
A teacup is a
cup
A cup is an open-top vessel (container) used to hold liquids for drinking, typically with a flattened hemispherical shape, and often with a capacity of about . Cups may be made of pottery (including porcelain), glass, metal, wood, stone, pol ...
for drinking
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 ...
. It generally has a small
handle
A handle is a part of, or an attachment to, an object that allows it to be grasped and object manipulation, manipulated by hand. The design of each type of handle involves substantial ergonomics, ergonomic issues, even where these are dealt wi ...
that may be grasped with the
thumb
The thumb is the first digit of the hand, next to the index finger. When a person is standing in the medical anatomical position (where the palm is facing to the front), the thumb is the outermost digit. The Medical Latin English noun for thumb ...
and one or two
finger
A finger is a prominent digit (anatomy), digit on the forelimbs of most tetrapod vertebrate animals, especially those with prehensile extremities (i.e. hands) such as humans and other primates. Most tetrapods have five digits (dactyly, pentadact ...
s. It is typically made of a
ceramic
A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant, and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcela ...
material and is often part of a set which is composed of a cup and a matching
saucer
A saucer is a type of small dishware. While in the Middle Ages a saucer was used for serving condiments and sauces, currently the term is used to denote a small plate or shallow bowl that supports a cup – usually one used to serve coffee t ...
or a trio that includes a small cake or sandwich plate. These may be part of a
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 ...
combined with a
teapot
A teapot is a vessel used for steeping tea leaves or a herbal mix in boiling or near-boiling water and serving the resulting infusion called tea; usually put in a teacup. It is one of the core components of teaware.
Teapots usually have an ...
,
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 ...
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 ...
, covered
sugar
Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose
Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecul ...
bowl
A bowl is a typically round dish or container generally used for preparing, serving, storing, or consuming food. The interior of a bowl is characteristically shaped like a spherical cap, with the edges and the bottom, forming a seamless curve ...
, and
slop bowl
In Europe, a slop bowl, slop basin or waste bowl is one of the components of a traditional tea set. It was used to empty the cold tea and dregs in tea cups before refilling with hot tea, as there were often tea leaves in the bottom of the cups.
...
. Teacups are often wider and shorter than
coffee cup
A coffee cup is a cup for serving coffee and List of coffee drinks, coffee-based drinks. There are three major types: conventional cups used with saucers, mugs used without saucers, and disposable cups. Cups and mugs generally have a Handle (gri ...
s. Cups for morning tea are conventionally larger than cups for
afternoon tea
Tea is an umbrella term for several different meals consisting of food accompanied by tea to drink. The English writer Isabella Beeton, whose books on home economics were widely read in the 19th century, describes meals of various kinds an ...
.
Higher quality teacups are typically made of fine white translucent
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 ...
and decorated with patterns. Some collectors acquire numerous one-of-a-kind cups with matching saucers. Such decorative cups may be
souvenir
A souvenir ( French for 'a remembrance or memory'), memento, keepsake, or token of remembrance is an object a person acquires for the memories the owner associates with it. A souvenir can be any object that can be collected or purchased and trans ...
s of a location, person, or event.
In Europe, fine porcelain tea cups, such as French
Limoges porcelain from a
kaolin
Kaolinite ( ; also called kaolin) is a clay mineral, with the chemical composition Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4. It is a layered silicate mineral, with one tetrahedral sheet of silica () linked through oxygen atoms to one octahedral sheet of alumina (). ...
base heated in ovens or Chinese porcelain, were a luxury for enjoying tea time. These cups are made with a handle and are paired with a saucer in a set and often feature hand painted decoration and gold or silver patterns, especially lining the rim and the handle.
In the
Chinese culture
Chinese culture () is one of the Cradle of civilization#Ancient China, world's earliest cultures, said to originate five thousand years ago. The culture prevails across a large geographical region in East Asia called the Sinosphere as a whole ...
teacups are very small and hold between 20 and 50 ml of liquid. They are designed to be used with
Yixing
Yixing () is a county-level city administered under the prefecture-level city of Wuxi in southern Jiangsu province, China, and is part of the Yangtze Delta, Yangtze River Delta. The city is known for its traditional Yixing ware, Yixing clay ware t ...
teapots or
Gaiwan
A (; ) or () is a Chinese lidded bowl without a handle, used for the infusion of tea leaves and the consumption of tea. It was invented during the Ming dynasty. It consists of a bowl, a lid, and a saucer.
History
Prior to the Ming dynasty ...
. In Russian-speaking and West Asian cultures influenced by the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...
tea is often served in a
faceted glass held in a separate metal container with a handle, called a
zarf in Turkish and Arabic, the podstakannik being its Russian cousin.
History
The teacup and saucer originated in China at the time of the near-simultaneous introduction of tea and porcelain. The original teacup design did not have a handle or a saucer. At some point a ring-shaped cupholder appeared to protect the fingers and eventually evolved into a saucer. The cups in 17th century were tiny, with the width about 2¼ inches across at the top,1¼ at the bottom, and the depth of 1½ inches. The saucers measured 4½ inches across. The European manufacturers initially copied the handle-less Oriental designs exported from the
Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
ese
port
A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Hamburg, Manch ...
of
Imari or from the southern Chinese port of Canton (part of the
Canton System, 1757-1842), now Guangzhou. The teacup handles were introduced in the West in the early 19th century. The handles originally became a feature of chocolate drinking cups in the 17th century, while teacups were still handle-less.
Teacup plates originated in England in the early 1800s and provided a rest for the cup and a space for a light snack, went out of fashion in the second half of the 19th century.
Culture
A small-scale research was done by Yang et al. in 2019 to test the influence of the teacup shape on the expert evaluation of the tea taste. Significant variations were found, lending some support to the "you eat with your eyes" concept.
Unicode
Unicode or ''The Unicode Standard'' or TUS is a character encoding standard maintained by the Unicode Consortium designed to support the use of text in all of the world's writing systems that can be digitized. Version 16.0 defines 154,998 Char ...
codepoints and portray a teacup. is often rendered as a teacup.
See also
* "
A Nice Cup of Tea"
*
Gill (unit)
__NOTOC__
The gill or teacup is a unit of measurement for volume equal to a quarter of a pint. It is no longer in common use, except in regard to the volume of alcoholic spirits measures. Imperial
;In imperial units:
:
US
;In United State ...
*
Moustache cup
The moustache cup (or mustache cup) is a drinking cup with a Semicircle, semicircular ledge inside. The ledge, called a moustache guard, has a half moon-shaped opening to allow the passage of liquids and serves as a guard to keep moustaches dry. ...
*
Mug
A mug is a type of cup, a drinking vessel usually intended for hot drinks such as: coffee, hot chocolate, or tea. Mugs usually have handles and hold a larger amount of fluid than other types of cups such as teacups or coffee cups. Typically ...
*
Saucer
A saucer is a type of small dishware. While in the Middle Ages a saucer was used for serving condiments and sauces, currently the term is used to denote a small plate or shallow bowl that supports a cup – usually one used to serve coffee t ...
*
Tea culture
Tea culture refers to how tea is made and consumed, how people interact with tea, and the aesthetics surrounding tea drinking.
Tea plays an important role in some countries. It is commonly consumed at social events, and many cultures have cre ...
References
Sources
*
*
* \
*
{{Authority control
Teaware
Cooking weights and measures