing our own coffee mugs

The only place on earth I can bring a mug from home and have it filled with the drink of my choice is a coffee shop. In fact, I am rewarded and lauded for making this choice as a steward of the environment and general good citizen.

Better yet, it doesn’t even have to be clean. The folks at Starbucks will clean my mug for me with a jet of hot water — assuming it is a mug that they have sold to me. While Starbucks discounts my bill by 10 cents, Coffee Girls and One More Cup up the ante to 15 cents.  

This is somehow more satisfying than the nickel discount at the grocery

store for bringing my own bag. (Then again, 15 cents off $2.50 is a lot

bigger deal than a nickel off my $40 grocery bill.) 

It also

doesn’t hurt that I’ve never seen a barista measure out the ounces

before filling a mug — they all seem to have a tacit understanding

that my mug is either a small or a large. And for that understanding,

they get tips that easily compensate for the cup discount.