Yesterday, as I was getting ready for my mid-morning cafecito (Cuban coffee) ritual, the last piece of my daily use espresso cup set just slipped for my hands.  It was certainly painful to see that last cup hitting the floor and shattering into pieces.  I am not sure why I was still calling it a set as it was just one remaining cup. The set had sort of dwindled down in my hands.  I am sort of good at breaking things.  When I was a kid, my mother called my advanced breaking ability “an art”. Well, a couple of relatives used other expletives to describe it…but I am not including those in here.

Life goes on and I guess it was time to make another set my daily set.   I grabbed one of the Villeroy & Boch espresso cups, just savored my freshly brewed Cuban coffee and then cleaned up the mess.

As I was drinking my cafecito, I thought I could show you all my espresso cups.  I know I have written several posts about Cuban coffee.  On April of 2014, I wrote a post titled Ordering Cuban Coffee in Miami Tutorial, in which I explained in detail the art of ordering Cuban coffee in Miami. The article was syndicated by Blogher.com shortly after I posted it in RedOstelinda. I have written several round ups of moka pots, espresso cups and espresso makers. I also wrote a couple of posts about the illy Art Collection Espresso Cups, which I LOOOOOVE! However, I never prepared a post about my espresso cup collection.  Well, it is not really a collection as I only have five sets now.

So, I guess this is it…these are espresso cups in the RedOstelinda household.

This is the Villeroy & Boch set…or what is remaining of the set.  I use this set when close relatives come over…and they are obviously my relatives as they have broken a few pieces themselves. This is now my daily use set…since yesterday.

Then I have these two sets inside the same cabinet; and they are both my favorites.

The espresso cup set on the right side of the cabinet is from the O Sole Mio series made by Rosenthal Studio-Line. The two cups on the left, which are obviously mismatched with theirs saucers, are the ones used more frequently.  I am not sure if these are all the cups included within the O Sole Mio series.  These are all the ones that were available at the store when I purchased them back in 1996.  Well, I think it was 1996, maybe a bit later.

And then, this is my newest set.  These espresso cups are from the illy Liu Wei Art Collection.  I also wrote a couple of posts about the set:  1) the New illy Art Collection Espresso Cups post right after I ordered them and 2) the My illy Liu Wei Art Collection Espresso Cups post a couple of months after I received them.

The other two espresso cup sets are sitting inside a cabinet at the end of the kitchen island.

The set you see below, which is the on sitting on the lower shelf of the cabinet I showed you on the picture above, appears to be handmade.  I wrote the post Bought at Belen Jesuit Tombola 2014 when I purchased it last year.  It only has four little cups and I bought it more for its colors than anything else.

And then we get to the last set, which is the one on the upper shelf. I’ve had this set for a looooong time and I don’t remember how, when or where I got it.

I know is not exactly a collection, but I love my espresso cups…some more than others. And…I also think that the coffee tastes much better when drank out of a ceramic espresso cup.

Do you like my espresso cups? Do you think that the Cuban coffee tastes better out of ceramic cups?