Over the last few years, I have increasingly used wooden utensils, both in cooking, in serving food and in eating and drinking.

I had always noticed the tactile sensation of holding a wooden spoon, there is something warm and very natural in how it feels in your hands.

But it was not until I started using a wooden cup to drink my coffee from at markets that I realised how much the tactile sensation was a thing.

I started using the cup because I work at markets on my own, and the days can be long so I make a thermos of coffee. I took a wooden cup because it was light, robust, it did not break if I dropped or knocked it, and it was not too big. 

But what I really noticed was the tactile sensation of drinking from the wooden cup. It was not a taste thing, but my lips and tongue felt the difference between a wooden cup and a metal or ceramic cup. It is not better or worse, just different, and hard to describe. Same I have discovered using a wooden spoon to eat soup.

The interesting thing for me is how I have become much more sensitive or aware of the tactile sensations and feel of the food I eat. It is not a taste thing, it is that some foods are soft, some hard, some coarse, some fine. 

Eating in Thailand made me more aware of the interactions of different tastes, they like foods to be more than just sweet or just sour, they like the interactions and contrasts of both together. Now a Thai cup has me more aware of the tactile sensations of food and eating. 

You can find our different styles of wooden cups and jugs on these pages