Degrenne Breakfast Cup Set of 6 with Platinum Rim

That thin bright line at the lip is real platinum, and it carries one hard rule with it. A cup banded in precious metal never goes in a microwave, because metal arcs and the glaze around it scorches. Everything else about these cups is unremarkable to live with; this one thing is permanent.

• Six to the set A full breakfast service arrives at once rather than one cup at a time.
• Fourteen ounces each A bowl measure rather than a coffee measure, which is what a French breakfast cup is.
• Metal at the rim The band is applied metal, so the microwave is out for the life of the cup.

What the Platinum Band Costs

Precious metal decoration is applied over the fired glaze, which is why it catches light differently from the surface around it and why it behaves differently in a kitchen. Reheating a cup of coffee in one of these will damage it, and no amount of care changes that. A scouring pad will also take the band off over time, so these are sponge-and-detergent cups. In exchange you get an edge that reads as finished rather than as cut off.

Fourteen Ounces Is a Bowl

A standard coffee cup runs six to eight ounces. Fourteen is nearly double, and the tradition behind it is French rather than Italian: a wide low vessel you hold in two hands, filled with coffee and hot milk together. That shape does something a tall mug cannot, which is present a large surface for the milk to sit on. It is the wrong cup for espresso, where the whole point is a small dense serving.

A Rim That Frames the Cup

Degrenne calls the fine platinum edge the hallmark of this range, and on a plain white body it is the only decoration there is. That restraint is deliberate: a single bright line reads across a laid table where a pattern would compete with everything on it. Six identical cups with one identical line is a coherent breakfast service rather than a collection.

Heating, Washing and the Band

What warms a cup without a microwave? Fill it with hot water for thirty seconds and tip it out before pouring. That warms the porcelain properly and is what a cafe does anyway.

Is a dishwasher safe for the band? Yes, on a normal program with regular detergent. What wears a metal band is abrasion rather than water, so keep them off the rack where they knock against harder pieces.

What suits a fourteen ounce cup? Coffee with hot milk, a large tea, or hot chocolate. Anything served small looks lost in it, and the cup is wide enough that a short pour cools faster than it would in a narrow one.