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When a plastic cup just isn't enough
By adamg on Tue, 07/09/2013 - 8:20am
There's been an outbreak of young folks sipping their iced coffee from Mason and pickle jars as they ride the Green and Red lines.
Matt Aromando tweets from the Green Line:
This is the most Allston thing I've seen in a while.
Hnasko replies:
Hipster with pickle jar full of iced coffee spotted on MBTA at Kenmore. Not just an allston phenomena.
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Comments
Cuppow
Turns any mason jar into a sippy cup.
makes sense
I have one too, it's convenient, I suppose it's "green", and places like American Provisions in Southie will fill your cup for just a buck if you bring your own.
You could also mention the local company that started this phenomenon, www.Cuppow.com They make plastic coffee cup style lids that fit on mason jars.
"Makes Sense"
Because there isn't thousands of other reusable cups you can use without looking like a complete asshat! I'm assuming you own one.....
"I have one too"
I think that qualifies him as an owner.
Canning
I have them for canning too (yes, that makes me both old-fashioned AND a hipster. Go figure.) and it's nice to have another use for them.
I'm not sure I understand how
I'm not sure I understand how drinking coffee from a glass jar makes one look like an "asshat", but I guess I don't really care either since I'm still drinking my coffee from a glass jar, and saving ~$2 per fill.
> and saving ~$2 per fill or
> and saving ~$2 per fill
or you could brew your own at home and save a lot more. don't try to make this about saving money. we all know you just like to look cool by drinking it out of something quirky.
A paper cup doesn't cost $2,
A paper cup doesn't cost $2, even if you include trash externalities. So this is all marketing nonsense.
Design parameter
Does the lid have an air hole to prevent vacuum-induced coffee splashback? There's nothing as un-hip as coffee stains on your clothes.
Yes
As a matter of fact, it does.
Excellent
i want one.
Fill it with what?
Quail eggs, arugula or artisan goat cheese?
Dont' forget...
...the bacon!
"Yeah right"
"fill your cup for just a buck " There's not one item in this overpriced Yuppie Stop & Shop that can be had for less than ten bucks.
I was in college 5 years ago
I was in college 5 years ago and I did an interview with a piercer, he came in that morning drinking coffee from a used salsa jar.
mexican hipster?
.
Red Bones is full of hipsters
Red Bones has served drinks in mason jars for as long as I've been going there (10 years?) Does that make everybody there a hipster?
drinking out of mason jars is
drinking out of mason jars is also a southern bbq thing
Yes, I thought I was the only
Yes, I thought I was the only one who has seen this before and some time ago. Not new, at least in other parts of the country. I've always considered it a southern thing. I've seen Iced Teas served in mason jars.
Mason jars
Yes, drinking out of Mason jars is common in the south and at BBQ joints all over. Sippy cup lids on Mason jars is kind of a different thing, though.
Hipsters or rednecks
The mason jar use for beverages has a history. Moonshine was often sold in mason jobs. I've even seen clear, Everclear type grain alcohol sold in mason jar packaging at liquor stores. So, Dukes of Hazard fans, drink up!
Adult sippy cups and bicycles are just logical progressions from adult pacifiers popular at raves. Eventually, you get to wear Depends.
Uh yeah...ok.
Rave paci's-->bikes-->Depends. Another magnificent display of logical thinking.
The common thread is juvenile nature
Baby pacifiers, sippy cups, bicycles are all children's things in order of increasing age. Near the endpoint of the sequence are Depends. Sorry, its a math and comp sci thing to recognize sequences.
Children's things
All these thing you name are culture and not nature.
Bicycles are not even culturally "children's things" and never have been.
Its an epidemiology thing to recognize patterns and sequences and identify and incorporate confounding information from sociological information.
Also, I have noticed that my bike has two drink holders, neither of which are suitable for adult sippy cups. Meanwhile my car has eleven sippy cup holders. The number of cup holders in cars increased quite quickly when the adult sippy cup became popular. Most strollers have these cup holders too, now.
Pattern Recognition
You noticed a pattern, but I disagree with your connection and conclusion. You implicitly call bikes childish thus the large numbers of ride a bike regularly and also imply that the growing interests linked to our generation is increasingly immature. Thus anyone under ~35 is insulted and the cyclists are doubly so (and you know how many are here).
I'm not going to just flaming with reasonably assumption as a passive-aggressive backhanded insult because you taking real developments. A few weeks back, I was talking with a friend about generation gaps, and we did notice many gaps was over things the older generation view as "for kids" (we noted several areas, mentioning other stuff would require large digressions to write about it, so I'll just have to write a quick high-level sentence at the end). And it is reasonable to think about that the timing would indicate that the cyclists of today were existing as kids who were biking back then too.
However, we didn't conclude immaturity. It is not because of a subset of a generation who refused to let go of bikes (and other raised during the generation). There is rational and functional utility in bicycles. If one can get to work, attend some event, or do errands faster (or easier/enjoyable) by bike than other modes - why shouldn't it be used?
Thus, what you see is a generation gap (bikes and other stuff we noted - the sippy cups and pacifiers are from subcultures and should not be linked to the broader generational new interests, you cannot disagree unless we start seeing sippy cups and pacifiers used outside the attention-seeking hipster and raver respectively). Bikes have its functional uses that's drives to many to use it and thus demonstrate more than just some irrational immaturity you implied. My friend and I linked to other stuff too and the majority of its evidence to against concluding childhood retention is how those things are being used and consumed now.
And yes, Markk. I think you are parting of that generation gap. While you noticed you bike before and everything, your pattern recognition failed because you did not take account all the motivators of the users, scale (I linked bikes with broaded generation-wide stuff, not the sippy cup jars and pacifiers), and the way it is used/consumed.
Diapers also used by young and old
Yes, bikes, like diapers have utility for both young and old! You realize I am just pulling people's chains here? Bikes are considered appropriate and good for children while operating motorcycles or cars in traffic are for adults. Juice in a sippy cup for all ages; with alcohol, only for adults - damn, sippy lids would help keep drunk people from spilling drinks!
What I find interesting are how things of the 6 year old inner child persist in adulthood. Behaviors on a bicycle at a 6 year old level are one example of a NLP type anchor associated with bicycles established then, coming through during adulthood, even if subconsciously.
Behaviors of drivers are another. By kindergarten, sharing, waiting one's turn in line, and fairness are important lessons on how to get along with other people and have friends. The situation where road rage is often triggered is when one driver passes another. This is in effect, cutting in line. The inner 6 year old gets mad. When bicyclists pass waiting traffic, and especially only to run a red light, the inner 6 year old is infuriated in some people.
This is why lane splitting by motorcyclists is not allowed in Mass, not because motorcyclists (or scooter riders) can't tell if they have enough room or not. Since lane splitting by motorcyclists was disallowed, they were hated less, doored less, and had fewer drinks thrown at them. Understanding human psychology should be used when deciding if motorcycles or bicyclists are allowed to lane split or not, and if those vehicle operators want to provoke less contempt.
Your Joking Skills Needs Work
If you're yanking, then you're just trolling, not making a humorous observation. You know your past posts would indicate you're just backhandedly insulting cyclists and the generations younger than you.
I think lane spilling with motorcycles have enough safety justifications than just habits formed from early childhood. How much we value safety (or should) can be debated. Perhaps the few things damaged/people hurt from motorcyclists lane spilling is overvaluing safety (other countries and even looking in US history shows other possible mentality willing to trade more safety). But at least lane spilling have a decent safety argument.
Its funny cuz bikes are
Its funny cuz bikes are stupid, haw haw haw.
There's a reason why people use pacifiers at raves
Rave pacifiers exist to serve a practical purpose: one of the side effects of ecstasy is grinding your teeth, and so people will have pacifiers in their mouth to prevent themselves from doing that. (And people have been known to use ecstasy from time to time at raves.) Although preventing yourself from causing yourself dental harm when under the influence of illegal drugs isn't exactly the most classy of activities, it's not just some crazy hipster affectation either.
Hardly a new trend, either
It was already a trite joke at a time when my now middle-aged self was still capable of staying up all night.
Of course
It was.
Far too old to be purely a hipster thing
My grandfather used to drink out of a Ball jar at most meals. Tepid coffee in the morning, iced milk at night. That was forty years ago now, or two lifetimes for the hipsters.
Personally, I don't care what other people use to drink their coffee, but I am slightly concerned that a glass jar full of cold liquid would be hard to grip securely once condensation occurs.
Your grandfather was a hipster
before it was cool.
Golden Harvest Drinking Jars
When I first set up housekeeping in the late 80s, I went to Building 19 for supplies. I bought a half a dozen of these mason-jar-like things with handles labeled "golden harvest drinking jar".
I had them for years, and used them everywhere. Didn't have a Cuppow lid for them, but I would have if they were available.
I guess I will have to add this to my and my husband's list of "hipster things we did two decades before they were hip", which also includes such things as "shopping at thrift stores" "riding fixies" "biking to brewpubs" and "seeking out local produce".
Sigh.
I have those, too
I love those jars - they were one of the things I wanted from my grandmother's kitchen when she passed away because I had such nice memories of sitting on the fire escape drinking iced tea out of them with her. I'm totally getting some of those Cuppow things for them now.
I have to say, though, if anyone is going to use a pickle jar, I hope they have a replacement lid. My mom tried to make sun tea using a pickle jar once. It did not work out.
Koozies
I need to get to work on a koozie sized for a mason jar = $$$$
Etsy already has mason jar cozies!
Tons of them. Super cute too. I thought cuppows were for kid supplies, this is exciting!
http://www.etsy.com/listing/150784303/mason-jar-co...
Hmmm...which makes more sense?
A bunch of hipsters running around with reusable Mason jars or those fucking morons who insist on putting their plastic cups inside of a styrofoam cup from Dunkie's that I see strewn all over the streets?
Travel mugs
There are literally thousands of travel mugs out there (aluminum, plastic, bamboo, glass, etc...) The mason jar aspect is only a style thing - there is zero practical advantage to using a breakable glass jar instead of something else other than to have a nice 'look at meeeeeee!' travel accessory.
I'm sure these folks will happily clean up the shards of broken glass if they drop this on the train. Oh wait...
The nearly indestructable mason jar
These suckers bounce when you drop them. You pretty much have to hit one off the edge of a granite counter to do more than chip them.
After all, they have to take the heat, thermal stress and pressure of canning. But you know that, right?
Fine
It's still a style thing pretending to be something more authentic, which is why it's funny.
Also, I've just finally realized you are the real life version of Kristin Wiig's Penelope character, although I'm sure you were doing that first, before she was.
Really
Every beverage container that is not hewn from rock is a "style thing." I do not understand why you give a fuck how people drink their juice in the mornings.
haahahahaha
haahahahaha
If you are quoting SNL sketches ...
... doesn't that make YOU a hipster? Hmmm?
There is simply no escape from pop culture ... even in irony.
There is nothing hipster about SNL
But the comparison to you is apt.
Oh, I get it
One can't be a grownup with life experience and a life because it might damage the precious and fragile self-esteem of young basement dwellers and older people who never leave their neighborhood.
Poor little bunny.
Uh no, you don't get it
Grown up people with lives and kids don't have one-up stories and snark for everything they read on U-hub.
+1 Unintentionally Hilarious
Can someone be a hipster if they don't mean to be ironic?
You mean
There are rules?
But if there are rules, they need to be broken ... at least ironically ... but if that is the rule about rules ...
(norman coordinate)
I get it too
I hope at least a few people understand that you were merely pointing out that it is really a relatively banal thing to do and in fact you have done it yourself a few times. That isn't one upmanship. It's just pointing out that it's no big deal and not new, hip, rediscovered or cool.
And the people who are doing it aren't making a big deal out of it. It's just some posters that are accusing them of being "hipsters."
Snark vs Self-awareness
Resorting to insulting posters as losers living in basements. C'mon Swirrly, you do have a comment style. A lot is comments similar to your first where you said you did everything hipster did but in the in the 80's. When people notice that pattern, you tend to go into snark and insults.
Hey, if you like to tell your personal experiences, there's nothing wrong with that. Just self-awareness (as in you do tend to write such comments) would be great (one of the reason why many get annoyed with hipsters is many seem to be completely oblivious to many "hipster-ism" and thus unable to laugh at themselves, doubly-so as hipsters love irony).
Hey, I can laugh at my own comment pattern sometimes. I can admit I tend to write overly long comments with many contesting to other posters. I'm sure there other patterns I can list or other can point out that if I reflect enough, have some truth - and I'm not going to get all wound-up about it.
Is SNL still on?....
I stopped watching when Robert Downey,Jr left.
This is the single
This is the single hipsteriest thing expressed in this thread.
Did they have hipsters
in 1986?
Only the coolest ones
who were doing it before, well... you know.
Of course
The defining characteristics change over time to stay on top of the prevailing culture but yes, hipsters in one form or another have been around for decades. And that very word has been used to describe them for just as long. Does anyone remember Ginsberg's description of "angel headed hipsters?"
And they insulate so well, too
- NOT
The mason jar aspect is only
I keep pickle/salsa jars because they are FREE (with purchase of pickles or whatever, obviously) and can easily be cleaned and re-used as a leak-proof vessel. It's not a style thing, it's a thrift thing. Also, I've used many commercially available travel mugs before and got sick of paying for things that usually leaked or got smelly. Jars don't.
I honestly don't know why people are making such a big deal about it. Have you ever witnessed one breaking in public? I haven't.
nimby
Yeah he should probably go buy one so that it stops bothering you so.
Practical advantage to using
Practical advantage to using a mason jar:
1. Unlike plastics, glass doesn't retain scent, so the jars can be used for a variety of liquids.
2. Jars are easily sealable. I can transport soup/coffee/yogurt to work easily, without worrying that something will leak/open in my bag. Can't say that about plastic containers or travel mugs.
3. The jars are surprisingly durable. I've dropped them on the tile floor in my kitchen and not had them break. Though yes, they do sometimes break. But the same is true of plastic containers when they've been in the freezer.
4. Mason jars come in easy to measure sizes, so I know exactly how much I'm consuming.
reusable beverage cups stink
Every single reusable beverage cup I've ever been given cannot be used for anything but stale coffee once it's been used for coffee once. But if I run a glass canning jar through the dishwasher, all scent of any previous beverage is GONE. I love that they're made for pouring boiling liquid into (such as when you're canning peaches), so I don't have to worry about temperature cracking the glass. On the other hand, I rarely drink coffee on the T, so you don't have to worry about thinking I think I'm hip. Unless you run into me at Starbucks with my hand-made ceramic mug...
You can have my insulating
You can have my insulating syrofoam cup why you pry it from my cold, dead hands.
insulating styrofoam cup
<<<<>>>
Haha, unless tcf098 is having a cold beverage, then you'll nave to pry the cup from his warm, dead hands!
ps, I'm still sipping ice coffee I made this morning and poured into a 32 oz. classico jar.
Yes, and I'm sure your grandchildren
will appreciate your attitude when they're using what's left of that Styrofoam cup to forage for fresh water someday.
"The Earth, plus plastic"
"The Earth, plus plastic" applies here, too.
Or, if you're a typical DD customer...
....after you throw it onto the sidewalk or street when there's garbage can and/or recycling receptacle only a few feet away.
Hipsters vs. Litter?
That is a tough one Dvdoff.....
There is a difference between
There is a difference between garbage, trash, and hipsters. Trash is technically not garbage nor garbage trash. Trash has traditionally been dry waste, while garbage has been decomposing waste (ask someone that lived in the city in the 1940s or earlier, there were different trash and garbage pickups!).
Though to be fair hipsters may be trash and full of garbage.
Depends on how you look at it
An older woman working at a kiosk in the Burlington Mall and drinking water from a jar sneered at me when I bought a bottle of water from the machine nearby.
And then there's this:
http://www.core77.com/blog/business/what_can_one_p...
WOW
A company hired people in order to conduct business and generate a profit. Holy Smokes!
The nerve!
Creating a product that some sneer at, but one that some people actually like and buy! That makes money and employs people!
Snark
Is becoming much too common on UH.
When
did you become such a bi*ch!
I come for the news
I stay for the snark
To Be Fair
They at least used to make those styrofoam cups in Leominster. That put money into the local economy, too.
I don't know if that factory is still in business.
Meanwhile,
I've been eating pickles out of a Starbuck's cup for a while now. Sometimes a Dunkin's Styrofoam cup if I want to keep the pickles colder on a hot day. Look at me, I've started a new trend! HIPSTER ALERT! NEW TREND!
i use one
to can my super organic tofu that i make with imported beans from the chines province of Qinghai.
Hipsters + mason jars =
Sipsters!
Trademarking it.
Um, you know your hipster hate
...just gives hipsters a warm, tingly glow, right?
I have one of these, and I'm
I have one of these, and I'm definitely NOT a hipster.
What I like about it is that I'm able to take a hot coffee with me (I knit a little cozy so my hands don't get too hot--I'm still not a hipster) without worrying about those leeching chemicals that are supposedly in plastic. It's dishwasher safe, and it's CHEAP!
Wait a minute
You knitted a cozy for your mason jar so you could hold it with hot coffee in it.
Therefore we know you're not a hipster because you won't suffer for your fashion?
Or because you don't have an etsy storefront for hand-knitted mason jar cozies yet?
One problem
The mason jar is already poorly sized for the standard bike bottle rack.
Yarnbombing your mason jar will only make that problem worse, although it would create more cushioning.
We need to get a local a maker community to set up a kickstarter to design and build a bike bottle cage capable of holding a yarn-bombed mason jar (or capable of holding a mason jar in a padded sort of way).
That would be hyperhipster!
PVC pipe and stainless steel
PVC pipe and stainless steel band clamps
Source for the yarn:
last month's frayed scarf that was worn daily, tightly wrapped around the neck even when it was 95F outside.
I've done this too.
I've knitted a cozy for my ball jar too. The entire thing - jar, cuppow, cozy - was cheaper than a half-decent travel mug.
I'm still confused as to why this is hipster. I don't think that term means what you think it means.
Unless it just means different than you. Then yes, it's hipster.
Sometimes practical
I went to a boat re-naming in Gloucester last summer and the ship captain had one of these.
And sometimes impractical
My friend is rocking this one all summer.
This one, sorry.
http://www.wineenthusiast.com/solo-cup-wine-glass-(set-of-4).asp?utm_source=googlebase&utm_medium=ppc&AFID=ZFRG&SRCCODE=PGGL10&device=c&gclid=CK-I_cmmo7gCFcyf4AodIB8Amg
Just the kind
of stable container to have on board.
They sell these at Brookline
They sell these at Brookline Booksmith right now. Love them!
yeah it's hipster-ish
But like many posters, we used old jars (mason, pickle, etc) as drinking cups for many years. Why? Because we broke so many glasses my parents refused to buy new ones. Yeah we could have bought plastic cups but why do that when every week you'll end up with 2-3 empty jars? You break the jar? who cares, you'll have another empty jar soon enough.
I think the association with certain things with hipster-ism is just their knack for taking something people have done for decades and just started making it hip again. IMHO the whole point of hipster-ism is taking old and making it new again
(i.e. plaid fashions, corduroy, PBR, Mason Jars, Vinyl, etc are just things that only a decade ago that young 20-something crowd wouldn't be caught dead wearing/seeing/doing/drinking. Now it's hip again. Its similar to that 60s craze that happened in the early 90s. What is old is now new again)
Hold the phone...
I'm a 20-something and I still wouldn't be caught dead drinking PBR. Some things just can't be hip-ified.
Neither would I. In my 20s we
Neither would I. In my 20s we bought PBR cuz you could get a 12 pack for 2.99 (in New Hampshire). That was the ONLY reason. It was either that or Natural Light, MadDog or Boones. (all equally gross)
I've moved up in the world into the land of craft beers.
PBR is not a bad lager
It's pretty good for the style of beer it represents. Is it an unfiltered hefe, a Belgian white, a craft IPA? No, but it's still a decently made American/Euro pale lager. There's no need to look down your nose at it. I'll drink it, especially with food or on hot summer days, because it's light and goes down easy. My favorite style beers are IPAs, wheat/yeast, and Belgian whites. I love stouts, porters and brown ales,too. But I don't look down my nose at pale lagers.
And it's inexpensive. Nothing wrong with that, either.
plaid fashions, corduroy,
plaid fashions, corduroy, PBR, Mason Jars, Vinyl, etc were all popular with 20 somethings ten years ago.
Welch's grape jelly used to
Welch's grape jelly used to come in jars that became drinking glasses,
Welch's Celebrates 25th Jelly Jar Series With Limited Edition Pokémon Set
47 Year Tradition of Featuring Cartoons on Collectible Glasses Chronicles Pop Culture Icons of American Childhood
http://www.welchs.com/about-welchs/news/welchs-cel...
Jelly jar glasses
We still have (and use on a daily basis) an almost complete set of Peanuts-themed mini-jars -- as juice glasses.
I have them
because I preserve things and we use them for glasses as well. A hispter I am not - is that ironic? lolol.
Remember the jelly jars in the 70's? I loved when we finished our jelly and then we had a free glass! We had the ones from McDonalds as well... wasn't there a scare that they had lead in them? I think my parents were trying ot off us - can't says I blame them!
How to get 100+ comments on a UHub topic
Post about any one of the following topics (but super bonus points if you can combine them) and watch your comments' section grow! Just add trolls!
1) Cycling
2) Parking spaces
NEW! 3) Drinking out of mason jars
And on the other hand..
If you want to get zero comments, mention violence in any neighborhood where there isn't a Starbucks and then listen to the crickets chirp.
Slight exception to the rule
If said violence happens on a street that is considered to be in Neighborhood A by some commenters, and in Neighborhood B by others, you can expect some lively discussion on where exactly the violence occurred.
Chinese Hipsters
If you travel there you see tons of people drinking tea out of similar ex-disposable glass containers. Note that the Chinese drinkers are most definitely not being style conscious.