so last year for christmas i got a travel coffee mug from david that had an interesting vacuum-sealing lid and a leakproof guarantee (this was after i had a don music moment (man, wikipedia is Awesome… i would Never have remembered that guy’s name!) wherein i got really excited about an idea i had for a fully-enclosed hot beverage container that would keep me from splashing hot coffee on myself while i was walking, and i spent an embarrassing number of seconds before i realized that those are what we call thermoses, and i should just go buy one and get back to work). i was really taken with the thing from a design perspective because of the way that it handed the open/closed mode problem and the fact that you could drink out of it from every direction, and for a few weeks i was totally in love with it. i even cried when i thought i left it at rei while christmas shopping because i felt like an irresponsible moron who doesn’t appreciate her things, but they found it for me, so i was absolved.

anyway, then it started leaking, so my opinion of it diminished. i didn’t trust it to ride in my bag with my books and laptop, which is a big reason that i thought that one-a-them leakproof gadgets would be helpful in my life, so i could have coffee or tea in the morning without having to drink it all before i left. i could have called them out on the guarantee, but i’m not all that good at that, and the truth is it Did still keep from spilling in all cup-like situations, and it wasn’t Meant to be a thermos, so…
whatever.
i eventually realized i should just take my initial advice and buy a thermos, so i went to target to look for one. they had several, and to my chagrin i was most attracted to one that was made by the same people that had made the cup, again mostly for design reasons – it had a way better interior lid because you could actually drink directly from it without dribbling all over yourself, and it also had a sleeve, and little bumpy things on the bottom (or top, depending on how you look at it) of the exterior lid that made it non-slip and neat feeling…
i had a little argument with myself in the aisle about the battle between form and function – i had evidence that this company made things that leaked, so i shouldn’t let myself be bamboozled by the fact that their thermos was prettier. but i’m Not, i argued back. i’m just saying i want to value form And function, and this is a Different lid than the other one. it’s Meant to be a thermos. why not give it a chance?!
i ended up buying it, and so far, it seems to have been a good move. the interior lid Does leak Very Slightly, but so do some of the competitors. the “real” lid – the exterior one that doubles as a cup – works like a charm (and did i mention it has little bumpies on the bottom? :).
anyway, i have been using it quite a bit for the past couple of weeks, but today was the first time that the “therm” part of it’s thermos title got tested. i usually just drink whatever’s in it right away, or leave it in there for days, so i didn’t really know if it lived up to it’s claim to keep things hot for 12 hours. and ok, i still don’t know that, but i do know that it went 6 hours, and my tea is still steaming, so that’s pretty damn nice.

the company’s name is trudeau, and i couldn’t find their website, but they seem to make all kindsa interesting twists on the hot beverage holder theme, like this one, which has two separate ends so you can bring two kinds of hot drink at a time.

the moral of the story is this: i’m glad i have hot tea on a cold day (the first flurries of the season have reached indiana!), and three cheers to the delightful children of the marriage of form and function.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 16th, 2005 at 3:26 pm and is filed under design, stuff i got. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.