.jpg)
By Mihar Dias July 2026
Seventy years ago, coffee came with two vessels, not one.
The cup was for the grown-up. The saucer was for the child.
Growing up in the 1950s, I never thought it odd to drink coffee from a saucer. Father would pour some of his steaming kopi into the saucer, and while he sipped from the cup, I would blow gently over the shallow pool before taking careful mouthfuls. The wider surface cooled the coffee much faster than any impatient child could manage.
It was our version of air-conditioning before air-conditioners. No barista, no latte art, no paper cup with your name misspelled. Just a chipped porcelain cup, a matching saucer and five precious minutes shared between father and son.
It was never merely about coffee.
It was conversation.
The saucer was where stories were poured. Tales of school, neighbours, politics, football and life itself drifted between sips. Today, children have their own mugs, their own tablets and often their own rooms. Progress has given everyone their own cup. Somehow it has taken away the saucer.
Which explains why one joke circulating after Spain's World Cup victory struck me as being far funnier than it first appeared.
A fellow notices a man drinking coffee from a saucer instead of the cup. Curious, he asks why.
"I'm from Argentina," the man replies.
“But why the saucer?”
“Because Spain has taken the Cup.”
Groan.
It is the kind of joke that deserves applause, followed by immediate expulsion from the coffee shop.
Like all good football humour, it works because it mixes heartbreak with wordplay. Argentina lost the World Cup. Spain literally took the Cup home. All that remained for the poor Argentine was the saucer.
Football fans understand this peculiar language. Winners celebrate with champagne from the trophy. Losers console themselves with coffee from the saucer.
Yet beneath the punchline lies something unexpectedly nostalgic.
Most people under forty would probably wonder why anyone would drink from a saucer at all. To them it seems positively uncivilised. Coffee belongs in insulated tumblers with recyclable lids and motivational slogans.
“Live. Laugh. Latte.”
In our day, the saucer wasn't a sign of poverty or poor manners. It was practical engineering. It cooled coffee quickly. More importantly, it allowed sharing. One cup served two people. Nobody worried about hygiene. We worried about wasting good coffee.
Perhaps that is why the joke resonates so well with those of us who grew up in another era. We remember when the saucer had a purpose beyond preventing stains on the tablecloth.
Today's saucer has been demoted to decorative furniture. Many cafés don't even bother serving one. It has become the appendix of the coffee set—still there in theory, but nobody quite knows why.
The same fate has befallen many old customs.
We no longer repair shoes. We replace them.
We no longer sharpen pencils. We throw them away.
We no longer gather around one newspaper. Everyone scrolls alone.
And sadly, we no longer share coffee from one cup.
Perhaps that is why the World Cup joke made me smile for reasons that had nothing to do with football.
It reminded me of my father.
It reminded me of mornings when the coffee was too hot, time moved more slowly and conversations mattered more than caffeine.
The joke says Spain took the Cup.
Maybe.
But somewhere along the way, modern life quietly stole the saucer.
And if you ask me, that is the bigger loss.
Share your passion for football through #GilaBola and stand a chance to win cash prizes worth up to RM1,200!
Find out how to join here. Don't miss out! T&Cs apply.
Mihar Dias (mihardias@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
The User Content (as defined on Newswav Terms of Use) above including the views expressed and media (pictures, videos, citations etc) were submitted & posted by the author. Newswav is solely an aggregation platform that hosts the User Content. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact creator@newswav.com.
