If you like to leave home with a cup of hot coffee or cocoa and have it be warm on the car or train, all the way until you actually arrive at your office, well, a travel mug is one of the few things that can achieve this for you (not to overlook the thermos though). And travel mugs are a kind of a favorite among gift givers, too. Any time a cheapskate company wants to give promotional gifts, travel mugs are a popular choice, usually. The cheap ones (such as what businesses hand out) tend not to insulate very well. For great heat-retaining qualities in a travel mug, you'll have to put your own money down – you'll need to get one of those stainless steel thermal mugs that can keep your drink just the way it should be, for several hours. Well, how do you make sure that what you are getting is the best travel mug on the market? Well, we'll see.
What you first need to do is to get a few basic mistakes, that lots of people make, out of the way. For instance, it can be very nice to get a travel mug with a nice handle that you can hold it by, and to get one that's stainless steel, and that has a spillproof lid. As convenient as these things are, once you start using them, you'll wonder – what were those product designers thinking!
Stainless steel may be the best travel bug material in that it can keep your drink pretty hot, and it can be great to look at. The problem though is that stainless steel doesn't go in the microwave. If you want to warm your drink, you have to pour it out into another container and then warn that. Not to mention, most stainless steel mugs don't do very well in the dishwasher. And about that spillproof lid? Who's going to clean cream and milk out of that fine groove in the lid?
As always, it's a compromise. It can be a toss up between plastic and stainless steel when it comes to choosing the best travel mug. Plastic is dishwasher safe, microwavable and so on, but it isn't able to keep your drink the same temperature for longer than an hour. Plastic also has the downside that it can contain chemicals like BPA that are known to cause reproductive problems. Stainless steel has all the advantages we just mentioned, but you do have to clean it by hand and heat the liquid contained therein elsewhere.
There certainly are reviews all over the place that you could take a look at. The $20 Contigo AutoSeal Stainless Steel Travel Mug is one of the most best traveler mug models sold today. Every major magazine out there that covers this kind of thing has great things to say about it. The Oxo Good Grips Stainless Steel LiquiSeal Travel Mug is even more expensive, and has similar recommendtions. Of course these designs do retain the problems that steel mugs are known for. Their heat-retaining properties are well-loved though.
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