The Mug You Drink Your Coffee from Matters--How to Pick the Right Coffee Mug

Not all mugs are created equally.  Choosing the perfect mug is like the story of Goldilocks--some are too chunky, too thin, too big, or too heavy.

How do you know when a mug is just right?  Our guide will help you test mugs to determine whether they are worthy of real estate in your kitchen cupboard. 

Mug Weight

When it comes to choosing the perfect mug, weight isn't just a number!  Mugs that are too light tip over easier and don't keep your beverage hot until you're finished.

Mugs that are too heavy require you to engage both hands, limiting your ability to multitask.

Weight is relative, but you should pick a medium weight mug that can be used one-handedly with thick enough walls to keep your drink hot until the last drop.

Mug Height & Width

Size matters.  Get your mind out of the gutter--we're talking about mugs!

If a mug is too high, your drink will be cold by the time you get to the bottom.  If it's too short, the beverage sloshes out of the cup without a steady hand, but if it's too wide, it chills faster.  

When a mug is too big, you may tire of drinking by the halfway point and waste a lot of your coffee.

Find the sweet spot.  The perfect mug should be small enough for you to desire a refill, yet big enough for you to enjoy a conversation or complete a task before it's empty.

Mug Handles

Thin mug handles cut into your palm or feel so fragile that you are compelled to hold the mug with both hands.  

Mugs with chunky handles feel awkward and cumbersome.

Forget about mugs with oddly shaped handles, like ones that are formed into hearts or animal tails--they look cute but aren't functional.

You should be able to comfortably curl your fingers around a mug handle and lift it with one hand without fearing it will crack.  The handle should feel like a second skin and an extension of your hand.

Mug Rims

Mug rims look fancy when they curve back like a small wave, but it's rare to find one that is comfortable for drinking.  If the curve is too thick and angled, you'll be chasing the coffee with a napkin as it runs down your chin or spills onto your shirt.  When the curve is too thin, it clinks unnaturally when it makes contact with your teeth.

Even when the rim of the mug is straight, if it's too thick, it reduces the amount of room in the coffee's channel to your mouth.  On a busy morning when you're trying to chug a cup before work, you don't have time for obstacles.

Think of Christmas mugs that are designed to look like Santa, gingerbread, snowmen, or reindeer.  This style often includes an inward slope to the rim.  Unless you enjoy doing a nosedive into your cup, these are some of the worst mugs on the planet--especially if Frosty's nose sticks far enough out to jab your chin.  

Sure, these mugs are cute, but your face will take a swim trying to get to the coffee.

When you choose the right medium weight mug with optimum wall thickness and a straight and simple rim, the mug-to-lips transition should feel natural and normal.

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Mug Materials

Glass mugs are out.  By the time you finish pouring, your drink is already cold.  If you buy a thicker walled glass mug for more insulation, it will be too heavy.

Travel mugs are the worst, even if they are a necessary evil.  Mugs with insulated steel linings keep your coffee hot, if you like coffee that tastes metallic.  

Camp mugs made of steel or enamel serve a purpose and might even feel good in your hand, but they adversely affect the taste of coffee.

Ceramic mugs are best, but even those vary widely.  Clunky ceramic mugs that look like a third grader made them in art class are the most ridiculous--the walls are thicker than a nuclear testing lab.  Ceramic mugs also come in a generic standard shape--like the humorous mugs you find at Hobby Lobby.  They are also substandard because they don't keep coffee hot for very long and look ordinary and underwhelming.

The Holy Grail of ceramic mugs has a 12-ounce capacity, is medium weight and thickness, is shaped comfortably, and is visually appealing.     

Mug Color & Design

There are TONS of plain, white mugs with dull graphics on the market.  Anyone who buys these aren't serious coffee drinkers.  

The design and color of your mug should make drinking coffee fun!

The shape of the mug is important.  You don't want a mug with a bulbous bottom, nor do you want a mug that is narrow at the bottom but balloons at the top like a vase.  Your goal is to drink coffee--not use your mug to display a floral arrangement.  Mugs with graduated bottoms, like they're on mini pedestals, are also undesirable. It's fine if your mug has curves, but they should flow in an ergonomic design. 

The color and graphics on your mug should elicit delight when you pick it up. A mug can be a solid, non-white color if it also has the perfect design, and it can be just as exciting to use as one printed with a humorous quip, inspiring message, or meaningful picture.  Any company that can design a solid-colored mug that makes people excited to drink from it are Jedi mug manufacturers who are at one with the coffee Force.

Seasonal mugs are sheer nirvana.  Owning a motley crew of mugs designed for Fall, Christmas, and Summer makes sipping your favorite java cozy, inviting, and fresh.

Mugs are designed to appeal to every possible human interest:  faith, pets, music, franchises, movies, sports, teaching--the list is endless.  

The color and graphics (or lack thereof) of the perfect mug for you should match your tastes and passions.    

Mug Function

If you drink coffee on-the-go, you have no choice but to select a travel mug that keeps coffee hot, fits in your console, and includes a lid to prevent leaks and spills.  Travel mugs are useful, but they are the bottom dwellers of mugs.

Maybe you are frequently interrupted and need a mug that will fit on a coffee warmer.  A ceramic mug is perfect for your situation.  Ceramic is also ideal for Keurig machines.

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With limited cabinet space, maybe the best mug for you is one designed for a 4-cup coffee rack that fits on your counter or by your coffee bar.  Plenty of mugs are designed for hooks on coffee trees or for stacking in vertical racks.

Are you a frequent camper?  You may be stuck with enamel, metal, or plastic mugs since they are unlikely to break in transit or outdoors.  My advice?  Give up camping and buy a better mug.

If you prefer a disposable cup with a plastic lid and cardboard coffee sleeves, you're clearly an alien.

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Mug Sentimentality

The memories attached to a mug are powerful and can trump its shortcomings.

• Mugs purchased from a memorable vacation

• Mugs imprinted with photos of your kids or grandkids

• Mugs inscribed with oddly specific quips that describe your personality or habits

• Mugs that are so cute or that match your decor so perfectly that you can ignore its issues

Some mugs don't feel good in your hand, won't keep your coffee hot, and might even been chipped, but if you have an emotional attachment to them, you'll use them anyway.  Not optimum, but understandable.

Donate Old Mugs & Make Room for New!

Most people use the same dinnerware for decades and may feel obligated to do the same with coffee mugs.  I'm giving you the freedom to shirk this mindset!  

When a mug ceases to bring you joy, it's time to replace it.

Just like donating books to the library so others can enjoy what you've experienced, giving your mugs away to charity or selling them at a garage sale can give them new life in another home.  Let them go!  

The perfect mug will warm your heart like coffee warms your belly.  

It's not easy to find the perfect mug--sometimes, it finds you!  You can scroll through thousands of them online, but until you hold the mug in your hand, you won't know if the weight, height, width, rim, material, and aesthetics of it will speak to you.

The perfect mug will have the Cinderella slipper effect--it will fit and feel perfect in your hand (rather than on your foot, of course).  Drinking from it will produce deep satisfaction, and your coffee will taste better.

The cup you drink your coffee from matters!