My beautiful wonderful "Moose Drool" thick heavy glass large capacity (but not ridiculous 44 ounce travel version) coffee mug cracked this morning. I had just finished a cup o' joe, and went for a refill. I set the cup down, turned off the coffee pot, and poured the all the coffee that fit into the carafe to keep it warm without using electricity, leaving maybe a quarter cup in the pot.
Now I don't drink my coffee all that hot. I like to take swallows rather than sips, so I use a tiny amount of creamer and a larger amount of milk, then add the coffee. And I often need to let the coffee cool for a while before I take my first gulp. My point is that by the time I finish a cup of coffee, the coffee is slightly warmer than lukewarm, but far from hot.
Well, after filling the carafe, I opened the fridge to get the milk. With the small amount of coffee left (I was saving the rest for when I got home from the gym), I wasn't even going to use creamer. Just a tiny splash of milk. So I poured the milk -- maybe a tablespoon -- into the mug.
CRACK!
A wonderful sliver running the diameter of the base, slightly over halfway up one side, and about three quarters of the way up the other. Sadly, the placement of the crack decapitates the moose portrayed on the mug.
So what's the deal? It's not like I poured ice into a crystal bowl punch bowl here. This is a coffee mug, for Pete's sake!
So I'm a little annoyed, but mostly sad. I'm gonna miss my mug.
--Pop
Posted by Brian J. Hill (Member # 5346) on :
(((Pop)))
My condolences for your loss.
Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
I feel for you, Papa Moose. An ideal coffee mug makes the coffee taste that much better.
Posted by The Pixiest (Member # 1863) on :
I dropped my favorite coffee mug ever...
It was the perfect coffee mug for my job in IT... It had a cute little sock puppet saying "QUIT YER BITCHIN'" in big letters.
I was sitting on a work bench at a meeting and as I got up hamfistedly reached for it... knocking it on to the not-very-soft carpet. I miss my QUIT YER BITCHIN' mug... : :
Posted by Myr (Member # 5956) on :
I guess moose drool is powerful stuff O_o
Posted by Leonide (Member # 4157) on :
I know the loss is still raw, but you could always replace it.
Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :
I could send you a half-dozen or so. They might not be as cool as yours, but hey, think of the volume.
( Everybody thinks a coffee mug is such a freaking clever gift to give a teacher. )
Posted by Verily the Younger (Member # 6705) on :
Before the body's even cold? Jeez, give the man some time to mourn!
Posted by Papa Moose (Member # 1992) on :
I still have a lovely matched set of 18 Sears mugs, in addition to tons of other coffee cups, but thanks anyway, Icky. No, this one was special. And if I decide to replace it, apparently it's a party glass, not a mug. But it just isn't quite the same....
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
*blink* You were using a glass -- not Pyrex, but regular glass -- mug for hot coffee?
Uh . . . most likely, this crack has been gradually forming for a long time. The slight shock of the cold milk today was merely the finishing blow.
Posted by Mrs.M (Member # 2943) on :
Papa, I'm surprised it didn't shatter the first time you poured coffee into it - how long have you been using it?
Posted by Papa Moose (Member # 1992) on :
About four years, maybe.
And now I feel like I'm being talked out of a replacement. *snif* I miss my mug. We had good times....
Posted by mimsies (Member # 7418) on :
I've been using the same glass party mug for about 7 years now... go ahead and get the replacement (a few), if they all last 4 yrs, it is still a reasonable investment given your propensity for moose drool.
Posted by Mrs.M (Member # 2943) on :
Absolutely, you're being talked out of a new one (at least by me). Seriously, I'm having visions of you taking a sip of coffee and the mug shattering and cutting your face off.
Sorry about the graphic image, but I'm Southern and Jewish, so I'm genetically predisposed to leap to the most outlandishly horrible and virtually impossible (but my mother's friend once knew someone that had that very thing happen to her son) situation.
Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
Papa Moose. my father has been drinking coffee from his Amogerone Fire Department mug for thirty years. Naysay the naysayers I say!
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
Have you considered calling the manufacturer and seeing what they think about hot beverages in one of their mugs?
I would be less concerned than Mrs.M; however, it is not unlikely that the next one would last considerably less time. Or potentially longer -- the tiny, invisible variances in the glass can make a big difference when it comes to heat expansion.
Posted by Papa Moose (Member # 1992) on :
That sounds suspiciously like effort, rivka. Not sure I can do that. *yawn*
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
*laugh*
Because dealing with bits of shattered glass is so much less work?
Posted by Papa Moose (Member # 1992) on :
But it didn't shatter. The mug is still in one piece, in fact -- just has a very long crack in it.
Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
Papa Moose, how about this for a compromise.
Since all coffee mugs should be heated before coffee is poured into them anyway, just run hot water into it before the coffee is poured, to prime the pump as it were.
Posted by Lady Jane (Member # 7249) on :
Pops, hot coffee in a glass mug sounds very dangerous. You can't use the one that is cracked - it's blood and tears waiting to happen.
How about one of these?
Posted by Papa Moose (Member # 1992) on :
But the problem happened when I added the cold milk to the cup. Running the cup under hot water would then increase rather than decrease the likelihood of a problem again, wouldn't it?
Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
Cold milk poured into hot coffee! Are you mad!!
It happpened not because the cup was cold, the coffee hot, and the milk poured in, but because the coffee itself was outraged! Would you want a buckt of cold water poured on you when you step out of the shpwer???
OK, heat cup. Heat milk. Pour coffee in.
Posted by Papa Moose (Member # 1992) on :
Not cold milk poured into hot coffee. Cold milk poured into empty cup. Hot coffee poured into cold milk. If anybody's got a right to be upset here, it's the milk.
And after a hot shower, I run cold water for a few minutes. Otherwise I'm sweating profusely by the time I get dressed. I suppose I'd be pretty adverse to the use of a bucket, though.
Posted by Ela (Member # 1365) on :
That explains it. The cold milk made the cup even colder and more prone to break when confronted with the hot coffee.
Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
Papa Moose, the coffee is still the victim here. I know there is the Polar Bear Club and all that nonsense, but the poor coffee has to jump into cold milk.
Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
Ela, really, this is not a matter of physics. It is more of a moral question, as I see it. Marriage of hot coffee and cold milk product is a sin. Period.
[ March 16, 2005, 11:26 AM: Message edited by: Elizabeth ]
Posted by Ela (Member # 1365) on :
Liz, you are a riot.
Do you have AIM? If not you should get it. I want to be able to chat with you. Posted by Papa Moose (Member # 1992) on :
The cup broke before there was coffee in it. It broke when cold was introduced, not heat.
Liz, it's not like polar-bearing into a freezing lake. Considering the ratio of coffee to milk, it's more like stomping and splashing in a puddle. The coffee should have been having a wonderful time -- it's probably just too snooty to admit it.
Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
I may have learned this from Alton Brown -- don't quite remember. Definitely a chef-like person.
Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
Ela, I do not have AIM, because my husband repeatedly deletes it, saying it is Spyware, etc. I did have Yahoo Messenger, though.
Forget AIM, just come and visit your daughter again!
As for you, Papa Moose, there is nothing I can really say, as you are obviously entrenched in denial, and therefore in a pattern of behavior that is beyond modification.
Posted by Lady Jane (Member # 7249) on :
[ March 16, 2005, 11:40 AM: Message edited by: Lady Jane ]
Posted by Ela (Member # 1365) on :
Well, phooey on your husband, Liz.
I'd like to come back and visit again. Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
I hope you do visit soon!
As for Aim, maybe I will sneak it on again.
Posted by Papa Moose (Member # 1992) on :
<Wonders what a coffee-purist like Elizabeth would think if she found out it was flavored coffee....>
Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
Well, Papa Moose, I happen to have Dunkin Donuts French vanilla with two creams at least a few times a week. (had kids in my class do a math problem for me to figure out how much I spend a week-yikes!)
For me, it is not so much that I am a coffee purist as a hot coffeeist. Or a hottest. (no, definitely not that) I have a huge problem with most coffee makers, because they do not make coffee that burns my lips off upon sipping.
We have limey water so it might be that, though I cleaned it with vinegar. Might be time for a new one.
[ March 16, 2005, 04:48 PM: Message edited by: Elizabeth ]
Posted by Papa Moose (Member # 1992) on :
I tripped last week and dropped (and broke) my second favorite coffee mug. Wasn't even made of glass or anything. It was just made of less durable material than the floor was, apparently. It's the one Bob_Scopatz used when he stayed here (it had a Texas theme [probably why it was so big], and Bob still lived in Texas back then).
I'm now using my "Moose Munch" cup -- slightly larger than the Texas cup but smaller than the Moose Drool one. But it feels much more fragile, and it has to be hand washed, and the inside isn't a smooth surface, so getting it clean is kind of a pain.
<Still refuses to believe that "Someone" is trying to tell him "something." Thus far.>
--Pop
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
I think the message is, "Look where you're going already!"
Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
The obvious reason is that you've been hanging out with too many Mormons, and your coffee mugs are starting to get mad. Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
And yet mine seem happy and contented.
Perhaps this is because they are made of plastic and metal, not glass or ceramicware? *whistles*
Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
Hmmm. An interesting theory. Do they express their displeasure in other ways? Have you been having more spills lately?
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
Nope. And I recently got quite a bit of the coffees I like on sale, as well as some new flavors, and I found a bunch of tea latte powders at Big Lots.
Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
Well, then you haven't been hanging out with enough Mormons. We need to get together.
I have to give you back L&C, anyway. Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
*laugh* Sounds good. Not tonight, though. Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
Not this week, period. Maybe next week or the week after. We'll have to see. Posted by romanylass (Member # 6306) on :
Whoa. Brian always makes his latte in a "Working Glass", and keeps blaoming me for their breaking. Hmmmm. I use ceramic and have had the same mug for years. (It has a big chip, needs replacing).
Papa, Starbucks makes some very thick, big mugs.
Posted by MandyM (Member # 8375) on :
Your broken moose drool mug made me sad so I searched on ebay for you a new one. I could only find moose drool beer stuff, so maybe that is the answer to your problem. Stop drinking so much coffee and switch to beer.
Oh my! That's so sad. I'd be devastated if my moose mug broke, it's my favorite mug ever!
Edit: Not poking fun, I really do have a moose mug and I love it.
Posted by Anna (Member # 2582) on :
I think this thread deserves a little more polemic tone... Starbucks coffees taste like mud compared to Gloria Jean's ! *runs and hides*
Posted by kojabu (Member # 8042) on :
![[Cry]](graemlins/cry.gif)
:
![[Frown]](frown.gif)
![[Grumble]](graemlins/grumble.gif)
Everybody thinks a coffee mug is such a freaking clever gift to give a teacher. ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
![[Wink]](wink.gif)