Mugs I Have Known

What object most closely represents the comforts of your home? You know, the thing you long for most when you travel. Your bed? Your shower?

For me, it's a good cup of coffee in one of my favorite mugs.

My recent travels made me once again realize how much I value brewing my own coffee. Europeans drink tiny little cups of espresso or milky cappuccino squeezed out of one of those noisy steam machines. They're good, but not as good (from my American perspective) as a mug of good strong brewed coffee.

I have had a series of favorite mugs over the years. In the mid-'80s, I loved my purple cup, which I once photographed on a matching bedsheet. (I took a whole series of these photos, and a few years ago I posted them here.)

I no longer have my purple cup. I eventually gave it to charity because it was too small. It was replaced by this -- a Laurel Burch mug I bought in Tampa in 1992. I loved this mug so much I took it with me to Morocco when I served in the Peace Corps, and the joke among my fellow volunteers was that when it broke, I would quit and go home.

Here it is sitting on the big cushion I used as a bed, in the courtyard of my Moroccan house. (I slept outside in the summers because it was so hot indoors.) Fortunately it never broke, I stayed my full two years in Morocco, and I still have the mug.

I don't drink out of it as much these days, though, because I have these -- Starbucks mugs from my hometown of Tampa and my brother's current city of residence, Jacksonville. They're even larger than the Laurel Burch mug. I use these or one of my other Starbucks mugs almost every day.

Finally, there's this monster, which is even larger still. (It really is ridiculous how big mugs have become.) We have two of these, which Dave's mom bought us while his parents were visiting last summer. I like them and use them often, but they're almost too big. I can never finish my coffee when I drink out of them.

Ah yes, the comforts of home!