Mug is generally understood as a type of cup used to contain hot beverages such as coffee, tea, chocolate, etc. According to dictionary.com, the word is a drinking vessel with a handle, usually cylindrical and made of earthenware. Generally, people use this container to drink coffee because it can hold a larger amount of liquid. Except for some specific coffee requiring typical cup such as espresso, most of coffee have been drunk from different kinds of mugs.

Here are 15 interesting facts you may not know about your unique coffee mug.

1. Usually a coffee mug can hold approximately 12 fluid ounces (~350ml) of coffee, double than that of a cup of tea. This makes coffee mugs very unique as compared to other mugs.
2. The first mug on earth was found in Neolithic Stone Age and it was made of bone.
3. The first pottery one was came from China and Japan 10,000 BCE.
4. Clay-made mugs were first created around 4,000-5,000 BCE in Greece. The biggest disadvantage of those clay mugs was thick walls unfit for the drinker’s mouth.
5. The word “mug” used to indicate a picture of prisoner or person’s head. In 18th century, drinking vessels were called “mug” because it has the same shape with people’s head.
6. Metal mugs were produced from bronze, silver, gold and even lead, starting from roughly 2,000 BCE and were used to hold hot drinks.
7. Wooden liquid containers were produced probably from the oldest time, but most of them could not be preserved to the present time. So we cannot know the exact time and its shape.
8. The invention of porcelain around 600 BCE opened a new generation of mugs made from procelain that we still widely use today.
9. There is no exact time that people start to call it as “coffee mug”. Today, with the popularity of coffee (coffee is the world’s second most consumed drink after water), it is used to call general big cups containing hot beverages, even though it is used to hold tea or some other hot drinks.
10. Those cups of coffee are usually designed with thick wall to insulate the liquid and prevent it from cooling too fast.
11. Coffee mug’s bottom is often not flat, but either concave or has an extra rim, in order to keep the heat from hot coffee to harm some surfaces where it is placed like tables, etc.
12. It has handle to keep our hand off the heat.
13. Today, mugs are made of various materials including porcelain, glass, stainless, wood, plastic and paper.
14. Travel coffee mug is first come out in 1980 with great design to keep the heat from 8 hours to 24 hours. It is one of the most innovative invention in coffee mug.
15. Each year, American workers drink about 500 disposable cups of coffee.

People drink coffee every day, especially at the morning. That’s why coffee mugs are also well-developed. There are plenty of coffee mugs available on the market with different materials, shapes, sizes and various decorations. Don’t hesitate to get one for you now.