Is there a nice lightweight cup available

I use a stainless steel cup (I'm guessing 5 ounces w/o a lid) when I hike alone because I can heat up my drinks or soup directly on the stove or camp fire and drink from it too. It has a nice handle and cleans up well. But...it is heavy for a simple cup. I think it holds 16 ounces at the most. Is there an alternative that doesn't weigh as much an doesn't cost an arm and a leg? The link here is to a different brand, but this is what it looks like. Couldn't find a weight on the Texsport.
[img]http://www.amazon.com/Texsport-Stainless...nless+steel+cup[/img]

I heat water in my one kettle (600 ml titanium). Most of it goes to rehydrate my food (in a freezer bag inside a cozy). I drop a tea bag into the remaining hot water for my hot drink. No dishes to wash!

Of course that won't work if you cook your food in your pot. Some like to put water in the pot (after eating the food), and heat it up for a beverage, which does help to clean the pot, but I personally don't like rice or noodles floating in my tea!

It sounds as though you want a cup you can heat water in. Titanium is far lighter than stainless steel, probably half the weight. There are a number of various sizes and shapes on the market. They are more expensive, but last basically forever. Aluminum is almost as light, but getting hard to find (due to the popularity of titanium) and is apt to get dented and be useless in a couple of years.

I sometimes use a plastic Ziploc brand bowl. They come in 8 and 16 oz sizes. I think the larger one weighs around 0.9 oz without the lid.

If I'm using my huge mug-shaped 1.2 liter GSI aluminum pot, I just drink out of it. If I'm using my flat 600 ml Evernew titanium pot or a beer can pot (for water only: hard to clean), then I use the plastic bowl.

Drinking out of the pot has an advantage in that the hot liquid helps clean it after a meal.

If you look online you can find some light aluminum cups.

Here's one at Amazon

This one is a little bigger. Quite a few backpackers use these.

I have a IMUSA 1.5 quart "Grease Pot" that works okay good for me. I put my alcohol stove, lighter, I plastic cup, spoon and fork, and a handi-wipe inside it. It's a little bulky though, and the handles don't fold on them.

That's true, and even though that grease pot will be pretty dented up in a couple of years, you can buy half a dozen for the price of one titanium pot!

If the cups are constructed the same (wall thickness, etc.), the aluminum cup will be significantly lighter than the titanium cup as:

Ti = 4.51 g/cubic cm

Al = 2.70 g/cubic cm

True, but that thin an aluminum cup will become seriously dented after a few uses! It's a question of durability--the aluminum has to be made thicker to hold up.

Yup, Al is lighter but Ti can be made much thinner and still stand the rigors of backcountry use, so individual pieces tend to weigh on par. And Al cups are terrible for hot drinks, as they will burn your lips. Ti transfers heat very poorly in comparison, to the point I can take tall pots off the stove with my bare fingers.

Ti cookware always costs more but stands years and years of abuse. The sole downside is it's trickier to cook with due to hot spots on the stove. I've learned to work around that, but it takes constant attention for anything more complicated than boiling water.

Cheers,

You can get the Toaks 600 ml pot (mug with lid) for $28.50 on Amazon.
I use the lighter 550ml version.($34)
The 550ml is a bit under 3 oz with lis, 2 1/4 oz for the mug alone.

I will second mike and roger here in support of the GSI cup. I got it with a cookset a while ago and use the bowl and cup fairly frequently, if going light light i just bring a snowpeak titanium bowl (like $15, great deal) and drink and eat out of that. a little akward but not too bad!

For my Scottish hike I've been thinking of getting a shorter plastic cup with a lid that will fit inside my .9l Evernew Titanium pot. I can then nest a small gas cannister inside my cup, the stove will fit alongside it and I can still fit a dishwipe inside the pot, also suitable for washing my face.

I'll probably just be using it for tea and lunch soup/stew hopefully boil in the bag curry I can get in the UK. Nice thing about the plastic cup and lid is that it keeps the tea warm for 20 minutes while you sip it and look out over the pristine landscape of bogs, beaches, salmon streams and distilleries.

I'll probably just be using it for tea and lunch soup/stew hopefully boil in the bag curry[i][/i]
If you haven't done so already try it at home first.
Some plastic will retain a lot of taste even after washing with soap (on the trail, lack of hot water and repeated rinsing..) so you end up drinking tea that taste of curry.

Franco, I often bring a folding plastic bowl to eat granola from or have that extra vessel to eat from. If the boil in the bag curry comes in a decent pouch you can eat out of that, but the plastic bowl weighs 1 ounce and cleans up really nice.

I rarely use the plastic cup for supper, just soup or tea, but I might pour some powdered pudding in there to mix up with a spoon. I haven't found a cup with the right dimensions just yet, but there's still time! When it is dropping to 10C (50F) or often 5C (41), having an insulated cup does allow you a few minutes to drink your tea or coffee and a lid saves a lot of trouble if you are folding up camp while enjoying that second cup!

I like to $1.00 reusable Starbucks cups. Without the lid they are very light weight and last me a full season. Of course this only works when you carry a different a separate pot for boiling water. I find this works well for me, as I'm usually boiling additional water for another cup or coffee or oatmeal while I'm drinking my first cup.

I've tried a LOT of cups/pots and I think the GSI Minimalist is something to check out. It's a whole system if you're just boiling --not cooking. And it's a lot less expensive than other options, if you want to try the concept of a pot/cup combo.