Mike Rivers

I have a French press travel cup (it was the only thing I could find that would fit the cup holder in my former car), but it's plastic and doesn't make particularly good coffee, not nearly as good as the glass one that I use at home. Since I'm not a high budget traveler, I frequently stay at Comfort and Hampton Inns that have only Styrofoam cups, so I pack a cup as well, but when I'm packing enough clothes for a week in a carry-on bag, I have to be careful about the extraneous stuff. Used to be that when I was going to a trade show, I could count on swagging a real coffee cup from a booth but they're getting cheaper and cheaper these days.

For tea, if you have tea bags that you can stand, the immersion heater in a real cup is a good solution because you can get the water boiling with one of those.