An Ice Test

Okay, so yesterday's trip to Food 4 Less got me thinking about the cost of food, and how much money we needlessly spend when  eating out.  So today I did sort of a drink test, an ice test if you will.

The way that it works is you get two 16oz plastic cups and fill one of them up with ice.  Then, you take your favorite beverage and fill the other cup with it as in the picture to the left.

Finally, you pour the drink into the cup with ice.  It may sound simple, but you are actually doing something revolutionary!  You are measuring the amount of your beverage that you are LOSING when you order your drink with ice.

In this example, I noticed that I still had over 50% of my beverage left over in the non-iced cup!  What this essentially means is that when you order your beverage with ice you are actually losing 50%-60% of your beverage!  So, although you may have ordered a "medium" drink, say, of about 16oz, in reality you got a "small" drink of about 6-8oz.

Now, this may not seem like a big deal given the fact that most restaurants offer UNLIMITED beverage refills, but think of THAT the next time you order drive-thru (and can't get refills).  Or better yet, when you order a glass of that expensive margarita or other favorite liquor!  How about when you grab an iced latte from Starbucks?  It can really add up!

Yes, these are the little, insignificant subtle things that companies do to make sure they get as much profit as possible, at OUR expense.  The solution, then, is to order your drink without ice... but if the thought of warm coca-cola disgusts you, then simply order it with no ice, and then ask for a cup of ice!  That will truly confuse your server and you will be entertained by the look on his/her face!  It's like ordering a burger with no onions, and then ordering onion rings on the side!  Ha!

So that was my ice test.  I hope you enjoyed it!

Ace