UPDATE: Dunkin' Donuts Mystery Lid Design

It's been several years since the last Dunkin' Donuts Mystery Lid post and I feel the need to look into this mysterious Dunkin' Donuts lid once again.

I have just one question that drives me NUTS about these lids: WHY???? Why is there such a need to overdesign such a simple, utilitarian object, the lid of a to-go cup?

Since I have lots of time to kill, I visited the Dunkin Donuts website and looked around to find some information that would satisfy my curiosity. First of all, I was wondering if they use the same lid for tea and other hot drinks of theirs. For this reason, I visited several popular places in Orange County, NY, and John Fitzgerald Kennedy airport where hot products, coffee, tea, etc., are sold.

At JFK, every kiosk had the same type of lid for both coffee and tea. Specifically, I visited one of the many kiosks at JFK's Delta terminal 2. Here they offer hot coffee and tea, cold drinks, and donuts.

On the left side of the kiosk, you can find the hot drink cups and lids.

Here is a top view of the lid. It is exactly the same one as all the other lids I've seen around NY state.

Here are two closeup images of the mysterious lid taken with my iPhone and uploaded to my MacBook Pro Apple computer.

First, I focused on one side of the top of the lid where it says, "ATTENTION CHAUD HOT!". As an English speaking person I know what ATTENTION and HOT means. Using translate.google.com, I found out that CHAUD is French for hot. Probably they sell the same product in Canada and having it in French serves them better. The word ATTENTION is the same in English and French.

Then I focused on the other side of the lid. It states "OPTIMA FOR THERMOGUARD LOCK→". I searched for the phrase and it took me to the manufacturer of this lid, DART.

DART states that the cup and lid is,

"THE SOLUTION FOR PEOPLE WITH ACTIVE LIFESTYLES! LIFT - LOCK - RECLOSE"

"Optima® reclosable lids offer coffee drinkers a new level of convenience by providing users with a completely sealed beverage. When ready to drink, just pull the tab open and lock it back out of the way. Most notable is the ability to securely reclose the lid until ready to resume drinking, again and again."

There you have it! Use that little removable tab to seal the opening where you sip your coffee to keep your coffee nice and hot while you are running for a bus. Walking down Main street, USA, holding a hot cup of coffee is very dangerous and can lead to trouble if you decide to take a sip of coffee.

A relative of mine said that probably someone wanted to get a patent for a useless product, but I know someone at Dart made Vice President because of this lid.

Then I went to Starbucks ((NASDAQ:SBUX)) in Newburgh, NY. At Starbucks they sell a range of hot products. Just in case and you don't know anything about Starbucks, they have over 28,000 stores around the world. Their target customer is the kind that will pay anything for a strong cup of coffee. Their average customer is 42 years old often on-the-go, white collar professional that makes about $90K (ref 1).

For their hot coffee they have three separate lids and here they are shown to me by a Starbucks barista in Rehoboth, Delaware:

The lid design is simple, minimal with a sense of balance and function. After you order your hot coffee, the barista hands you a coffee cup along with the appropriate lid. Then, you go to a nearby station where you add the sweetener of your choice, milk, then stir the contents with a provided stirrer and finally close the coffee cup with the lid and then be on your way. Why doesn't Starbucks, the king of coffee, who are after the young professional on-the-go use the same DART lid? Don't they care about their customers? Won't the coffee cool down while the customer is on-the-go? Apparently that's not a concern.

Then I visited Alexis Diner, Anna's Restaurant, Rockland Bakery, Torino Bakery, and Panera Bread in Newburgh and saw the same "traditional" tops that we all use and love.

I would appreciate it if you would commented below and let me know if you have seen the mysteriously overdesigned DART cups anywhere.