Host Tati Amare loves sipping her coffee through her glass straw (you've probably seen her do it on the show). These eco-friendly straws can be found all over the internet as more and more people are turning away from plastic straws, but we found a local business that makes them right here in Metro Detroit.
It is a homegrown business started by a couple in their own home, and it is called Strawesome.
"I fell in love with it. I never knew that I would like making things out of glass as much as I did," said Strawesome owner Daedra Surowiec.
While looking for an alternative to plastic straws for a friend, a business was born. Coupled with her technical background working in architecture and design, and her passion for taking care of the earth, making glass straws was a perfect fit for her.
"I love eco-friendly products, so using cloth napkins instead of paper, using rags instead of paper towels, things like that," said Surowiec.
So she started making glass straws, and in 2009, after the financial crisis, she and her husband decided to make it a full-time business. Her husband came up with the name, Strawesome, and they built a website and went to work.
Strawesome offers variety of straws. They offer varying thicknesses and lengths for everything from smoothies to water bottles. They also have multiple colors and pretty decals to personalize your straw to your tastes.
"The easiest part was creating the product. It's just creativity and finding out what people like when they sell to them. So that was easy, but [what was] hard was developing everything at the start," said Surowiec.
At the beginning of her business, many people were not aware of glass straws.
"People came up to us and asked us really bizarre questions: 'Are these for pets? Are these pea shooters? Are they for shooting spit wads?' People didn't know, it was a lot about educating," explained Surowiec.
When asked about why she prefers glass straws to other alternatives, Surowiec will commonly say, "When you drink wine or a fine champagne, you don't drink it out of a plastic cup, you drink it out of a wine glass because it tastes better."
Have you tried a glass straw? Let us know what you think in the comments below.