This is not just any mug …..

Mug.

‘Caffeine Queen’

My favourite cup.

Memories in a drink.

Twenty years.  Cracked, broken, enduring.

Ellie gave me this mug – oh – more than twenty years ago.  Straight away, it appealed to me, though it’s not an item of any refinement.  It’s not fine china. It’s not hand made, nor hand painted. Nevertheless, this piece of unremarkable pottery soon became not just another mug, but my Caffeine Queen.

I’m a caffeine queen too.  Make me begin the day without a strong shot of coffee inside me and I’ll be simultaneously cranky and listless for hours on end. Caffeine Queen and I are united daily at the breakfast table.

She lived with us in Leeds.  She travelled with us when we moved to Harrogate.  Then she went to France, and returned to England when we too came back.

Overnight visitors didn’t realise that she was mine, and mine alone.  If they chose to drink from her when helping themselves to coffee, or even worse, tea, I’d sulk and fume in silence.  Silent, because even I knew I was being ridiculous and unreasonable.

Today though, at breakfast time, I noticed something.  A long black crack running straight down Caffeine Queen’s head.

I’ve drunk from her for the very last time.   If I fill her with hot coffee she may shatter and break beyond repair. If I’m careful, she may see out her days – and mine – in a new role as my favourite pencil pot.

The Queen is dead.  Long live the Queen.

Author: margaret21

I'm retired and live in North Yorkshire, where I walk , write, volunteer and travel as often as I can.

32 thoughts on “This is not just any mug …..”

  2. Ha ha – I have one of these too! My mug – a 40th birthday pressie from a good friend – says “Grow older – never grow up’. My sentiments entirely, as you know, so I’m hoping it will go at least another 20 years. I’m grouchy if I have to drink my coffee out of anything else 🙂

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  4. This made me laugh, because Susie doesn’t really ‘do’ mugs. More often than not, a cup and saucer containing carefully selected and brewed to the second, tea. In Prague she bought an reproduction Cubist designed cup and saucer. Having used it once or twice back home she’s found it’s not overly practical, in fact a triumph of form over function….give me a mug any day…

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    1. Crumbs. I never realised. We do mugs too, being incapable of hanging onto cups AND saucers. How did she cope with cuppas in our house? Especially when containing a brew made by tea-hating me?

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  6. Drinking coffee from a mug. I don’t have a special one, though my wife gave me a hand fired mug years ago when she was my girlfriend. I used it for years then it got a crack. I still have it tucked safely away. Now I use a mug from purchased from a coffee shop – coffee is still strong and black and like you, morning without a cup of coffee is not a good morning. Here’s to a new mug and 20 more years of morning coffee.

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  7. You are not alone. I have a favourite tea mug and a favourite coffee mug. No-one except me knows which they are, even my husband, as I feel ridiculous saying ‘you can’t drink out of that’, especially if he’s been good enough to bring me a cuppa in bed. I still get a bit mardy though. 🙂

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  8. I know, it’s funny isn’t it how we get attached to our favourite mug? Mine rarely last long as hb is a bit cackhanded with my favourite crockery, but I do have a lovely white Habitat one that my daughter gave me for my birthday many years ago and somehow, touch wood, it has stayed the course. I don’t do coffee, so this is my green tea mug, actually it’s more like an oversized cup. I can’t do saucers either! I was handed a very delicate cup and saucer at the weekend and to spare my embarrassment at spilling it and their anguish when I dropped it, I declined the saucer and just sipped as decorously as I could from the cup! Long Live The Caffeine Queen and all that live in her 😄

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  9. I have a Queen mug, too, but my proclaims me “Queen of F***ing Everything,” so it’s not suitable for mixed company! I totally understand your feelings about your mug–it’s lived a life with you!

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  10. Yes, the Queen must live on. I have something similar crafted by my now 40-year-old son in Kindergarten. It has sat on my desk ever since with pens and highlighters. 🙂

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  11. Love the mug. Glad it has a new role to play even as you have to have your coffee in another mug. My favourite mug is one of a pair, and both are still intact and so shareable (between two). Indigo blue and white mug and black coffee brighten my every morning 🙂 I had a great aunt who used to buy only one cup and saucer from special tea sets that she particularly liked. She would choose which to use depending on her mood, and guests were treated to an eclectic array 🙂

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  13. Count me in too – but for tea, not coffee….. 🙂
    I HATE it with a vengeance when somebody takes my gifted mugs (I have several, all highly treasured and normally only used by me) but …. When Hero Husband used my Christmas Mug (a very special pressie from my son when he still thought out gifts for me), I nearly climbed the walls. One must know that HH is terribly accident prone and not long ago, he stumbled over the steps of our conservatory to the kitchen and the tea stains are still very visible on the white door…. The 2 espresso cups and a water glass didn’t survive, the mugs did!!!
    So NO, you’re not barmy, we are all totally normal and the rest of the world better learns that some things are untouchable for them…. YES! 😉

    PS: Last year I bought one of my ‘new’ best liked ones for a pound when visiting the UK It says WHERE’S TEA, THERE’S HOPE…. and yes, it’s MINE alone. HH has one with a print on both sides (as a left hander he needs special treats….) and it says: Home sweet home. Both still with no blemishes, but for how long?

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    1. It’s just the luck of the draw. Sometimes the cheap cups are the ones we learn to love … and the cheap ones seem to stay the course as well.

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