# What are those little plastic sticks for at Starbucks? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 27, 2013, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-those-little-plastic-sticks-for-at-starbucks/654094 "2013-03-27T12:59:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2013, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-those-little-plastic-sticks-for-at-starbucks/654094/21 "2013-03-27T19:00:46Z")
> [@patrician](#): > > I’m talking from NYC to Boston corridor. I regularly get a vente size thing with foam - depending on the time of day it might be a macchiato (not sweet), or a latte, and **I never use a stick and I drive - no foam problem**. a solution for which there is no problem in my opinion. I just don’t see how that’s possible. Until Stabucks started using/issuing stoppers, there was no way to avoid spills and splashes in my cars. I have had FIVE different aftermarket “spill-proof” cups I bought trying to fix the issue and they all failed - the stuff could not be contained (two cups actually broke). My Boxster _still_ has coffee behind the speaker grill on the passenger door from the time they didn’t have any, and I carry spares in both of my cars now in case they ever run out again. I’ve had cars with aftermarket cupholders, cupholders mounted on the center console, dash, air vents - ten different cars in all - and the cups just wouldn’t stop spilling. There was no suspension so soft, road so smooth, driving style so tentative and ginger that I wouldn’t end up wiping Starbucks off some surface of the car. The stoppers have resolved the fluid dynamics engineering problem of our age. ---
**Author:** ![DiosaBellissima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@DiosaBellissima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiosaBellissima)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2013, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-those-little-plastic-sticks-for-at-starbucks/654094/22 "2013-03-27T19:18:14Z")
> [@NitroPress](#): > > Well, then. Ban the sploosh sticks, then. Fuck that, the stoppers are awesome. Do you know how annoying it is to try to walk into work, juggling a purse, a briefcase, client paperwork, and your coffee, to have your coffee sploosh out on your suit? No matter how carefully you walk, no matter how delicately you hold that fucking cup— SPLOOSH. Those stoppers are amazing. And if your Starbucks doesn’t have them out-- just ask. Sometimes the baristas will have them tucked in a holder next to their set up, rather than sitting out for folks to grab. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2013, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-those-little-plastic-sticks-for-at-starbucks/654094/23 "2013-03-27T19:53:53Z")
I always ask for the splash stick unless I am going to be drinking it right there. ---
**Author:** ![Southern\_Yankee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/southern_yankee/32/2800_2.png) [@Southern\_Yankee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southern_Yankee)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2013, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-those-little-plastic-sticks-for-at-starbucks/654094/24 "2013-03-27T20:56:04Z")
Those things make great tools for (fairly) safely digging out ear wax. I know, I know, I shouldn’t put anything in my ears. But one day I had a terrible itch deep in my ear canal at work, and there it was, on my desk. The good thing is that the business end is rounded, and flat, so when you carefully jam it in your ear, you can twist it around and scoop out any excess wax rather than pushing it further in. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2013, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-those-little-plastic-sticks-for-at-starbucks/654094/25 "2013-03-27T21:46:21Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Did [Lieutenant Starbuck](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/85/StarbuckSystem.jpg) have a specific question? > > I always wanted to know where he got those damn fumerellos from. He was a spaceman on a science fiction show. Obviously, he got in his time machine and came forward to the 20th century to steal a box of them from [George Peppard.](http://www.greenandgoldrugby.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/George_Peppard_Hannibal.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2013, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-those-little-plastic-sticks-for-at-starbucks/654094/26 "2013-03-27T22:44:34Z")
Local (to MI) chain Biggby uses short straws (maybe full size straws cut to smaller length?) folded in half for much the same purpose. Works really well. Anyone who thinks this isn’t a problem or doesn’t need solving, sorry, you’re wrong. Coffee splashing out in the car is a danger that is all too real. ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2013, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-those-little-plastic-sticks-for-at-starbucks/654094/27 "2013-03-27T23:07:16Z")
In all my years of coffee drinking, I’ve never seen one of these. I wonder if they have regional popularity and they’re just not popular here for some reason. I’ll have to ask about them next time I’m at a Starbucks. I’ve had a sploosh happen a couple times while walking, but it hasn’t been a regular enough thing to think/know it’s a problem for a lot of people. Something new every day! ---
**Author:** ![DiosaBellissima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@DiosaBellissima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiosaBellissima)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2013, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-those-little-plastic-sticks-for-at-starbucks/654094/28 "2013-03-28T06:00:46Z")
I quite literally asked for and received a splash stick last time I was in Chicago and got coffee. I remember because I made my grandmother wait in the cold as I ran back to get it, proving once again that I am the greatest granddaughter in the world. ---
**Author:** ![rat\_avatar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rat_avatar/32/255_2.png) [@rat\_avatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rat_avatar)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2013, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-those-little-plastic-sticks-for-at-starbucks/654094/29 "2013-03-28T06:12:33Z")
Crazy…I live in Seattle and thus am too snobby to go to Starbucks anyway 🙂 but I wonder if they do limit where these are distributed at. I have been to the original store several times with out of town guests over the past year and unless I am just oblivious these were no were to be seen. But they let us order a “tall” or a 12oz here too which is not true in most of the ones I have visited in other parts of the country will not accept as a valid request. We do have some pretty strict recycling requirements for to go food containers, maybe you have to ask for them here. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2013, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-those-little-plastic-sticks-for-at-starbucks/654094/30 "2013-03-28T06:36:23Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Exactly. It isn’t that much of a problem for black coffee, Really? I get only black coffee, and sometimes it shoots out from careless handling. I’ve never seen one of these things, but really, it would be pretty obvious to me what they’re for. ---
**Author:** ![KinkiNipponTourist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e9bcb4/32.png) [@KinkiNipponTourist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KinkiNipponTourist)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2013, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-those-little-plastic-sticks-for-at-starbucks/654094/31 "2013-03-28T09:33:01Z")
I don’t have a cite on hand, but my impression is that they started here in Japan. US friends/coworkers used to ask me to bring them when I visited the US. I asked a barista once (this is going back 5 years or so) whether he knew whether the US would ever get them, and he said they were Japan-developed. ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2013, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-those-little-plastic-sticks-for-at-starbucks/654094/32 "2013-03-28T11:33:12Z")
Wow. I learned something today. I always just assumed they were for helping mark the coffee. I.e, “the one with the stick has the double shot of espresso.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-those-little-plastic-sticks-for-at-starbucks/654094.md?page=1)