Half the “enamel” mugs on the market are painted steel.

Why we exist

This category is sold on a look — the cream body, the navy rim, the speckle — and almost never on a construction.

So we quote the two things that decide whether a mug is still in service in five years. The rim: rolled over so the lip is bare stainless steel rather than glass, which removes the single most-hit chip site on the object. And the coat build: a ground coat that bonds to the steel plus cover coats over it, rather than one thin direct-on layer.

Then a third, for anyone putting a logo on: whether the decoration was fired. A mark that went back through the kiln has become glass and will outlast the mug. A mark printed on top of finished enamel looks identical in a photograph and goes patchy in a cafe within months.

What we actually make

Rolled-rim classics with a multi-coat fired build. Colour-rim mugs, sold with a straight account of why that finish chips more. Speckled mugs where the speckle is its own fired coat rather than a print. Handleless tumblers that nest, for events and outfitters. Fired-print branded mugs with the artwork vitrified into the surface. And heavy-gauge cafe mugs on thicker steel for rooms that actually go through mugs.

All of it is vitreous enamel on steel. All of it is dishwasher, oven and induction safe, and none of it is microwave safe, because there is metal inside the glass.

What we do not make

Powder-coated or painted steel sold as enamel. It is the most common substitution in this category and we will not do it under this name.

Double-wall stainless, titanium, collapsible and insulated lidded camping mugs. Those are a different product on different machinery and there are people who do them properly.

And we will not put a low-temperature print on a mug and call it branding. If it was not fired, it is paint, and we would rather lose the order than have it come back grey in a year.

Three things we will tell you that cost us money

The coloured rim you want chips more than the plain one, because a coloured rim means glass over the lip instead of bare metal. Order it anyway if you want it — just budget for a shorter life, or take the colour band under a rolled rim instead.

Speckled mugs do not match each other. The speckle is flicked, so no two are the same. That is the appeal for most buyers and a genuine problem for anyone needing a uniform retail line.

Heavy gauge is the wrong choice for a gift box. It costs more, it is heavier to post, and on a shelf nobody will ever discover the benefit. Put the money into the finish.

How we price

No dollar figures on this site. Price moves with the steel gauge, the number of fired coats, the decoration method and the quantity. Send the details and a real quote comes back the same day, with a lowest-price guarantee if you are already holding a cheaper one — and we will tell you if the cheaper one is a painted mug.

On colour and artwork

Enamel colour moves in the kiln, so matching from a screen or a printed swatch is guesswork. We fire a physical sample and send it to you before the run.

Fired printing has a minimum line width, so hairlines close up. We redraw free, send a fired proof, and hold the file so next year’s reorder comes back the same colour rather than nearly the same colour.

How we work

Who we serve