Several people have recently posted pictures of their favorite teacup or coffee mug.This might seem trivial but I think teacup choices reveal all sorts of things.
And I enjoy little glimpses into private worlds.
If my favorite mug is in the dishwasher waiting, I get it out and rinse it.
(What a thrilling life I lead.)
People who simply don't care -- or go with a paper cup -- are missing something.
So: Villeroy and Boch Audun/ Ferme.Bone china. PG Tips.
Images of an 18th century farm in France.
I know, I know. Real life for farm workers must have been grim and grueling - chapped hands, bitter winds.
It's just the idea of cows, sheep and milkmaids.
Shades of the Petit Trianon.
Your favorite mug?
I am a coffee drinker.....
ReplyDeletebut I have a mug that I love that is round and heavy, glazed ceramic in a deep wine color. I like to wrap my hands around it to warm them. I bought two of them so that I would always have one clean.
I am possessive about that mug too...I don't want anyone else using it!
yes i feel homeley here when i read s th about mugs .. i am not keen but little bit crazy .. still suffering from a flu .. i will blog about mie ones .. be well love andrea from germanny
ReplyDeleteNothing like a nice cup of tea in the proper mug! Mine is bone china to keep it piping hot.
ReplyDeleteI like your tea cup and I'm glad to know that you have a fave that you always use. I'm the same. At home I have a Peanuts coffee mug with a comic strip on it that cheers me up first thing in the morning. And continues cheering me up with every cup of coffee that follows. At work I have an Oxfam Fairtrade coffee mug that says 'liberate your latte' and all hell breaks loose if I catch anyone ever using it! At home and at work, these are the only two mugs I ever use. And they are both very well used :)
ReplyDeleteI do have a nice little collection of pretty china tea cups that I never use. I don't drink tea. They just sit on a shelf looking pretty and gather dust...
Now that's a snobbism I didnt expect from you ... paper cup drinkers are missing out .. only in the sense they are clogging our landfills ... china, glass, even an old tin cup is better than paper .. but not for snobby reasons, unless of course you are a snob about ecology, I 'get' that.
ReplyDeleteIf you miss the look of paper, get thee a I Am Not A Paper Cup
And your china cup is very nice, I am surprised you trust it to the dishwasher.
mine is a mug covered in roses. from one of the cheapest stores in arusha..not bone china or anything. but it's thin. and has an accomodating handle. in fact i bought two of them! and they match the pot....(whoops) xx j
ReplyDeleteLovely! I just bought a new tea cup yesterday - perhaps I'll post it!
ReplyDeleteElizabeth, I love tea and mugs. I collect mugs - only English stoneware - mainly from the 60s and 70s - in vibrant colours. I like kilncraft, Staffordshire - if it has the "Made or handcrafted in England", I will pick it up. I'm pretty good at identifying them out of an assortment of other mugs in thrift stores. I can spot "made in China" a mile away!
ReplyDeleteI'll do a post soon about this and post a picture of some of my favourites. It goes without saying that I have a traditional Sadler pot.
Kat
I find the intimacy we feel for our tea/coffee cups so interesting - my dad drank out of the same mug for years and in fact until he died and we just didn't know what to do with his old battered mug - my mom still has it - I do the same Elizabeth - drag my cup out of the dishwasher if it's waiting to be cleaned....
ReplyDeleteBeautiful! I drink chai tea...needs a bit more heft, I usually use my handthrown mugs, but, for company and cafe con leche, beautiful patterned cups from Spain.
ReplyDeleteIt's a lovely mug. My problem is: to clean tea mugs. They get those nasty brown spots.
ReplyDeleteYou asked if my picture shows a frozen canal. Well yes it does. We have many canals, some of them are wide others narrow and not deep.
I have a favorite for both tea and coffee because of it's size, feel, thin lip and perfect curve. It is homely, plain matte white creamware- stained and chipped. No body ever uses this one except for me- the stain probably puts people off as well so I keep it that way-a sort of brand- MINE!
ReplyDeleteHow interesting elizabeth. I have already written my blog for Saturday and it is about precisely that - china cups and saucers!
ReplyDeleteI read today in our newspaper about a woman whoruns an English Restaurant in New York, serving all kinds of English food and lots of tea.
oh, I can't take a photo of them now, but I have three that I rotate, depending upon circumstances. There's one with a steel base and narrow mouth, for keeping warm longer, and it has little hearts all over it, but since I can't microwave it, I use it only when I know I want only one cup of coffee and will drink it rather briskly.
ReplyDeleteThe other two I switch off, if one of them is dirty. A teal and orange rainforest mug from starbucks, and a standard Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf mug, now discontinued. They are both large and the rims are comfortable. I love teacups, but the rims are often so delicate they are too thin.
I'm so glad you asked!!
Your mug is lovely, Elizabeth! The pattern reminds of wonderful old brown ironstone transferware.
ReplyDeleteI do love yours! I usually prefer a cup and saucer, of which I have a large collection. But if I must choose a mug, my favorite is a very plain white stoneware mug that I first heat in the microwave and then pour my tea into it. The stoneware stays hot forever. I wrap both hands around it and the smoothness of the stone and the warmth of the mug add so much to the enjoyment. Another choice is one with Marie-Antoinette's cypher which I bought at Fontainbleu. Well, that was a fun question!
ReplyDeleteCatherine
I posted a foto of my mug on my blog. Check it out. Marie A. would never lift this baby to her lips, but, likewise, I would never be caught dead in one of her wigs! ;o
ReplyDeleteIsn't it funny how the pastoral is soothing, even though nature is "red in tooth and claw."
ReplyDeleteI like a mug; I can't stand a diddly cup of tea. I have four of my favorites, because I'm a bit lazier than you about washing them up! (I might post a picture on my sidebar.) I like PG Tips, too. I like to make it strong and then add a good dash of milk and a half-teaspoon of sugar to take the edge off. I couldn't live in England without tea.
Current favorite tea mug is a white bone china mug I bought at the London Twinings shop and it says Twinings on it. It is used alternately with white mug with blue flowers, one my mother had and used.
ReplyDeleteFor coffee? A turquoise Starbucks mugs my dd gave me.
Elizabeth...you might have beat me in posting the foto. Check it out now at gardenmother.blogspot.com if the link thru Larkspur does not work for you.
ReplyDeleteI dont have a favourite cup as I drink water at home..at work, I refrain from drinking coffee which I love. Coffee makes me blog at 3.00am. I guess the fav cup would be at the office as that's the only one I have. What a nice set you have..your life sounds like a domestic goddess to me :D Beats working round the clock like us..
ReplyDeleteAnother PG Tips fan here. My current favorite coffee blend was inspired by the heroes of my local Fire Department, Ladder Company number 40. The blend is called Life begins at 40.
ReplyDeleteI am also particular about my cups and mugs. At work I use the same china mug every day.
At home, I have several favorites, all china, some bone china, some not. Some patterned, some plain white. And then, there is my collection of old china. A bit scared to actually use it often, but I do use it every now and then.
See what you started? xo
Nice cup. I drink Japanese green tea from a blue cup with a chip on the rim. The chip on the rim reflects the chip on my bottom incisor, somehow it all fits together.
ReplyDeleteGreat mug. I have lots but not a special one. In Holland we always drunk out of cups with saucers
ReplyDeleteHere it is only mugs
It'f fun to drink out of a favorite mug/cup. I like your cup with the farm depiction. I used to have a favorite big mug. Then it broke. *sigh* I never did buy another one and don't have a favorite cup anymore because everyone in the house keeps taking the cup that I would like to use for myself. Grrr!
ReplyDeletePaz (who needs to find a nice favorite cup to drink her tea/Ovaltine)
Mmmh, lovely cup. I especially love the little yellow jug. Colour is an important part of our lives, I think. And when it concerns food, as Sir Stephen Gaselee said....
ReplyDelete"On china blue my lobster red
Precedes my cutlet brown,
With which my salad green is sped
By yellow Chablis down.
Lord, if good living be no sin,
But innocent delight,
O polarize these hues within
To one eupeptic white."
Now you've inspired me to post some kitchen colour on my blog, Elizabeth!
Tessa: Eupeptic - now there's a word I've never met.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is
greek pre-fix EU meaning good
peptic= something to to with the stomach.
Yes, I think we delight in the colors of food.
Odd that blue - bliss in the garden - is not welcome on the plate......
All: so much to say about such a delicious small ritual - and how possessive we are about our own cups/mugs.
Reader Wil: Leave dishwashing detergent in your tea-stained cup overnight. Rinse and wash well.
Don't know what dishwasher detergent has in it -but powerful stuff.......
lovely--my mother will only serve tea out of glass cups...for some reason she is opposed to drinking tea in an improper vessel! (never in a coffee mug!)
ReplyDeleteI'm having a cup right now in a chunky, spotted mug that my daughter made in pottery class. Love it!
ReplyDeleteHow about the news yesterday! I've driven down that side of town many times... hard to imagine seeing a jet in the river. Were you anywhere nearby?
Beautiful cup! :-)
ReplyDeleteI drink
tea at home from this cup,
fine English bone china. ;-)
Great idea! One of my favourite mugs got broken about two days ago. It was a lovely bone china one with seabirds on that I got from Herm in the channel islands. So today I took a photo of my next favourite mug-will put it up tomorrow if you want a peek..
ReplyDeleteYour mug is lovely-I can see why you like it, reality be damned!
I actually prefer a paper cup. I feel a fool asking for a ceramic cup to be filled in a coffee shop and carrying it around all day.
ReplyDeletei love coffee.i have a mug that i love that is round and heavy glazed ceramic in a deep wine color
ReplyDelete