Ode to a Mug
This isn’t a review. It’s a love letter.
What do you see when you look at the photo of this mug? Perhaps you fail to grasp its simple beauty. Its raw elegance. The primal power that it conveys to its bearer. Perhaps you think it’s just a mug. Or perhaps you do see it. Then you’re one of the lucky ones. One of the chosen.
For me, this mug has history. It kept my coffee warm when I was down and out and grumpy. I filled its titanium body to the brim with the universe’s elixir directly from mountain streams, and gulped up life to the fullest.
It all started out as a joke between my friend Lars and me at our local outdoor store. We were gearing up for our first trekking adventure together, about which I wrote here. When I first saw this mug in the shelves, I instantly knew that I needed it. I mean…it’s titanium. By the look on my face, my friend had probably known what had come over me. Conversely, by the look on my friend’s face, he knew too.
“You’re definitely not getting that. You don’t need it.”
You see, the price tag on this mug is… a little absurd… for a mug.
My friend eventually appealed to reason, and I ended up not buying it. As we were gearing up for 10 days in the wilderness, we had a few more visits to the store, and looking at those mugs and my friend convincing me not to buy one became our ritual. After a few more iterations I had come to terms that neither my budget needed a $70 mug (local price).
But then something happened. Two days before we set out on our adventure, my friend texted me. “I did something…” I instantly knew what was up. The bastard had stabbed me in the back.
I couldn’t let him steal my titanium thunder. The next morning I rushed down to the shop to get my own freakin double-walled titanium mug: the Snow Peak Ti-Double 450. My friend had only gotten the more “economical” single-walled version, so naturally, I needed to double up on him after what he had done to me.
It was the best decision ever. This mug changed our lives. As friends, we bonded more closely over it. As adventurers, we traveled in style, our titanium mugs dangling from our backpacks, hooked on carabiners. It both accelerated and slowed down life itself as we know it. It deserves to be sung about, and if the Bard of Avon were around in this day and age, I’m sure his infatuation with this mug would surpass mine.
Ode to a Mug
Oh titanium mug!
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day
Thou art more sturdy and ageless
Rough winds do shake your darling twin handles
And I can’t get enough of thee
When too hot the eye of heaven shines
And often is your titanium complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed;
But thy eternal titanium shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that raw manly elegance thou ow’st,
And I shall brag when I wander the world with you,
When in eternal lines thy titanium outlasts
So long as I can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long live you, and you give life to mee.
After we got back from our trip, I got a second one for the office, and then it started becoming my go-to birthday gift for friends and family when I couldn’t think of a more personal alternative. I’ve lost count, but I’m pretty sure that I’ve got nine or ten of these mugs on my customer account at the local store. Who the hell buys 10 titanium mugs?
I’m probably known as the the titanium mug guy now. And I’m proud of it.
Disclaimer: I have no commercial affiliation to the company that manufactures this mugs, Snow Peak
