It’s not clear to me how the experience designers at Blue Bottle allowed this to happen. It seems like a glaring oversight to a coffee experience you would otherwise curated and pristine coffee experience.

I’m talking about the paper cups given for water. Let me describe the experience of drinking from them.

First, I am very familiar with this cup and I suspect you are too. It’s the official cup used around the world by Dentists. It’s the cup you get to wash out fluoride and other metallic substance you shouldn’t swallow from your mouth. Doctors enjoy use of this cup as well. Its the cup seen in waiting rooms and the cup often given to you to wash down your new medication. That’s why I was suprised to see it next to my 920 yen espresso.

The cup is very small. Insultingingly small. There is little hope for hydration. It’s so small I can only comfortably fit two fingers and a thumb on it. The only smaller is its center of balance which demands careful handling. As a personal rule, the degree of care required to hold a vessel should be proportional to the quality of what it holds. This is wrong on all dimensions.

When I take the cup into my hand the walls fold in awkwardly and the water rushes upward. As I expected.

In my fingers I can feel moisture. Concerning. If the paper is watery, the water must also be papery.

I bring the cup near my mouth and the stench of paper gets stronger. Lunch bag. Cardboard. Moving boxes. Storage. It’s all coming to me now. The smell thickens. I have now long forgotten about my 7 dollar espresso. I am now fully submerged.

At this point I can’t tell if the water is good or not. All I smell is paper and so all I can taste is paper. I bring the cup down and begin to experience the water. It’s…chewy? Gritty. Like sand. Yeah. I am now drinking the paper.

I shoot tbe rest back and set it down beside my espresso. It is completely outmatched by the cup and saucer. The wrong height. The wrong texture. The wrong mass. The wrong color. The wrong smell. The wrong vibe. It’s wrong. It’s the wrong cup.

And I’m thirsty.