Monday 3 January 2011

Mug Rage!




I have an irritating sense of what-the-fuckery about tea. Yes, tea. Why does it taste different depending on which cup you use? I’m a mug freak. I change them often, even going so far as to buy eight so that if any get broken, I don’t have any annoying gaps on my six-arm mug tree. OCD much?

My compulsion aside, I’ve noticed that my tea tastes better when using my white mugs with the black fern pattern, or my smallest daughter’s Father Christmas mug we bought her last year. It doesn’t taste too jolly in the black mugs I recently purchased, nor does it taste nice in the wicked little retro pink mug I bought a couple of weeks ago—shit, I really like that mug too. Hubby reckons I need a china cup, and I have to agree. It always tastes delish in those, but I’m such a clumsy bitch that I’m bound to break it.

So, I wonder why the taste changes like that? It’s a good job food doesn’t taste different depending on the plate or bowl, otherwise I’d be highly pissed off. I mean, some food is bland enough, thank you—which begs the question: Why eat it then?

Well, I eat certain foods because they’re meant to be good for me, although eating mini trees (broccoli) and mini cabbages (get those Brussels sprouts the hell away from me) isn’t something I do very often. And isn’t it amazing how one person can love a certain food yet another person hates it? Don’t we all have the same tongue business going on then? So then I wonder if food really tastes like it does to everyone—like, does a strawberry taste like it does to me when you eat it? Something we’ll never know.

Maybe it’s just me that tea does this to? Maybe it’s in my head that it tastes different in certain cups, because a taste is a taste, isn’t it? And it also tastes different when made in a teapot. But Sprite would taste the same whatever I drank it from, so why is tea different? Anyone else have this what-the-fuckery going on? Or am I just crazy and wasting my energy even getting irate about it?

16 comments:

Anny Cook said...

Actually... I think you're correct. That's probably why I sometimes enjoy tea (or coffee) and others times it's just meh... I'll have to observe and see!

Cassie Exline said...

Coffee lover here. Can't say I notice a difference in the taste from different cups. But I love iced tea and there is a difference in drinking out of glass verses plastic. Loses something.

Cherie Reich said...

You're definitely not crazy! I've noticed that tea and coffee taste different depending what type of mug you use. Some taste better than others. It's one of those weird things, but I totally get it. :D

Faith Bicknell said...

I agree with you too, Sarah! I have certain coffee cups I use because coffee tastes better and richer in them. Now my hubby has a fit if I wash his coffee cup because he says it ruins the taste, but the unsightly film inside that cup drives me crazy! Gross!

I don't like pop in a can or from a two-litre bottle. It has to be in a small 16 or 20 ounce bottle. the hubby says beer tastes better from a glass bottle than it does an aluminum can, and my dad won't drink his Pepsi unless its in a glass. Put it in a plastic cup for him and he has a fit!

Anonymous said...

Great post, Sarah. I think tea tastes better out of expensive cups. But that's just me! Could it be a multi-sensory issue?

Emmy Ellis said...

Yes, Anny. Experiment and let me know LOL!

:o)

Emmy Ellis said...

Coffee is fine in any cup for me, Cassie, but yes, I have to agree on plastic. I can't stand drinking out of plastic cups.

:o)

Emmy Ellis said...

Cherie, I'm so glad you get it! I've decided to go ahead and buy a cheapo china mug, just to see if it works and tastes like it should!

:o)

Emmy Ellis said...

Oooh, I forgot how Coke tastes different, Faith. It tastes divine from a glass bottle--but those are a stupidly exhorbitant price here--but I love it from a can, which then tastes totally different from the plastic bottle.

:o)

Emmy Ellis said...

writerwellness...Hubby made a good point, something to ponder. He said, because I'm currently using black cups, that the tea looks darker in it, so I don't squeeze the teabag as much, whereas a white cup, I get more flavour into it because I squeeze the teabag more.

Thinking about it, my white cups with the black fern pattern, and Smallest's FC cup, are white.

Hmmm.

Yet an expensice china cup...you get the best tea out of those. I won't allow myself to buy an expensive one, because I know damn well I'll break it, so a cheap version will have to do.

I'm stupidly excited about this. I seriously need to get a sodding life!

:o)

Anonymous said...

I agree with you! I have certain cups, mugs, that tea (or coffee) taste better in.

My favorite mug, which is only my favorite because it has Winnie-the-Pooh on it, it was a gift from my bosses when they went to Disneyland. Nothing tastes good in that mug. It's all bland, no matter what I drink from it.

I have to agree with Faith's dad....Pepsi is soooo much better in a glass with a few ice cubes.

Emmy Ellis said...

Yes, Casey! I have a mug like that. When I make tea in it, there's a kind of film thing going on, almost like the tea formed a skin and broke up. Bloody gross.

:o)

Faith Bicknell said...

Sarah, that's a good point about the dark vs the white cups and squeezing the tea bag.

Casey, I'll have to tell my dad he has someone else in the world who agrees with him about Pepsi in a glass, lmao!

C. Zampa said...

No, it's not just you, Sarah! Tea (or coffee, for me) most certainly DO taste different, depending on the mug.

Perhaps there will be funding one day so we can know WHY. LOL...

And I'll let you know when I can come up with a description of what a strawberry tastes like to me. LOL..

Adorable post!

Emmy Ellis said...

LOL CZ. It's nice to know I'm not alone hahaha!

:o)

Nicki (D.N.) said...

Mine is sort of a "size" thing.

If I drink tea or Pepsi in a large bottle or cup, I don't drink as much. But put it in a 12-ounce glass bottle, and a second or five after it's poured there, it's gone. xD

Same thing with water. I don't drink a lot of it unless it's in a teeny bottle. :)