Monday 22 November 2010

A Dangerous Mug Obsession

Orla Kiely mugs by post
 During our recent move Coffee Boy insisted that I get rid of some of my enormous collection of mugs. I was horrified at the suggestion. What? Give away that 25p IKEA mug I bought for work eight years ago? No way! But on arrival at our new house I had to admit that the drinking vessel situation had got a little out of hand.



Mug obsession cupboard

I don't know what it is but I just love mugs. Going to a gig? Why not buy a souvenir mug? Browsing in a bookshop? Hmmmnnn, mugs for £1, better get six. Visiting a German war bunker? Ooh, look they sell mugs, brilliant - let's get one. You get the idea. But the thing that's most curious about this mug obsession is that I'm actually very picky about which mugs I drink from. Firstly, the inside of the cup or mug has to be white - I like to see the colour of the tea I'm drinking. Secondly, I don't like them to be too huge - I prefer to refill my cup rather than let the tea go cold. Thirdly, I much prefer them to be made of bone china; I don't know why but tea just tastes a lot better from a thin cup. And finally, I like the cup or mug to be attractive. How then did I end up with a cupboard full of assorted drinking china when I only actually have about four mugs I like drinking from?

Orla Kiely mug packaging

Anyway, answering questions about weird facets of my psyche is not why I'm here. No, I'm here to tell you about two new mugs I've bought that fit the above criteria perfectly. I have had a number of Orla Kiely mugs for a while now and let me tell you, they are wonderful. Obviously they're beautiful but they are also the perfect size and are made of bone china. For drinking black teas I have found no mug better. So when fellow blogger Katie tweeted that Orla Kiely was having an online sale recently I decided to have just a little look.

Orla Kiely mug packagaing

Well, typically, most of the mugs had sold out, but there were a couple of lovely ones still available and they were only £4.50 each. There was no two ways about it: I had to have them.  When they arrived yesterday I knew I'd made the right decision. A beautifully lined box with my carefully packaged mugs just got my little mug-obsessed heart going. And the mugs inside didn't disappoint either. Coffee Boy was speechless with horror and disbelief but I didn't care. They are totally worth it. The only problem is that I don't actually have any room in my mug cupboard for them. Of course, I could get rid of some of those 50p Habitat mugs we've had for about five years that I never drink out of, but that would be silly. I think the answer is much simpler than that: we'll just build a new cupboard.

Brown Orla Kiely mug by post

9 comments :

  1. Oh, someone who shares my mug fetish :) Huzzah!

    p.s. what are you going to do with those cute boxes?

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  2. The Orla mugs are beautiful! I love mugs too - my favourites are the Emma Bridgewater half pint mugs, they are the perfect shape and always feel stable (important to enable curling up in a chair with one's tea!). They are thick enough to keep the tea warm but not too thick to drink from (there is nothing worse than that!). I have done my mug research and concluded they really are the best, athough, I have never tried Orla mugs, perhaps I ought to buy one just for the sake of a fair test...

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  3. Ah lovely mugs! I might have to snap up the 70s style yellow/brown mug while it's still in stock...

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  4. This cracks me up. I have an insane mug cupboard too. And you want to see my mum's collection. Not kidding, she's got about a hundred. She collects Emma Bridgewater. Insanity. xx

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  5. I cannot handle the amount of 'afternoon tea packages' that used to arrive at the door thanks to my wife's obsession with tea cups and/or mugs. Thank goodness I managed to convince her to switch to teaspoon collecting instead, a lot less space consuming.

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  6. Glad to hear I'm not alone with my mug fetish. They're just so darn collectable aren't they..? Redford, you're a cruel man - spoons are no substitute!

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  7. Hello lovely. I was having tea with a friend at Cocomaya in London, and while talking about my obsession with afternoon tea, she referred me to your blog. A fellow obsessive, hurrah!

    Anyway, if you ever want an afternoon tea partner, or just someone to swap tips with, let me know!

    Miss B xx

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  8. aw...i used to have the stonehenge mugs! x

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  9. Miss B, I've never had tea at Cocomaya - I need to address that! Afternoon-tea-swapping-tips sounds like a plan - let's do it.

    Cherie, it ain't pretty but obviously, I can't throw it out...

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