OV9

Years ago mrs mik purchased a couple of a-bit-like-these-but-not-these mug-stacks.



Nobody used them. Ever. Because they are small mugs. Nobody in their right mind wants a small mug. (Note - they are way too big to be espresso cups, and nobody in the house drinks espresso anyway).

Over time, they were - thankfully - moved into a cupboard, but reappeared "ooh I forgot we had these" about 3 weeks ago. Nobody has used one in that 3 week period. Not even mrs mik.

In the interest of a data-driven discussion, I set aside 60 seconds of my morning to assess their volumetric capacity. In the interest of safety I used cold water.

250ml. To the brim. Pathetic!

I then compared this to my current favourite mug of correctness. 375ml.

Pffft.

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Poll reference to Kingston Bridge

I changed all my mugs to big mugs recently after a lifetime of small ones. The joy of a Sports Direct Mug Rooibos tea has changed my life Mik. #bigmugsolidarity

I'm slightly obsessed with the 'right' mug. I'm convinced tea doesn't taste quite right in the wrong mug. Current favourite are le creuset mugs at 400ml (before they reduced them to 350ml). Those starbucks location mugs are pretty decent, right thickness and durable.

Ain’t that a latte mug?

Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.

As everything I would want as a present is either cheap enough that I already have it or more expensive than anyone would buy me, I've instructed my kids to buy me mugs for gifts. This means that my mugs make me smile when I use them, weather they're a small, hand painted mug which I adore or the "World's greatest ̶f̶a̶r̶t̶e̶r̶ father" mug which makes me smile.

Holley wrote: Mon Jun 23, 2025 8:50 am Current favourite are le creuset mugs at 400ml

Thank you - I have just ordered a couple of those following this recommendation (400ml new old stock).

For me.....
< 350ml is too small
350ml is acceptable
375ml is bob-on
400ml is.... tbc
475ml is definitely too big - last bit has cooled too much by the time I get to it

Jimmy Choo wrote: Mon Jun 23, 2025 9:50 am Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.

Well now I'm homeless, fucking thanks Jimmy

Those mug stacks always end up collecting dust. Charity shop them asap.

Bin.

I've started throwing things that havent been out of the cupboards for more than a year or so. We moved stuff 5 years ago into a new kitchen which was twice the size of the old one and I wanted to throw anything we didn't use at that point but my wife was adamant we've got loads of room for just in case shit. Said kitchen is now rammed!

I haven't measured the capacity of my usual mug, but I can very much tell when someone gives me a mug which is too small. I also dislike mugs with particularly thick walls. So excessively large ones tend to annoy me for that as well as containing too much and the tea being a bit weak and going cold before you finish it.

Mrs Newt likes tea at a temperature which is near thermonuclear whereas I prefer my beverage to have cooled a little prior to drinking. This is a shame as my fave mug is a nice thick one which feels good in the hand but takes ages to cool.

At work, they went on a drive to eliminate disposable cup waste and the end result is a lot of china mugs (and the work experience lad really getting a great experience pushing a trolley round to collect them from peoples' desks) which I was initially skeptical about but actually cool quite rapidly allowing me to have a lovely drink at the right temperature with minimum faff.

I think I have wandered from the topic and I would suggest giving them to a charidee shop. You can then perform a social experiment by taking Mrs Mik past them and seeing if she wishes to buy them or not.

PS You might not be good at visualising so here is a picture of this mug.

Semi-related, I’ve stopped going to a particular coffee place in town because I can’t get my finger through the handles on the mugs. My fingers are a normal thickness, I don’t know who these mugs are made for.

Beany wrote: Mon Jun 23, 2025 10:04 am

Jimmy Choo wrote: Mon Jun 23, 2025 9:50 am Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.

Well now I'm homeless, fucking thanks Jimmy

Sorry, dude.

240PP wrote: Mon Jun 23, 2025 12:14 pm My fingers are a normal thickness

Quadrophenia:

Jimmy: Oh, yeah? What's normal, then?

at 250ml, they're obviously tea cups.

but the rims are too thick to be decent tea cups

So that' a stack of 4 rubbish tea cups.

So bin them.

Depends on the intended drink I guess. I'm going to have to go and measure my favourite mugs. however, when it comes to coffee I make what's akin to a flat white, and a proper flat white shouldn't be as much as a typical mug (a British standard mug if you like) should hold.

I too now need to measure my usual mug. It feels a decent size, but also doesn’t feel like it would hold a 330ml can of drink, so may be in Miks too small list

I definitely have favourites and it doesn’t taste the same in any of our ‘nice’ mugs.

While I will drink tea from one of the nicer mugs if we have company, I absolutely will not ever drink if from one of the glass ones mrs Harry seems to like so much

I'm probably a bit of an outlier in terms of my hot drink preferences, but even I can't make sense of that volume. I only drink espresso so for me a coffee cup should be <150ml, and I like a larger volume mug for my gunpowder green tea (I have a separate brewing device which dictates volume but my guess would be in the region of 400-450ml but I shall confirm on return from hols).

Circumference and wall thickness are both critical to cooling time (particularly relevant for tea without milk), however I'd say that circumference as opposed to wall thickness is more significant. I have three mugs of differing wall thicknesses and circumferences, I'm happy to wait the appropriate time for the correct temperature.

TL;DR 250ml has no purpose to me and can get in the bin.

Mugs are currently a sore topic in our household. I opened the mug cupboard last week after the wife had emptied the dishwasher and stacked them in an unstable manner and my favourite red arrows mug fell out and broke. I was not amused

My usual tea mug measure in at 360ml when filled to a normal brew level. Wouldn’t mind a little bigger, so maybe 400ml is the sweet spot.