Cup For The Road – KeepCup

In my previous post I already wrote about using less plastic cups by taking your own mug into the office if you’re (like me) a tea or coffee lover. But how do you do that when you regularly get your cup of joe or hot tea at a coffee bar? Usually you get a disposable cup when you get a take-away drink, very often with a plastic lid, so you can get on your way with a good cup of coffee in your hands. Delicious, but not very environmentally friendly of course.

Luckily there is a solution for that these days. Well probably more than one but I really want to share my experiences with this cup with all of you; KeepCup.

The KeepCup is designed by the owners of Bluebag Café in Melbourne, Australia. This brother and sister duo realised there is a lot of waste that comes with coffee on the go. Especially if you get your coffee on more than once a day. So they dove into the research of reusable cups that are not only practical, but look good too. After lots of testing and designing they came up with KeepCup.

Recently I got myself a Keepcup. I have to admit, although they look amazing, I was a bit sceptical at first. Was this going to work? Over the years I have tried many travel cups and they were always leaky, uneasy to clean and/or they didn’t fit in a cuphold in a car. So I eventually gave up on a drink on the go and started using a mug in the office and very rarely get myself a take away drink.

Visually

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder but aesthetics is important, it has to look appealing to many people. That’s not a problem with KeepCup. It has the shape of a barista standard cup, only in a lovely colour. Or rather colours! It looks cheery and you can combine all colours yourself or choose an existing colour combination.

Parts

KeepCup has different parts, a mug, a silicone band so you can carry the cup easily when it’s filled with a hot drink (and you can colour in your prefered choice of drink on it!), a lid and a plug. It’s easy to put together and take apart and all parts can be interchanged if you have more than one KeepCup, or want to replace a part.

Maintenance

Usually you have to be a bit careful with travel mugs. They don’t all respond well to being bumped around (I speak from experience) and surely not all of them can be washed in a dishwasher.
All parts of the cup can be washed in the top rack of the dishwasher! How easy is that. Of course you’ll need a dishwasher for that, but if you’re like me and still have to do dishes the old fashioned way, that’s not a problem either. No hassle, it’s cleaned in a jiffy!
The cup is unbreakable can be put in the microwave (minus the lid) and is very lightweight.

The Leak Test

The first thing I did when I unpacked it was the leak test. I have had some bad experiences with leaky cups so I filled it up with cold water to the maximum filling allowance. Popped the lid (and the plug of course) on and started shaking and twisting.
To be fair, I was surprised because it really didn’t leak for me. No matter how hard I shook and held it upside down or on its side. The water didn’t come out. What a relief! Because the times I had tea or coffee on the front of my shirt from a leaky cup can’t be counted on both hands anymroe..

Usage

It looks good, is easy to clean and it doesn’t leak. But how is the drinking experience? Well just wonderful, it feels the same as drinking from a normal disposable coffee cup but much more environmentally friendly and it looks prettier. Some cups have an opening that give you a big wave of drink, or one that leaves you sucking on the cup to get something out. With KeepCup my drinking experience was good, as drinking from a cup should be.

Result

I didn’t expect this, when I take my past experiences with other cups into account. But I LOVE my KeepCup. It’s lightweight, it’s easy to handle, drinks easily and apart from it being very environmentally friendly it’s also boho-chic.

I have a size M Keepcup in the colour combination Dew (from the Cosmic Sky range) and it fits perfectly under the coffee machine at the office. KeepCup comes in different sizes and is the first barista standard reusable cup in the world. So it’s very easy to get it filled up at your favourite coffee bar (and at some shops you’ll even get a discount for bringing your own cup). Me and my Keepcup will hit the road together a lot in the near future.

Had you heard about KeepCup before and what is your favourite go-to cup for the road?

Unfortunately the quality of my photos didn’t come out right, so I’ll add better photos soon