Sigh.
At what temp do you think 195F coffee is after poured into a cold cup and the few minutes pass between that and being served?
175F.
And it quickly cools after that. Probably 5F a minute or more. If you serve a 150F cup of coffee, it will drop to 130 after being poured and be luke warm in minutes.
However in those days a McDs coffee went into a polystyrene-type cup, probably more ideal for keeping liquids warm while travelling (isn't that what they line thermos flasks with because it's rather a good insulator? That would be in line with McD's initial assertion: )
wiki said:
McDonald's claimed that the reason for serving such hot coffee in its drive-through windows was that those who purchased the coffee typically were commuters who wanted to drive a distance with the coffee; the high initial temperature would keep the coffee hot during the trip.
[2]
While I vaguely remember my first science experiment in secondary school, I don't remember the figures and we worked in Celsius, so, citation for your figures? For it going into the same kind of cup that McDonalds used in that era?
You've also claimed that she sat in it for minutes; that she wasn't able to move. Citation? That's just aside from the fact that her son was in the car with her, are you going to suggest that he watched her and did nothing for
minutes too while she screamed? Yes, I suspect he would have been in shock for a small period of time, but even 30 seconds is a long time to watch your own mother screaming.
Here's what wiki has to say:
wikipedia said:
On February 27, 1992, Stella Liebeck, a 79-year-old woman from
Albuquerque, New Mexico, ordered a 49-cent cup of coffee from the
drive-through window of a local
McDonald's restaurant located at 5001 Gibson Boulevard Southeast. Liebeck was in the passenger's seat of a 1989
Ford Probe which did not have cup holders. Her grandson parked the car so that Liebeck could add cream and sugar to her coffee. Liebeck placed the coffee cup between her knees and pulled the far side of the lid toward her to remove it. In the process, she spilled the entire cup of coffee on her lap.
[10] Liebeck was wearing cotton sweatpants; they absorbed the coffee and held it against her skin,
scalding her thighs, buttocks, and groin.
[11]
So let me summarise your argument:
1 - We agree that the brewing temp is 190-205F (even though you prefer to stick to 195F for... reasons). Your first claim is that it will drop to 170F as a result of being poured into a cup.
2 - You then claimed that it will be delayed 4 minutes (5F per minute) before reaching the customer at 150F, and then inexplicably dropping dropping another 20F as a result of being poured (how has it been cooling up to that point then?).
wikipedia said:
During the case, Liebeck's attorneys
discovered that McDonald's required
franchisees to hold coffee at 180–190 °F (82–88 °C). At 190 °F (88 °C)
3 - You asked for me to provide sources (to support an assertion that I didn't make) that any "cooling off before serving" policies are in effect.
4 - You then claimed to Vic that they serve it immediately.
5 - You then claimed that she sat while getting burnt for
minutes, throwing her own safety and pain avoidance instincts to the winds, and her son watched her while she screamed for
minutes and did nothing to help her.
Seriously, find a tune and stick to it, and once you've done that, patch up the obvious holes in your assertions.
Furthermore:
wikipedia said:
and that a number of other establishments served coffee at a substantially lower temperature than McDonald's
Do you honestly think that McD's would let such a claim go by unchallenged, or that the plaintiff's lawyers wouldn't have sources ready to back their claim?