A lot of these travel mugs tend to take the form of a sippy cup. But when sitting at home, my ideal pick is the Fellow Carter, which sips like a normal drinking vessel and is stainless steel—not plastic. It’s ceramic-lined on its interior to avoid coffee-oil buildup or any hint of metallic tang. If you like sippy cups, Fellow also offers a nice 3-in-1 lid system ($57) with straw and slider lids.
What I tend to do is drop a four-cup batch of coffee into the Carter, and screw the lid off and on when I take a sip. Sixteen ounces of coffee can stay warm for hours without introducing a lot of oxidation or heat. The coffee in a thermal-insulated drinking container tends to taste better, longer, than any coffee that’s been subjected to the heat and air of a coffee warmer.
This said, while the Carter is prettier than most travel mugs, it’s never going to be my favorite mug (which, for the record, is a Grinderman tour mug from 2010.) The Carter also doesn’t release aromatics quite as well as a more open-topped mug. I could, technically, keep coffee warm in the Carter and then pour it into another mug I am more sentimental about. But in practice, I don’t. I just drink out of the Carter. It’s still a good morning.
Other Coffee Mug Warmers We Recommend
Ember Mug 2 for $150: Oh, the Ember. It is likely the most sophisticated and technologically advanced of self-warming mugs. It has an app. It’ll light up a little LED or even notify your phone when your coffee is ready to drink. Honestly, one can go back and forth on its virtues and excesses. It’ll “wake up” when you pour coffee in. It’ll go to sleep when you’re not around. And unlike other picks here, it’s a true self-heating mug with a battery, and it can travel with you on your dog walk. But after using the Ember for years, WIRED reviewer Simon Hill turned instead to the Ohom Ui 3. Why? In part, it’s that the Ember only works with a proprietary mug that’s not dishwasher-safe or dunk-proof. Replacement mugs and heating elements are expensive. But mostly it was a yen for simplicity: Not everything needs an app, and thermal mugs are now good enough that I sort of prefer them while on the go. Still, the Ember mug has had fervent fans at WIRED, it’s a nifty device, and its makers are continually working to improve it. Arguably, the people at Ember are thinking harder about coffee warming than anyone alive, and I’ll always happily test the next and the next version to see what’s up their sleeve.
Bestinnkits Mug Warmer for $26: This utilitarian little mug warmer turns on when you have a mug atop it, and turns off when you don’t. The scale is its only “smart” feature. No Alexa, no Siri, no app. This is a nice feature, and great for safety. This said, it does mean the warmer doesn’t start warming till your cup’s atop it, vs a warmer like the Cosori or Mr. Coffee that can preheat before your cup is there and thus keep temp immediately. It’s a decision, and it’s yours to make. The cost difference is somewhat negligible among them all.
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