Posts Tagged travel mugs
Stanley Eco-friendly eCycle Mugs
I mentioned that there was a sea of water bottles when I attended the Outdoor Retailers show earlier this year and more than a few coffee mugs in the mix as well. One brand really got my attention though—Stanley—because they were trading attendees a new bottle or mug if they brought in an old one to be recycled.
So I turned in my battered and bruised Sigg water bottle and got this cool Nineteen13 Stanley Mug, which has since hosted many pots of coffee. I feel good about using this because it’s made from the company’s eCycle plastic, which is composed of 25% post-consumer plastic (and 100% recycled plastic overall). And, should it ever wear out on you, it’s a simple #5 plastic that can go back into the recycling bin in many cities—including in my last home state of Tennessee, which is not exactly known as the most progressive place on Earth. If you’re not sure where you can recycle plastic in your own town, follow this eCycle link at the Stanley site.
This hits all the right marks on the performance checklist too though. It’s got double-walled insulation, a leak-proof drink-through lid, and it’s BPA-free. There’s no metallic taste though and it doesn’t stain. Perhaps the best part is the price: it retails for 12 bucks.
The Nineteen13 name, applied to a line that includes some stainless steel water bottles and mugs, comes from the year when William Stanley invented the all-steel vacuum bottle. Since we’re close to the 100 year mark, you can assume the Stanley company knows what it’s doing and you’ve probably used one of their vacuum mugs or Alladin thermos products before. I’ve had a few, dating back to when I was a kid, and one or two are still in a cabinet at my mom’s house somewhere, still in use. Their slogan is “Built for Life” after all.
This 16-ounce mug comes in three colors. It fits in most cup holders in cars and even in a bike water bottle holder if you’re the type that packs a cup of Joe for a morning bicycle commute.
Get the Stanley Nineteen13 Recycled and Recyclable Mug at REI
Posted by Tim L. in General Gear on October 28th, 2010
Spillproof 10-hour Hot Travel Mug From Innate
If someone gave me a buck for every time I’ve spilled coffee on my clothes, I could stop working for a day or two. Travel mugs are a great thing since they’re reusable and they keep your coffee hot, but most of them end up dripping out or pouring out some of their contents in your car or on your nice clean clothes at some point.
This spillproof Kaze mug from Innate is more like a modified Thermos vacuum bottle that is so secure you could throw it into a messenger bag or briefcase full of papers and not worry. To test out that claim I carried it around all morning in a laptop backpack as I moved from place to place. Six hours later, not one drop had gotten out and the coffee was still really hot.
This is a bit of a Transformers product in that this travel mug has several parts that can be used or removed as needed. There’s a handle to give it a traditional mug feel, a screw-on lid that can also be used as a cup, and a “drinking collar” that can be used with or without the spill-stopping button mechanism.
Two of these parts conflict though. I don’t use the buttom mechanism if I have the handle on it, for instance, because that forces me to be a two-fisted drinker. 
The way the handle is designed, there’s no way to press the button with the same hand. So you awkwardly hold the handle with one hand and push the button with the other. How geeky are you willing to look to have really hot coffee for hours?
Otherwise, this vacuum travel mug from Innate delivers as promised, being a spillproof mug that truly is spillproof, with no way for the button to get pressed accidentally when the lid is screwed on. It is excellent in the insulation department, to the point where you could fill it with soup at 7 am and have a hot lunch at 1pm. It comes in several designs and you can switch out the lid with any of the others made by Innate, so you could use it for cold drinks meant for sipping in the summer.
The Kaze holds 13.5 ounces (425 ml), weighs 12 ounces, and comes in five patterned and solid designs. As with all Innate stainless steel bottles, it’s BPA-free. It lists for $25 Canadian, $20 in the U.S.
Posted by Tim L. in General Gear on September 23rd, 2009
