To have a hierarchy of drinking vessels?

[mediumbrownmug]

So up until I married, I genuinely thought that certain cups being for tea and others for coffee, etc. was a common practice. I myself have an (admittedly extensive) hierarchy of mugs/cups to be used for each drink. The breakdown is as follows:

Tea should be made in Particular Brown Mug (I have two).
If brown mugs are not available, tea may be made in either of two thin-walled Floral Mugs.
If these aren't available, tea can then AND ONLY THEN be made in one of the Taller White Mugs (we have eight).
If none of the above is available, an emergency dishwasher run needs to take place immediately, and in the meantime one of the bone china tea cups will come out with much fanfare (bone china not being toddler-compatible, they come out but rarely nowadays).

There's a similar hierarchy of coffee mugs. Juice and water also have particular cups, but they're not quite as stringently enforced. DH knows this and accepts it.

The problem is that DH has no Special Mugs. None. He has no issue whatsoever with my hierarchy of tumblers and has even painstakingly learned which ones to grab in various scenarios when he makes the drinks- but he doesn't have a mug that HE prefers. When I ask if he wants tea/coffee I have no idea what to give it to him in.

Wondering if he just hadn't "found the right one yet", I went ahead and purchased a Potential Special Mug for him as a present (he had been dropping hints that he wanted it) and he does like and use it, but refuses to insist that it, or any other drinking vessel, only be used for one particular beverage to the exclusion of all other mugs. I, coming from a long line of Special Mug lovers, find this lack of commitment odd.

By way of comparison, my DF still uses the same Special Mug that he's been drinking from for the past two decades. Even my DGPs each had their own Special Mug marked with nail polish in an inconspicuous spot to differentiate between the two identical mugs so they could tell whose was whose. AIBU to have a Special Mug, and provisions for when the said mug is unavailable?

I bought pasta bowls for the first time in my life this year and it genuinely irritates me when DH does not use them for their specific purpose, which is pasta.
What is wrong with him?

I have an egg mug (to break eggs into) which doubles as a rice measuring mug. If people come round and make a tea in it, it makes me feel ill. I also have a morning cup of tea mug and if someone uses that, it makes me want to kill them. I should really make all the tea but too idle!

I definitely have a mug hierarchy. So does my mum.
At home it goes;
Tea 1) very tall Nightmare Before Christmas Mug
2) huge vat-like Ralph Lauren Stars and Stripes mug
3) Chunky Southwold Street names mug

Coffee - Kit Kat Easter egg freebie mug (I don’t drink coffee very often)

Hot chocolate - Tall Whittards spotty mug with special spoon. They were a pair and my Nan has the other one

At my mums house I will only drink tea from the My Little Pony mug. I used to have a substitute multi-coloured mug but that has mysteriously disappeared

Today I have finally found my work mug! It’s taken me two months and it’s big and chunky and has a picture of a stag on it and it’s now MINE!

I mean to correct my error in drinking tea from a brown mug. I think I’ve found an alternative. It’s a fine bone china mug with a fox on it, and a WHITE interior. I want to order it, but how can I know before I buy it whether it will be a special mug?

Now this is a proper Mumsnet thread.

My rules are:
Morning tea: Mummy mug from card shop (nothing to do with the slogan just nice shape size and thickness)
Tea if someone comes round: spotty mugs (matching pair)
Tea for late afternoon: extra large mug

I also have a mug with a cat which is chiefly used for measuring rice, although can be a backup tea drinking mug.

I have backup mugs including an Auntie mug (same dimensions as the Mummy one) and then about 12 mugs I never use. Mostly gifts or souvenirs.

I don’t even drink hot drinks and I have a hierarchy of mugs for visitors.

What about Christmas mugs?

My husband makes a cup of tea for me every morning (not as romantic as it sounds. It’s usually only found mid morning and the tea bag is still in it) but seems to use my dedicated coffee mug nearly every single day. I want to drown him in it I get so raged.

He knows there is a proper hierarchy to follow. And if no tea mug is available, then make bloody coffee! And the other way round too.

Only the best sensible people have a mug hierarchy.

A friend actually contemplated never talking to a relative again when said relative used her special mug to make coffee in. Said mug is ONLY FOR TEA and must never be used by anyone else.

The cat broke my favourite mug by testing it off the kitchen side as it was in the way of his saunter. I ranted long and hard at him, and threatened to make a coffee in him if he tried his antics with any more crockery.

Cat gave zero fucks, and pegged a Pyrex bowl onto the floor the day after as a means of showing me who is in charge of the kitchen. Arsehole.

Current coffee mug is a slightly larger than average mug bought for about a pound in the sale at Starbucks a year or two back. Tea mug is a slightly smaller and thinner one, emblazoned with ‘make tea, not war’ on the side.

Oh I rather like those Sunday Best mugs from the mugporn site someone kindly linked to.
And very taken with the shape of your tea drinking mug @thegreylady, although for me that would be a hot chocolate mug.

Cabana i feel ill just reading about your egg mug. I'd have to throw that away i can get a bit barfy over egg related thoughts.

Bollocks you really should try shiny mugs, what if your teeth accidentally touch a matte mug eeeoooouuww.

I also have egg mugs. They're like mini bowls with handles and only get used as mugs when we have a very big gathering, which happens once a year.

Rest of the time they are used pretty much daily for whisking eggs up for breakfast. They go in the dishwasher so no qualms about multiple uses, but I don't drink out of them as they're a bit shit as mugs, too heavy and hard to hold one handed.

@ElenadeClermont. I don't think I could cope with Christmas mugs - what if you fell in love with it and made it a first tier mug - just imagine the frustration of nly being able to use it for a couple of weeks.

@mediumbrownmug. I feel bad we have shamed you into buying a new mug. I'm sure it will be perfect - if not, you could always give it as a present, use it to whisk eggs, or as a penis beaker.

@Hippee - Just wondering where you managed to obtain the Yorkshire Tea mugs? Have coveted one of those for a long time...

DH brought me a rare late night (ie after 9pm) (we're such party animals!) cup of tea but said, slightly apologetically, "They're both in Dad cups I'm afraid, which one would you like?" You've got appreciate that he knew he'd Done Wrong, but was trying to make it better by acknowledging that I might prefer one mug over another, even though the tea was the same...

medium I think that the stakes are too high for you to consider 'ordering' a mug!?! Are you honestly saying that you've not even pretend drank from it in a shop??? Seriously reckless.

@Yeahmum 😂

@TheNoodlesIncident I got one in a charity shop and one at a local village shop, but we do live in Harrogate, so we are close to the source! You can usually buy them from www.yorkshiretea.co.uk/collectables/big-tea-mug but it looks like they are updating the website at the moment. My husband has the one with fields on and I have the "Love Yorkshire Tea" one. I have occasional meetings at the headquarters of Yorkshire Tea and they used to have the "Welcome to Brewtopia" sign as you drove in.

I passive aggressively give people who have pissed me off the ugly brown mug in my matchy mug collection.

My husband refers to it as brown mugging- "I can't believe you brown mugged me!"

The egg breaking, rice measuring mug also has another use for cornflour mixing which makes me feel even more bleurghh about people drinking from it. I can’t throw it away though as I would have to allocate the role to a different mug in the hierarchy! I did have two egg mugs but 1 broke earlier this year which is a worry as now I have no back up egg mug.

I don’t have a hierarchy of mugs (only own two, a Norman size Dr Who one and a huuuge Thor’s Hammer from the Disney shop). I do have a hierarchy of beer vessels though. Lager and IPA go in my stainless steel tankard with Viking patterning. Reds go in my pewter. Stouts go in my elf design pewter tankard. Really special beers go on the silver (literally silver. It was a gift). My BF is currently complaining I have too many tankards :D

Wow, this is amazing. I never knew this existed!

I do have mugs that I don't like, but of the rest I have no preference whatsoever.

I want to order it, but how can I know before I buy it whether it will be a special mug?

Alas OP, you can't - any more than you can know whether the child you are carrying will make you proud or break your heart (or both!).

The Mug is Itself, and there is nothing we can do.