Mugs & Coffee Cups

Mugs and coffee cups in ceramic, stoneware, bone china and glass — from 200 ml espresso cups to 16 oz mugs, with and without saucers.

What size should a mug be?

Ten ounces is the standard cup and the size at which a drink is finished while still hot. Sixteen ounces is the large mug — genuinely useful if you drink slowly, and a guarantee of cold coffee if you do not. Espresso and cappuccino cups run 200 to 350 ml and are deliberately small for the same reason.

Mug or cup and saucer?

A mug is carried away from the table; a cup and saucer stays on it. That is the real difference, and it decides which one a household reaches for. The saucer also holds the spoon, the sugar and a biscuit, which is why a cup and saucer suits a sitting and a mug suits a desk.

Which material holds heat longest?

Stoneware, then ceramic, then porcelain, then thin bone china — thicker and more porous bodies hold heat longer. Double-walled glass beats all of them, because the air gap insulates rather than the material. Bone china is the lightest in the hand and the quickest to cool.