Chemistry is Hard, Let's get Coffee

I know a thing or two about Microsoft, and have a complete and total physiological addiction to passing acquaintance with coffee. I was doppio disappointed when I spotted this item in the Microsoft store.

coffee_cups

I’m prepared to look past the fact that the picture has been strangely taken with a weird reflection that makes the cup look striped when it is not, but I’m not prepared to forgive the fact that they got the molecular structure of caffeine wrong on the cup. Or is this part of an elaborate biochemical joke? The title of the item in the company store is “Caffeine Coffee Cup 11oz Chocolate” (emphasis added). Apart from the missing nitrogen (which could just be a syntax thing – my organic chemistry is a little rusty) this looks like Theobromine, the delightful xanthine alkaloid found in…chocolate. Either way they should change the advertising copy, which clearly says “the molecular formula for caffeine on the other”.

Comments

Helen Emerson
Nerd :)
18/10/2011 9:42:53 PM
Mateusz Loskot
You may consider submitting a bug reporting to http://connect.microsoft.com/

I’m sure they will respond promptly :D

19/10/2011 11:20:20 AM