A creamer is a small

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("Pitch (baseball), pitches") the Baseball (ball), baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of out (baseball), retiring a batter (baseball), batter, ...

jug A jug is a type of container commonly used to hold and serve liquids, but not normally to drink from directly. It has an opening, sometimes narrow, from which to pour or drink, and has a handle, and usually a pouring lip. Jugs throughout histor ...

designed for holding

cream Cream is a dairy product composed of the higher-fat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. In un-homogenized milk, the fat, which is less dense, eventually rises to the top. In the industrial production of cream, this proces ...

milk Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of lactating mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfeeding, breastfed human infants) before they are able to digestion, digest solid food. ...

to be served with

tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of '' Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of south-western China and nor ...

coffee Coffee is a beverage brewed from roasted, ground coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content, but decaffeinated coffee is also commercially a ...

in the Western tradition. Creamers can be

earthenware Earthenware is glazed or unglazed Vitrification#Ceramics, nonvitreous pottery that has normally been fired below . Basic earthenware, often called terracotta, absorbs liquids such as water. However, earthenware can be made impervious to liquids ...

porcelain Porcelain (), also called china, is a ceramic material made by heating Industrial mineral, raw materials, generally including kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The greater strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to oth ...

, but also made of silver or other

metal A metal () is a material that, when polished or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electrical resistivity and conductivity, electricity and thermal conductivity, heat relatively well. These properties are all associated wit ...

s; a creamer is an obligatory part of a coffee or

tea set A tea set or tea service is a collection of matching teaware and related utensils used in the preparation and serving of tea. The traditional components of a tea set may vary between societies and cultures. History China The accepted hist ...

, whether in silver or ceramics.

Cow creamers

Creamers in the shape of a

cow Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, bovid ungulates widely kept as livestock. They are prominent modern members of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Mature female cattle are called co ...

with an opening or lid on its back for filling, known as cow creamers, originated in Holland, but became very popular in England, first with Dutch imports, then from about 1740 in saltglaze

stoneware Stoneware is a broad class of pottery fired at a relatively high temperature, to be impervious to water. A modern definition is a Vitrification#Ceramics, vitreous or semi-vitreous ceramic made primarily from stoneware clay or non-refractory fire ...

from the

Staffordshire Potteries The Staffordshire Potteries is the industrial area encompassing the six towns Burslem, Fenton, Hanley, Longton, Tunstall and Stoke (which is now the city of Stoke-on-Trent) in Staffordshire, England. North Staffordshire became a centre of c ...

. English silverware examples are from about 1750; the Dutch immigrant

silversmith A silversmith is a metalworker who crafts objects from silver. The terms ''silversmith'' and ''goldsmith'' are not exact synonyms, as the techniques, training, history, and guilds are (or were, at least) largely the same but differed in that t ...

John Schuppe, who worked in London from 1753, produced little else, and his examples are among the finest. The competition between two collectors for an especially valuable silver cow creamer is a plot-line in

P. G. Wodehouse Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse ( ; 15 October 1881 – 14 February 1975) was an English writer and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Je ...

's novel ''

The Code of the Woosters ''The Code of the Woosters'' is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published on 7 October 1938, in the United Kingdom by Herbert Jenkins Ltd, Herbert Jenkins, London, and in the United States by Doubleday (publisher), Doubleday, Doran, New York. ...

''. They have continued to be produced in both silver and ceramics. The

Potteries Museum & Art Gallery The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery is in Bethesda Street, Hanley, one of the six towns of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire. Admission is free. One of the four local authority museums in the city, the other three being Gladstone Pottery Museum, ...

has the Keiller collection of 667 ceramic cow-creamers. Cow creamjug, Walker Art Gallery.jpg, Ceramic cow creamer, 1820–40, "possibly

Cambrian Pottery The Cambrian Pottery was founded in 1764 by William Coles in Swansea, Glamorganshire, Wales. In 1790, John Coles, son of the founder, went into partnership with George Haynes, who introduced new business strategies based on the ideas of Josiah ...

" German Cow creamer.jpg, Silver cow creamer from Germany by Jean L. Schlinghoff

Espresso brew pitcher

Small metal creamers may be used in making

espresso-based drinks Espresso (, ) is a concentrated form of coffee produced by forcing hot water under high pressure through finely ground coffee beans. Originating in Italy, espresso has become one of the most popular coffee-brewing methods worldwide. It is cha ...

– the espresso being brewed into the pitcher, which is then poured into the drink. In this context they are referred to as espresso brew pitchers, and also billed as "small creamers". Brew pitchers are most commonly , which is sufficient for any espresso other than a large (double or triple)

lungo Lungo (), known in full in Italian as ''caffè lungo'', is coffee made by using an espresso machine to make an Italian-style coffee—short black (a single espresso shot) with more water (generally twice as much), resulting in a larger coffee, a ...

, but pitchers may also be found in and even sizes. Espresso brew pitchers are particularly used for layered

latte macchiato () is a coffee beverage. The name is Italian for 'stained milk', referring to the way the drink is prepared, by pouring a shot of espresso into steamed milk. It is a play on , an older drink consisting of espresso marked with a dollop or two o ...

s, which require careful pouring. In other drinks, an espresso cup or shot glass is a common alternative, which must be dumped rather than poured.

References

External links

* {{Cite web , url=http://www.search.staffspasttrack.org.uk/engine/resource/default.asp?resource=21249 , title=Cow Creamer , publisher=Staffordshire County Council , year=2003 , url-status=dead , archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20111020200024/http://www.search.staffspasttrack.org.uk/engine/resource/default.asp?resource=21249 , archivedate=2011-10-20 Teaware Coffeeware Silversmithing