Grounds for Complaint

Grounds for Complaint

Where does a guy have to go around here to get a refill of coffee? Not Java City, apparently. Hunter Library’s stylized delicatessen and caffeine junction is a great idea. I love the fact that I no longer have to trudge across campus for a hot cup o’ joe while writing a term paper or researching a project. Needless to say, I won’t subject myself again to the brackish, tepid, crude oil dispensed from the coffee machine in the library’s adjacent lounge for as long as I live. As for convenience, Java City rates high. I have no grudge against the quality of coffee served, the manner in which it is served, or even the prices at which it can be bought. What does percolate my discontent is the fact that they do not offer refills. What is the point of purchasing one of the stainless steel travel mugs they market if one cannot be afforded a discount while using the thing? Upon requesting a refill this afternoon, I was told I certainly could not have one, as it was against the rules, and was then served a large paper cup of the House Blend of which I was to decant into my own stainless steel Starbucks travel mug. This seems both unnecessary and redundant. One would suppose that the Java City bureaucracy has placed a veto on refills in order to make more money, but has a mandate to waste as many paper cups as possible also been issued? Good God man! Could they not have just held my mug below the stream of steaming coffee and saved the poor cup? The horror! The inhumanity! Think of the environment. Think how my dejected Starbucks travel mug must have felt. It was ostracized and denied the only function for which it exists, to receive the precious caffeinated liquid and keep it warm. No, this Seattle-spawned coffee apparatus was not treated with the dignity and respect it deserves, far from it. Avoided like a Calcutta leper, the Starbucks steel was forced to endure the cruel sight of an intermediary performing the task which was rightfully its own. And what of the paper cup? Used and scrapped at the whim of an obstinate guideline, there is no end to the inferiority it must have felt, and feels still, as it lays complacently and uselessly at the bottom of the wastebasket into which it was tossed. For Heaven’s sake, for the environment’s sake, for the coffee-drinker’s sake, and for the delicate sensibilities of coffee cups everywhere, please, I implore you, institute a refill policy at the Java City.

Travis Bugg,Java Aficionado