Tea cups are often seen as thing of the past, remnants of time when the best china was brought out when someone dropped in for afternoon tea. More often they are relegated to the shelf for decoration.
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However tea purists would say that tea must be drunk from a tea cup. Whether that be porcelain or bone china is a whole other argument.
As you may have guessed from the dainty and delicate nature of tea cups, tea has its western origins among the elite classes; in the mid 1600s King Charles II’s wife, Catherine of Braganza from Portugal, introduced tea drinking in the UK. However as trade routes opened up to the east, tea became more affordable and quickly took over as England’s national drink.
Traditional Chinese cups were more like tiny bowls while the Arabs prefer to drink their tea from clear glasses. Europeans however invented handles on tea cups in the mid 18th century to protect their fingers from getting burnt.
An appreciation of tea cups can have nothing to do with drinking tea. Collections are often prized and handed down to the next generation, without having felt a drop of water. They can remind the owner of a special time, place or person.
With Mother’s Day coming up this weekend, a beautiful cup and saucer set may be the ideal present, especially if it is presented as part of breakfast in bed.
There are a couple of rules for taking care of tea cups: china cups should always be hand-washed and cups with gold or metal trim should never be put in a microwave.
