Should you take a travel coffee cup from home or grab a takeaway? It’s no secret I love coffee and over the years I have tried many takeaway coffees and also taken with me my home coffee made in different style cups, but there are a couple of questions, are travel coffee cups good? and is it financially or taste worth the takeaway coffee over the homemade ones.
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Travel Coffee
But again I love coffee, and if you have read my other blog posts I’ve enjoyed it for many years and have many different ways to drink and make coffee at home, but on my travels ill be honest, for many years I’ve enjoyed takeaway coffee etc.
Being a retail manager etc and having a family that travels coffee from places like Starbucks, Costa, Nero etc have been common practices for me. at work when I visited stores or just simply travel on my own I would treat myself to a coffee, I’m not a big drinker or anything like that so coffee was my only vice thus I budgeted myself that coffee.
Pricing
But these can mount up, the cheapest of coffees are often in the low £2 area and most of the time the coffee I would get was around £3+ area, don’t get me wrong these were lovely and with seasonal events etc there can be some lovely flavour combinations and I would look forward to these. This can mount up though, imagine £3.50 a day for 5 to 6 days? That is a lot and you have to wonder is that too much for ease of the coffee, not have to worry about anything, just stroll up order and drink with no worries etc i get it.
As the rise in coffee popularity grew the rise in people drinking coffee on their travel also did, you would often see people at work, on trains, buses where ever have coffee in different cups, and most of the time that coffee would come from home, some would be filled up at those coffee shops but in reality, most of those travel coffee cups and mugs come from home.
As the evolution has gone on you can even get those travel versions that will make a coffee onsite, with portable style coffee makers, great for drinkers that have black coffee, not the same for milk lovers, and if I’m honest I’ve not found a great one yet.
Coffee Machines
But with coffee machines becoming more affordable for home use more and more of us has pod-based ones or bean ones, thus this allowed us to fill our travel coffee cups much better than making traditional instant coffee. I’m one of those and with my switch to a Nespresso-based pod machine, I tried their travel mug, which to be honest is one of the best ones so far it has kept my coffee hot and then warm for several hours.
I have had several cheaper character ones or different brands and some of them are good at keeping the coffee in and allowing you to drink but they do not keep the coffee hot for too long and for me it is a big deal, a travel mug etc needs to allow you to keep it hot for a little while and warm for longer, for me that’s the whole point, if I was drinking in the garden then maybe, but most of us would just use our cups.
Value for Money is key
But value for money is still the homemade coffee, an instant as you would know is cheaper, a good quality travel mug or cup is going to set you probably over £20, so naturally, the price is cheaper, that coffee may have set you back say 20p max, they may even be even cheaper depending on the coffee you buy, factor in milk sugar whatever… this could go yet further.
However flip over to pod-based coffee, these are much more comparable in taste and quality, an average pod-based coffee may cost you 30p plus, a larger one might be closer to 60-70p, add in some extras like milk syrup sugar and you are approaching anywhere between 70p to £1, which if you have a good quality pod machine will taste good and be cheaper than the coffee shop takeaway, and as you can see at this point significantly.
Coffee Beans
Pure coffee-based machines like beans or pre-ground ones are a similar concept, a little cheaper in production of that coffee than the pods. Still, the machine itself is more expensive, and this is where the coffee takeaway swings back in value, but in comparison to the Pod machines the see Bean/coffee machines are normally more expensive compared to those Pod ones, but if you buy the machine, divide that by a lot of coffees and you can bring your average coffee cup to spend down.
Though you have that large outlay in the machine it will still bring the value of the coffee drink down in comparison to the takeaways, however, don’t forget the takeaways have one big advantage convenience and that for many will out way the cost, an alternative option is the use of a Cafeteria.
What do you prefer?
Price will always be in contention, and coffee is going up in price from Coffee shops, and even though milk, coffee etc is going up slightly in shops it’s not the same level as takeaways, so it will still be cheaper for homemade ones, I settle in the middle with pod-based ones, not overly expensive initial outlay with the machine but a better taste than instant coffee.
As for the cups quality is worth it, do the research, heat loss is the big priority, how you drink it is second and style is last, most brands and designs you can find at least one you like the look of, but finding one that suits your needs, cleans well, keeps that coffee hot for you to drink? That’s the choice and the quest, you can even take it to most coffee shops and get your expensive drink made in it.
Win a pokito Pop Up/Collapsible 3-Sizes-in-1 Travel Coffee Cup
To help you ensure you always have a reusable cup to hand whenever you need a coffee, I have a pokito Pop Up/Collapsible 3-Sizes-in-1 Travel Coffee Cup to giveaway.
PRIZE: pokito Pop Up/Collapsible 3-Sizes-in-1 Travel Coffee Cup
To enter simply complete the Gleam widget below, all entries are optional and each one completed will gain you more entries into the random draw.
pokito Pop Up Travel Cup (WTDS)
