Why We Chose: Aylesford Pottery

Something which we’re especially excited about at the moment, is our hot chocolates. Not only are they delicious, but the world of hot chocolate has opened up a whole host of new opportunities. This includes different flavour combinations, event options and even the addition of homeware into our stores!

Our Nordic Mugs are a perfect example of this. They are a hand-crafted product, made exclusively for us by another small, local, company: Aylesford Pottery. They are the perfect size to fit one of our hot chocolates into, and have a handle-less design for you to get some real hygge!

Hot Chocolate Mug

We initially commissioned three colour variations, based on our very own Goupie colours: an off-white (suiting the natural feel of all of our Goupie products), a light turquoise (based on our Ginger Goupie box colour) and a plum/wine colour (based on our Cherry & Almond Goupie box colour). However, as we’ve mentioned, these mugs are hand-crafted, and made using natural dyes. This means that every single one has a slight variety in shape, and dye colour. It also means, that the unpredictable nature of these dyes can cause some unexpected outcomes!

This is how we ended up with a faded blue to pink mug, rather than the plum we were originally looking for. Fortunately, we love this colouring, and were more than happy to add this to the range. This is how we came to offer the three colours displayed on our website currently!

Handmade Mugs

Aylesford Pottery have been hand-crafting ceramics on their historic priory site since 1955. Since 1999, the site has been run by Alan and Mark who supply their goods across the country and continue to teach, setting up the Aylesford School of Ceramics. They were an obvious choice for us when we were looking at getting our own mugs made. The Goupie team actually took a pottery class with Alan in 2018 as our Christmas party that year!

We weren’t quite naturally skilled enough to go on to make our own mugs, but it did leave us desperate to work with Aylesford Pottery in one way or another! In 2022 we finally got our wish, and a selection of our very own Nordic Mugs, complete with a Goupie stamp on the base.

Although a very small part of what we do at Goupie, these mugs have been a much-loved addition to the family. Next time you’re Aylesford way, we highly recommend popping into Aylesford Pottery and seeing what else they’ve got to offer. Their site is set in an old priory and well worth a visit!