The Best Travel Coffee Mug
by Cindi Sutter, Chief Communicator & Editor of Spirited Table® -Content provided BY EMILY JOHNSON AND ZOË SESSUMS - March 18, 2019
We found a stylish, leak-proof, and perfectly insulated coffee mug that will save
(and survive) your morning commute.
When you've got a long commute to work, it's ideal to have coffee 1) before the trek to work, 2) while in transit to work, and 3) while sitting at your desk, taking in the aroma of the coffee maker that is hopefully within close proximity.
In our search for the best travel coffee mugs, we sought options that were easy to hold and easy to drink from on the go. And here's something crucial: A travel mug, especially one that might get thrown in a bag, should not leak. Plus, it has to actually keep coffee warm. We first conducted this test in 2017. But, times change. Coffee mug technology advances. To find the best mug for commuters of all kinds in the year 2019, we went back to the drawing board and tested last year's winners against a new batch of 22 contenders. Keep reading for the best travel mugs available right now; for the nitty gritties of our testing process and our thoughts on what to look for in a travel tumbler, scroll to the bottom of the page.
The Absolute Best Travel Mug: Zojirushi
This Japanese-made mug retains heat incredibly well. After five hours, the liquid inside was still piping hot—almost too hot to drink. Like a heavy-duty camping thermos, it's made of double-walled stainless steel that's vacuum-insulated for expert heat retention. Unlike massive thermoses though, the Zojirushi has a slim design that fits perfectly in your hand or bag. It comes in a variety of colors and sizes—12 ounces, 16 ounces, 20 ounces—but all of them are narrow, unobtrusive, and easy to hold.
The Zojirushi is leak-free. The lid has a lock on the top that makes it impossible to open or spill. Shake, rattle, roll this thing—it's not going to let any liquid spill out. Plus, it's stylish and sleek, which is a definite plus for a mug you'll be carting around everywhere. The parts of its lid come apart for easy manual cleaning, and the interior is nonstick, so it's easy to rinse.
It has two minor downsides: it's not dishwasher-safe and the opening can be a bit awkward to drink from. No, it won't spill or anything; it's just a little less comfortable than the sipping mechanisms of other mugs we tried, notably the OXO and the Chantal. Still, on the more important grounds of heat retention and leak preventing, the Zojirushi wins by an absolute landslide.
The Best-Looking Travel Mug: Ello and Kinto
We tried four travel mugs from the brand Ello: a double-walled ceramic mug, a handled ceramic mug with a silicone boot, a vacuum-insulated stainless steel mug, and a handled vacuum-insulated stainless steel mug, pictured here.
We found both ceramic options to be too heavy for toting around, and the double-walled ceramic option didn't retain heat well enough to be considered a strong contender. However, Ello's two vacuum-insulated stainless steel mugs hold heat well, are shockingly spill-proof, and look good. The Campy mug looks like something you'd find in your grandparents' house (in a good way), while the regular stainless steel mug is simple and white, with a built-in cork coaster at the bottom. Neither are as compact or sophisticated in design as the Zojirushi, but they're dishwasher-safe and highly effective at keeping drinks hot and contained.
BUY IT: Ello Campy Vacuum-Insulated Stainless Steel Travel Mug, $13 on Amazon
BUY IT: Ello Cole Vacuum-Insulated Stainless Steel Travel Mug, $13 on Amazon
Kinto Travel Tumbler
The Kinto travel tumbler impressed us with its chic design and heat-retaining abilities. This is another winner from a Japanese company with an appreciation for simple, beautiful designs. It has a rounded handle on top of the lid, which was comfortable to hold, and especially nice when commuting sans bag. But, it was also leakproof when we tossed it in a tote.
The cap is smartly constructed: The handle on the top can be removed, revealing a thin circular opening that ensures controlled sipping. Nothing pours out at an extreme rate (no scalded tongue or ice cubes in the face). You can also remove the entire top of the mug, which makes it easy to pour from, and makes the travel mug easy to clean. The Polypropylene-coated stainless steel vessels come in a variety of interesting hues, so carrying your coffee around is stylish in a sustainability-focused 2019 way in the same the way that Mary Kate and Ashley with a Starbucks cup was chic in 2005. The Kinto mug is the priciest of the bunch, but worth it if you want to splurge.
Honorable Mentions: MiiR and Stojo
The MiiR Travel Tumbler got a lot of oohs and aahs during the unboxing phase of our test. It's sleek, bright, and incredibly comfortable to hold. What the brand calls "Thermo 3D Double Wall Vacuum Insulation Technology" essentially means that coffee stays very hot. The lid is secure. It's almost too secure to open with ease. Still, we had no leaks and could confidently throw the travel tumbler into our bags. Another bonus with MiiR: when you buy a mug, the brand gifts a portion of revenue to a charity project that's trackable via a code on the bottom of the mug.
The Stojo mug is collapsible, which comes in handy when you've finished your coffee and are tired of lugging around the mug (and also don't have a massive amount of bag space). The materials this mug is made with are less luxe and stylish. And it's hard to say how long the silicone will hold up to years of use compared to a solid, stainless steel option. But, this mug really is really great if you want to take up as little space pre-and post-coffee as possible. Simply push down the cup and it becomes the size of a lid. Bonus: it's also super easy to clean.
How We Tested
We filled all of the mugs with piping hot water and let them sit on our desks for five hours. We then sipped from each to determine if they had retained heat. Next, we put the containers through a stress test, shaking them and tipping them up and down to see if anything leaked. Finally, we took some brisk walks to mimic the frantic conditions of a morning commute, coffee mug in hand. We did not preheat the mugs by filling them with hot water first—we figured the typical user would not do this and we wanted to see how well each mug retained heat without this step.
Factors We Evaluated
1. Does it retain heat?
We were looking for a mug that kept coffee hot—even after sitting in the mug for five hours. We didn't measure the water temperature with a thermometer—we just sipped from the mug to determine if the coffee was still a suitable drinking temperature. We compared the various levels of heat by sipping from the mugs alongside one another.
2. Does it leak?
We wanted a coffee mug that was leak-free, even when it was jostled around, tipped upside down, and shaken around.
3. Is it easy to hold and drink from?
We didn't want a mug that was too heavy or too big, as this would make it more difficult to carry around in transit. We considered how much you had to maneuver your mouth while drinking—we took points away from mugs that felt awkward when sipping.
4. Is it easy to clean?
Does it go in the dishwasher? Is it easy to scrub manually, including the nooks and crannies of the lid?
Other Mugs We Tested
After reading various roundups and articles online, we settled on 22 travel mugs to test for our 2019 update. We took the winning mugs from last year's review and compared them to new mugs, mugs with updated designs, and styles we had previously overlooked. We considered mugs in various shapes and sizes that were under $50 and claimed to retain heat and prevent leaks. We wanted a stylish mug, too. Travel coffee mugs are an accessory as much as a tool.
People love and swear by OXO travel mugs ($22), and we can see why. The mug is easy to hold and comfortable to sip from. It keeps beverages nice and warm, thanks to that trusty double wall of stainless steel vacuum insulation. However, the OXO leaks a little when tipped upside down. We wouldn't trust it when tossed in a bag and jostled around during a train commute, though it would sit nicely in a car's cup holder.
Tied with the OXO mug is the Chantal mug ($19), which also has quality insulation. We like the button on the top, which releases a seal and allows you to sip from any side of the cup. It's easy to use and easy to drink from. The mug is small, compact, and has a generally cute shape, but like the OXO, it barely passes the leak test: a few pesky drops of water drip from the top when you shake it upside down.
Though the short Hydro Flask coffee mug ($30) wouldn't pass the throw-it-in-your-bag test, we liked that it felt like a traditional mug. A relative newcomer (it came to market in October 2018), the mug has solid construction and excellent heat-retaining power. The press-in lid doesn't seal off completely—the sipping spot stays open—but it does have some splash-resistance power that helps in transport. It'd be best for a driving or walking commuter. Plus, it's great if you have a Keurig or other single-serving coffee maker that only works with a short mug.
Overall, many of the travel tumblers we tested were passable, but somewhere along the way, we encountered a hiccup—usually related to leakage or heat-retention. The YETI Rambler and Bino Twister Mug had some leakage issues. The Klean Kanteen, Contigo Mug, and Aladdin Recyclable Mug didn't have seamless lid-opening functions. The Stanley Classic One-Hand Mug was hard to clean and the Zyliss Travel French Press and Coffee Mug couldn't stand up to a commute. The Thermos Travel Mug didn't keep our coffee as hot as the winners. The faults were generally small, but they kept these models from winning our top spots.
The Takeaway
Buy a Zojirushi for the all around best travel mug. It's leak-proof, keeps drinks hot or cold for hours, and is compact and easy to cram in your bag. It has a five-year warranty and is built to last. For a less-compact but very stylish option, choose an Ello mug. They're cool-looking, leak-proof, and they'll keep your drink warm. If you want a mug for high aesthetics, pick up a Kinto Day Off Tumbler. For shorter, super-compact options that are nice to drink from, go for the MiiR Travel Tumbler or the handled Hydro Flask Travel Coffee Mug. If you want a mug you could put in your pocket, get the Stojo Collapsible Travel Mug.
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