Travel Coffee Mug – A Heated Discussion

Temperature retention is a major consideration when selecting a travel coffee mug.

Unless a travel mug can maintain the temperature of the beverage its filled with for an acceptable amount of time, it doesn’t matter how stylish its design or how trendy its color.

The material and construction of a travel mug are two major factors that determine temperature retention. Double-walled travel coffee mugs hold heat, or cold, better than single-walled ones. Adding vacuum insulation adds even more time. Insulation will keep beverages warm and keep them cool also by cutting down heat transfer by conduction.

While most any of these mugs will keep your coffee hot for a couple of hours, stainless steel travel mugs, depending on construction, can maintain the temperature of your beverage for six or more hours.

If you’re looking for the best of class, check out double-walled, stainless steel travel mugs that have a steel interior instead of a plastic one. And if they’re vacuum sealed, they will hold heat or cold even better. Of course, everyone doesn’t need a travel coffee mug that will keep a drink hot the entire workday.

Stainless steel travel mugs with a plastic liner are popular. Although they won’t maintain beverage temperature as well as ones with stainless steel liners, they’re less expensive, too.

Popular brands include Bodum, Thermos, Trudeau, Maxam, Drive Time, Oxo and Contigo.

Another component to look at if you want to keep your coffee as hot as possible for as long as possible is the travel coffee mug’s lid. Pop-on lids with an open slit for drinking your hot coffee are less effective at keeping your beverage steaming hot than lids with closeable openings or that have stoppers.

Advances in vacuum technology and a new generation of lids, such as the auto-seal ones, are keeping the heat on travel coffee mugs.