There is more to a tea cup than meets the eye

Although not at the forefront of every tea drinker’s mind there is an ever-present accessory which can and does enhance the enjoyment of the beverage, from Japan to North America and every point on the globe. The ‘lowly’ tea cup,. whether its chosen contents are Oolong, Irish Breakfast, Earl Grey, lemon, cream, honey or sugar... or even no sweetening at all, the beverage must make its way from the teapot to the lips. Regardless the flavor of choice, the mode of tranport, the tea cup is inseparable from the process: If tea is to be enjoyed, tea cups will most certainly become involved.

A tea might travel with style:
In the finest of Royal Doulton, Mikasa or Noritake,
Perhaps one of any number of lovely and exotic hand-painted conveyances; the envy of your neighbors.

Tea might even “slum”, transporting itself from pot to lips in the lowest of mugs, but no less enjoyable to the connoisseur or casual consumer. I know that there are those fine tuned enough to tell the difference and indeed I can tell it too but I would draw the line at avoiding the tea because of the vessel.

Fortunately the choice of vessel is as diverse as the choice of tea. Perhaps the rarest and most valuable are the Japanese Lithophane cups. Often these artistic wonders include cup bottoms with drawings of geisha girls within the porcelain and only visible when tipped up and with a light source facing the drinker. These frequently come in sets decorated with dragons or symbols of nature associated with the Kami of Shintoism. Some of these were manufactured for overseas trade and these generally will come in even-numbered sets. Those sets intended for use within Japan will most frequently come with an odd number of cups and saucers. (I know this in itself seems odd but it's really not something to worry about when having tea, just something to make conversation during...)
Dragonware - a souvenier miniature set.

Japanese tea sets as above would be most likely be made of porcelain, as are collectors cups from Limoges in France or Bavaria; made as finely as any of the offerings from the Orient. Myriad decorations, patterns and styles diverse as one might imagine. You should have no difficulty matching any decor or even mixing-and-matching to achieve the pleasant "hodge-podge" of the country kitchen.

There are a number of extremely prolific English potters who developed bone china because of the lack of material to make porcelain in Staffordshire where the English potteries were located. Woods and Sons, Crown Staffordshire and Johnson Brothers come to mind immediately. The cups' maker really is nowhere near as important as its contents though. One can certainly enjoy a tea cup made of bone china as much as one of porcelain. Both Bone China and fine Porcelain have the advantage of being very light and transmitting heat rapidly away from the tea itself and sooner to your palate. So, if rapid enjoyment is "your cup of tea," try a cup made from one of these materials. If not, have it in the mug! That's where it's destined after all.

I was taught several lessons regarding tea service as a youngster. One was that breakables were to be kept from the hands of the young. Given that I was never allowed to drink from the "nicer" tea cups but age has permitted me to escape the rules of yesteryear, I am now allowed as aesthetic a vessel as I desire. Go ahead and splurge on the aesthetics. It does not hurt the experience at all!

And if a mug will do, a mug will do. Were it not for the tea there would be no cup at all but the world might be a slightly poorer place..

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