Thursday, September 16, 2010

Starbucks employee, "You're allergic to metal spoons?"

Okay so I'm at the same Starbucks as I was last time, and I ordered my usual Venti coffee topped off with a bit of cold soy milk (parve, obviously).  This time, however, the woman behind the counter takes a LARGE METAL SPOON, sticks it into my coffee, and asks me something.

I didn't hear what she said because in my mind all I heard were the "wahkwahwah" sounds like Charlie Brown's teacher used to sound like.  I couldn't believe for me, that my coffee just achieved the equivalent status of Burger King.  Obviously it was kosher still [for someone who does not keep Cholov Yisroel], but that spoon was almost CERTAINLY considered dairy (or worse, traif), and my coffee was very hot.

So I apologized and told her that due to my very strict dietary restrictions, I cannot have any metal spoons in my coffee.  I know I phrased it weird, but I wasn't about to explain kashrus to a teenage Starbucks employee.  She understood me as saying that I had some allergic reactions to metal.  I held back a chuckle, and then commented that it was that way with me and dairy as well, so not to worry.

So for the past few minutes, I've been hearing her whisper to her co-worker that "I've never heard of anyone having an allergy to metal spoons!"

Later, she asked me if I can put a wooden spoon in the coffee for her to stir it for me.  Seeing that she had an unused wooden [stick] stirrer in her hands, I told her that would be fine.

We live in a silly silly world. :)

-Zoe

3 comments:

Ahuva said...

It wouldn't be considered treif.. just dairy.

Now I have a question... Why would a reusable wooden spoon be okay and a metal spoon *not* be okay? The coffee is still definitely yad soledis (or however you spell it), so wouldn't a wooden spoon that had stirred milk into someone else's coffee be considered dairy?

Zoe Strickman said...

Ahuva, I was not clear in my description. She didn't use a wooden spoon, but a wooden stick stirrer. I agree that the issue is that a yad soledes (heated hot to the touch) coffee would transfer the taste of anything that touches it, hence it would be stam dairy [that's a problem for someone who keeps strict cholov yisroel.]

Anonymous said...

Wait - you are crying about being poor but drink starbucks regularly? You are awful.

You applied for state assistance but are still going to Starbucks? YOU NEED HELP.