Tea Cup Saucers- to use or not to use

I have the odd desire to preface this post with two very simple facts, I am male, and I am straight, now that we have that out of the way we shall get down to the interesting bits.

Interesting argument, curious how saucers came about as well but within the confines of your topic it is quite irrelevant. Now I am a big fan of ceremonies, traditions and etiquette, so I thought I’d do a bit of reading on the topic. One point of interest is that “Etiquette: The Blue Book of Social Usage” (which yes I do own but lets not dwell on that) has an entire chapter dedicated to tea, an amusing chapter it is, and I noted that not once in the entire chapter did it mention the word “cup” without immediately following it with “and saucer”, probably because no one would have dared to use one without the other.

I own some very beautiful Victorian style china for tea service, (yes for the last time I am indeed straight) can’t remember the last time I’ve used them, but I personally would never use one of the cups without its matching saucer, that just would not do. I however don’t brew my tea in the British style therefore it would not be proper etiquette to use saucers with my brewing techniques and utensils.

If you are using Victorian style tea cups I’m afraid I’m going to have to side with your mum here, sorry. Its how they were designed and it just looks wrong without it. On a side note, while completely unorthodox you can turn the saucer upside down and stick it on top of your cup to keep your tea warm. That way you appease your mum and the saucer is now practical plus you can still carry it one handed. Everyone wins. :)

If you are not using Victorian style cups then depending on which style you are using saucers are completely unnecessary and could prove to be “improper”.

Note: I am quite certain that someone will respond to the effect that its your tea and you should drink it anyway you want and the great thing about tea is we can all drink it our own way without it being wrong blah blah blah. And while sure that’s true, if that’s the answer you were looking for you spent to much time asking the question, that type of answer is a dime a dozen and the lazy way out. Therefore I answered your question in the spirit I saw it being asked, plus I haven’t written anything for a few days and went a little crazy. :P

I do not use saucers. Anything that distracts me from enjoying tea should be avoided.

I don’t use saucers normally. I find they look silly with a mug and I haven’t got any that goes with the mugs anyway. Well, one, technically. But that’s from the tea-for-one set so it goes with that cup. Which I rarely use.

If I use a real cup, I would do so with a saucer, because the cup look silly without it.

I always use a cup and saucer at my Grandmother’s (she has a massive collection). I’ve established that the point of the saucer, for her at least, is to have somewhere to put your teabag once it’s steeped, lol. I have four ‘fancy’ teacups at home which I have received from her over the years and though I rarely use them due to their diminutive size, I always use the cup AND saucer if I’m giving them a go. I always feel more like I’m having a tea party when I use a cup and saucer.

As for the saucer matching cup point made earlier on…my grandmother has 5 or 6 different cups and saucers that are styled similarly but not identical. I love them. At this point, I have switched the saucers so many times that I think none of them has the original pair and she can’t even remember which goes with which. If I’m not having fun with it one way or another, I won’t bother! : )

No saucers. Unless you count the one by my electric kettle that holds the infuser basket between steeps. But never under a cup.

I can’t really speak to using saucers with English style cups, but I can offer an opinion on the practical values of saucers from a gong fu and gaiwan perspective.

According to the stories I’ve heard, the saucer was invented by a lovely courtesan in China. A gaiwan is (literally) a covered bowl, and they were used at that time for personal tea drinking. However, in the finest circles of the court (of which she was a part), gaiwans were extremely fancy. By this, I mean that they were bone china and extremely thin. When you poured in your boiling water and then lifted the gaiwan to drink, the cup itself was also around 200 degrees! This lovely lady was a fine woman of the courts: therefore, her skin was delicate and not calloused from work. She had nothing to protect herself from the heat, and so was not able to use the gaiwan gracefully. To solve this problem, she invented the saucer (originally, these looked like extreme tea cup stands, as opposed to the little plates we have now). Problem solved! Boiling water, handled with grace.
If anybody else knows more specific dates and details on this story, feel free to elaborate.

Gaiwans are used around my house nowadays to prepare tea for groups, and not so much for personal use. However, the saucer still serves a valuable and practical purpose. The first quick steeping of tea is always a rinse. The steeping heats the gaiwan and cups to the proper temperature (so as not to act like ice cubes). Part of this steeping is also poured directly into the saucer. This pool of boiled water acts as extra insulation. Bone china is lovely, but it doesn’t hold heat like an yixing. The insulation helps keep the tea steeping at the proper temperature.

When having guests over (especially those whose hands are sensitive to heat), we also have little wooden saucers that we offer to put under the little gongfu cups. These cups are more like miniature bowls, and they heat up quite warm after they have hot tea sitting in them. Because they are small and have no handle, the cups are often very hot for unaccustomed fingers. With the use of a saucer, all of the guests can enjoy the tea hot (at the correct temperature) without burning their fingers.
This can also be accomplished by using little glass double-walled bubble cups (a cushion of air acts as insulation), but this is only really appropriate for greens, etc, that are steeped at a cooler temperature anyway. If I put a pu’er or an oolong into the glass bubble cup, the glass would let the heat out too quickly, and the tea wouldn’t be ideally hot (therefore losing some of the complexity and experience).

As for English style teacups however? The saucer seems to be a bit of a remnant from the gaiwan saucer. The English tea cups fix the problem of hot cups by adding lovely little handles to protect the drinker’s hand. Mugs also circumvent this issue with very thick ceramic (the result: a nice warm mug that you can wrap your hands around).

However, saucers are still practical for English-style tea because they catch drips. Usually, we’re not bringing out the tea/coffee cups and saucers unless we’ve eaten a fine meal, and chances are good we’ve gotten out the tablecloth. We’re probably not going to have any drips, but just to be on the safe side, we might as well make use of those pretty little saucers.
Also, a saucer is a good place to put a cookie. Yum!

Cups & Sauces v other for me has more to do with what tea I’m drinking rather than where or with whom. I always drink fruit infusions out of glassware whether it’s a glass mug or a long glass cup it has something to do with looking at the brilliant reds, yellows and everything in between. Plus I think the less ‘tea’ a drink is the better it tastes out of glass.

But black tea is definitely a cup and saucer affair, in the morning I always get out the best china and make a nice cup for myself. Oolong and white tea are teapots and cups and saucers. Herbal and roibos are fine bone china mugs they just seem to suit it more. While green gets those beautiful Chinese cups.

I do like that a saucer catches tea spills and I find it does a good job of it if I drink the tea over the saucer- strangely when I use a mug I find I don’t spill anything so I think the cup lends itself to spills and therefore lends itself to a saucer. Also it can be nice to put a little biscuit or small cake on the saucer at nigh-time as a little treat it always seems like that’s okay because how much harm can a treat that fits on a saucer do? :)

For green tea I do like the small Chinese cups that are smaller than a standard cup minus the handle they always feel special no matter how often I drink out of them and when they are warm and it’s cold out it’s lovely putting your hand underneath and drinking that way. And again I don’t spill out of those cups – I really think cups with saucers have something going on together – an alliance to ensure survival.

So that’s my two cents worth.

Wow, what insight and fun! However, I’m ready to drop after a long last day at this job so I’m off to bed… will give a proper reply later!

I always use saucers. They make the whole more..complete, you know? Like the teacup wouldn’t look right without one. I almost always use teacups, mugs are too large. I prefer to make a pot and then have several smaller cups than one or two large ones. And, as Winter Salo says, ‘how much harm can a treat that fits on a saucer do?’. They are good to catch spills as well. I used to spill tea all the time when carrying a teacup and saucer, but I have sort of got used to it and I rarely spill now, even when carrying one-handed.