Choosing
Sandstone, marble, cork, wood or steel: choosing a coaster for the drinks you serve
A coaster has one job, keeping a drink off the table, but the material changes how it does that job. Here is what sandstone, marble, cork, wood and steel each do with a cold drip and a hot mug, and where each one looks at home.
Start with what goes on the table
Think about the glass before you think about the coaster. An iced drink sweats a ring of water around its base. A hot mug of coffee leaves little water but a warm, damp foot. A wine glass drips a little and sometimes spills. A can of soda does all three on a summer afternoon.
The reason any of this matters is the finish under it. The Canadian Conservation Institute, writing about furniture finishes, says water usually produces rapid and obvious damage and advises keeping spilled drinks and vases off horizontal surfaces. A coaster is the everyday way of doing exactly that, and the material decides whether the water is caught, held or simply kept off.
Sandstone: the one that drinks
Sandstone is the material that takes the drip in. The stone is sand grains cemented together with open space between them, and a cold drip soaks into that space and dries back out later, so the face is dry for the next glass. Our article on how sandstone absorbs goes into the detail.
It suits iced drinks, lemonade on the porch and the glass of water by the bed. The trade-off is color: coffee, tea and red wine carry color into the stone, so a coaster that lives under a morning mug can take on a light tone over time. Most of our stone sets are 4 inch rounds with cork backs, printed with a design or left plain.
Marble and terrazzo: polished, and you wipe
Marble is the coaster for a dressed table: cool, heavy for its size, polished so the veins show. It does not drink a drip the way sandstone does, so the water stays on the face until someone wipes it. That makes it a good match for a dinner table where you are there to wipe, and a less good one for a side table where a glass sweats alone for an hour.
The one thing to know about polished marble is acid. The Natural Stone Institute warns that lemon, vinegar and other acids may dull or etch calcareous stone, and marble is calcareous. A splash of wine or lemonade wiped up soon does no harm. One left overnight on the polish can leave a dull spot that cleaning will not remove. The Institute also advises coasters under all glasses on stone surfaces, particularly those containing alcohol or citrus, which says something about what acids do to stone.
Terrazzo is chips of marble, quartz and granite set in resin. It looks modern rather than classic and asks for the same quick wipe.
Cork: light and easy to hand around
Cork soaks up a drip like sandstone does, but it weighs a fraction as much. That makes it the coaster for a party, where coasters get carried from the kitchen to the porch and back. Our thick dark cork set is six rounds, 4 1/2 inches across, that stack in their own black holder.
Cork wants air rather than water to stay at its best: a barely damp cloth and time to dry. Do not leave it soaking.
Wood: warm under a mug
Wood coasters suit a hot mug better than an iced glass. A mug leaves heat and a little moisture, which wood handles well if it is dried afterward, while a sweating glass leaves standing water on the face for longer than wood likes. Acacia is close-grained and warm in color. Sheesham is darker, and our slatted sheesham squares let a drip run between the slats.
Wipe wood with a damp cloth and dry it straight away. The same care keeps the finish of the table under it in good shape.
Steel: the one that lives in its holder
Stainless steel coasters do not absorb anything and do not mind a hot mug. Their advantage is order: our steel set is six 4 inch rounds that stand in their own holder, which makes it the set for a bar cart or an office kitchen where coasters otherwise go missing. Wipe each one dry before it goes back in, so water does not collect in the holder.
Hot drinks and cold drinks
Most coaster trouble comes from cold drinks, because the drip is the problem. A hot mug is different: it brings heat and a ring of steam rather than a puddle. Sandstone and cork both take a hot mug in their stride, and so do marble and steel. The one to think twice about is a thin wood coaster under a mug that sits for an hour, since warm damp wood is wood that moves.
If you drink coffee in the morning and iced tea in the afternoon, the simplest answer is a sandstone set for the cold glasses and one coaster of another material kept for the mug. The stone coaster then never picks up coffee tones, and the mug has a coaster that does not care about heat.
How many coasters you need
A set of four covers a couple and two guests, or one person over a few days while wet coasters dry on edge. Our stone sets come in fours for that reason. If you entertain, two sets of four in the same design give you eight, and the open iron racks take a stack of four on each side of a sofa. The cork and steel sets come as six because they are the party sets: they travel around a room and come back to their holder at the end of the night.
A coaster for every seat at the dining table is the other common choice. Count chairs, round up to the next set, and keep the extras in the holder on the sideboard, where they stay together and ready.
Side by side
| Material | A cold drip | Care | Sets we make |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sandstone | Takes it into the stone | Damp cloth, dry on edge | 17 |
| Marble | Stays on the face | Wipe and dry, keep acids off | 4 |
| Terrazzo | Mostly stays on the face | Wipe and dry | 1 |
| Cork | Soaks into the cork | Barely damp cloth, air dry | 1 |
| Stainless steel | Stays on the face | Wipe and dry | 1 |
| Acacia wood | Stays on the face | Damp cloth, dry at once | 1 |
| Sheesham wood | Runs between the slats | Damp cloth, dry at once | 1 |
| Stoneware | Stays on the printed face | Damp cloth | 1 |
Matching the coaster to the table and the holder
Two practical points finish the choice. First, the look: sandstone prints and plain stone sit well on wood and in casual rooms, marble on a dressed table or a light kitchen, cork and steel in busy places. Second, the holder: most holders take one shape, round or square, so decide the shape before you fall for a holder. The open iron racks take either.
Our holder guide lists every holder with the shape it takes, and the marble coasters page and the absorbent stone shelf put the two big families side by side.
