How to Choose a Great Coffee Mug

More people drink coffee daily than any other drink, apart from water and soda. That's a lot of coffee. It's estimated that 60 per cent of the world's population drink at least one coffee a day. That means lots of coffee beans, lots of grinding, lots of peculating and lots of coffee cups! The more you drink coffee the more you begin to like it in a certain way. Some people drink it black, some white, some with milk, some with cream, some a latte some a cappuccino, the list goes on and on. As does the list of accessories, the grinders and coffee pots, the peculators, the coffee machines - but the one think that we all seem to get really personal with is our favourite coffee mug. We have different shapes and sizes, some with cartoons on, some with quotes, some are big and some are small. What ever your preference, there is a mug out there for you! Material  There are lots of different materials that mugs are made from these days, including plastics, glass, and stainless steal and of course porcelain. Hybrid coffee mugs are usually made from plastics, while stainless steal is usually used as an outer shell for a protected plastic lined cup, often used as travelling cups to take a coffee to work, or to the beach. If you go for one of these mugs, make sure it has a string watertight lid too and is of strong construction. The more traditional porcelain mugs work so well as they retain heat. The down side of this is that they are no as durable, and prone to smash if knocked or dropped. Also, the do not usually come with a lid, so tend to be house or office bound mugs. Size The size for cups and mugs is based around a standard size for a single serving, which is usually 12 ounces. This tends to be the stating point for cups and mugs, which can range up to 20 ounces or even more for novelty coffee mugs. It used to be sad that if you are a coffee addict you should get the biggest mug you can, but a counter argument is that if you have a standard size mug, then you can drink more smaller freshly brewed hot coffees a day! Shape There are lots of different shapes of mugs to choose from, from the more traditional simple porcelain cup, to the heavy armour of a protected stainless steal travelling cup. Depending on size and weight, these different cups will suite different people, and offer different levels of comfort while drinking. The best thing to do is to experiment. Go on, drink come more coffee, you know you want to!