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 cannot explain my hot drink hierarchy as its too complicated.

However

Everyone saying no cold drinks in mugs YABU

Cold milk should be in a mug, my DP will drink cold mug from a glass and leave said glass on his desk. By the time it is discovered I can't get my hand to the bottom of the glass to clean it adequately. This is not OK not envy!

We have mine, his, kids. Mine and his come in (not obvious) pairs. If I use a particular gold rimmed one, he has the big black mug for instance.

It is disturbing when we have people stay and they mix it all up, but we can't readily admit to the system in place without looking batshit, so we suffer in silence.

Only rule:

Tea mug or cup has to be white on the inside or it makes the tea look a funny colour

Thank god, I thought it was just me that did this.

I've got a mug graveyard in a sunlit corner in my garden where all my favourite broken mugs are laid to rest, attractively arranged amongst the gravel.

@awks I forgot about the Starbucks Christmas mug. It's a beaut! My daughter appropriates it for hot chocolate when she visits. I have special mugs that come out for Christmas. I sometimes use the robin mug after Christmas, when the weather is still lousy.
My sister has a cupboard full of assorted mugs, they make no sense to me, and I hate trying to match the mugs to the right people when making drinks. She thinks I'm nuts.

There's only me and DD so my mug rules are never broken.
DD has a selection of lidded cups with straws, each cup holds it's designated cold drink. She has a black mug with gold polka dots for the occasional hot vimto. This is right and good!
I don't drink tea, however I do drink coffee from my Yvonne Ellen giraffe mug with a white liner. This is only used for coffee and I wash it before every use. It is NEVER washed with general washing up to lessen the damage risk. I have a French hot chocolate cup and saucer in purple, hot chocolate should only be made with milk and the spoon stays in the cup to stop skin forming and to keep the powder from becoming sludge.
I have a colour changing Harry Potter Maurader's Map for hot vimto.
Cold drinks are in my large gin glass.
Visitors get a mug from the white unicorn selection that came from Poundstrechers. It doesn't matter if they have tea or coffee in them as they are only for visitors.

Weekend tea mugs:

squirrel (now sadly chipped)
hamsters of madness
bile beans
blue Denby

Work mornings:

small harbour scene

Ones for OH:

tram mug
other transport mugs

OH annoys me by using my favourites for orange juice. I've also realised all our mugs are presents / freebies...

Morning coffee is made in one of my small retro 70s Denby cups I bought in a posh charity shop. They match the mustard accent colour in my living room (where I tend to drink said coffee) perfectly. This genuinely makes me happy.

Tea is made in one of two 'I Love NY' mugs I bought (shockingly) in New York a few years ago. Until recently it was also made in blue mug with a weird sheep on it that my mum bought me over 20 years ago to keep at work when I got my first job. Devastatingly, I recently broke this beyond repair. It was such a significant event that I took a photo of the broken mug and whatsapped it to my mum, who was on holiday at the time. She was pretty traumatised too.

I also have two mugs that are okay for 'outdoor' use, or to give to workmen if we're having something done at home. Can't risk any of my other mugs in the hands of a stranger.

We then have an array of miscellaneous mugs which the children are allowed to use. They are aware of the hierarchy.

I NEED to see this brown mug! Would it fit into my hierarchy? Not a chance.

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

This thread is amazing.

do the mugs choose the person, like wands choose the person in harry potter?

YANBU - LTMHB (mug hating bastard).

Tea:

Thin boned china mug or mugs from an anthropology. At a push, a Polish mug.

Coffee:

Pottery deep red or brown mugs that are chunkier.

Hot chocolate:. Mug that says hot chocolate on it or red or brown mugs as above. Under no circumstances should hot chocolate be served in bone china mug.

Soup:. Chunky mugs as before but has to match colour of soup.

Builders: Waitrose 99p mugs as they kept breaking my nice ones.

@bilbodog which anthropologie ones do you have? I love their mugs.

They're Bloomindales Medium Brown Mugs, and I love them. They'll have to be prised from my cold, dead hands!

OP I have looked at said mug on the phenomenon which is Google. Unless you are a builder, you have no business drinking tea out of a mug that thick. And, if that's really your preferred colour of tea, I'm not even sure you can call yourself a tea-drinker.

And I so wanted us to be friends

Hopping I also use my mug hierarchy in a passive aggressive way! I take great delight in picking an inferior mug for my in laws. My mugs all have to be bone china and they have to feel right when you pick them up. Any old bone china just won't do.

@DontCallMeCharlotte I too am very disappointed at @mediumbrownmug 's first choice of mug.

Deeply, deeply disappointed in fact. I really thought I'd found my people here.

YANBU- I like my tea in a china mug- the biggest ones preferred over smaller ones, either a Cath Kidston Stanley mug or a Royal Doulton Ellen Dgeneres one- if they are dirty a smaller one will have to do.

Coffee on the other hand tastes better to me in a smaller Earthen-ware mug like Denby or my favourite ones from the pottery shop in Bourton on the water.

I have one spotty mug for coffee and one 480ml cup for tea.
And an emergency back up oxford bookshop red cup.
Simple.

Tea is best in the cheap IKEA white stacking mugs, we have a lot of them. This is tea made to builders spec and without sugar.

All mugs must be white inside. Weak sweet tea is made in some Churchill Sieni mugs, chunky ones of which there are 8.

Bedtime hot milk used to be in a Colin the Cat Farmyard Friends mug until the kitty he looked like died and now the Sieni mugs are used instead.

Coffee is a rare event and is usually served in some china seaside theme mugs which were bought because they fitted in the car but were too expensive to use outdoors in the end. The drinks taken out in the car are now made in IKEA mugs or bamboo eco mugs. Husband has his own mugs for the car, large white ones or blue china ones and his own bamboo eco ones for when he is out and buys a drink.

Soup that used to be in Colin mug now needs an alternative mug since Colin retired.

I have a definite mug heirarchy. Dp doesn’t understand it at all. I moaned at him the other week because he made me tea in a fourth tier mug and gave himself one of my top tier mugs. He said “it’s just a mug”

I think his heirarchy is le creuset mugs (possibly blue and black first) then anything else. Mine is a lot more complex with the le creusets being second tier for large coffees or hot chocolate and third tier for tea. I even have an order of preference within the tiers. And obviously different mug preferences for tea, small coffees, large coffees, hot chocolate and herbal tea.

I get quite stressed when pils are here as they take over drink making (which is lovely) but use all the wrong mugs! I especially start twitching when they give someone else one of my top three mugs and give me a doesn’t even feature on my rankings mug such as ds’ Simpson’s mug. I might have to print out and laminate a mug hierarchy chart ahead of their next visit.

YANBU

Morning coffee needs to be in a mug which says coffee. The size depends if I'm WF (larger mug) or heading to site (smaller mug). FiL has been known to try and make tea in these when visiting until I whacked him over the head and buried him under the patio asked him politely not to. Coffee later in the day can be made in an Easter Egg mug.

Tea can be in a Swallows and Amazons mug or one of 3 mugs which all came from different events but are the same basic shape. Fruit tea has to be in a taller thinner mug.

Hot chocolate needs to be in my Very Hungry Caterpillar mug.

DS has a truley hideous novelty mug which DH bought me as a joke which he adopted for hot chocolate. He also has an espresso cup for tea which makes my brain itch. Top of my list of Christmas presents to buy is a suitable small mug for him to have for weekend morning tea.

Oh yes! Tea, coffee, us, guests, builders. Oh and Lempsip too! Love this thread, I've found my people.

I absolutely have a hierarchy.

But (and I appreciate this might finally cement my reputation as a bit of an odd f*cker) sometimes I worry about the mugs lower down the pecking order feeling left out, so occasionally I will use one, even though it makes my teeth itch.

Anybody else?

This medium brown mug?

That doesn’t have a white inner! But I like the reviews. More geeky muggery (like cheeky fuckery only far more civilised).

m.bloomingdales.com/shop/product/bloomingdales-medium-brown-mug-100-exclusive?ID=112252

I have my own mugs for a cup of tea, nobody else can use my personal mugs, I have other mugs for DS, plus mugs for visitors. If I'm drinking herbal tea or lemon tea I make them in a latte glass mug like they serve in Costa. I'm Autistic & this is one of my oddities I'm obsessed with, I even have to only have my own mug at my mum's.