Caffeine Rich, Time Poor
Whoever said that money makes the world goes round was just plain wrong. It’s caffeine.
But isn’t it also wrong to visit your usual coffee haunt en route to work to buy a drink in plastic packaging that, moments later, gets chucked in a bin? What’s more, because the coffee served is so hot it makes a McDonald’s apple pie seem like arctic roll, the cup invariably comes with a little cardboard sleeve to prevent your hands from getting third degree burns.
One UK coffee chain, Esquires (www.esquirescoffee.co.uk) came up with a genius solution: turning the cardboard sleeves into loyalty cards. Customers who reuse the sleeve nine times receive their tenth coffee on the house. This is a great idea considering how easy it is to lose loyalty cards in amongst all the flotsam and jetsam of everyday life. What’s more, the sleeve is made from 100% recyclable paper substrate, while the idea was the brainchild of Esquires regular Martin Prett. Big round of applause for him.
Other energy-saving ideas for caffeine-heads for whom the day doesn’t start until they’ve knocked back a Gigantico Americano include investing in a coffee flask that could eliminate the need for a plastic cup altogether. Or waiting till you get to work and (coffee snobs, look away) making a cup of instant.
If you work in one of those places where the kettle’s always on for endless rounds of tea and coffee, then why not suggest that your work invests in Tefal’s new Quick Cup? This amazingly intelligent little machine can serve hot or cool water in three seconds. And that’s not all. Quick Cup heats only the water you need and uses just a third of the energy of an ordinary kettle. If they hadn’t been busy inventing Quick Cup, who knows what other incredible inventions those boffins at Tefal might have dreamt up.
So, for delicious coffee and tea every time, we live by these three golden rules:-..
1. Boil what you need by investing in a kettle with a reliable gauge
2. For takeaway drinks, recycle your cup and cardboard sleeve
3. Remember the biscuits