The Great Coffee Mug Debacle of 2011

Oh, for the love of Pete. I can hear your eyes rolling in your head. "Really? Really, she's going to write about coffee mugs again?"

Yes. Yes I am. Because apparently, I am no longer authorized to operate a travel mug containing hot liquid. I spilled on myself/my belongings/the car not once, but twice yesterday. Les demanded that I buy a new 4-star rated travel mug immediately, before I give myself 3rd degree burns or destroy my cell phone or something.

This is the mug that I have decided will solve all my life's ills:

Contigo 16-Ounce Double Wall Stainless Steel Vacuum Insulated Tumbler

It is made of stainless steel, and it gets the highest ratings on Consumer Research. And, it comes in pretty colors. But it costs $20, plus shipping, etc. Which just seems dumb. I guess in a cost-per-use calculation, it does pretty well, but I'm skeptical about it's actual awesomeness due to my inherent inability to use a travel mug properly. Can it really be that great?

We have 3 or 4 travel mugs in our cupboard, but I have never made it to my destination without getting coffee all over myself with any of these mugs. Like, ever. Not once. They leak from the seal, they leak from the mouth opening, they leak when they are full, they leak when they are supposedly empty. It drives me crazy. And it has made me very reluctant to carry one on my person, or to brew my own fair trade coffee + oat milk + raw sugar in the mornings because I don't want to end up wearing it by the time I get to the train stop.

But despite Les's insistence that I go ahead and order the darn mug already, I began thinking up other cheaper, less "go forth and buy stuff" options. And I came up with this:

The brilliant glass bottle with plastic screw-top lid that I got with Argo tea inside at Whole Foods. Pretty good seal, very drink-able mouth. But it's made of glass, so it probably won't stay hot for too long. Which is OK, because I can take off the lid and re-heat it.

Which would burn my hands, right? Well, not if I could insulate it somehow....

I'm pretty sure Les will not want to be seen with me if I walk around the city with an errant sock as a coffee mug snuggie, but whatevs. I'll give it a try this week and let you know how it does on the Travel part of the "travel mug" designation. I just carried it around the apartment this afternoon. I'm sure I could find a more attractive sock, if this dingy brown one is just too stupid.

Makes me laugh at myself as I remember that I once went to a church in town (that some of my dear friends later attended and now call home) that I decided was "way too crunchy" for me.  A judgement that was based on my observation that several of the congregants arrived to church drinking hot tea or coffee out of mason jars, and would screw the lids back onto the jars when not in use. I could not handle that kind of green-ness at the time. I bet they would laugh at me with my bottle-in-a-sock. Deservedly.