I am a sucker for Snowpeak

Like many normal family homes, my kitchen cupboards are overflowing with mugs and glasses of all shapes and sizes. Some I am very fond of, like the beautiful drip-glazes from Studio Arhoj in Denmark.

But every day I drink my coffee from one of two identical Snowpeak H450 double-wall Titanium cups. Then into the evening I sometimes drink Coke with ice from them, or white wine with ice, or lager, or, well, any beverage hot or cold.

Sometimes the minimalist fantasies rise up in my brain and I imagine which of my possessions I would take with me in some imagined scenario: an alternative life where I have a stark white studio in Tokyo, or a cabin in the woods in Canada.

In those daydreams I would for sure have two Snowpeak H450 double-wall Titanium cups in my kitchen, serving up Sapporo after a hard day in the office, or camp coffee after a morning on the lake.

Functionally, this mug is awesome. 450ml is big enough for a 440ml can of beer, or a big cup of coffee to see me through the longest meetings. Yet it doesn’t feel oversized, and it’s certainly not heavy (titanium thin walls are lighter than ceramic).

The twin-wall structure means you can hold the outside comfortably even with hot coffee inside; it’s not as insulating as a vacuum flask, but it means you don’t need a handle. Titanium is never slippy, but the slightly textured matte finish that Snowpeak uses is especially grippy. I have never dropped one of these mugs.

Titanium doesn’t impart a flavour to your drinks. It doesn’t shatter when you drop it in the sink. It’s easy to wash up. It doesn’t stain. I’ve microwaved it with no sparks. The lip is not sharp, not too rounded.

In other words, this is the perfect mug for my ethos: it’s stripped back, clean and minimal, yet loses no functionality for all that.

At £55, these are not cheap, even by Titanium mug standards (you can get a Toaks for half or less). But I enjoy the Snowpeak brand in all respects: its Japanese outdoor aesthetic, the etched kanji on the outside of the mug, the way all its kitchen equipment works together (you can get a Titanium sake set, even). I even love the logo and the name.

I have a couple of other Snowpeak bits: a minimal aluminium folding camping table, and a gorgeous Titanium and wood hip flask, which couldn’t be more different from the heavy knurled beast from Wingback that I had before.

But it’s the mug that to me speaks best of Snowpeak’s coherent design ethos — the way these outdoorsy objects move through your home and your life, taking on little dents and wear marks, looking all the better for it. My mugs don’t do much adventuring, unless you count the walk from my kitchen to my desk as an adventure. But they make me feel like I could, if I ever decided to bring the daydreams to life.