The days are long gone when we used to call vacuum-insulated bottles “commuter bottles.” They make life easy for folks getting to work, whether by foot, bike, car, train, boat, and plane. But they also serve some other essential purposes that make it worthwhile to consider: They keep your beverages cold or hot (depending on what you’ve started with), and they save the planet from single-use plastics.
They also don’t have to cost a lot, like the GSI Outdoors MicroLite 500 Flip bottle.
Made from stainless steel, polypropylene, and silicone, the lightweight bottle fits 500ml and weighs 7.9 ounces. The thin 2mm walls helps with the light weight, and the vacuum-sealed bottle keeps hot beverages hot for up to 10 hours, and cold drinks cold for up to 20 hours.
The 18/stainless steel looks pretty new and shiny, but also has a badass look once your first dent is in it. The good news about dents is that they don’t affect the performance of the bottle, nor the taste of what’s inside. Plus, they show that you live a life.
The push-button, flip-top lid locks closed when you’re running around. When you’re ready for refreshment, just open it up and drink.
One of the good things about this bottle, aside from it not weighing a ton, is that it isn’t super huge. You may have noticed that some backpack bottle holders are narrower than others, so those huge bottles won’t fit securely. This one fits in pretty much every bottle holder I have—backpack to car.
If you think that 500ml isn’t enough for the massive amounts of coffee/tea/water you drink, GSI Outdoors has a MicroLite 720 Flip bottle as well.
The MicroLite 500 Flip Bottle comes in stainless, black, red, orange, blue, and green, and lists for $25.95 on the GSI Outdoors site.