Would you want to drink through a straw made from this stuff?

Have you already had this shoved into your drink somewhere? It’s pretty impressive how inventive the hospitality industry is when it comes to replacing plastic straws, and I’m always curious about the solutions they’ve come up with. We know paper straws by now, but what about this very natural alternative?

Those paper straws are, incidentally, HORROR for many people, including our Adeline. The cardboardy mouthfeel is reason enough for them to leave the entire drink untouched, and it’s really only rivalled by the utter misery caused by a wooden spoon or fork. I really can’t imagine Adeline finding this any easier to stomach:

Rietje di pasta

Because this is nothing more and nothing less (and therefore pretty clever in all its simplicity) than one very thick strand of uncooked pasta. The pasta shape bucatini is perfectly suited to slurping through because it’s essentially a long, straight tube. Once it’s in a cold drink, it stays firm longer than a paper straw, and it’s made with very few ingredients: wheat and water.

Butttt…

First of all, let’s return to that mouthfeel: the flouriness you taste and feel from the contact between starch and tongue isn’t necessarily pleasant (I just licked a farfalle for you). People with experience say it’s best ignored if you choose a drink that’s high in acidity and/or rich in carbonation. Cold brew coffee could work, or simply a nice Orangina.

Much more objectionable, however, seems to us to be the fact that you’re using perfectly good food once and then throwing it away. Because you don’t put those chewed-up things all in a tall jar at home to make a nice bolognese with a few weeks later, do you? On top of the 590 million kilos of perfectly good food that all households in the Netherlands throw away together every year (no joke), this really seems like a case of thinking three times before you even go and get something that needs a straw. And I don’t have all the answers, because apparently producing these is also genuinely harmful to the environment, but for now a reusable stainless-steel straw really does seem like the way forward. Little case in your bag, whip the thing out, and clean it at home with the special little brush it comes with. I’m sold; I’m going to order one now. And that bucatini? It belongs in the pan, with an ultra-delicious, simple marinara sauce…

Also read:

• We need to talk about people who chew ice cream
• HACK alert! How to cut a watermelon without a knife:
• 10 things hospitality staff miss most right now