One post tagged with "there-was-soap-in-my-coffee"

Through an almost Rube Goldberg-like series of events, there was soap in my coffee. Unfortunately, I was too tired that morning to realise this until I had drunk nearly an entire large mug. People were drivelling on about something in the zoom meeting I was in, but this seemed like a much more pressing issue – I had just drunk an entire mug of soapy coffee. Would I be ok? Did I need to call someone? Are there people for this? My stomach was starting to feel upset. I went to the kitchen and had two glasses of water.

My first suspicion was that the mug might have somehow gotten soap on it, so I got a new one and poured myself a new mugful from the plunger. Without thinking, I took a large gulp. Still soapy. Two more glasses of water. I took the plunger and mug of coffee to the kitchen and, as much as it pained me, poured it all down the sink.

Ahhh, I remember. I had spilled some laundry detergent in the sink the day before while my plunger was in there. But I thought I rinsed it properly? Apparently not.

I use a small bottle with a pump mechanism for my laundry detergent; it makes it easier to carry to the laundry room in my apartment building and dispense into the machines. But, I recently bought a new kind of detergent – some ultra-concentrated stuff. This brand was much less viscous than what I had previously and had a habit of dripping out of the nozzle when the temperature changed. It was especially bad the day before and was dripping on my hands while I was walking back from the laundry room. Not wanting concentrated laundry liquid on my hands for too long, I hurriedly placed the still dripping bottle in the empty sink next to my plunger and went to wash my hands. I guess that was all it took for it to get into the plunger and cause my coffee to be soapy. It is ultra-concentrated, after all.

I made myself a milk coffee in yet another mug and went back to the Zoom meeting. I hadn't been listening to anything. I had no idea how much soap I had consumed, but my stomach felt so uncomfortable. Surely there must be someone I should call? Or check-in with? The milk coffee made me start to feel better.