Promotional Cups

What are mugs made out of, usually?  In my last blog post, I said that I preferred the feel of a ceramic mug over the travel mug.  Travel mugs are almost always, at least the good ones (in my not-so-humble opinion), made out of stainless steel; another similarity they have to a thermos.    Some of them are made of plastics, or are a hybrid of plastic on the outside and plastic on the inside.  For promotional purposes, plastics are great because they can come in almost any color and have almost any color applied to them for customization.  Plastics and metals are very break resistant, too, so this is why they’re preferred for the travel mug.

Latte mugs, bistro mugs, and the old standard desk mugs tend to be made of a ceramic material like porcelain or earthenware.  A mug made from these materials hold heat really well and keep liquids warm longer than ordinary glass.  Ceramics can hold up pretty well and not completely shatter when dropped, but they’re still fragile enough that you don’t want to test how impact resistant they really are.

Glass mugs aren’t uncommon but they can lose heat more quickly and can break more easily than most other materials.  Usually a glass mug is picked because they’re cheaper.

It’s as if there is more diversity among coffee mugs than there is in the human population, as you will quickly notice if you pay a quick visit to any site that sells them.  The differences can be cosmetic and only “skin deep” imprinting difference, or can be as dramatic as different shapes and material.  Unfortunately, not all of this diversity is a good thing.  Everyone wants to get a unique looking mug out there since there’s hundreds of thousands already out there and “unique” can mean a lot of things.

Disco is Still Alive!

Fake wood!  It isn’t just for station wagons from the 70s anymore, and if you thought wood paneling ever went like I did, apparently we’re completely wrong.  Yes, woodgrain coffee mugs.  Why does anyone want one?  I don’t think anyone does, but it seemed like a good idea to whoever designed it.  Even if you could choose the color of the “wood” look on the mug (which you generally can’t) and get it to match the wood on your desk, I can’t imagine you still really wanting one.  Wood really looks good in some situations, but fake wood finishing on anything except furniture needs to go away forever!

Mmmm, Sweaty Feet

Cups and mugs with special shapes are another bad idea.  Lots of the custom shapes I see are, strangely, heads of famous people or heads of characters.  Nothing warms me up in the morning like a hot cup of joe poured directly out of the skull of George Washington.  Patriotism at its finest!  As an added bonus, even when they’re not intended to be a caricature they inevitable look cartoony or ugly… or both.

Here’s another great example of a cute idea for some other product, but a bad shape for something someone will be drinking out of: ski boot shaped mugs.  I want nothing more than to imagine the sweat build up of a nice pair of warm and tight ski boots mixing with my morning beverage of choice.  Add a splice of lemon to really give it a kick while you’re at it!

How the heck are these supposed to be washed, either?  They have lots of little nooks and crannies and heaven forbid it sits in your sink long enough for your remaining drink to stain or harden.  Plus, I don’t really have enough cupboard space the way it is, and I’m not sure how the heck I’d find a space for one of these creative mugs that isn’t on the top shelf and guaranteeing I’ll never use it more than once.