Aside from enjoying your cup of coffee or tea at home in your favourite mug, porcelain cup or latte glass what happens when you are about to leave for work with your chosen beverage in your hand? It must not spill and it must be kept hot while you are sitting on the train, bus or in your car. What are the best travel mugs on the market today, how effective are they and more importantly can they still look trendy?

For practicality there are the thermal mugs that pretend to be mugs but are actually mini flasks (they have no handle). These include the Aladdin 0.35l stainless steel leakproof travel mug with a water tight screw lid that can keep drinks hot for six hours and cool for around 18 hours (only available in silver). Another offering in this vein is the Lifeventure thermal mug which is also flask-like but is available in six different colours. The advantages are that they really do keep drinks hot over long periods, are unbreakable and are relatively inexpensive coming in at under £10 but they are not really very trendy.

Lifeventure thermal mug

The travel mug of the moment has to be the Brugo Travel Mug, which has a capacity of 450ml (16oz), comes in 13 different trendy colours and has a revolutionary temperature control chamber and three position drink mode selector spill-proof lid. The reviews on this have been mixed with the majority of people loving it although it is more expensive than you would expect to pay for a travel mug (around £15). Complaints include the drink mode selector being difficult to use, not dishwasher proof and difficult to clean, the cooling chamber being too small making it difficult to drink from and the lid not being leakproof (in fairness the Brugo people do say it is only spill-proof). I am still going to buy one as it looks robust, trendy and interesting.

Brugo travel mug

An alternative to the Brugo is the Contigo insulated autoseal travel mug which is sold as a twin pack (around £30) and claims to keep drinks hot for four hours and also to be leak proof. Although the Contigo appears to please and tick a lot of boxes it’s not really very trendy – it is functional but not stylish.

There are a number of ceramic and stainless steel and ceramic travel mugs on the market at the moment. A popular ceramic offering is the ‘I am not a paper cup’ which is a fully insulated double wall ceramic product with a silicon clip over lid in the style of a coffee shop cardboard mug (a similar product is the Ceramic coffee house cup). I have one for my office and I like it for home use but would worry about using it when out and about. It really doesn’t keep the drink hot for very long but if you are carrying your drink to the office it certainly won’t slosh over the side and spill. Another advantage is that it is fully microwave and dishwasher safe. There are also hybrid stainless steel mugs with a ceramic insert but these have been criticised for allowing the beverage to cool too quickly because the ceramic insert draws heat from the drink.

I am not a paper cup (ceramic mug)

Moving on to more traditional travel mugs, in general they will only keep a drink hot for around 2 hours and some only claim 40 minutes. There are so many around but for quality I suppose the Thermos range offers good value for money and good design; popular Thermos mugs are the Thermocafe 2010 Steel Travel Mug (0.4l), the Thermocafe 2060 Steel Travel Mug (0.4l), the Everyday 450, the Everyday 430 (0.45l) and the Thermo Glacier leakproof (prices for these range from around £3 to £7, so they are quite economical). These all keep drinks hot for around two hours and only have spill resistant lids but they are fairly typical of standard travel mugs (the design is fairly ‘industrial’).

The ‘granddaddy’ of them all has to be the Fatboy Jumbo travel mug that can hold a full 34oz’s (900ml) of liquid. However even this is dwarfed by the US imported Bubba Keg 72oz – does anyone need a mug that can hold two litres of coffee? Both of these big boys still suffer from leakage problems through the lid and can only keep the drink hot for two hours, and I can’t see either fitting into the cup holder in the car!

Bubba Keg 52oz thermal mug!

It seems that currently there is no perfect travel mug on the market so it might be as well to state here what the requirements are:

• A mug of a trendy design (my wife doesn’t ‘do’ silver or black) and ‘different’ shape but still able to fit into a standard car cup holder.
• A volume of around 0.45l is ample.
• There must be a screw lid to give the best leak-proof seal and good insulation to keep the drink hot for about four hours.
• It would be nice if designers made mugs dishwasher proof and with an ability to be used in microwaves.

The big weak point in most cases is the top, which must allow the user to drink – this needs to be a really clever design to maintain insulation and prevent leakage but still allow reasonable size gulps of coffee or tea.

Until the perfect travel mug is invented don’t spend a fortune on one because none of them are perfect. Perhaps the BestCuppa team should venture into manufacturing?!

We’d love to know your favourite travel mug (does one exist that doesn’t give the coffee a plastic taste?)