A creamer is a small pitcher

Pitcher (container)

A pitcher is a container with a spout used for storing and pouring contents which are liquid in form. Generally a pitcher also has a handle, which makes pouring easier.A ewer is a vase-shaped pitcher, often decorated, with a base and a flaring spout...

 or jug

Jug (container)

A jug is a type of container used to hold liquid. It has an opening, often narrow, from which to pour or drink, and nearly always has a handle. One could imagine a jug being made from nearly any watertight material, but most jugs throughout history have been made from clay, glass, or plastic...

 designed for holding cream

Cream

Cream is a dairy product that is composed of the higher-butterfat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. In un-homogenized milk, over time, the lighter fat rises to the top. In the industrial production of cream this process is accelerated by using centrifuges called "separators"...

 or milk

Milk

Milk is a white liquid produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals before they are able to digest other types of food. Early-lactation milk contains colostrum, which carries the mother's antibodies to the baby and can reduce the risk of many...

 to be served with tea

Tea

Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by adding cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant to hot water. The term also refers to the plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world...

 or coffee

Coffee

Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...

 in the Western tradition. Creamers can be earthenware

Earthenware

Earthenware is a common ceramic material, which is used extensively for pottery tableware and decorative objects.-Types of earthenware:Although body formulations vary between countries and even between individual makers, a generic composition is 25% ball clay, 28% kaolin, 32% quartz, and 15%...

 or porcelain

Porcelain

Porcelain is a ceramic material made by heating raw materials, generally including clay in the form of kaolin, in a kiln to temperatures between and...

, but also made of silver or other metal

Metal

A metal , is an element, compound, or alloy that is a good conductor of both electricity and heat. Metals are usually malleable and shiny, that is they reflect most of incident light...

s; a creamer is an obligatory part of a coffee or tea set

Tea set

A tea set, in the Western tradition, is a set of dishes sold in a group for use at afternoon tea or a formal tea party.Tea sets vary greatly in quality and price, from inexpensive to high-end.-Items in a tea set:...

, whether in silver or ceramics.

Cow creamers

Creamers in the shape of a cow with an opening or lid on its back for filling, known as "cow creamers", originated in Holland, but became very popular in England, first with Dutch imports, then from about 1740 in saltglaze stoneware

Stoneware

Stoneware is a vitreous or semi-vitreous ceramic ware with a fine texture. Stoneware is made from clay that is then fired in a kiln, whether by an artisan to make homeware, or in an industrial kiln for mass-produced or specialty products...

 from the Staffordshire Potteries

Staffordshire Potteries

The Staffordshire Potteries is a generic term for the industrial area encompassing the six towns that now make up Stoke on Trent in Staffordshire, England....

. English silverware examples are from about 1750; the Dutch immigrant silversmith

Silversmith

A silversmith is a craftsperson who makes objects from silver or gold. The terms 'silversmith' and 'goldsmith' are not synonyms as the techniques, training, history, and guilds are or were largely the same but the end product varies greatly as does the scale of objects created.Silversmithing is the...

 John Schuppe, who worked in London from 1753, produced little else, and his examples are among the finest. The competition between two collectors for an especially valuable silver cow creamer is a plot-line in P. G. Wodehouse

P. G. Wodehouse

Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE was an English humorist, whose body of work includes novels, short stories, plays, poems, song lyrics, and numerous pieces of journalism. He enjoyed enormous popular success during a career that lasted more than seventy years and his many writings continue to be...

's novel The Code of the Woosters

The Code of the Woosters

The Code of the Woosters is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published on 7 October 1938, in the United Kingdom by Herbert Jenkins, London, and in the United States by Doubleday, Doran, New York...

. They have continued to be produced in both silver and ceramics. The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery

Potteries Museum & Art Gallery

The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery is in Hanley, one of the six towns of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire. Admission is free.One of the four local authority museums in the City, the other three being Gladstone Pottery Museum, Ford Green Hall and Etruria Industrial Museum, The Potteries Museum & Art...

 has the Keiller collection of 667 ceramic cow-creamers.

Espresso brew pitcher

Small metal creamers may be used in making espresso-based drinks – the espresso being brewed into the pitcher, which is then poured into the drink. In this context they are referred to as espresso brew pitchers, and also billed as "small creamers". Brew pitchers are most commonly 3 oz, which is sufficient for any espresso other than a large (double or triple) lungo

Lungo

Lungo is Italian for 'long', and refers to the coffee beverage made by using an espresso machine to make an espresso with much more water , resulting in a stretched espresso, a lungo....

, but pitchers may also be found in 5 oz and even 8 oz sizes.

Espresso brew pitchers are particularly used for layered latte macchiato

Latte macchiato

Latte Macchiato is a coffee beverage, which literally means stained milk. This refers to the method of preparation, wherein the steamed "pure" white milk gets "stained" by the addition of espresso.- Related drinks :...

s, which require careful pouring. In other drinks, an espresso cup or shot glass is a common alternative, which must be dumped rather than poured.