Good Cuppa is a purposefully small design company dedicated to transforming the daily coffee ritual into a restorative experience. Founded by specialty-coffee veteran Talleson Strauss, the brand began as a personal quest to address the common frustrations with reusable cups—flavor disruptions, lingering odors, and clunky designs. Drawing on her industry experience, Talleson created an ideal all-glass vessel focused entirely on simple functionality, perfect temperature retention, and minimalist aesthetics, all without using loud branding. Today, Good Cuppa offers thoughtfully engineered, award-winning cups that eliminate unnecessary distractions, allowing coffee lovers to fully appreciate the craftsmanship in every sip.
01 Origin. What problem, frustration, or quiet conviction made your company/product(s) necessary? Take us back to the moment the idea wouldn't leave you alone.
I switched from being a barista with access to coffee every morning in a dine-in cup to an office worker that used takeaway cups from a cafe. The dine-in experience was difficult to say goodbye to and even harder to recreate. Drinking from a paper cup just didn’t cut it, and it didn’t feel right to throw away at least 2 paper cups everyday. So, I started my search for a reusable takeaway cup. I honestly tried everything, from expensive to cheap to funky to aesthetic, but no cup made me feel like I’d found the one. I constantly tasted plastic or metal instead of my coffee, and I knew that the milk was likely seeping into the plastic if I didn’t consume it fast enough or wash it quickly. Then came the cleaning. You’d have to watch a Youtube video to figure out how to put the thing back together, or you couldn’t get into all the nooks and crannies to know that the cup was clean and safe to drink from the next day. What used to be a super enjoyable, carefree experience of drinking coffee became what felt like a battleground. I didn’t feel like any company had designed a cup specifically for a user that cared about the taste and the experience of the coffee. I had a cupboard full of options but nothing that I actually wanted to reuse. My goal was to create a cup that was worth running back inside for if you accidentally left it behind.
02 The constraint that shaped it. Every well-made object is defined as much by what it isn't as what it is. What was the hardest constraint you worked within, and how did it sharpen the final product?
A reusable cup can be realized in so many ways—shape, size, function, material. Everyone has different preferences and opinions on what makes the perfect cup. The material was definitely the toughest constraint. How do you make a cup that looks after the coffee, is easy to clean, won’t hold onto smells or odors, looks nice, and is easily portable? What material can help accomplish this? To me, the only answer was glass. Was it going to be fragile? Yes. Was it going to give me everything I actually want in my coffee moment? Yes. Was the experience and fragility worth the risk? 1000%. And yet, I couldn’t find a cup that had a glass lid anywhere. They are difficult to manufacture, so maybe that’s why! Plastic forgives, but glass doesn’t move. When you’re joining two rigid surfaces, both pieces have to be dimensionally perfect every single time; neither one will compensate for the other. It’s been a tedious process, but we stand on the fact that it’s worth it.
03 A design decision you defended. Walk us through one choice that was questioned, debated, or pushed back on, and why you held the line.
Our logo placement. There was a risk of not being able to identify our brand if the logo wasn’t printed on the front. If I had it my way, I probably wouldn’t have included a logo at all. I dislike it when brands try to make it all about themselves or when you love something but don’t really love the brand or logo. It would be a shame for someone not to use our cup because they didn’t like the logo. But people asked, how will someone know it’s a Good Cuppa? People will know us from our silhouette, and I wanted to make our silhouette distinct. Because our shape is not an off-the-shelf, double-wall cup, it was made and shaped by our preferences. I decided to put the logo on the bottom of the cup. If people were interested, they could look for it, instinctively knowing to ‘look on the underside’ for a logo. This way you can enjoy your cup without it screaming our brand name. It can just be yours, just something you like. I use this principle in other areas of the brand as well. I try to present information in such a way that it’s not shouting at you, but if you’re interested, you can look in the right places and find it.
04 What you removed. Form and Function lives in what's left after the cuts. What did you take out, leave on the cutting room floor, or refuse to add?
Not making the cup leakproof! This was a significant topic of conversation throughout the design process and something we further discussed once I showed friends and family during the sampling process. In a perfect world, the cup would be everything. However, when you’re everything to everyone, you’re nothing to anyone. My priority—first and foremost—was to maintain the flavor profile of the coffee. My past experiences with reusable cups informed this challenge. The cups that completely sealed wouldn’t let the coffee cool and caused it essentially to keep cooking. Black coffee especially needs aeration to build the flavor profile (just like airing wine). Also, adding something to make it leakproof would have meant adding either plastic or silicone, which I was desperately trying to avoid. It would have made the cup look clunky and not design forward. I modeled Good Cuppa off a normal takeaway cup because there’s really nothing wrong with them besides the material and harsh environmental impact.
05 What's next, and what stays the same? Where is the brand going from here, and what will never change about how you make things?
We have struggled to remain in stock across all of our sizes, so we are working towards carrying stable amounts of product and finally opening wholesale so that people can see us in person! We also have a new variation on the way and hope to make replacement parts available. We’re big on “after care service” and want to make the entire process easy for the customer.
We will never conform to standard marketing practices! We’re not likely to run sales to create urgency; you’ll never see a pop up on our website; you’re not going to be coerced into buying from us. We’re over here doing us, and if we’re a good fit for you, we can’t wait for you to find us when you’re ready.
06 Who's next? Name one or two founders, makers, or studios you think is making products that beautifully marry form and function right now. Someone we should be paying attention to, and why.
Lightning Round
An object you'd never replace
My Good Cuppa (Genuinely. I use it every day without fail)
A book, film, or album that shaped how you think about design
Nothing comes to mind! Everything is based on instinct.
A daily ritual
Coffee and sunshine! I’ve always used coffee how people use their emotional support water bottle. If I feel like some fresh air…coffee. If I’m overwhelmed...coffee. If I’m catching up with a loved one…coffee together!
The last thing you bought that surprised you
A portable charger! Who knew they were so handy.
A piece of advice you'd give to someone making their first product
Make sure you’re solving your own problem. Everything else will flow.
Coffee order
If I trust you, an espresso. If I’m unsure about you, a single-shot long black. If I feel like a bit of dessert, a flat white.
About FORM & FUNCTION
Form & Function is a print magazine about the objects worth keeping. We write about the tools, gear, and everyday things that earn their place through good design and honest craft — the stuff that works as well as it looks. Each issue is made slowly and on purpose: matte pages, considered writing, no filler. This newsletter is where that same thinking shows up between issues — founder interviews, early looks, and the occasional thing we can't stop thinking about.
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FORM & FUNCTION — Issue 001.
The quarterly print magazine about things worth keeping. Matte, printed, made to be held. Ships August ‘26.