6 Iced Coffee Cups That You Won’t Be Embarrassed to Hand to the Barista
Open a vein, I’m 70% cold brew. (The other 30% is half-and-half.) A reusable iced coffee cup is a summertime must for people of my ilk, a.k.a. coffee lovers who are trying to forgo single-use plastics but who also cannot abide paper straws, a cruel invention if ever there was one. That’s why our favorite travel tumblers function like your neighborhood coffee shop’s plastic cups, except they’re high-quality, insulated, spill-proof, and feature reusable straws. (If you’re a hot beverage person even in 80% humidity, do your thing and check out our picks for the best insulated bottles and thermoses.) Here are our six favorite reusable iced coffee cups, from a simple acrylic workhorse to a pink floral number perfect for summer.
These 16-oz. tumblers are made from BPA-free plastic and tout “advanced ultrasonic sealed double wall technology,” and while I do not know what that means, I can attest that I owned these in high school, and they kept my Starbucks iced lattes plenty cold. They come in a set of four so you can keep one at your desk, one at home, one in your car cupholder, and one in your gym bag, and at $18 for the set, each cup costs about as much as your daily cold-brew coffee. The clear acrylic is clean and minimalist, but if you’re buying these for a picnic and want to ensure everyone knows which iced tea is theirs, opt for the set with the multicolored lids and straws. The plastic is durable and dishwasher-safe, and it won’t sweat when you hold it. Wish I could say the same for myself in the summer.
This sturdy 17-oz. borosilicate glass tumbler weighs over a pound empty—but that heft makes it feel...fancier? Like it’s an adult cup made for adults who use real glassware and only occasionally ask for flavored syrups in their adult espresso drinks. The silicone sleeve comes in a variety of sophisticated colors, the borosilicate is shatter-resistant, and the bamboo lid is leakproof enough that if you knock the tumbler over, it won’t immediately spill all over your desk. Just because I’m an adult doesn’t mean I’m not clumsy.
Rifle Paper Co.’s cheery florals adorn everything from aprons to monogrammed coffee mugs to face masks, and its iced coffee tumblers—a collab with Corkcicle—are as functional as they are pretty. Metal straws are sold separately ($6 for a 12-pack on Amazon, including two wire brushes for easy cleaning) and come in silver, black, iridescent, and gold, Gold, GOLD. I can personally attest that the triple-insulated 16-oz. tumbler does indeed keep cold beverages icy for hours, and, unlike other iced coffee cups, you can also use it with hot drinks. Just remove the straw and use the sip-through lid all winter long.
I couldn’t decide which I liked better, so here’s the same Corkcicle x Rifle Paper Co. tumbler in cream.
This option is more like an iced coffee cup converter set. Pop the reusable bamboo lid on a widemouthed mason jar, insert the stainless-steel straw, and you’re ready to take your iced café de olla to go. I tested it on a pint Ball jar (16 oz.), but it also would work on a quart (32 oz.) jar if you literally run on Dunkin’. This set comes with two lids, two straws, and a skinny straw brush.
If you’re the iced-coffee-cup-is-half-full type, this rainbow-hued plastic tumbler is for you. At 20 oz., ban.do’s double-walled cups are the only tumblers we tested that can fit a full venti latte, but note that they’re hand-wash only. For hot beverages, I also love ban.do’s exuberant confetti thermal mug, which features floating gold glitter and colorful flecks that look like the offcuts from a Matisse collage.
