What’s the muggiest mug?

An important question… My favourite mug has developed a leaky crack. If you were going to buy one new mug to use for everything — tea, coffee, whatever — what would it be? The mug of all mugs. The one mug to rule them all. The canonical mug. The ur-mug.

Some of my thoughts…

A photo of a plain white cylindrical mug. — An unhelpful angle for the purposes of this illustration

§ A white cylindrical mug is maybe the muggiest of all mugs. But it’s too characterless without a slogan, such as “I♥️NY”, and I don’t want a slogan.

A photo of some classic white American diner mugs with concave sides — I bought some on eBay a few years ago

§ The classic Victor diner mug must be the ultimate of American coffee mugs. I love these — they are solid, smooth, comfortable and weighty. But, while they’re one of the best coffee mugs they feel a bit too redolent of coffee to also drink tea out of. And, fatally, the rounded top causes dribbles while drinking, in my dribbly experience. Maybe modern non-Victor variations have solved that flaw?

A photo of a blue-and-white striped cornishware mug in front of a kettle on a gas hob — Perfectly at home in a beach hut

§ A vintage cornishware straight-sided mug. I like modern cornishware mugs (my now-cracked mug is one) but those shown there have had some of their character rounded off. This older one is solid, upright, full of post-war Britain, with a lovely handle that beckons your thumb over.

§ So, any thoughts? What have I missed? Something modern and Scandinavian? Japanese? Something without a handle? Send me your reckons about the most objectively muggy mug as a reply on Twitter!

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