Hiking

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. . . Or Something Similar

Camping glasses, cups & mugs have to be made of sterner stuff than glass, they need to be able to resist impact when they are being packed, stored and used, so “glasses” might not be the correct word for ‘em, they’re more like “plastics” but drinking your favorite drop of red out of a “wine plastic” might not sound that appealing, better just to swig it straight from the bottle!

Camping glasses, cups & mugs are however very clever these days. I mean, some of them are still a bit like drinking out of a toddler beaker, but for very good reason. Let’s take a quick look at what you should look out for when you’re choosing cups, beakers, mugs and glasses for a camping or hiking trip.

Choosing Cups, Mugs & Glasses for Camping and Hiking – Stuff to Think About

• Easy storage. Some mugs and cups are designed to stack inside of each other so that they don’t take up too much space, some wine glasses are stemless (not legless, that’s the person using them after a couple of tipples), stemless makes them much easier to store and pack, and for the people who don’t fancy drinking out of a stemless wine glass there’s another innovative model available, with a stem which actually screws off so that you can put it into the bowl for easy storage.

So . . . what’s the difference between a stemless wine glass and an ordinary glass or tumbler? No, I’m not sure either!

• Materials have to be tough and durable. I won’t say unbreakable because some hikers or campers might see that as some sort of challenge. I remember buying my son a “shatterproof” cell phone one time (he had an annoying habit of breaking things) . . . he was so proud of how this cell phone wouldn’t break that he threw it at the wall to show his friends . . . yes, you’ve guessed it, bless him! Anyway, there are a choice of materials available – plastics of various degrees (some are made from recycled material, and are themselves recyclable at the end of their life which is always appealing to hiker and camper types), baked enamelware is still popular, as well as stainless steel.
• Insulation is also an important consideration when you are choosing a new set of glasses, mugs or cups for your next camping trip. Think about it, coffee will go cold quite quickly when you’re sitting outside your tent in the mornings, especially if there’s a nip in the air, and insulated cups and mugs will not only keep your hot drinks warm, they’ll also help to keep your cold drinks cool.
• Spillage can be prevented by using mugs and cups with drink-through lids (which also helps to keep the contents warm or cold). That way you can walk about the campsite without burning your hands or spilling red hot coffee down your bare legs . . . ouch!

That’s pretty neat isn’t it? Not sure how big it is though, how much of a drink would you actually have . . . some of us get very thirsty!

That’s better, it seems a bit bigger to me, and you could use it as a scoop, so if you needed to scoop anything on your hiking trip you would be well prepared.