October 02, 2026
Most people buy a mug the way they buy a scarf: something catches the eye, the colour is right, and it comes home. Then a month later it is at the back of the cupboard, too tall for the coffee machine, too heavy by the third refill, or with a handle that pinches your fingers when it is full. Handmade pottery deserves better than that fate. A good mug is a working object. It gets lifted, sipped from, set down hard, washed, and lifted again — often several times before you have properly woken up.
The potter's skill is only half of the equation. The other half is how well the piece matches the way you actually drink. What follows is a set of practical things to check before you commit, whether you are standing in a workshop with the mug in your hand or reading a maker's description from three hundred miles away.
Start with the volume you genuinely drink
Capacity is the first filter, because no amount of beautiful glaze will fix a mug that holds the wrong amount for your morning. As a rough map, a small cup of around 150–200 ml suits espresso, short blacks, and thick hot chocolate. The everyday middle ground sits somewhere between 250 and 350 ml — enough for a proper cup of tea or a filter coffee with room to spare. Anything over 400 ml becomes a different kind of object: a mug for long working mornings, for soup, or for people who make one drink and expect it to last an hour.
Do not guess. Fill your current favourite mug with water, pour it into a measuring jug, and note the number. Then check the constraints in your life:
- Does it need to fit under a coffee machine spout or an espresso portafilter?
- Will it sit in a car cup holder, or beside a keyboard without crowding the mouse?
- Does it need to slot into a particular cupboard shelf height?
- Can you lift it comfortably when it is completely full?
That last point matters more than people expect. A wide, generous mug may look welcoming on a shelf and feel precarious when filled to the brim.
The handle decides more than you think
Handles are where handmade mugs most often win or lose. A potter's handle is pulled or extruded by hand, so it has a personality: a particular thickness, a particular curve, a particular gap between handle and wall. That gap is the thing to test.
Slide your fingers through the handle as you would in use, not delicately with two fingertips. For a large mug, you want enough clearance for two or three fingers, with the handle wide enough that your knuckles do not scrape the body. A narrow loop on a heavy mug will make you grip harder, and a harder grip is exactly what you do not want when carrying hot liquid across a room.
Handle shapes in brief
Full loops are the classic and suit most hands, especially on larger mugs. Ear handles, which sit high and close to the rim, work well for smaller cups and for people who like to hold the mug near the top. Side-pull or D-shaped handles give a lot of grip for their size and are forgiving for weaker hands. Handleless tumblers and beakers are lovely for tea and for warming your palms, but they are a poor choice if you regularly carry a hot drink up stairs.
Also check the thickness of the handle itself. Very thick handles feel sturdy but can be bulky in smaller hands; very thin ones are elegant but transmit heat quickly and can feel fragile under load.
Weight, wall thickness, and balance
Hold the mug in one hand and tilt it as if drinking. It should feel steady rather than nose-heavy or top-heavy. A mug with a thick base and thin walls sits confidently; one with a heavy rim and a light foot feels tippy even when it is not.
Think about the full weight as well as the empty weight. A chunky stoneware mug that feels pleasantly solid on the shelf becomes considerably heavier with 300 ml of coffee in it. If you have arthritis, weak grip, or simply drink a lot of tea at a desk, a medium-wall mug in the 250–300 ml range is usually the most comfortable compromise: substantial enough to hold heat, light enough to lift fifty times a day.
Glaze: how it looks, feels, and behaves
Glaze affects three things at once — appearance, the sensation of drinking, and how much care the mug asks of you.
Glossy glazes are smooth on the lip, easy to wipe clean, and show the colour of tea or coffee clearly. Matte and satin glazes feel wonderful in the hand and photograph beautifully, but some matte surfaces are more prone to marking. Metal spoons can leave grey scuff lines on certain matte finishes; these are usually cosmetic and can often be lifted with a gentle abrasive, but if visible cutlery marks would bother you, ask the maker how their matte glaze wears.
Reactive and speckled glazes vary from piece to piece, which is part of the pleasure. Ask for a photo of the actual mug you will receive if the variation matters to you, particularly if you are buying a pair as a gift. Crackle glazes have a fine web of surface lines by design; they are decorative, but a maker should be able to tell you whether the piece is fully vitrified and intended for daily use.
Look at the rim, too. A thin, refined rim is pleasant for sipping delicate tea. A rounded, slightly thicker rim suits coffee and feels softer against the mouth. There is no correct answer — only the one you prefer.
Care, heat, and the questions worth asking
Handmade does not automatically mean delicate, and it does not automatically mean dishwasher-safe. It depends on the clay, the glaze, and how the piece was fired. A well-made stoneware mug may go through the dishwasher for years; a low-fired earthenware mug with a decorative overglaze may not.
Two general points hold true for almost all ceramic drinkware. First, avoid thermal shock: do not pour boiling water into a mug that has just come out of a cold cupboard, and do not move a hot mug straight to a cold stone worktop or into cold water. Second, if the foot ring is left unglazed, dry it after washing rather than leaving it to sit in a puddle on the draining board.
Before buying — or before leaving a market stall — get clear answers to these:
- Is it dishwasher safe, and on what cycle?
- Is it microwave safe?
- Is the glaze food-safe and lead-free? (Any reputable maker will answer this without hesitation.)
- Is it stoneware, earthenware, or porcelain, and does that change how I should treat it?
- Will the piece I receive look like the one in the photo?
A short closing check before you commit
If you can hold the mug, do the full routine: grip the handle as if it were full, bring it to your mouth, set it down. Then do it again with your non-dominant hand, because that is what happens when you are carrying something else. If you are buying online, read the dimensions in millimetres rather than trusting the photograph, compare them to a mug you already own, and ask the maker for a shot of the mug beside a hand or a ruler.
Finally, buy one before you buy four. Live with it for a week of ordinary mornings. The right mug reveals itself quickly — it is the one that ends up on the drying rack while the others stay in the cupboard. When you find that shape, that weight, that handle, order a second. Matching pairs are easy; finding your own shape twice is worth the small trouble.
Photo: Alehandra13 / Pixabay
