Mug
A tall cylindrical vessel with a handle, holding around 350 ml. It is how most tea in the West is actually made, and it is also, in a thick glass version, how a great deal of tea in China is actually made. Those two facts are rarely mentioned in the same paragraph and they are the same object solving the same problem.
- Capacity
- 300 to 400 ml
- Material
- porcelain, stoneware or double-walled glass
- Origin
- universal
- Best for
- one long infusion, or grandpa style with whole leaf
What it is
Tall, straight-sided and large. Porcelain, stoneware or glass; the double-walled glass version keeps tea hot by trapping air between the layers, which is why it is cool to hold while the liquid inside is not. The Chinese daily-drinking equivalent is a thick glass cylinder: leaf goes in the bottom, hot water on top, and you drink from it all day, topping up when the level falls below a third.
What it does to your tea
It cools it, faster than the shape suggests it should. A tall cylinder exposes more surface area than a squat one of the same volume, so a mug loses heat quickly at the top while the leaf sits in the bottom. The other effect is dilution: 350 ml is a lot of water for the amount of leaf most people put in, which is why mug tea is often weak and why steeping it longer makes it bitter rather than stronger.
What it suits
One long infusion of a robust tea, and grandpa style, which is the Chinese glass-cylinder method: a modest amount of whole leaf, left in, topped up through the day. Grandpa style works in a mug precisely because the ratio is low and the leaf never gets hot enough for long enough to turn harsh.
How to use one
If you are using an infuser, use a large basket and take it out on time. If you are going grandpa style, use whole leaf rather than broken, let it sink, and drink over the top of it; top up before the level gets low rather than after. Cover the mug while it steeps, since an open cylinder is mostly surface.
How to choose one
Double-walled glass if you want to keep tea hot and see it. Otherwise check the basket that comes with it, because most bundled mug infusers are far too small for a 350 ml mug, and a mug with a lid brews measurably better than one without.
Care and cleaning
Ordinary washing. Tannin rings lift with bicarbonate of soda.
What people get wrong
Scaling up the leaf but not the infuser. A mug needs roughly twice the leaf a teacup does and most infusers sold for mugs hold a third of what is required. If mug tea always tastes thin and bitter at the same time, that is the signature: not enough leaf, steeped too long to compensate.
What it is made of
