Bodum Stainless Steel Vacuum Travel Tumbler: Basic But Highly Effective
Written: May 17 '06
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Holds sixteen ounces, great for coffee or tea junkies, almost spill proof, nice appearance.
Cons: Expensive.
The Bottom Line: If you are looking for a well made travel tumbler, this one is a good pick.
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| Freak369's Full Review: Bodum Stainless Steel Vacuum Travel Tumbler Kitche... |
Being a coffee, hot tea and hot cocoa junkie I am always on the look out for the perfect travel mug. I’ve gone through those huge forty ounce plastic insulated ones, they are nice but try getting them into a cup holder. The sleek and svelte ten ounce ones are nice looking and totally portable but that’s just not enough coffee or tea for me. That means that I have to look for something in the sixteen to twenty ounce range; sounds easy right? Guess again. You have a lot of things to consider when picking out a travel mug or tumbler. Size [height and amount it will hold], insulation level, sip or slurp [I’ll get into that in a minute] and price range. The ‘sip or slurp’ factor comes into play when you look at the drink hole on it, if it sits inside a gully or well chances are you are going to end up slurping instead of sipping. If it has a flat drink hole then you can sip but there’s a good chance you are going to burn your mouth if your beverage is too hot. The Bodum Stainless Steel Vacuum Travel Tumbler is a nice size, fits inside the mesh side pockets of my backpack and takes a lot of knocking around without showing much damage. I haven’t given up my quest to find the perfect travel tumbler or mug but I do have to say that I am pretty happy with this one.
Bodum Stainless Steel Vacuum Travel Tumbler
First off, let’s get this out of the way right now. This is not a travel press, it is a sixteen ounce travel mug that is insulated to keep coffee, tea or broth hot for about an hour [more if you preheat it]. The Travel Press is a completely different beast that you can use to brew your coffee or tea in. With the word vacuum in the title you might think that this creates a vacuum seal to lock in the heat and aroma; if only that were the case. The ‘vacuum’ refers to the insulation that keeps your beverage hot. It works both ways though; put something cold in it and it stays cold, put something hot in it and it stays hot. It’s a pretty simple thing that shouldn’t require an explanation. Now, the thing that makes this really nice is that it comes with a thumb flip lever so you can close it to avoid spills. This is not spill proof meaning that if you knock it over it isn’t going to leak a few drops here or there. I used to carry my Starbucks tumbler in the side mesh pocket of my backpack until I got sick of having coffee splash on me. That’s why I sank twelve dollars into this tumbler. Little did I know I could have got one of the cheaper tumblers [less expensive, not inferior] from Bodum and picked up the screw top with the little lever on it. Even though I spent more than I had to on this I now know that if I crack, break or lose this one I can buy a replacement.
If you are going to order this online make sure that you read the description closely; the last time I went looking for one of these I came across more than a few incorrect listings for it. Going to the Bodum site is an option but things aren’t exactly easy to find there. Buying them online is an option but you have to really read the descriptions closely because they do have a lot of different types of travel tumblers, presses and items that ‘look’ like this one but are completely different. I haven’t had any problems with it so far but you do have to make sure that you clean the inside out or it will get that ‘coffee gunk’ inside it. Using a baby bottle brush to clean the inside of it works great to get out the build up from drinks and is a lot easier than trying to jam a sponge into it. The exterior is strong and resists most scratches; if you are accident prone this is a good one to go with because it is stronger than plastic versions but it does hurt like hell if you drop it on your foot, especially if it is full.
Preheat It!
WAIT! Do not put this in the microwave. When I talk about preheating it, I am talking about pouring hot water in it to prime the insulation. If you pour your hot tea or coffee in this tumbler you’ll notice about a five degree difference; this is the heat getting sucked out of the liquid to heat up the insulation. If you want your beverage to say as hot as possible; boil some water and pour it into the tumbler. Let it stand for about three to five minutes, dump it out and pour in your coffee or tea. You’ll be able to get another half hour to hour out of your drink if you ‘preheat’ it. You can even put hot water in it from the tap, that will temper the insultation a little and help keep your hot drinks hot.
Things To Know
• This should not be confused with the Stainless Steel Travel Press, Stainless Steel Travel Press With Rubber Thumb Grip or the basic Bodum Travel Tumbler [not stainless steel]. These are all different products that perform different duties. You can try to make your way through the Bodum website but it isn’t exactly the easiest of things when the pages load slowly.
• Make sure that you clean out the rubber ring around the top section of the screw off lid. If you use and type of creamer [power or liquid], sweetener or for soup or broth it will accumulate under this ring. To remove it slide a butter knife under it and pop it off, if you’ve never done this chances are you might gag when you see all the stuff that is built up under it. To replace it, slide it over the ridges until it is against the top lip of the lid.
• The photo shown is incorrect; this is the image for the travel press not the stainless steel travel tumbler. The one in the image is plastic and has an internal housing to press coffee or tea while this one does not.
The Bottom Line
If you like to take your coffee or tea with you this is a nice little thing to have; it can told up to sixteen ounces and will keep it hot for well over an hour, longer if you preheat it. I like the little lever thingy on the top, it isn’t completely spill proof but if you knock it over you’ll only have a couple of drops come out before you can stand it back up. Since I carry a backpack with me 90% of the time I am always worried about having a travel mug or tumbler with me that won’t slosh around on me. It fits inside most of the cup holders in my SUV and it’s something that lets me grab a sip at a red light without having to go through a complex sequences of maneuvers to open a lid or fumble with one of those disposable drink cups. While it did cost me twelve dollars it does save me money when I stop to get coffee at Circle K [formerly Dairy Mart and Big Foot store]; I can get a refill for .59 cents instead of having to pay $1.19 to get it in one of their cups. To top it off, after you buy five refills the sixth one is free so make sure you get one of their coffee cards. Save yourself some money and save a little bit of the environment, get yourself a Bodum Stainless Steel Vacuum Travel Tumbler!
As always, thanks for the read!
~^V^~ Freak ~^V^~
© 2006 Freak369
Coffee, coffee and more coffee....
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Recommended:
Yes
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