Using the regular glass espresso mugs is a real problem with fibromyalgia. I had tried before to find a nice plastic espresso set and there are some available. But, they are not safe to use, especially in that they are being used w/ a warm or hot liquid. All the plastic sets I found, were made of Polystyrene plastic! That type of plastic is one of the worst for safety and leaching.So I got creative and searched for "childrens' tea set". There were quite a few and none of them were made out of one of the better plastics. I prefer #5 PP, as most the articles I have read say it's the safest [not perfect] plastic, especially where hot liquids are concerned. It was shocking that many of the sets for kids were again Polystyrene. And you have to know that kids want to play and fill them w/ hot water and put them in their mouth and chew on them. A lot of the sets were also Barbie princess pink designs or the like. Not something an adult would want to be using day to day, nor would a little boy be too thrilled w/ that either.I was happy to find that this set was made of #5 PP plastic. The colors are cheery and mix in well w/ the bright color dish scheme that is so popular today. As these were for use as an espresso set, I ended up giving the teapot, sugar and creme stuff to a friend whose 2 young boys enjoy playing with and with no worry of toxic plastic. As for an espresso set they work great! The cups are a smidge smaller than the ones at the barista, but still the right size to work. No holes or leaky seams and no melting. The spoons are slightly smaller than the standard espresso spoons, as shown in the picture. The saucers also work nice with the plastic cups that came w/ the plastic GSI dish set, as shown in the picture. The only down side is that the little bit of size lost in the cup means that, it has to be held up under the espresso stream of the machine, to keep it from splashing over the side. That is well worth it, as these cups are easy to hold on the worst days, easy to hand wash and do not have to worry about breakage or injury from a mishap, as with the heavy ceramic ones. So these are just great for disabled and great for kids.
