"Here can you hold this for me?" I said, while handing my daughter my glass straw. Then as I started to fill my bulk containers, I heard: Ping ping ping It was the sound of my glass straw hitting the concrete floor (at Tidal Creek). I cringed thinking the worst. Ok, I wasn't panicking or anything...Glass Dharma has a lifetime guarantee... so no need to fret... but still I cringed just the same. Then as I leaned over to pick it up... I noticed that it was perfect... absolutely perfect. No cracks, no chips... no nothing. :) If you've been following along, I have been saying "no thank you" to plastic straws for quite some time now... and it's been almost a year since I committed 100% to not accepting plastic straws (no ifs ands or buts)-- even in my smoothies. Yup, from August to May I had at least one smoothie a week and not one of them was drank with a straw. That is until I participated in the Glass Dharma Earth Day Letter Writing Initiative... and got me some glass straws. When I first got my glass straws, I was super excited... my kids and I popped them into our waters and fun ensued. Seriously, it had been so long since we drank from straws that we forgot how much fun it was to sip, sip, sip....
Now I'd like to tell you that I take our straws with us everywhere and use them all the time, but to be honest.... I'm really really bad at remembering to take them when we go out to eat....UNLESS, of course, I'm getting a smoothie.
Admission: I have an addiction to smoothies. Seriously. I sip and slurp up A LOT of smoothies with my glass straws!
....Says the girl who always says, "I don't need a straw." ;)
Now that I officially have a major thing for glass straws... thanks Glass Dharma!! I feel this need to share them with everyone. It's fun to say "glass straw" and see people get very intrigued. BUT... even better than that is giving them to family and friends! They are definitely my new favorite thing to gift. When my family came out to visit for my birthday, I ordered a bunch of glass straws and gifted them to my family. Days after getting home (to Iowa), my aunt made my cousin a thick milkshake... and sent me his response. Thumbs up! His favorite feature was something I hadn't even thought of: The glass straw doesn't go flat like a plastic straw! Woot!!
While Bushwalla was staying with us, he came home with a drink with a plastic straw...yikes!... I asked "what's up with the plastic straw??". ...and then, being the person I am...I couldn't let him go around using plastic straws. Friends don't let friends use single-use disposable plastics. ;) Without hesitation, I said, "I have something for you" and gave him one of my glass straws. He immediately started using it... and a month later is still using it!!! Most recently during his live and online show at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf he talked about reducing the amount of plastic he uses and showed off his glass straw! Yay Yay Yay!! Go B!!! (another ripple effect in progress)
Ok... so it's been 3 months since I got my first glass straw. I'm super grateful that Glass Dharma asked me to participate in their Earth Day letter writing initiative because thanks to the glass straw I'm back to sipping my drinks... slurping up the end of my smoothies... taking my kids to get fun things like root beer floats... all while still encouraging others to kick their plastic straw habit. :)
Hmmm... it's still early... I think I need to go make me a smoothie... ;)
I use a stainless steel straw because I was worried about the glass one breaking. But my straw is too narrow for smoothies - it just doesn't work. Those glass ones look much wider, though. I'll have to pick some up!
ReplyDeleteThoroughly enjoyed your article. Well done!
ReplyDeleteI too was always afraid glass straws would break. I'm glad you wrote this- now I know they are nice and durable! I also purchased some stainless steel ones from Sur La Table for my sister in law recently, and she has given them rave reviews.
ReplyDeleteI'm been thinking of getting one, but I have a fear that if I use it in a restaurant, the server will take the cup when I'm not paying attention, and just dump it, not realizing it's glass until it's too late.
ReplyDeleteDanielle, I love this post! I just got five glass straws as gifts on my birthday, and I'm so happy about them! However, although I usually can avoid receiving a plastic straw, I still get them from time to time. Usually the problem is that the server is so used to just sticking a straw in the glass, that even when I ask for no straw, they put one in there without thinking. Most recently this happened at a busy ice cream stand, where the young workers were running around like crazy trying to keep up with the crowd. How do you get around this problem?
ReplyDeleteWow! I never heard of glass straws. Thanks to your article, I just checked out the glass dharma website and am planning to get a set of straws for my kids (and a smoothie one for me). One plastic thing out of my house, many more to go! Thank you!
ReplyDeleteHey everyone! Thanks so much for reading and commenting!! :)
ReplyDelete@desivalentine The smoothie straws are super wide! My son used one to drink a root beer float and he was able to suck up the ice cream!!!
@Margaret We've taken our straws out to eat with us a few times. Since I like to show off my straws one of the first things I do is show it to the server. I will say that I was fearful that I would forget one (remember I have kids!), so as soon as they were done I took them out of their drinks.
@Ellen YAY for you being gifted some glass straws!! It is very hard to avoid straws when servers are busy. I find that if you get them to repeat it to you then they're more likely to remember. I usually say it once when I order my own drink then when I order my kids drinks "water, in regular cups... no kids cups no straws" (making eye contact to see if they are getting my request)... then if I think they didn't get it... I say it again before they walk away! ha! I bet I'm really annoying!! Also, the more you frequent a place the more they get to know you and remember your special requests :) I haven't ever gotten a straw at an ice cream stand because we always just stick to cones so we don't have to worry about the cups, spoons or straws. hmm... that was long!! Hope it helps!