Some people will debate whether you need an insulated mug for winter camping and argue that you can use a cook pot instead. This may be true, but it’s not practical. When I get to camp and start to melt snow for water, I want to be able to have a hot drink with my dinner. While pack weight is important in winter, the fact is that you are going to carry a lot more gear for safety reasons and for comfort.
Through trial and error, I’ve found that the Snow Peak 600 double wall insulated titanium mug suits my purposes beautifully. This mug holds a huge 20 oz of fluid making it ideal for the miso soup I like to drink before dinner or the bucketfuls of hot chocolate I like at breakfast each morning. Drinking enough water is hard for me in winter and a large mug size helps me consume the minimum of 32 oz that I like to drink before breaking camp.
At 5.1 oz, the Snow Peak 600 is not going to break my back. The mug itself tucks away nicely in my food bag and the handles fold back saving pack space.The only thing that it lacks is a plastic top or sip lid, but I have a feeling that will be easy to fix using a Maxwell House plastic top or something like it from the supermarket.
However settling on the Snow Peak took a little experimentation. First I tried the Olicamp 8 oz insulated titanium mug on the right in the photo above. It weighs a seductive 2.4 oz, but it doesn’t really hold 8 oz (more like 7.5.) The problem is that a mug the size of a shot glass makes it difficult for me to get enough water down in the morning and it’s just not big enough for soup at night.
Next, I tried an insulated plastic mug from REI. It’s bigger than the Olicamp but still a bit too small in my opinion, holding only 12 oz of liquid and weighing 4.8 oz. It’s also rather deep making it harder to use as a soup bowl. The Snow Peak is nice because it can serve both functions.
The only thing that the REI mug has over the Snow Peak 600 is price ($4.25 vs $49.95). Titanium camping cookware is expensive, but it is very light and indestructible, if you treat it right.
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