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Design, Products January 19, 2012

Five Ways: Tea Cups

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Coffee mugs not your bag? Raise your pinky proudly with this quick roundup of tea cups.


1. Alada Gold Winged Teacup, $161.25 Handmade porcelain and 18K gold wings. Because some of us think of tea as much more heavenly than coffee. Get it: shophorne.com

2. Tap For Tea, $39.00 Inspired by the Chinese custom of tapping your fingers to say “thank you” when tea is served, this design by Willie Tsang features a clever gold fingerprint pattern on its saucer. Get it: gnr8.biz

3. Glass cup and saucer, £6.95 Watch as your favorite blend brews in this elegantly simple cup and saucer set. Get it: teapigs.co.uk


4. Tea Mug, $20.00 This handle-less ceramic cup from South Korean designer Luna Seo features a small indentation along the rim to keep your tea bag in its place. Get it: momastore.org

5. Blomus Darjee Tea Glass, $18.98 The unique stainless-steel handle of this mug-style glass helps ease the heat (and increase its cool factor). Get it: allmodern.com

Permalink Comments (5)

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Comments (5)

My husband and I are bigtime tea lovers. I love the look of several of these. #3 glass cup and saucer seems the most practical to me. It appears thick enough and shaped to retain heat, isn’t that expensive, and focuses on the tea, not the vessel. #4, while lovely, seems silly to me. Tea lovers know that tea sold in bags is the cheap stuff. I drink it all the time for convenience sake, but why would I spend $20 for a mug to hold cheap tea?

posted by SniffTX | January 25, 2012 at 12:56 pm

Good point. I’m from Australia and my pet peeve with American cups (for coffee or tea) is that they are simply too big. What do you use to drink your tea? I’d be very interested to know…

posted by Cerentha Harris | January 25, 2012 at 1:11 pm

Hi Cerentha,

Well, being not only American, but also a Texan, I am partial to “bigger is better”! :)

My favorite tea mug was a free give-away from one of my clients’ companies. It is just the right size to fit under the hot water dispenser at work, and it is shaped similarly to the one I mentioned above. I think the handle is key. It has to feel good in your hand….

I do have a handle-less one at home that is a 2nd favorite. I bought it from a local ceramic artist. The nice thing about it is that it is extra thick and holds heat well, which is also why it works as a handle-less cup. It is so well insulated, it does not burn my hands when I hold it.

posted by SniffTX | January 25, 2012 at 3:42 pm

I partially disagree with you SniffTX. I much prefer loose tea, well brewed, however, cup #4 is really beautiful and elegant, with a zen-like simplicity. Why not up the pleasure of a cup of bagged tea? $20 isn’t so much for something you’d enjoy over and over.

posted by BecErrera | January 25, 2012 at 8:03 pm

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