Personalised For You And Your Brew Too

When someone gets your tea order wrong at work, they create two problems, social awkwardness because telling them they got it wrong could upset them (although most people in offices are quite thick skinned!) and the fear that they will keep getting it wrong time and time again.

Instead of saying 'no thanks' every time they ask you if you want tea and then getting it later yourself or reminding them how you like it each and every time, you could get some personalised mugs for you and your work friends instead. We know that might sound a little mad but hear us out and you may be pleasantly surprised by where this is going...

Personalised Mugs

Some personalised mugs don't just tell the person making your tea what your name is, they also specify how many sugars you like in it and whether or not you take milk. In fact, these days some even show what colour the end result should look like! If that seems a little bit eccentric, don't worry, most of the people who buy personalised mugs are.

By using personalised mugs at work you will never get mugs mixed up again, or need to ask anyone how they take their tea and everyone can just wash up their own mug at the end of the day instead of piling them up and letting them fester. It's a practical solution to an age old problem.

Milk and Two Sugars

As well as personalised mugs being quite a Western product (which they are!) tea as we know it with milk and two sugars is also a strictly Western beverage. Around the world many cultures take tea differently to how we do here in the UK. In fact it would be considered strange or revolting to some people that we put so much sugar and milk in our traditional English brew.

In China for example, it is rarer to drink or eat dairy products at all. The Chinese are popularly thought of as being a lactose intolerant race. They have not ever had milk as part of their traditional diet and therefore don't produce enough lactase to process it in their digestive systems. Furthermore, some Chinese people have been made sick at the thought of eating cheese; which to them, might seem like congealed rotten milk (because it basically is.)

Although, in recent times increasing numbers of people in China are eating and drinking dairy products and Chinese people have become especially fond of ice cream. The country still hasn't quite warmed to the concept of adding milk in terms of tea drinking. Instead of milk being served in Chinese tea, it is traditionally drank at every meal without milk or sugar and tea is also part of many major ceremonies such as weddings, family gatherings and seen as a way to express respect or apologise to people.

Arabic and Moroccan Tea

In Saudi Arabia tea is served hot and black and can often contain a lot of sugar and varying combinations of other herbs. Some notable additions to Arabic tea include mint and in other cases cardamom pods which infuse the tea with a slightly spiced and very aromatic flavour. It is also often served in heatproof glass mugs so that people drinking it can see the beautiful rich colours and it can sometimes be accompanied by Arabic sweets that are little cake-like delicacies containing crushed pistachios, almonds or other tasty treats.

In Morocco, meanwhile, people drink tea informally all day but they also have a tea drinking ceremony which is centuries old and often used to welcome visitors to someone's home. Mint tea is served and the person pouring lifts the pot high so that the tea foams a little when it falls in to the glasses. Typically Moroccan tea also contains a lot of sugar and is served black.

UK Tea Drinking

In the UK, 2.5 cups of tea are drunk every day per person and that number also accounts for people who don't even like tea! So we get through a lot of the stuff. That makes personalised mugs all the more important. After all, if we're going to drink several cups of tea a day it might as well be from personalised mugs which have our names on them?

As for the small percentage of people in the UK that don't drink tea, they need not feel left out. Chances are that they drink herbal teas, coffee or hot chocolate anyway so personalised mugs still present a brilliant gift idea!