Regardless what you call it, if you have scratches in the surface, you won't
get a tight droplet, and particles like those in coffee will hide from a
swift wipe like troops in foxholes.

Now your experiment in using your surface as a hot plate is another matter.
"Microscopic bubbles" is a red flag. You might be evolving excess moisture
from beneath, and this will break your finish from the wood..

"Dan White" wrote in message
...
Poured some hot coffee on both surfaces today and wiped it up after about
1/2 hour. Both sides came clean although the sanded part looked like it
wasn't going to come clean at first. In no time it did come perfectly
clean. I couldn't find any hint of coffee. I also put a hot pot of
coffee
on the poly for about 5 minutes. It looked fine. I did see what were
almost microscopic marks or bubbles when I removed the pot, but didn't
have
time to see exactly what that was. I'm going to try that again tomorrow,
but things look good so far.