My love\hate relationship with coffee mugs

Coffee mugs. Really, why is it so hard to make a decent coffee mug? All I want is a clean looking simple design that has a handle firmly attached, and a nice quality thermal construction. Well, I’m an engineer, an unemployed one at that so I’ve come up with an idea to get my ideal “dream mug”, if you will.

What I want is simple. I just need a simple cylindrical design, properly insulated, and built with no seams or edges where water can collect. Ideally, it would be a double walled vacuum sealed stainless steel mug with a welded handle.

Simple, no place for water to collect, and the welded seam where the handle meets the body is stronger than the metal on the body. Vacuum sealing is important, it isn’t properly done on modern coffee mugs because the process is probably too expensive or labor intensive. Whatever, put a fitting on the bottom so I can

properly vacuum out the mug myself.

For the years I was in college [ERAU] I was using a mug I picked up at a Star Trek convention while in high school. It was a simple mug with a neat ring stamped on it that said “FEDERATION OF PLANETS”. It made me feel special, though while washing it I dropped it in the sink and the handle broke off. @)$%)! well it still works, it just doesn’t have a handle anymore. Also, the holes in the double wall where the handles go, are, well holes. Every time I wash the mug a little water gets in between the double walls and makes a neat sloshing sound. Also, I can never quite get all the water back out. Ugh, besides being unhygienic, it’s also an eyesore. I tried to epoxy it back on, but it didn’t survive another trip though the dishwasher. Fine, I give up.

After graduating, I moved back in with my parents while applying left and right for a job. I raided the cabinets and found a neat stainless Eddie-Bauer mug with a dull red finish. That served me well for about a month. After another trip through the dishwasher, the paint was flaking off, leaving me with a half-molted mug that kind of looks a bit like two-face. I’ve had it with cheap mugs, so last night I went on a little escapade with the internet to find a replacement that will last. So I go where anyone goes when they need advice, IRC. No? Okay, maybe just me.

atom001: Hey @earlmred I need a nice mug because I’m tired of replacing mine every few months

Mr. Earlmred then goes on to recommend me a few nice titanium mugs, but they’re all camping mugs that are paper thing, expensive, and use a coathanger for a handle. Hmm, time to look elsewhere.

Google searching for “nice stainless steel mug” brought me to this link where I found a beautiful stainless steel mug. Okay, its not vacuum sealed, nor is the handle welded on, but its the closest I could find to an ideal solution. It looks nice to boot. I like that simple cylindrical look.

Amazon sells it for $25 here, but the reviews are kind of worrying. There are reports of the handle breaking off, that its too small, or that it feels cheap. Well, its better than anything I have right now, at least the results on Single Serve Coffee are positive.

Other glasses on that site caught my eye, especially the Bodum glass mugs here. They also feature a simple elegant design, but the most unique feature is their double wall insulating construction. Its a double walled insulated glass! As much as I like it, there are tons of reviews saying they arrived broken. I wish there was a local retailer that I could buy them at.

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6 Comments

  1. We still have the dunkin donuts creamers in the office fridge from when you brought coffee in one morning.

    But seconding the difficulty of finding a decent coffee mug. I have my standard ceramic collection of mugs that were gifts from friends/family, but they are terrible at keeping the coffee warm, and shatter if you drop them. However, I also need a coffee mug to be dishwasher safe, because things that aren’t, in my house at least, tend to collect in the sink until I get tired of looking at them. Which can take a surprisingly long time.

    1. I no longer feel alone as a finicky mug lover. Several years ago I ran accross a 16oz double walled stainless steel mug at Target. The mug had a wide base, narrowing to the top, wich was covered with a very simle plastic lid. It had a small hole to sipp the liquid through. The handle was a well sculpted bulky blue rubber piece that I found very useful for holding the cup or hanging it my truck on the edge of something. I used to get ready at night to take a trip to the desert and would make couple of mugs full of hot tea. I would leave around four in the morning to avoid traffic out of town and it my leisure would sip my tea. Hours into my trip it was just as hot as when I started off in the morning.
      My dog found a wonderful toy of one of the mug lids so I only have one left which I guard as a sacred piece of art. The reason is that I can’t find these mugs anywhere. They have been replaced by more curvacious, sensual mugs, but here as the case always is, looks is not everything. The liquid leaves me cold in no time at all.

      If any body has seen one of these wonders anywhere, please let me know. On the other hand any suggestion on the topic is welcomed.

    2. I actually went and purchased the Bodum double walled mugs. They’re not “travel safe” because they’re pretty fragile, but they’ve served their purpose so far and I like them.

  2. I did your same search several years ago – it took awhile – and found the same mug in your picture. I’ve been using it ever since and it still looks good, However, I don’t put it in the dishwasher. Found your website while looking for an attractive titanium wine cup.

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