If you love spending time in the great outdoors, have a long commute to work, enjoy spending whole days exploring new towns and cities, or just like to always have a hot drink at home, travel mugs and flasks are a good option for you. Keeping one on you when you’re out and about will also help to reduce your single use plastic waste if you’re partial to a coffee shop coffee! In reality, most people can benefit from having a good insulated container that will keep hot drinks hot and cold drinks cold, but there are so many on the market, it can be hard to know which ones are actually any good.
Generally speaking, the cheaper options that can be found on popular buying sites can be of questionable quality, and while they might work well to begin with, they can quickly loose their insulating power. Spending a little more and buying from a known company in the case of insulated mugs and flasks can mean that you end up with something that will last you a decade or more – it’s an investment that’s really worth making and will save you money in the long run as you won’t need to replace any time soon.
There are plenty of great companies making decent travel mugs and flasks, but here are Roonee’s top three!
- Klean Kanteen
Klean Kanteen offer a wide selection of flasks, canteens, and mugs that all boast impressive insulating power. The 12oz TKWide is a great option if you need something to hold about a cup of coffee’s worth of liquid, and this particular option keeps hot drinks hot for up to a whopping 11 hours – impressive! The standard lid on the TKWide is perfect for sipping tea or coffee, but simply swap it out for the compatible twisty lid with an integrated straw when you want to use the flask for a cold drink. In addition to this standard flask option, there are flasks that are bigger and smaller, depending on your needs, and canteens that are designed for water – perfect for a camping trip or cycle ride.
Klean Kanteen also make lidded metal mugs that are great for taking on camping trips, although they are equally as good for keeping your cup of tea hot when you’re at home gardening!
- Yeti
Yeti provide all kinds of useful things for your next trip in the great outdoors, but their flasks and mugs are worth a look. They are made from stainless steel and use clever double wall insulation technology to keep your drink hot for as long as possible. Notably, Yeti make a travel mug with a handle that’s bigger than anything you can find from other brands – the 30oz rambler. This is perfect for anyone who enjoys a really big hot drink that you can pick up easily with a handle. The Yeti website actually implies that this is a really great travel mug to use when you’re driving – it’s reliable on bumpy roads and tight turns – your drink won’t spill and it’ll still be hot when you get to drinking it!
- Thermos
Thermos is probably the brand that comes to mind for many people when thinking about really good travel mugs and flasks – and there’s a good reason for it! Thermos are experts in the field and they use top of the range vacuum insulation technology that is rigorously tested. On the whole, a Thermos flask will keep your hot drink hot for up to 18 hours and your cold drink will stay cold for an absolutely amazing 24 hours. Aside from the truly impressive length of time a Thermos will keep your drink fresh, a lovely touch of the company is that they produce some really pretty designs. It only takes a quick scroll through the home page to see beautiful limited edition patterns and designs!