Special edition of the legendary Illy cup

This special edition of the legendary Illy Cup was released in September 2011 and is designed by Franscesco Clemente, a famous Italian contemporary artist and book publisher.

Handle

A nice sized handle for the size of the cup.

Heat

The cup felt rather warm on the surface, beyond what was comfortable to hold. Despite this heat loss through the surface of the cup, the coffee remained hot long enough to enjoy it in full.

Surface

A nice and smooth white porcelain with brown decoration well below the area touching your lips and thus not disturbing the drinking experience.

Mouth feel

The edges are curved slightly towards the center of the cup, giving a rather good mouth fit for your upper lip.

More details

Illy has a long history of working closely with the Italian architecture and design studio Matteo Thun & Partners, who designed the original Illy cup.

The review was done in Thira on the island Santorini (Greece) on 15 August 2021.

Double Espresso

The Double Espresso came in a very big cup at the size of a mug. In my view far too big for a high-quality double espresso, and more suitable for a regular drip filter serve.

Handle

Absolutely great handle with a good grip and no risk of burning the fingers on the surface of the cup.

Heat

The cup was simply too big compared to the small amount of coffee to sense how it protected against the heat.

Surface

A brown surface with small hints of reflection leaving an impression of hand crafted work - very nice.

More details

Savannah is a series of restaurant style accessories.

The review was done on 15 September 2020 at Maple Casual Dining in Copenhagen.

Double Espresso

A beautifully shaped cup, partly spoiled by an ugly logo.

Handle

Nicely rounded inside of the handle makes it great for a solid 3-finger grib.

Heat

The size of the cup leaves no painful areas on the exterior where your fingers are burned.

Surface

Thick walls on the cup provides good protection, and you don't burn your fingers.

Mouth feel

Nicely rounded edges towards the inside gives a nice fit.

More details

The cup is produced for Kimbo Coffee by Royal Mason Porcelain, who is specialized in porcelain for coffee.

The review was done in Denmark on 26 July 2020

Double Espresso

An icon amongst coffee cups - the good old Illy cup.

This version produced by SPAL (Portugal) comes with a slightly larger saucer than some other versions, which leaves a great overall impression.

Handle

A small, fat handle for a small cup. Where small handles can be an issue for larger cups, it does work for this cup, the reason being that you can hold the cup with just 2 fingers with no need for supporting the handle and cup with your middle finger.

Heat

The cup felt rather warm on the surface, beyond what was comfortable to hold. Despite this heat loss through the surface of the cup, the coffee remained hot long enough to enjoy it in full.

Surface

A nice and smooth white porcelain with the logo placed well below the area touching your lips and thus not disturbing the drinking experience.

Mouth feel

The edges are curved slightly towards the center of the cup, giving a rather good mouth fit for your upper lip.

More details

Illy has a long history of working closely with the Italian architecture and design studio Matteo Thun & Partners, who designed this original Illy cup.

This version of the cup is produced by SPAL (Portugal), established in 1965 and today producing more than 18 mio pieces a year with sales across more than 45 countries.

The review was done at Ristorante Buono, Copenhagen, on 16 July 2020.

Double Espresso

Here is an absolutely nice and very solid cup for a double espresso.

Handle

For once, a handle large enough to fit your finger into it, and allowing for a solid 3-finger grip on the cup.

Heat

The size of the cup leaves no painful areas on the exterior where your fingers are burned.

Surface

The porcelain surface feels really smooth with no friction against your lips, and the printed logo is placed well outside the area touched by your mouth.

Mouth feel

Nicely rounded edges towards the inside gives a nice fit.

More details

The cup is produced for Cellini by Italian IPA Industria Porcellane S.p.A., a family  business founded back in 1955 by Egidio Sala and today lead by four siblings of the founder.

IPA is specialized in cups, saucers, and other accessories specifically for coffee, tea, and hot beverages, and supplies cups and saucers to several well known brands within coffee.

The review was done in Tivoli, Copenhagen on 16 July 2020

Double Espresso

A smooth and elegant porcelain cup for this double espresso.

Handle

A small and fat handle providing a natural a easy grip on this cup.

Heat

The thick walls of the cup offers good protection from heat, and keeps the coffee warm.

Surface

A very smooth surface from a nice porcelain job.

Mouth feel

Nicely rounded top and slightly thicker-than-average walls gives a great mouth feel.

More details

The cup is from the Italian Tognana.

Originating from the bricks industry back in 1775, and moved into porcelain in 1964. Since 1985 they have been cooperating with leading designers including Mila Schön and Matteo Thun.

This specific cup is the Tazza Da Caffè Senza Piatto Cc 80.

The review was done at Cantina CPH in Copenhagen, 10 July 2020.

Double Espresso

Great double espresso served in a large cup - almost the size of an Americano.

Handle

The handle for this cup is just big enough for a 3-finger grip, and just big enough.

Heat

The cup offers rather thick porcelain, protecting the coffee temperature well and preventing burned fingers.

Surface

Very smooth and nice porcelain on both the cup and saucer. The golden logo is placed well below the area touched by your lips.

Mouth feel

The thick porcelain combined with round edges at the top leaves a great mouth feel.

More details

The cup is another fine example from Cup & Saucer from Portugal.

The review was done on 15 October 2019 at Elbgold in Hamburg, Germany.

Double Espresso

A nice double espresso served in a cup suiting the strength of a double espresso.

Handle

The cup offers a rather small handle not really big enough to put your finger through the whole. This leaves you to do a 2-finger grip, which is difficult due to the size of the cup and thereby overall weight when the cup is full.

Heat

The cup is made of very thick porcelain, protecting the coffee temperature well and preventing burned fingers.

Surface

Very nice porcelain across the entire surface, both handle, cup, and saucer leaves a solid impression of quality.

Mouth feel

The thick porcelain combined with round edges at the top leaves a great mouth feel.

More details

The cup is produced by the UK manufacturer Steelite, serving customers in more than 140 countries.

The review was done on 13 October 2019 at Witwenball in Hamburg, Germany.

Double Espresso

A very destinct serving; a square saucer and a destinct handle to hold the cup.

Handle

A very large handle compared to the size of the cup, yet it proves to work well helping to protect your fingers against the warm surface. Absolutely approved for the 3-finger grip.

Heat

Although the double espresso did not fill up the cup, the surface felt warmer than what is ideal. This does suggest a somewhat poor insulation.

Surface

Smoothness of the porcelain is absolutely approved.

Mouth feel

As an espresso cup it is rather thin in the porcelain which is also felt when drinking from it.

More details

The cup is made by German company Schönwald, rooting it's history back to 1879 and today producing more than 40 mio pieces of porcelain per year. The have a wider range of porcelain products available at their website.

The review was done at Bistro Organic at Munich Airport, Germany on 19 July 2019.

Double Espresso

A double espresso served in a large cup can sometimes cause trouble with heat loss, but in this case, the cone shaped cup preserves the heat very well.

Handle

A small and very fat handle designed for the 2-finger grip could obviously cause trouble as size of the cup would suggest 3-finger grip to be ideal. But in this case the handle is so fat - in a nice way - that the 2-finger grip works very well.

Heat

The heavy porcelain protects the heat of the coffee very well, and surface is not too warm.

Surface

White parts of the porcelain is smooth and nice, yet the blue printed areas feels more rough.

Mouth feel

The fat porcelain, rounded top of the cup feels nice, though slightly distracted by the roughness of the blue part on the outside of the cup.

More details

Mokaflor is an Italian coffee brand based in Firenze, the cups have not been found for sale.

The review was done in Castellina in Chianti, Siena in the Tuscany region of Italy on 17 July 2019.