“Mug Life”: 40 Awesome Mugs That Serve Beyond Their Initial Purpose (New Pics)

Mugs are one of those items that we tend to just have way more of than necessary. Realistically, you will never be drinking from more than one mug at a time, yet true mug aficionados could probably use a different one each day of the week without breaking a sweat. Like t-shirts, the design is simple, but the possibilities are endless when it comes to colors, designs, and even shapes.

Of course, the true sign of a mug fanatic is the steady escalation in size, as some people wield mugs large enough to become a deadly weapon and deep enough to fit an entire pot of coffee. While there is little academic literature on this, one wonders if there is a sort of dominance display happening when two mug fanatics work in the same office. 

These days, custom designs, just like the aforementioned t-shirts, can be made and ordered in print shops or online. While there is less control over the shape and materials, people now can have almost anything they want to be put on a mug, which turns this drinking item into a vessel and display piece of a person’s creativity. 

Part of the ubiquity of mugs also comes from the fact that they are great gifts, particularly for smaller events or if one does not know the recipient that well. Prices have a decent range to them, you know the item will be useful, and it’s often on display, so one doesn’t have to feel like the gift was received, then discarded. Plus, you can very easily add some personalization, like the aforementioned print or design to make it stand out from the millions of other factory-identical mugs. 

There are also people who take their obsessions a bit too seriously. Charles Hubbell was a Tennessee man who accumulated almost 30 '000 mugs in a pretty unique collection before he passed away in 2019. Hopefully, his collection was preserved after his passing, but at the very least, one could probably build an entire house just from the materials required to manufacture and paint 30 '000 mugs. 

Setting aside the modern office or tea parlor, the mug design is one of those truly ancient things we still use today. Clay mugs, made by early potters, date back to between 6000 and 3000 BCE, while there is some indication that the first wooden mugs were even older. After all, we’ve needed to drink things since forever, and scooping up water with one’s hands seems downright annoying. 

Early clay mugs suffered from how thick the vessel's walls had to be, so only people with larger mouths could use them without discomfort. Mugs better suited to our actual bodies came about with early metalworking techniques in about 2000 BCE, when gold, silver, bronze, and even lead were used. It’s a good indication of how important a good mug is, that the first metals were used to make them. 

These days, the full force of our creativity and scientific knowledge is used to make cutting-edge mugs. From fuddling cups that limit spillage, to mugs that change color or reveal images when heated, we are positively spoiled when it comes to options. Never before have there been so many materials, shapes, and colors to choose from, which possibly explains why everyone has at least a few, different mugs. 

In fact, people have so many mugs, that we have even had to innovate storage methods. The mug tree is one example, which is great on ships, as long as the base is well secured to the floor, while others will instead present their collection as a visual display, mounted and behind glass. But for most of us, the everyday cupboard is enough. 

Some might start to question the form of the mug, as it’s not that different from a cup or glass. The simple way to tell them apart is to focus on the handle. Mugs, traditionally, carry very cold or quite hot beverages, which, naturally, change the temperature of the item's walls. A handle allows for it to be handled, no pun intended, without discomfort to the user's hand, similarly, no pun intended. 

These days, we have the technology to limit heat or cold, but most people still feel comfortable with the classic, flat-based, handled mug. Why fix what isn’t broken? These tend to have flat walls, that make it easy to display images and texts with a bit of personal flair. And if you want to see other interesting mugs, look no further, Bored Panda has got you covered, you can find our other collections here, here, and here.