Has your hot tea ever cracked your tea mug apart??

I had an Anchor clear glass mug crack along the seam when I poured hot tea in it. It surprised me when it happened. I guess that’s part of the reason they say to pre-warm your pot and mug. I must confess that I still don’t though.

I used to wonder about pre-warming the mug, but have never done it. I guess some mugs are weaker than others. :-(

I haven’t had it happen with teaware, but I’ve seen the sides fall off a supposedly oven-proof dish containing spaghetti, several minutes after the spaghetti was poured into it. Your cup might have had a hairline crack or something that you couldn’t see and then usage would have made it gradually worse.

I only pre-warmed my mugs and pots at the start and continue to forget now as well. I agree that it might just be a faulty mug or there may have been some minor cracks that weren’t very visible. I guess this is a fair warning and a reminder to me to start pre-warming my mugs again.

There are other important reasons to pre-warm. Pre-warming your brewing vessel helps maintain proper brewing temperature. If you don’t have a lot of margin for error temperature-wise, brewing in a cold vessel could make your tea turn out rather disappointing. Pre-heating your drinking vessel helps the brewed tea maintain its temperature longer. Some teas get bitter or just don’t taste so good as they cool-you don’t want that.

It all depend on the quality of the glass, bone china, or porcelain. I have a glass German Beer mug I often use for ice tea. I put the mug in the freezer for several hours so it is properly chilled, take it out, fill it with ice and pour hot tea from my teapot into the mug. The stress on the mug should be tremendous going from freezing to near boiling temperatures. Yet it has withstood the test of time even after I’ve used this mug in this way countless times.

I’ve had that happen to ceramic cups or pots but not to good china. However, I was always told to hold the tea spoon in the cup when pouring the hot beverage in; the theory being the spoon will absorb most of the heat. Might be just an old wives tale but I still do it on occasion.

Not to a mug, but I had a big thick glass Anchor 2-cup measuring cup crack while pouring boiling water into it (measuring to pour into IngenuiTEA). Freaked me out, because it was my Mom’s, who probably bought it 40-50 years ago in Lancaster Ohio (home of Anchor) and it survived all those years.

Not a mug but I had a pyrex glass measuring cup explode in the microwave when my husband was heating water for his coffee (french press). It exploded with such force that it blew the door of the microwave open and shot glass shards across the entire kitchen. That was fun to clean up, my husband had to carry me out of the kitchen as I was barefoot at the time.

Earlier this year my favorite rooster sporting mug cracked and it was my fault. Poor thing screeched like when you try to uproot a tree trunk or some such thing. Mug was cold and I poured overly hot water into it….screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeched and cracked but did not split; it is still here in cupboard. Anyhow, this forced me to open my STASH package from last year and use the new mug that I had purchased from them. It is a nice mug with a good handle and roundness bottom-to-top (sporting 180 degrees trademark).