Mug Matters

If you’re a tea or coffee drinker, having the right mug is very important. We drink tea and coffee for pleasure, and for functional purposes like making us feel slightly less asleep after a late night solving relativistic field equations or whatever it is we happen to do. However, drinking tea and coffee is also a ritual, and if there’s one thing you need for a good ritual, it’s paraphernalia.

For example, I have two mugs, one for coffee, one for tea. There are various aspects to their importance, besides that imbued simply by being my mugs: the functional, the decorative, the semantic. Let’s start with the first of these.

A good mug needs to be sturdy, so as to survive the occasional mishap, such as having something dropped onto it by a clumsy or thoughtless housemate. It also needs to be the right size and shape, to feel right in your hand, to have a handle robust enough for you not to feel like it’s going to snap at any moment. These are all quite personal things: hands and appetites differ markedly from person to person, so what’s right for one person often isn’t right for another.

Visual appeal is also a must. That mug’s going to be sitting there on your desk or coffee table for—if you’re anything like me—a reasonably significant portion of the day. Even after you finish drinking your tea or coffee, chances are you won’t go and wash it up immediately. Make sure you have a mug you like looking at. My family have a number of mugs from the Ashmolean Museum’s shop, which sells a beautiful set of Kafuh designs including this bamboo one and this crane (they look better “in the flesh”, with classical proportions and a delicate glaze).

Having a design that’s meaningful in some way, at least to you, is a nice bonus. My tea mug is a solid piece of white china from Traidcraft, with a wonderful, bright African design of two lions roaring at one another. It says, “Beware of Noisy Lions.” They don’t sell anything nearly as good anymore, so remember, if you see a mug you like, buy it! Good mugs are few and far between these days, so any opportunity to get something that really appeals is not to be wasted. Good hunting!