Protect your teeth and your lipstick by drinking coffee with a straw! Coffee purists may frown upon the practice because it doesn’t allow you to breathe in the aroma of the coffee; however, nearly everyone has tried it. Let’s examine the history of drinking coffee through straws, the varieties available for drinking coffee, and their benefits.
Straws Make the Leap from Tea to Coffee
In South American culture, many locals drink caffeinated mate, a tea made from the yerba mate plant. You can enjoy mate in most regions of Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Bolivia.
You will often find it served in a traditional vessel made from a calabash gourd, combined with dried holly leaves, and served with a metal straw called a bombilla. The bombilla performs the specialized function of filtering out the leaves.
The heightened popularity of corporate cafes since the 1990s made drinking coffee with a straw commonplace. But, do modern straws offer the same benefits as the decorative Sumerian straws and South American bombillas?
Let’s discuss the various types of straws available for drinking coffee, as well as their benefits.
Types of Straws for Drinking Coffee
Drinking from straws may not please the purists, especially if your cup contains iced coffee. However, in certain situations, it makes sense to use a straw to pursue your coffee habit.
You can also drink hot coffee with a straw to avoid certain side effects. Discover all of the different types of straws for drinking both hot and cold coffee below.
- Silicon Straws – Easily bendable, child-friendly, and long-lasting
- Reusable Metal Straws – Washable, reusable, conducts the heat of hot drinks
- Disposable Plastic Straws – Inexpensive but take a couple of centuries to biodegrade
- Recyclable Paper Straws – Decomposes faster than most other straws
- Wheat Straws – Compostable and do not become soggy in hot beverages
- Bamboo Straws – Biodegradable and reusable
- Glass Straws – Reusable, easy to clean
Benefits of Drinking Coffee with a Straw
The popularity of sipping drinks through straws has lasted too long for anyone to consider it a fad. Plus, using a straw offers several benefits to coffee drinkers. Below, find some of the main advantages of drinking coffee through a straw.
Reusable
When you drink a cup of coffee, make sure you choose a reusable, eco-friendly straw. Reusable straws have positive environmental health effects and prove easy to clean. You can even carry your reusable, portable, and foldable straw with you.
Improved Hygiene
Reduce your exposure to germs by drinking your coffee with a straw and maintain your health and oral hygiene.
Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, drinking with a straw prevents your lips from coming into direct contact with a coffee cup, providing another natural defense against disease.
Easy to Drink
Drinking with a straw proves much more manageable than sipping from a cup, helping you avoid spills, preventing stains, and making it easier to swallow. Also, people with disabilities find it easier to use a straw instead of picking up a cup of coffee every time they desire a sip.
Enjoyable
Drinking your morning coffee from a straw is fun! Do not let anyone in your favorite coffee shop tell you to stop blowing bubbles in your drink if it makes you happy. You can also get that last drop with a straw, but slurping may just be the final straw for people around you.
Health
By drinking with a straw, you can protect your sensitive teeth from exposure to caffeine and sugary drinks, preventing acid erosion of your enamel and the resulting tooth decay, a higher chance for cavities to form, tooth staining, as well as gum disease.
The drawback to drinking your favorite caffeinated beverage with a straw involves bloating, as a straw tends to capture air when placed in a drink.
Disadvantages of Drinking Coffee with a Straw
While drinking coffee through a straw has its benefits, harmful health effects may give coffee enthusiasts pause before trying it. Below, discover some of the disadvantages of sipping coffee with a straw.
Wrinkles
Whenever you drink with a straw, it forces you to pucker your lips. Much like cigarette smoking, the constant puckering of your lips while drinking through a straw can cause wrinkles around the mouth.
Bloating
When sipping any beverage through a straw, some air can make its way to your stomach. Depending on how many times a day you use a straw, the ingested air may cause significant bloating and discomfort.
Environmental Impact
Even if you drink through a reusable straw, this environmentally-friendly option still has more of an environmental impact than drinking from the cup.
For example, sipping with a reusable metal straw requires mining the metal, manufacturing the straw, and transporting the straw across long distances.
Conclusion
The history of drinking beverages like coffee and sugary soda with a straw goes back millennia. So, even if you consider yourself a coffee purist, you should understand that some people need to drink their coffee with a straw.
Other coffee drinkers simply prefer it to maintain their pearly white teeth and oral health. Drinking from a straw helps protect the soft enamel of your teeth from acidic beverages and will prevent cavities and discolored teeth.
It appears that drinking coffee with a straw will stick around for years to come. If you enjoy drinking your coffee with a straw, invest in a durable, reusable straw that you can use for years.
Happy Caffeinating!
