Interlocking Tea Cup and Saucer: A New Take on an Old Tradition
The cherished ancient tea-drinking ceremony is one of the unfortunate casualties of our busy modern lives. The act of slowing down, taking time to reflect, and enjoying a simple pleasure has been largely lost among modern generations. Product Design student Hsin Lin designed her thesis project around reviving this ritual, updating the classic tea cup and saucer combo.
Lin’s design is called FIN. It redefines the way tea drinkers interact with their cups and saucers, which are nearly as important to the ritual as the tea itself. Traditionally, cups and saucers are stacked separately: the saucers in a stack and the cups lined up in a neat row. Young people, always in a hurry, tend to forget how important the saucer is and end up simply grabbing a cup in a hurry.
FIN changes that by uniting the cup and saucer into connected pieces that can be stacked together. The sleek, modern design will please the younger generations looking for just such an aesthetic. The cups are elegant white ceramic; the saucers are cork and feature a slot in one side through which the handle of the cup fits.
When united, the cups stack atop one another with the saucers at the ready. When it is time for tea, the saucers come out of the cupboard along with the cups, and the cups fit perfectly atop the saucers. The designer believes that this added convenience will help to revive the tea ritual by making it simpler and more convenient to keep up the tea ceremony tradition.
About Hsin Lin
“Hsin Lin is currently a packaging designer specializing in consumer products in soft and hard goods, jewelry, and marketing materials. She holds a BFA in industrial design with over 8 years of experience in product development, production, material procurement, photography, and management in constructing workflows to streamline packaging processes.”
