Coffee cups are utensils specifically designed for drinking coffee. Generally, tea cups are shallow with a wide rim and high translucency to allow the aroma of black tea to diffuse and to facilitate appreciation of its color. Coffee cups, on the other hand, have a narrower rim, are thicker, and have lower translucency.
Coffee cups are generally available in two types: earthenware and porcelain. Recognizing that coffee should be enjoyed hot, cup makers developed earthenware cups with excellent heat retention, as well as bone china cups, which are even better than porcelain. Bone china cups, containing 25% animal bone ash, are lightweight, highly translucent, and have excellent heat retention, allowing the coffee to cool down more slowly. Coffee has a clear amber color; to best showcase this characteristic, a white-rimmed coffee cup is preferable. In terms of weight, lighter cups are preferable, as this indicates a finer texture, meaning the raw materials used in their production are finer, resulting in a denser surface with fewer pores and less likelihood of coffee stains adhering to the cup.
Cups can be categorized by their rim shape into wide-mouthed and straight-mouthed cups. Wide-mouthed cups allow the coffee to reach a wider range of taste buds, while straight-mouthed cups, with their rim perpendicular to the table, create a more balanced flavor. They can also be categorized by wall thickness into thick-walled and thin-walled cups. Thick-walled cups are better at retaining heat and are suitable for specialty coffees, while thin-walled cups offer a smoother mouthfeel and are better suited for single-origin coffees. Finally, they can be categorized by capacity: small cups (under 100ml) are mostly used for espresso, cups around 200ml are mostly used for single-origin coffees, and large cups (over 300ml) are mostly used for specialty coffees with a higher milk content.