Reply To: 7-Eleven

Maybe their straw engineering department is not up to industry standards.

Eh. I find that hard to believe.

Anyway, here’s my theory:

When you use a regular straw to drink, the bottom of the straw sits almost flat on the bottom of the cup, leaving a very small effective opening at the bottom of the straw. This works fine for liquids, but doesn’t work well for semi-frozen drinks such as Slurpees, which tend to clog up such a small opening.

The purpose of the “spoon” is to raise the bottom of the straw off the bottom of the cup, creating a larger effective opening, allowing the drink to flow through without clogging.

I’ll be expecting a call from Reader’s Digest.