Thursday 12 September 2013

Too Hot to Handle



http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/story/2013/09/10/mb-hot-tea-coffee-burns-winnipeg-iteam.html?cmp=fbtl

 
If you are going to drink a hot drink it needs to be hot, PROPERLY hot, just like ice lollies need to be frozen and meringues avoided like the plague. Unfortunately this means hot enough to scald anyone over whom it may be spilled.

It follows that it's not a good idea to drive a car with a hot drink in a position where it might go all over you. I and many people - including this lady - do it, and I'm sure many of you do it too. But that doesn't make it sensible, or this lady right.

I say this because, while she may not be as mad as the American woman who sued McDonalds because she stuck a cup of their take-away coffee between her legs (well, you didn't expect her to DRINK the muck, did you?), she is asking - I presume on behalf of the rest of us sillies - for legislation to set take-away drink temperatures far lower than they are now.

While undoubtedly well-meaning, I think she is wrong.

I'm not a dermatologist but I suggest that any coffee or tea that is too cool to scald will also be too unpleasant to drink.

In fact, if I may speak as a confirmed silly and therefore among the majority she wants to save, I have enough problems with lukewarm Costa and Starbucks coffee as it is and don't want tepidity made compulsory for me and other hot beverage lovers on account of my and your stupidity. In short, it is we and not the law who need reforming, and good coffee should be left alone for both fools and the wise to enjoy.

That said, I intend to continue to drive while drinking hot coffee, and to be fully responsible and red of both face and groin if I get scalded as a result.

But I won't be suing anyone, and I won't be asking the government to do my thinking for me either.