Turns out, you’ve been holding your coffee mug wrong your whole life (science says so)

Is there anything more precious in the morning than gripping a mug full of your favorite coffee? We think not. What isn’t so wonderful, though, is when you inevitably end up spilling bits of your caffeinated beverage because you’re walking to a meeting, running from your kitchen to the front door, tripping over your cat, and so on. What gives? As scientists remind us in their recent report, A Study on the Coffee Spilling Phenomena in the Low Impulse Regime, we’re probably spilling our coffee because we’re holding our mugs wrong.

As Vice points out, most of us likely hold our mugs by gripping them with our hand. There are people who actually use the handle, too, but allegedly that still isn’t the “correct” way to hold your coffee cup, according to scientists. What should you do instead? Form your hand into a claw and hold your coffee from above, of course.

We’re serious: As the research stands, it appears that the best way to hold your coffee to prevent spillage is to form your hands in a claw-like shape and use your fingers to grip your coffee from above. Allegedly, as Jiwon Han, the lead author of the study, explains because “the magnitude of acceleration in the claw-hand model is significantly smaller, the claw-hand posture is less likely to spill coffee.”

Like so (yes, it looks a little awkward):

We’re not scientists, but when it comes to saving coffee, we’re willing to give pretty much anything a shot.