Le Creuset mug review: Here's how they hold up compared to others

Aug 14, 2023

I compared a Le Creuset mug to three other mugs in my kitchen to see if they're worth the splurge.

I mean, they're prettier. And you can buy them to match pretty much any colour kitchen. But how do they compare to regular (by which I definitely mean cheaper) mugs? I bought Le Creuset mugs and compared them against three of my other mugs to find out whether it's really worth the splurge. Two of them were standard no-name stock mugs from a local grocery store, and the other was bought from Starbucks a while back.

They were all rated on five measures: How long they stay hot, how easily they wash, the price point, the size and ease of handling, and how happy the colour makes me on a scale of 1-10. I’ll admit the last one is super subjective so I also asked my husband and divided that score by two. You know, in the interest of reasonable sample sizes and objectivity.

The results? Le Creuset was the winner with an overall score of 41 out of 50. The Starbucks mug scored 30, and good old stock mugs scored 32. Maybe it's not exactly scientific…but it's something, right?

I’m a person who likes to cradle my cup of tea for ages while I drink it, but I’m also a person who hates lukewarm tea. So heat retention is high up there in terms of my mug priorities. For this, I filled all four mugs with exactly the same amount of boiling water. Then I left them all in the same space and came back periodically to check whether they were still warm. After an hour, I popped my thermometer in there to find out which mug had retained heat the best.

Surprisingly, the Starbucks mug performed particularly badly here with the water and not even feel lukewarm to touch.

Signs of wear after multiple washes on the no-name stock mug (left) vs the Le Creuset mug (right).

First up: Any mug that enters my kitchen has to be dishwasher friendly. I am simply not going to spend ages washing up mugs by hand every day. Luckily, almost all mugs these days are. For this measure, I left a really strong coffee in each of the mugs for an hour or two, then went to wash them up by hand. The ones which washed out the most easily got the best marks.

I’ve used these mugs every day and they’ve all gone in the dishwasher regularly, so while I can confirm they all come out clean, there is one point I want to make: Compared to the cheap no-name white and red stock mugs, both the Starbucks and Le Creuset have held up better to lots of washing. While the other ones are scratched and losing the colour inside, these two have remained nice and consistently the colour they were when purchased without visible scratching to the enamel.

So while they’re not necessarily easier to wash, they do wash better.

Ok, so it's pretty obvious that this is the main reason we don't all have Le Creuset everything. Or it's the main reason I don't, anyway. If money were no object you’d find me cooking up a storm in their Dutch ovens and using only the finest cold-pressed olive oils. However, I do have to say it: Le Creueset may be beautiful, but it's expensive. You could head to Walmart and pick up any standard mugs for less than $5. And to be honest, they’d be just fine for everyday use. And you could replace them more regularly than expensive mugs.

At normal retail price, you’ll pay $60 for four Le Creuset mugs, or $15 per mug. The Starbucks mug doesn't come cheap either, and although it was bought many moons ago, similar ones sell for anything between around $20 - $40.

So naturally, the good old stock mugs have won this round:

I didn't realise I like big mugs until I got a coffee machine. When I had to press the cappuccino button at least twice to fill them up, I Googled it and realised the standard mug size is a measly 250ml or 8oz. Tea should be consumed out of a giant mug, not a mug for ants. This particular Le Creuset one, which is a handy 350ml or 13oz, is perfect.

I’ve tried Le Creuset's giant cappuccino mug and it's too bulky for me. You need to be able to easily hold and lift it with one hand, especially as I’m always walking back and forth with a coffee in my right hand and other things balanced in my left like a laptop, snack, phone, or all of the above.

This is another area where Le Creuset wins. The handle is easy enough to hold with just a finger or two, or you can pick up the whole mug with your hand. The ceramic never gets crazy hot so you don't scald your hand while holding it either.

The Starbucks cup looks stylish, but the handle is uncomfortably small and difficult to hold. One of my stock mugs actually does surprisingly well on this front and I like the way it's shaped, but the other is too bulky.

I’m a sucker for anything blue or grey, so I’m not going to lie – the Le Creuset get a solid 10 here. Though they’re also very functional, form is the main reason I bought them. They’re pretty colours, a lovely shape, and always make me smile when I have my morning tea or coffee.

My husband agrees and also rated them a 10, which is further proof that I married the right person.

As for the others, the Starbucks one fared the best, with him rating it slightly higher than me.