A few cooking, eat and drinking essentials are important for enjoying yourself while backpacking. A good backpacking cup, for instance, is a nice piece of equipment to have for hot beverages in the morning or at the end of the day, and maybe even for cooking with. But not all backpacking cups are made equal, and despite the simplicity of a cup, there are actually quite a few options available when picking out a new backpacking cup.
Backpacking Cup
Features to look out for when you are reviewing backpacking Cups.- Handle - A handle is a useful thing to have on your backpacking cup, particularly if you like to enjoy hot beverages, like coffee or tea. To cut down on bulk, however, it helps if the handle is also foldable, so that you have a handle when you need one, and then you can get rid of the handle to help cut down on bulk when packing. You might also consider getting a double walled cup, which will help to both insulate the contents of the cup and also keep your hands from burning.
- Material - As with most backpacking cookware and food receptacles, there are a number of material choices. Titanium is always going to be one of the best options, because it's both tough and light, and in the case of a backpacking cup, can be cooked with in a pinch. Stainless steel also performs well, though it weighs more than titanium.
Best Backpacking Cup
A few of the very best backpacking cups currently on the market to choose from.- Snow Peak Titanium Single Wall Cup - This is a great, basic backpacking cup from Snow Peak. It's titanium, for starters, so it weighs relatively little, at just 2.8 ounces, or 79 grams. It also has a handle that folds down, so it will pack well, and finally it holds 21 ounces of liquid, or 620 milliliters.
- Olicamp Space Saver Cup - Another great backpacking cup, this one made of stainless steel. Being steel it weighs a bit more, though there is no weight listed for the cup. But the handle is collapsible, and the one stand out feature of this cup is that it fits snugly on the bottom of a 32 oz Nalgene bottle, or similar bottle, so you don't waste any space in the process of packing it.
- Snow Peak Titanium Double-Wall Cup - Another titanium cup from Snow Peak, though this one is double-walled, instead of the single-walled one above. It has the same folding handle as the one above, though it holds slightly less, at 15.9 ounces, or 470 milliliters, and weighs slightly more due to the extra material, at 4.2 ounces, or 119 grams. One thing to be aware of when using double walled cups is that they are not suitable for cooking with.