Relay: Gender Studies In Coffee Lids

Thursday mornings at The Star are a time to regroup. The prior week’s news and features have been neatly filed, edited, printed, and bundled. The slate is clean. And although the editorial meeting to discuss the following week is only minutes away, there is a sense of relief, ease, and release, a calm before the next approaching storm.

In this climate, more wide-ranging discussions than the local focus we take during the early part of the week often develop. Last week, David Rattray, The Star’s editor, and I were discussing a story we had heard on NPR about how scientists had genetically modified brown fruit flies to become blond and how the application could be used in the future for eradicating Lyme disease in deer ticks, malaria in mosquitos, and in other momentous ways.

It was great science-nerd stuff and fascinating, too. But then, my eyes settled on the coffee cup he was holding, or, more precisely, the lid. It was flat, one of the ones that have the pull tab that is supposed to fold down but generally sticks up in the air, hitting your nose when you go to sip from it, and that also doesn’t close again all the way, leaving puddles of coffee in the car cupholder.

My thoughts turned to my own raised lid with the tiny hole cut out of it and something a man told me in Tate’s Bake Shop a few years back when I was pouring my coffee. He said that women always choose the domed lids and men the flat lids.

Since I often go to Java Nation on my way to work and David does too, I interrupted to ask where he had bought his coffee. It turned out both he and I had stopped at the same coffee shop, were confronted with the same decision, and he had gone for the flat lid, while I had chosen my usual, the raised.

Until that moment, I hadn’t really thought about the observation of that man at Tate’s. When I asked David why he chose the flat lid, he said he just liked it better. I told him the story. He said, “That’s great. You have to write about it.” (Note to self: Do not bring up quirky observations on Thursday mornings.)

I’d like to say I’ve done extensive research on this matter and have devised some perfectly random sample for a definitive survey of this thesis with a 95 percent confidence level, but that is not so. During the editorial meeting that followed, only one other male in the office had a coffee cup. His lid was flat — a good start.

Starbucks, which determined long ago that only the raised lid would do for its coffee cups, is such a big player that it was difficult to collect much data outside of its loyal following. It really came down to just a few conversations I’ve had over the past week with local baristas and coffee merchants who provide both types of lids.

One female, who hadn’t thought about the connection until it was proposed, agreed that men tended to reach for the flat lids when there was an option. As for a reason, she suggested that women like the neatness the raised lid provides with sipping and in the car. She joked that men tend to make the same ingrained choices over and over again. The flat lid was good enough for their first cup of coffee, and that’s what they’re sticking with. After that conversation, I was sure I was on to something. The next day in Java Nation, however, both men in the store had cups with a raised lid.

Now, when I’m around town, in stores, lines, or wherever I see anyone holding a coffee cup, I look at the lid. I’d say the guy in Tate’s has a point, but there will always be outliers, creative types, lone wolves. To them and to those of any gender who make those lid choices everyday, I say vive la difference. And feel free to let us know your preference and why, because now I am intrigued.