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 was all ready to say it was crazy, then assessed what I actually do and found that despite a cupboard full of mugs and glasses I do in fact have a hierarchy 😂

I break far too many mugs to have a Special one - I'm among the Not Bothereds. My partner, however, has Tea Mug, Coffee Cup and Water Glass.

I will also drink anything from a mug if a glass is not handy. Water, juice, lemonade. But NEVER soup. Soup is to be eaten from a bowl, with a spoon. People drinking soup from mugs actually makes me feel funny (bad funny).

All this talk of soup in mugs is making me feel faintly ill.

Oh, work!
After some very annoying 'losses' I brought in some very vulgar mugs from TK Maxx that no one at work wants to seen with. Result!

I have 14 identical Derby mugs. They are used for any hot drink I fancy. Unless I am gardening ...then I use an enamel mug.

DS has a couple of Dr Who theme mugs which are used for his hot chocolate.

No other mugs... no hierarchy...

I got rid of all my old mugs by gradually replacing them with the same style white bone china mug, each purchased from a different place - eg the Geffrye museum, Studland Bay, Sutton Hoo, Barter books. They are equally good for tea and coffee and the mug hierarchy is therefore subtle, as everyone thinks they're getting the same mug. It depends on how much I like someone as to which mug they get.

At work, however, it's a white bone china mug for my tea and a chunkier mug for coffee, with a Sarah Boynton Christmas mug for December, for tea or coffee. I can actually feel myself twitch if someone uses the wrong mug.

Every mug should be white on the inside and every mug for tea should be bone china.

I still remember from a holiday in New York the distress caused by being served a brown earthenware mug of warm water with a Lipton tea bag on the side. You only make that mistake once.

I pack my favourite tea mug anytime I am away from home as you can't really trust other people to have a suitable vessel and I hate those wee cups you get in your room in hotels.

I'm convinced they provide pants cups so no one nicks them.

On the opposite end, a guy I lived with in halls at uni was given a Buffy the Vampire mug as a joke before he started. It worked well because he only ever drank from it all year, yes, coffee, wine, everything! It meant no one else ever used it!

I’m more particular about glasses. I like a pint sized one for most cold drinks. I bought a tumbler specifically for gin, although I do have a balloon glass for something fancier.

@DioneTheDiabolist I’m away for work just now and the place I’m staying has really tiny Ikea mugs! I need at least 2 to make a normal cup of tea.

YANBU at all to have a Special Mug, I had 3 blue spotted mugs from Waitrose but DH chipped one and DD smashed one so I’m down to my last and they don’t sell them anymore.
Only certain mugs can be used for coffe and obviously Cappuccino goes in something different. My cleaner has her own mug too.

YABU to have a brown mug though, unless it’s white on the inside?

I have 4 identical white mugs with blue flowers. I have a fresh mug each time. Occasionally I’ll stoop to using a black john Rocha one.

YABVVVU for drinking juice and water out of ‘cups’ and also for calling them ‘cups’ when they are clearly ‘mugs’
lighthearted obvs

Op your husband sounds amazing.....a million miles away from my piece of shit exh who would probably make tea in a pint glass if the mugs ran out.
I have a hierarchy of mugs, I'm not a psychopath as none of the mugs match each other my system is a secret which will die with me

Nope do not this yabu

Tea for me is in bone China and from a tea pot and I have different sizes depending on time of day. Morning super huge!

Coffee I prefer in a pottery style mug

Water think glasses

Juice thick cheap ikea ones

Wine has to be thin crystal

My "very special now deleted so cannot be replaced but perfect in every way Anthropologie mug" got a massive leaky crack and chip (why that one dear cleaner, why). And I fixed it with magic Sugru and now it is ever more wonderful and unique.

Typo yanbu - I do this

SauvignonBlanche - were these mugs blue, with white spots, white handle and white interior?

I have found my people! My DH thinks I'm crackers for having a mug hierarchy (both separately for coffee, tea and hot choc but also different tea mugs for different times of day). It's taken him 10 years but hes finally memorized my hierarchy after years of being told in disappointed tones when he proudly brought me a brew in the wrong mug.

My hierarchy:
Breakfast tea: white M&S mug (still goung strong after 11 yrs) or recently acquired pink flamingo mug

Lunch tea or anytime coffee (I drink very little coffee): small blue turtle or U are my sunshine mugs

Afternoon tea: green pottery "i -can-satisfyingly-cradle-this-mug-in-2-hands" mug

Hot chocolate: short and squat but large and thick-walled Dr Suess or Kurt Vonnegut mugs

We have an entire double shelf of mugs and these are the only ones I ever use!

Hot chocolate in my Emma Bridgewater mug, or a Cath Kidston one as a second choice.
Nesquik in the penguin mug, with the polar bear being the second choice.
Mint tea in the blue or green mug.
For squash or water the order of preference of glasses goes light blue, yellow, red, dark blue.
Other soft drinks go in the iridescent tall glasses.

No, but I do have a pint glass I hate and get really annnoyed when DP brings me a drink in that one. He hates it too though lol.

Also at work we have got an ancient and indestructible mug from the 70s. It is speckled beige and horrible. However, it cannot be thrown away as it is now iconic. New people have to drink from it at least once, as an initiation rite.

I don't have a mug hierarchy since I don't drink tea or coffee but I do have a wine glass hierarchy. There is:

1. Reidel glasses we got in a wedding present that I love that must only be used for DH and me only, not for clumsy visitors or near children.
2. Dartington crystal glasses for visitors, came free with cases of wine from Majestic so no sentimental value but still naice.
3. Schott glasses for everyday.

YANBU. I too have a drinking vessel hierarchy, the key points of which are...

Tea:

1. Wedgwood Sarah's Kitchen mug - blue
2. Wedgwood Sarah's Kitchen mug - green
3. If neither of the above are clean, then any of the six generic floral mugs we have, is acceptable.

Coffee:

1. Harry Potter Butterbeer barrel mug
2. Harry Potter Hufflepuff mug
3. Disney Alice in Wonderland stacked mug
4. If none of the above are clean, then any guest mug is acceptable.

Hot chocolate:

Only my HUGE Tigger mug, which has a ceramic Tigger in a Santa hat on the handle, is acceptable.

how about this mug for your DH :)

I have found my Tribe!
At home, I have a kettle/teapot/coffeepot tray set up in the Office, upstairs, as well as the normal stuff in the Kitchen, downstairs. So I not only have Tea, Coffee AND Herbal tisane "special mugs" for me, which have an order of preference in the Kitchen , I have a similar set up, upstairs.
I have a similar set up for "outdooor" mugs, when camping, gardening, working outside etc
And ditto for drinking water, juice, squash etc.

Tea (black)and herbal Tisanes MUST be in mugs with a white inside.
Coffee, black, not so bothered about a white inside.
Red and White wine, different glasses.

DH and DD also have their own "special" mugs, in order of preference, but not as long a list as me, and weirdly they drink any drink out of their currently chosen mug (shudders)

It is just plain wrong to drink the wrong beverage out of the wrong mug at the wrong time!