Starbucks Debuts "Splash Sticks"

Starbucks has had enough complaints about coffee spurting from the sip holes in its lids to do something about it.

Last week, it began quietly rolling out "splash sticks" -- plastic plugs for sip holes with tops in the shape of the Starbucks siren.

Extra impetus for the splash sticks came from Starbucks' new MyStarbucksIdea.com social-networking site -- where Starbucks lovers and haters can rant or rave.

More than 200,000 votes for product or store ideas have been cast on the site since it launched March 19, says Chris Bruzzo, chief technology officer at Starbucks.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[Sundialsvc4]

I frankly think that Starbucks is wasting too much time and money with these gimmicks. Maybe the board just needs to roll a few heads until they find someone who actually knows the coffee business.

In many areas near me, I can literally look at one Starbucks logo from another. There are two stores within just a few blocks, and one looks across the street at a grocery store with a branded kiosk inside. In short, it appears that management likes to place new stores in close proximity to ... cars.

What can you do? Well, start by getting rid of the T-Mobile contract and offering honest-to-god FREE Internet. Make sure that the coffee when served is precisely 200 degrees. Make sure that those of us who like "coffee of the day" don't get burned sludge. Get rid of two-thirds of those branded products: if they don't visibly move off the shelves, out they go. Cut the non-performers from your menu. And for pete's sake, stop asking customers to order in pig-latin. A lot of the things that you've done for years are not nearly as cute as you think they are.

Good coffee. Great coffee. Not branded coffee bags piled to the ceiling at Sam's Club. Fresh coffee. Don't run "competing" brands like Seattle's Best that you quietly bought. No more stuff that's been roasted to a crisp so it lasts longer.

The ONLY thing that really matters ... comes in a cup.

[isis]

I brew my own coffee at home. Starbucks brews up really well at home. That is what we small towners do.

[LAJonathan]

Its a brilliant little invention this stir stick, that you can't use to actually stir because its too short. So, its essentially a plug. Another piece of plastic for the dump!

[JohnCochtosten]

This seems pointless and wasteful.

[Newman9]

As most engineers know well, the Starbucks lid is poorly designed. The shape of the lid amplifies the splash, concentrating the wave energy into one big squirt right out of the hole. In fact, if this is what one wanted to have happen, it is exactly how one would design the lid.

So now they have designed a band-aid. Must have learned that from the government.

[WIpatriot]

LOL...but is the hole the optimal shape and size?

[MadMadamMin]

". . . it is exactly how one would design the lid."

or a whale.

[vandegrasse]

What did they do again? What other non-story is HP pushing now?

[kae]

Yup more plastic! - and it looks about the right size to choke any and all wildlife.

[LivingStardust]

Still not buying your coffee until you pay your worker's fairly, greedy swine.

[Rockwell]

Does this mean now that when I squeeze my latte I won't get thick hot 2% all over me? I was hoping to be 85 or 90 before that happened.

[WIpatriot]

Gotta quit doin' that.

[Stucco]

More plastic? Thanks Starbucks!

[gevan]

Does this mean I don't have to cradle my cuppa with a napkin when I put it in the cup holder between the seats of mine auto?

[folksonomy]

Ha! That's exactly what I was thinking too. The napkin goes a lot further as far as usage is concerned and is more easily recyclable than a plastic green "siren" plug stirrer thingy, yeah?