Coffee Problem

 Before Covid-19 came along in Germany, I probably had at least three cups of coffee per week....while on the 'go'.  I'd be at a bakery and have an espresso, or sitting on some park bench with a paper-cup of coffee.  It was always in a throw-away cups.

If you haven't been in Germany in the past five years....there's this guilt-trip now being laid out....over throw-away cups.  Environmentally....it's truly BAD to use such a cup.

Back in the summer of 2019, I suspect over an entire month....there were at least ten different news segments that I viewed....letting me know about the bad nature of the throw-away cup.

So at the city-level, the state-level, and federal-level....they've been busy trying to solve this 'crisis'.  Luckily for us....Covid-19 came along in 2020 and consumed their minds more than coffee cups.

So to some factual analysis. A lot of time and effort in 2018/2019 occurred, and the PhD folks found several ways to dump the throw-away cup issue.  The first angle?  Well...charge you extra for the cup.  You'd laugh over the idea, because folks would just go and buy their own cups via some Turkish vendor, and hand it to the bakery shop lady to fill.

Then there came this idea....re-useable cups.  That came and went pretty fast.  The hygiene folks had issues.

Then came the alternate climate-friendly cup idea.  This had some potential....but it still went into the trash can, and it generally had a higher cost level.

So the new chatter?  I noticed it off SRW this morning.

The federal folks....the Environmental Minister (Schulze, SPD) wants to push this new idea.  Starting in 2023....there would be a mandate put onto coffee shops.  If you sold coffee...you have to offer a optional climate-friendly cup, and it has to be at the same cost level as the paper cup.

Then the cherry on this idea?  If you were an imbis, tiny shack-operation, or kiosk....you were waivered out of the requirement.

I sat and thought over this future-path.  No one has ever done any survey (at least I haven't seen it) to suggest where most Germans get their take-away coffee.  Kiosk coffee?  It's usually crap, and it'd be the last place on Earth that I'd buy coffee.  Same way for the on-train pub operations....their coffee is garbage.  The pretzel-stand coffee?  Usually two-star at best.

The chief problem with this whole discussion....up until thirty years ago....Germans simply didn't buy coffee on the run.  They got up in the morning....had their two cups, then exited the house, and didn't have any additional coffee until they reached the office/shop.  

I would suggest that somewhere around the mid-1990s....this coffee on the run thing started up.  Part of this goes to McDonalds offering fruhstuck (breakfast options).  Some of this goes to railway stations adding a couple of coffee shops (Frankfurt's station probably has fifteen shops now for coffee, and Wiesbaden's station offers seven).

Sitting in a cafe and having a real cup....with coffee?  It's more of a rare thing these days.  

In the end, this is a perceived problem, with no real solutions possible.  To a German, it's the unthinkable.