Time was when the ultimate in camp cool was sitting around a roaring fire drinking coffee from a tin cup. Yup, that just about —
Ouch!
— said it all —
Ouch!
— about living the outdoor life.
It also said a lot about the need to keep lots of salve and bandages handy. Cool as drinking coffee out of tin may have looked, it was painful. Not to mention you had to drink fast because that tin — as your fingers discovered — was all about transferring heat as quickly as possible and you’d soon be drinking tepid coffee.
Thankfully, times have changed thanks to a tsunami of tumblers.
Cold longer, hot longer
Today, it’s all about keeping the hot — or cold — in, and doing so painlessly. With style, even. With a Yeti Rambler, for instance, you could linger around the fire for up to 12 hours with a hot drink and 24 with a cold one. Their double-walled insulation keeps the heat (or cold) in, letting you savor the campfire all the longer. Depending on the size Rambler you get (20 or 30 ounce), you could easily outlast the fire. And don’t worry if you set your Rambler down for a spell, forget about it and inadvertently kick it over: the tumbler now comes with a lid whose opening can be open or closed with a MagSlider, a slider held in place by a magnet. (If you happen to have one of the earlier Ramblers, you can get a MagSlider replacement lid.)
Another great option for hot/cold beverage consumption: Hydro Flask.
Sam Spalding in our Chapel Hill shop is a big fan of the Hydro Flask’s versatility. “You can drink coffee in it in the morning, eat ramen soup out of it for lunch.” (That’s important to Sam, who when he isn’t working in the store is attending class at the University of North Carolina School of Law.)
Another cool thing: “They have a universal mouth, so in addition to Hydro Flask’s own line of lids, it can accommodate, say, lids for Nalgene bottles. In the mood for a sippy spout? No problem, just swap it out. Ditto a straw, with the straw-accessible lid (reusable straw included). And if, for some reason, you wanted to filter stream water into your Hydro Flask and you happened to have an MSR Water Filter, it’ll screw tight onto your Hydro Flask. Imagine the possibilities.
Perpetually chilled wine
Switching gears slightly, let’s say you like a nice white wine, but you like to savor this fruity nectar and aren’t as crazy about it when it loses its chill. Wouldn’t it be great if this double-walled insulation technology came in a wine glass?
It would, and it does. Both Hydro Flask and Yetti offer that option in tip-resistant, pear-ish-shaped 10-ounce wine tumblers. Yeti even anticipates the romantic possibilities of a shared glass of wine by selling its tumblers in a two-pack.
Less you beer drinkers feel left out, what would you say to a 32-ounce Hydro Flask Growler? Possibly half of what you’d say to its 64-ounce big brother. Imagine returning to camp after a hot summer adventure with 64 ounces of draft goodness awaiting you and your cronies.
Enamelware: tin-cup cool
Finally, if you’re absolute wed to that image of a cowpoke slurping his morning coffee from a tin cup, fear not.
“These are really popular with backpackers,” Jaala Freeman in our Raleigh store says, reaching for the 12-ounce version (also available in 22-ounce) of the United by Blue enamelware coffee mug. (Trust Jaala to know what works on the trail, having thru-hiked both the Appalachian Trail and the Pacific Crest Trail. Read more about her here.) United by Blue has a number of functional and stylish beverage containment options. And, for every mug purchased, United by Blue removes a pound of trash from the world’s oceans and waterways.
With apologies to the camp cowboy, drinking coffee — or anything — has never been cooler. And hotter.