[Avodah] Kashrut of treif venue's coffee

[Michael Makovi]

>From Areivim of the same title

> And speaking of keilim, the grownups (I wasn't one yet) would get
> coffee in porcelain mugs. Who knows what else the mugs were used for,
> never mind the dishwasher (given that they were Ashk). Is there a limud
> zechus for this?
>
> R' Micha

Transcript of a talk given by my rabbi at Machon Meir, and apparently,
at Nishmat too:
http://www.nishmat.net/article.php?id=4&heading=0

QUOTE
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Nonetheless, perhaps there is room to allow the drinking of tea and
coffee. The hot water is generally boiled in a special kettle, used
only for this purpose, which would preclude any possibility of
non-kosher food being absorbed into these vessels at all.

The tea-cups may present a problem, as they may have been used
withnon-Jewish milk, "chalav akum". For those who are lenient and
drink chalav akum in countries that have government supervision to
ensure that only cows' milk is sold as standard milk, based on the
opinion of Rav Feinstein, this difficulty would be eliminated. Even
those who are strict may perhaps rely on that ruling when it is only a
question of a doubt - "perhaps non-Jewish milk was used in the last
twenty-four hours in the cup".

In a glass or duralex cup, there is also room to be lenient, based on
the opinions that glass does not absorb.

It would therefore be preferable to use a disposable cup, or a glass.
But if these options are unavailable, one can drink kosher tea or
coffee from a regular cup (see Yechave Da'at, ibid., and also the
Nodah Bi'Yehudah, Yoreh De'ah, 36).
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END QUOTE

Mikha'el Makovi