People Reveal The Grossest Things Customers Do At Coffee Shops

Rule number one: don’t touch the communal milk jug.

I work from cafes most days. My regular place is good, but sometimes on my travels, I see things that make me question my caffeine addiction.

More than once, I’ve watched someone finish a glass of water and put their empty cup back in with the clean ones. So, now when I pick up a glass and it’s damp, I can’t tell if it’s wet from use or wet because it’s been washed, and I go without. It’s one of many unhygienic behaviours that seem rife in coffee shops.

Matt Woodburn-Simmons worked as a barista for years and now runs the Home Coffee Expert website. His first rule is: do not touch the milk.

In the hotter months, especially, people drink straight from the communal carafe, he said. “Full lips wrapped around it and chugging the milk while waiting for their coffee. I imagine people would rather their milk was not French kissed by a stranger before use.”

The honey is nearly as bad. Woodburn-Simmons watched people squeeze it onto a finger and lick it or wipe the drip from the nozzle and lick that, too. “Hundreds of fingers a day going onto the end of the honey nozzle is a superspreader event waiting to happen,” he said.

Shanina Knighton, an infection preventionist and nursing professor at Case Western Reserve University, can explain why the milk is so bad.

“Milk is about the friendliest thing you can hand a bacterium,” she........

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