Two Thoughts About that Thing You Put on a Coffee Cup

As I was leaving one of my favorite lunch spots the other day, I saw one of the staffers unpacking this box:


As you can see from the illustration on the side of the box, it was full of those paper sleeves that keep you from burning your hand on a paper coffee cup. This company named its version of the sleeve "Coffee Clutch." Oh, clever, I thought, it's a pun on coffee klatch, and started to take this photo.

At which point I knew I had to explain to the young woman unpacking why I was taking a photo of the box. As I started to speak, I realized coffee klatch is a term I know from childhood that I don't remember hearing used much anymore, and so instead of assuming she would know the reference, I asked her if she did.

She had never heard the term.

This prompted me to put a poll on Twitter (asking, Are you familiar with the term "coffee klatch"? Are you over or under 45 years old?). I may have set that age break too low... maybe you have to be over 50 or even 55 to know the term? I will report the findings when I get them.

Who are the people who grew up in the coffee klatch era? I think of it as a part of the Feminine Mystique world, which means it may mostly be known among the (probably white) middle and upper class of baby boomers and older Gen Xers, who had "stay-at-home" mothers. I have some vague recollection of hearing it during elementary school; maybe my mom went to a PTA-sponsored one some time? That seems like what it was.

Anyway... the Coffee Clutch holders reminded me of another memory about those objects that are called... what, exactly?

I learned their name during college, while playing the Dictionary game. (You know, the one where someone looks through the dictionary to find an uncommon word and then the players write possible definitions on slips of paper, with points awarded if other players pick your definition instead of the real one.)

One of the words we had was zarf, and I remember a definition suggested was "The sound made by a space-age dog." We really liked that answer. But the real definition was something like, "A holder for a coffee cup," and it comes from Arabic... though it also means "envelope" in Turkish.

I remember almost not believing that could be the word for something like that, except that it was right there in the handy dictionary we kept around the dorm office. At the time, paper to-go cups were not really a thing yet, let alone the paper sleeves that are now ubiquitous, so I visualized this kind:


These used to be somewhat common, right? Enough that I could call them to mind back in 1980 or so. But the original objects were more like this:


That's an antique Russian zarf. But now they have become this, a disposable (but at least recyclable) bit of consumer culture:


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Here are the poll results... of 44 responses:

16% yes, the term is familiar and I'm under 45.
57% no, the term is not familiar and I'm under 45.
23% yes, the term is familiar and I'm over 45.
4% no, the term is not familiar and I'm over 45.

I'd say that pretty much supports my hypothesis... and now I wonder how old the under-45s are who said it was familiar. (Plus I had one German respondent, who said, Of course I am familiar with this German word.)