- McDonald's -

i just cannot get over this

Posted by: sammy on June 01, 1999 at 18:48:56:

In Reply to: McDonald's Coffee posted by John W. Key, III on June 01, 1999 at 13:10:05:

i don't get this, any one who drinks coffee should know that coffee is made from scalding hot water.

you can't make coffee with lukewarm water. i mean look, if we go back to the time before mr coffee, coffee was made by boiling hot water on a stove and adding the coffee beans. then the coffee was poured off the top.

this is just plain rediculous, to order a hot drink and blame the restaurant because you are a clod and dumped it on yourself.

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McSpotlight: However, there is a difference between coffee served at a "drinkable" hot temperature (say 70 Celsius) and a "dangerous" hot temperature (say 85-90 Celsius). Being careless with something at 70C will hurt, but not produce anything more serious than a mild burn; whereas 85-90C liquids can cause full-thickness third degree burns in a matter of five to ten seconds.

Now, in the famous coffee case, the coffee was served between 85 and 90C (as distinct from the more usual ~70C in public food outlets). McDonald's defended this on the grounds of taste and said they had no plans to stop the practice, despite having 700+ recorded serious burns in the 10 years before the Liebeck case. That was why the jury found McDonald's guilty; they knew the effect that their habit of serving coffee at unusually high temperature had, but did nothing to alert the general public about the danger.


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