# Coffee cup: wash or rinse? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 20, 2012, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coffee-cup-wash-or-rinse/616311 "2012-03-20T13:49:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coffee-cup-wash-or-rinse/616311/21 "2012-03-20T17:27:14Z")
Am I the only one with the good taste to pick up a disposable cup of coffee at the 7—Eleven on my way in to the office? ---
**Author:** ![corkboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coffee-cup-wash-or-rinse/616311/22 "2012-03-20T17:33:04Z")
Coffee tastes better out of a ceramic mug. And it’s reusable. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coffee-cup-wash-or-rinse/616311/23 "2012-03-20T21:28:46Z")
Wowza. I’m whatever the opposite of a germophobe is, and even I’d never dream of giving a quick rinse to something that will be used communally. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coffee-cup-wash-or-rinse/616311/24 "2012-03-20T22:05:10Z")
> [@sachertorte](#): > > If it was my own personal mug that no one else uses I would mostly rinse with an occasional wash. This. > [@](#): > > If it was a shared mug, then I would wash it every time. Though reading this post I would probably switch to washing it before I used it instead. If it was a shared mug, I’d bring in my own mug, and get back to the first case. Just rinsing then placing in the dish rack? That would bother me too, even though it’s probably mostly emotionally based. But I’d probably already be avoiding the dish rack anyway. Since most people do what you do, she’s the one who needs to adjust. ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coffee-cup-wash-or-rinse/616311/25 "2012-03-20T22:19:31Z")
> [@geneb](#): > > I rinse it about once a month.. Otherwise I just turn it over on a napkin on my desk. I used to work with a couple guys who did this - except for the rinse part… They had a contest going to see how thick a coating they could get in their cups. It want on for a decade or more. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coffee-cup-wash-or-rinse/616311/26 "2012-03-21T01:46:59Z")
My own mug(my current situation): I rinse it out and use it for quite awhile. Shared mug: Wash it completely ---
**Author:** ![TonyF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9de053/32.png) [@TonyF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonyF)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coffee-cup-wash-or-rinse/616311/27 "2012-03-21T02:34:58Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > I provide my employees with a pretty nice coffee setup. This includes a grinder, fresh beans, polar water, and a drip coffee maker. We drink a ton of coffee. We have two grinders: blade and burr; a chemex, espresso machine, automatic drip, and french press; our water is filtered; and we get beans at Blue Bottle or the original Peet’s every once in a while. Typically we’ll scrub our espresso cups because the rich, syrupy shots can leave dark spots in the brilliant white porcelain. The regular cups are shaped in such a way to bring the roast’s bouquet to the nose, and consequently they are easy to scrub. We scrub because the cups are communal. I’m not trying to impress - I’m just trying to tell a story. 😃 (Honestly, I’ll hold on to a cup for a few days and just rinse it out between drinks.) ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coffee-cup-wash-or-rinse/616311/28 "2012-03-21T03:57:39Z")
I have my own mug at the office. I rinse it occasionally. Most of the time, I just pour out the remnants and refill it. I like my coffee black, the way (insert joke here). When I travel to the home office, I use a shared mug. But up there, they pay someone to put them in the dishwasher, and take them out…and put them in a cabinet labeled “clean mugs”. I can only assume they turn the dishwasher on somewhere in the process. -D/a ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coffee-cup-wash-or-rinse/616311/29 "2012-03-21T12:39:40Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > Wowza. I’m whatever the opposite of a germophobe is, and even I’d never dream of giving a quick rinse to something that will be used communally. That would be a germophile, or possibly a germophage. ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coffee-cup-wash-or-rinse/616311/30 "2012-03-21T12:41:54Z")
I have my own mug at work. It gets rinsed in hot water, dried with a paper towel and put away. Once a week or so, it gets the full treatment with the hot sudsy water. So far, that’s worked out just fine. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coffee-cup-wash-or-rinse/616311/31 "2012-03-21T14:35:40Z")
I don’t drink coffee so “neither” (though I just dump and refill my reusable water bottle), but unless those are shared mugs, rinsing should be fine as long as there’s no lipstick or something. I would imagine they’d get gross after a couple of days though. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coffee-cup-wash-or-rinse/616311/32 "2012-03-21T14:44:00Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > I would imagine they’d get gross after a couple of days though. Not in my experience. Mugs do develop a patina over time. Yearly (or so) I’ll swish around some bleach to get rid of stains. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coffee-cup-wash-or-rinse/616311.md?page=1)