Promotional Mugs In The Modern World
Just where do promotional mugs fit into our everyday lives and what are the oldest examples of this widely used promotional gift?
Promotional mugs are generally larger than the more traditional beverage holder – the humble cup and will hold around 350mk of coffee, tea or hot chocolate. In offices, factories and workplaces all over the UK traditional drink times still persist as the ‘morning’ or ‘afternoon’ mug of English tea or coffee. Mugs are also more environmentally friendly than plastic cups and many argue that drinks often taste better from a ceramic mug or even bone china mug than a plastic drinks cup.
What probably defines whether a drinking vessel is a mug or not is the presence or not of a handle. The importance of a handle cannot be overestimated. A handle give the holding hand a safe distance from the mug sides which when heated by the contents may be too hot to hold and its small cross-sectional area reduces the potential for heat flow from the hot liquid itself.
In bygone times, mugs were carved from wood or bone or shaped from clay. The earliest known mugs, date back to the Late Neolothic Period around 2500-2000BC in Zhengzhou, China. Mug examples have also been found in the US, in Colorado, dating between 1000 and 1230AD.
Mugs production from clay and pottery was shaped by the development of the potters wheel (around 6500 to 3000BC). The use of clay allowed a handle to be easily added and the mug was literally born but not in its present form. The problem for potters was how to make a mug wall that was thin enough to drink from. Early mug examples from say Greece around 4000-5000BC had thick walls that made it difficult to drink from. It was the invention of porcelain around 600AD in China that led to the development of what could be considered the modern era of thin walled jugs suitable for both hot and cold liquids.
Clay is still the preferred material for modern day mugs that may be manufactured from earthenware, bone china, porcelain or even stoneware and it provides the benefit of low thermal conductivity i.e. to help keep a drink warm. Where glass is used, it is typically strengthened and in the form of Pyrex glass. Travel mugs tend to be made from more robust and lighter materials including metals such as aluminium.
Travel mugs have increased in popularity over the last few years and these types of mug tend to have a thermal insulation layer between their inner and outer surface. This allows their contents to retain their heat whilst lowering their overall weight. Typically made of aluminium or some other metal compound, travel mugs also tend to be more resilient and shatter proof than say earthenware or bone china mugs.
A misnomer is that mug bottoms are flat. Far from it. In fact the bottom of a mug is either concave or has an extra rim to reduce contact between the mug and its standing surface. This reduces the area for thermal conductivity of heat from the mug and is often characterised by the classic O-shaped stain left within a mug when its contents have been drunk.
Promotional companies like Redbows provide a wide range of promotional mugs including traditional and ECO mugs made from environmentally friendly materials. The advantages of using promotional mugs is that they offer both a large imprint area as well as being a promotional gift that will be used and seen virtually every day.
Posted in Promotional Gifts, Promotional Mugs
