nesting mcdonald’s McCafe cups to make a double walled insulated mug?

I like the lightness, cost, and quick and dirty nature of cups like this, but how do you keep them from getting mangled in your pack?

As far as warming up the outer cup, sure, it will help, but I don't know if it is worth the bother. Preheating thermos bottles really helps and you're doing the same.

dale, i just use them for a trip at a time. you can bend one and have the foam "break" but it will still be waterproof due to the glossy paper lining on the mcdonalds cup.

In winter, I've been using two 12 oz McD cups nested together. It does keep coffee warm a long time even in cold cold temps. I doubt the double wall does much beyond just the 1/2 inch thickness of styrofoam. Things learned: don't store it with the lid on 'cause if it gets squeezed the lid splits and makes a dribble cup. Second, carry a spare lid anyway.

Adding a bit of hot water in between the cups would keep your drink a little warmer initially, because no heat would be immediately sapped from the hot coffee to heat the colder airspace it's next to. However, very little heat would be required to heat the airspace and water conducts heat more than air does (ie. think plunging your head into 33F water vs. 33F air), so adding water would only put you ahead for the first little bit (ie. 30 seconds) and then you'd be losing heat a faster rate, so overall it would lead to your coffee getting cold sooner. The actual amount of heat required to heat the air space is going to be very minimal, so it's best to keep it as an airspace (good) rather than fill it with water.

With or without the water added, you're going to have 2 layers of styrofoam and that's pretty good insulation, so you'll have hot coffee for a good while no matter what. The most efficient way to use these two cups (if you really want to put in the effort) would probably be to swish a little hot water in the outer cup to heat it up, and then dump that out and insert the smaller cup to get your double wall mug. This would give you the hot air space without the added heat losing conduction of water.

DAN THE MAN. thanks. thats what i was looking for!

I use two tall Starbucks coffee cups together with the insulating cardboard. I put my stove inside the cups and this fits inside my 700ml REI pot. Works for a week before I need to visit the Coffee shop. I drink tea and coffee twice a day.

Do you really need that much insulation while out hiking? I typically drink my morning cup of coffee pretty quickly so I can get back to the trail.

I need the insulation mostly for my hand. I make hot coffee. Sometimes I am a bit slow to drink it while checking out the sunrise. I am happy with my setup.

I took someone's suggestion and went and got a Cambells soup "soup in hand" microwavable cup. It should hold at least 1c of hot stuff and it is insulated at a pretty light weight and has a durable lid. I am hoping it will fit inside my GSI mug/pot. It should be more reuseable than foam cups.

http://www.mypropershopper.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/small_image/135x/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/c/a/campbells_soup_at_hand_chicken_with_mini_noodles.png

Toss out the macaroni and its a great little cup. Durable and a little insulation on it too. Light.

In reference to my double layer Styrofoam cup Peter asks: "Do you really need that much insulation while out hiking?"

And my response is:
Well…uh..I suppose not.

But when the snow is blowing and you are cold and wet and taking a beating, little things like hot coffee can make a big difference. It's sort of like this:

With each leisurely sip of my hot coffee I can almost hear my cup saying to me: "….Dave…you are indeed cunning… and like the lynx, a great master of the winter environment"

Whereas, with each sip of cold coffee it's like my cup is saying: "….Dave….your wife is right…you must be an idiot"

^ Solid gold post

yup!

i can't drink hot coffee because i burn my tongue. hiking all day with a burnt tongue gets old quick.

i bet the lynx never has to deal with a burnt tongue, no wonder he is the master of the winter.

thanks Dave :)

I too thought it the campbells soup can was a good idea, but mine turned out to be leaky after a couple of uses. The top seems to fit pretty snuggly but it begins to dribble after a short time. Just a heads up. You may want to try it at home a few times first.

I like the Mcd's idea. I'll try it too now. Do you have a weight on the two cups and lid by chance?

hmm.. good to know. Good thing is it will still function as a perfectly good cup even without the lid so if the lid leaks then that part will get trashed.

Dave "Lynx of the Winter" Adair for the win! :)

JD – the two medium Mcd's cups with lids together weigh 0.85 oz. I started using the two cups together mostly to make it a harder to crush. But it does keep coffee hot, which is nice if you like to make coffee first thing and sip it through making breakfast and loading the pack. I like to be taking the last warm sip and putting it away in a side pocket just as I am ready to head out.

Of course the down side being they are bulky and fragile. One wrong bump and you are back to drinking out of the cook pot. I suppose one could hang it from the outside of the pack in a small stuff sack. Ah…the never ending quest for a decent light coffee cup. It might be possible to store the easy mac cup in a pot or something? and there' always that GSI cup at 3.2 oz. Anyway, still looking.

When you have a crushable cup like that and you wish to avoid crushing it, simply fill it up with something such as a pair of socks before you store it in the backpack.

Of course, after a while your socks start smelling like soup, and your soup starts smelling like your feet.

–B.G.–

Wellllllll I solved 2 problems with 1 cut. I cut the metal rim off of my Campbells cup. This means my Pocket Rocket will fit inside it and the whole shebang will fit inside my GSI mug/pot. saves on carrying the little plastic stove protector thing and gains a separate cup for hot chocolate while having oatmeal or other hot water needed things.

I came accross these cups at Whole Foods last week

http://www.preserveproducts.com/products/tableware/on-the-go/preserve-on-the-go-cups.html

They weigh about 3/4 of an ounce. A starbucks lid fits perfectly. With a reflectix cozy and a starbucks lid I have a great insulated cup coming in at 1 1/4 ounces. Much light than my GSI cup.

Personally I like drinking both coffee and tea and have always wanted a separate cup for coffee since it ruins the flavor of everything else so I’ll probably take two of them on my trips. I may ditch the cozy in that case and just use one cup inside of the other and switch them back and forth depending on beverage of choice.

Mugs are a tough one. I'd like a mug that insulates my coffee reasonably well and I'd like it to be durable enough to last years, but I also don't want it to weigh a ton because it's really a luxury.

The Evernew 300ml double wall ti mug (ECA354) with the sippy lid looks like it would be perfect, but the weight is surprisingly high at 3.9oz.I was going to buy one of these until I saw the weight….I'm not sure I'm happy adding a quarter pound to my kit to keep my coffee warm a bit longer. It would be much lighter to just make a cozy for my 900ml pot…..but I do really like the looks of that sippy lid. It seems wierd that it's 3.9oz, because an entire 900ml evernew pot with lid is less than that (3.5oz). I realize the mug is a double wall but still….kinda sucks because I love the look of this thing.

There are quite a few plastic mugs on the market in the 2oz range, but I don't like drinking my hot drinks out of plastic for both taste and health reasons. The best bet might be to get a single wall Ti mug and make a little cozy for it. As a bonus, on some fast and light trips you could leave the normal pot behind and just use the mug to brew a hot cup of java. The single wall 300ml Evernew mug (1.9oz) is half the weight of the double wall. Even with a 0.5 or 1.0oz cozy you'd still be well ahead weight wise, and the price is half as much. Then again, if the cozy tipped the scales at 1.5oz then you'd barely be saving weight for your troubles and having a nice double wall mug is simpler then a thin mug + cozy.

After this post, I acquired a McDonalds coffee cup, and found it fit perfectly inside my mid-sized IMUSA pot, keeping it from being crushed. A perfect answer. Except, my recent coffee purchase at McDonalds netted a paper cup – they've discontinued the foam cup, at least locally, for me. Bummer. I even stopped at a McDonalds and asked if they had further stock of the form ones – nope. fyi

Styrofoam is one of the worst offenders environmentally.