I love coffee. If you've been reading this blog for a while now you probably know this.

There are such hits on my blog as: <a href="http://karolinkabulgaria.wordpress.com/2009/11/30/i-love-coffee/" target="_blank">I love coffee</a> and <a href="http://karolinkabulgaria.wordpress.com/2010/03/07/coffee-stat/" target="_blank">Coffee, STAT.</a> Because really, I do love coffee. Not a little bit but a lot.

Basically when it comes to coffee I know what I like but I have no real standards. If someone claims it coffee and it looks and smells like coffee, I'll give it a go.

That's why I am more than willing to drink steaming hot coffee out of much-too-thin plastic cups.

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[caption id="attachment_3500" align="alignleft" width="500" caption="Plastic Coffee Cup"]<a href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/dsc01979.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-3500" title="Plastic Coffee Cup" src="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/dsc01979.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="375" /></a>[/caption]

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These cups scare me. For good reason.  <!--more-->First they are hard to hold with so much steaming hot liquid in them.  Second because, the liquid often causes the cup to deform. This then makes it impossible to put you cup down. You must either hold on to it while you wait for it to cool or you must try to drink it quickly. I usually aim for the second of these two options.

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[caption id="attachment_3501" align="alignleft" width="500" caption="Ug, Plastic Coffee Cup"]<a href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/dsc01980.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-3501" title="Ug, Plastic Coffee Cup" src="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/dsc01980.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="375" /></a>[/caption]

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This is because if you forget, you there's the possibility that you might squish your too hot plastic coffee cup. It's pretty easy to do as I demonstrate in the photo below. This is kind of annoying if you as me. But no one really asks me about these things so I am left to ramble about it on my blog.

Of course, Bulgarians seem to drink coffee out of these plastic cups all of the time without hesitation and without incident. This gives me pause and makes me wonder: <em>are they superior coffee drinkers</em>?

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[caption id="attachment_3502" align="alignleft" width="500" caption="Ug, Gulp, Gulp, Plastic Coffee Cup"]<a href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/dsc01981.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-3502" title="Ug, Gulp, Gulp, Plastic Coffee Cup" src="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/dsc01981.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="375" /></a>[/caption]

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This seems supremely unfair but highly likely. It seems like a skill set that Bulgarians have a acquired out of necessity which for a myriad of different reasons never developed in the States. Namely, there's no way an extra hot no foam grande sugar free vanilla latte would fit in one of these little cups.

So while I generally fear drinking from these too-hot slightly melted plastic cups, I also dig it. Probably I feel like I earning some serious coffee-drinking street cred in the process.