The subject of coffee has come up more than once in the Tom’s Guide offices of late. Last weekend, in honor of National Coffee Day, the team listed the coffee gadgets they just can’t live without. For my part, I use an Ember smart mug almost every day and have done so for a couple of years now. It’s pretty much a staple of my work desk.
So when I got a chance to try out the TravelMug 2+ — an update to one of our best travel coffee mugs — I pounced. Because now I can take my perfectly heated cup of joe away from the desk and out into the world.
If you’ve not used an Ember device before, here’s a quick primer: these stylishly premium gadgets will keep your choice of drink heated to exactly the right temperature for a set length of time thanks to a built-in battery. You specify your choice through the accompanying iOS or Android app and you get a notification when it’s ready. Meanwhile, the coaster doubles as a charger via two small gold prongs. If you keep your mug on the coaster, there’s no need to use the battery and your coffee stays warm all day.
The TravelMug 2+ is the jewel in the Ember crown with a 12 oz capacity and a battery capable of keeping tea or coffee at my preferred 59°C/138°F for three hours away from the coaster. But it also carries an eye-watering $199 price tag. I live in London, where the Ember mug also costs £199, while a filter coffee from Starbucks will set me back £2.70. Is this travel mug really worth the equivalent of 74 trips to Starbucks on the way to work?
For starters, you’re probably wondering about keeping track of such an expensive gadget — which is likely why Ember added support for Apple's Find My network for the first time. You can use the Find My app on your iPhone, iPad or Mac (or the Find Items app on the best Apple Watches) to see exactly where your TravelMug 2+ is at all times. Sadly, it won’t play a chime to help you locate it exactly — but iPhone users will appreciate the extra bit of security nonetheless.
If smart functionality is the prime reason for the high price, build quality comes a close second. The TravelMug 2+ is slimmer and lighter than the first-generation model and, although it weighs 15.2 ounces, has just the right amount of premium heft about it. The 7.9 x 3.14 inch mug is slimmer at the base, which makes it comfortable to hold and has an all-over matte finish that just oozes quality. There’s a touch-enabled display on the front of the mug (it reminds me of the old Nike Fuelband) that lets you see battery level and adjust the temperature without having to pull out your phone.
Meanwhile, the lid is your standard fare; press down on the central circle to recess it and create a small circle of liquid to flow through. When it’s closed, there’s no danger of any coffee escaping although you may occasionally suffer a few drips forming around the lid after you take a sip.
The inside of the mug is stainless steel, so you get a slight metallic tinge to your drink which you won’t get with ceramic or glass. I don’t mind it, personally, but it’s something to bear in mind.
My pros and cons after a week
I used the Ember TravelMug 2+ as my drinking vessel of choice for several days, which consisted of both commuting to my office and working from home. It was, in a word, luxurious. I’m not immune to the negatives, and I’ll get to those in a bit. But for now, let’s just bask in the radiance of sipping coffee at precisely the right temperature while standing on a cold, rain-soaked train platform at 6am alongside a hundred other miserable commuters. If you’re looking to tech to make your daily life just that little bit more pleasurable, then the TravelMug 2+ is surely a resounding success.
If you’re looking to tech to make your daily life just that little bit more pleasurable, then the TravelMug 2+ is surely a resounding success.
This takes all the guesswork out of your drinking habit — you won’t singe your tongue trying to taste whether or not it’s too hot, nor curse yourself for not drinking quick enough before it went cold. You can easily tell exactly when it’s right and know it’s going to stay there for the next three hours. Couldn’t be simpler.
And to go back to that Starbucks comparison from earlier, I tend to consume several mugs of tea and/or coffee a day. I’d say I could hit that 74 cups marker in as little as three weeks, and that’s being conservative. So if you also measure the value of tech by how much you use an item, then perhaps that $199 price tag isn’t as bad as it first seems if it's recruited into service each and every day for years.
So, while my answer to the question on whether coffee needs this level of tech is a yes, your mileage may vary. Of course any of the best travel coffee mugs will keep your drink hot for as much as 10 hours — at a considerably cheaper price. And you probably won’t be as upset if you misplace or damage them. So it’s fair to say there’s plenty of other options out there. And like I said — the Ember does have some drawbacks: You may find that 12 oz isn’t enough liquid, or that the matte finish scratches too easily, or that it's yet another thing to remember to charge.
On that last point, it should be noted that once your three hours of battery runs out, the TravelMug 2+ isn't as insulated as some other "dumb" coffee mugs out there. So you can very much pay less to keep your drink warmer for longer.
But if you know that going in, then you also know that's not the point of the Ember TravelMate 2+. It's designed to do one thing and do it very well: keep your coffee (or tea, or hot chocolate) at an exact temperature for a set amount of time. And it hits that mark very well indeed — for a price.
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