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Quickly, before my husband returns, I finally have an opportunity
to examine this amazing coffee mug and tell you about it. The moment
the package arrived at our doorstep, my husband descended upon
the Contigo stainless steel travel cup and has rarely been seen
without it ever since. I tried to explain to him that readers want
to know details about this product, but it seems to have become
his security blanket, and he has been unwilling to give it up.
You may think I'm exaggerating, but I'm not the only one that's
noticed. Last week, a colleague commented, "Your husband must drink
a lot of coffee. I never see him without his . . . his . . ."
"His lovey?" I provided.
"Yes! It does seem that way, doesn't it?"
You see? I'm not exaggerating.
By some strange stroke of luck, he accidentally left it behind
today after carrying it near him for two solid months. And now
I understand why. First, the mug is perfectly weighted and fits
in my hand just right. That's normal enough, but it fits just right
in my husband's hand as well, and he's left-handed with hands much
larger than mine. So yes, it's very comfortable to hold, but that
is not the wonderful part. You'd never believe it, but I am shaking
this mug upside down like a crazy person right now, and not a single
drop is even hinting at coming out. I knew this amazing fact already
thanks to a broken cup-holder in my car that sent my husband's
mug flying toward my legs. Not a drop spilled.
Contigo cups have an amazing, patented feature called AutoSeal® that
makes their mugs 100% spill and leak proof. I've never seen anything
like this. To release the coffee, you gently press a button as
you sip. The button must be pressed down for anything to come out.
This sounds as if it might be a hassle, but it isn't in any way.
The button falls directly where your fingers rest on the back of
the cup and fits into the curve of your hand so that pushing the
button is almost part of the same effort of simply holding the
cup. When you release the button, it automatically seals. If your
children have ever had sippy cups, you might be cringing right
now at the idea of an adult sippy cup, but let me assure you of
two things. (1) It is effortless to drink out of, nothing like
a sippy. (2) No one around you will ever suspect any sippy-cup
connotations whatsoever. The mug has a sleek, elegant design that
does not in any way resemble a sippy cup.
Another excellent feature is the insulation. The stainless steel
mugs are double-wall, vacuum insulated and will keep your drink
hot for 4 hours or cold for 12. These are the times given by Contigo;
I would actually say the temperatures hold for even longer than
that. The amazing thing is that they are so well-insulated that
the outside temperature of the cup gives no indication of the temperature
within. You cannot tell how hot or cold your drink will be by feeling
the mug. In fact, it took my husband a couple weeks to get used
to it working so well. He burned his tongue many times after assuming
the contents couldn't still be too hot. One morning, he left it
in the car during church. He returned to take a sip three hours
later and still burned his tongue. It's that good!
And now that I have had the opportunity to examine his "lovey," I've
fallen in love and will be buying one for myself. My children already
have their own Contigos, so I am the last one in the family to
order one. The Kids Cups are 9 oz and are Pthalate, PVC, and BPA-free.
These aren't insulated, but they are completely spill and leak-proof,
thanks to the AutoSeal® technology. I can send the kids to
bed with these cups and not worry about wet sheets. This is great
news for our kids in top bunks that have missed out on bedside
tables for night-time water. The lid is all one piece, so there
will never be a need to dissect a cup and scrub with toothpicks
and q-tips to get chunky milk out of a child's cup after he's left
it in the hot car in August. These cups are dishwasher safe, and
I love Contigo for this fact.
One last benefit to the AutoSeal® lids is that children don't
have to do any sucking to to get a drink out of the cup. This leaves
no risk of malforming their mouths or damaging their speech patterns
as there is with sippy cups. When the release button is pushed,
liquids flow freely from a small but perfectly adequate opening.
One of our sons required speech therapy years ago, so this is a
feature I really appreciated--one feature of many.
We love the cups. They are perfect for any roadtrip or picnic,
but we also use them every day. Each child has his own color of
cup and leaves it on the counter all day, refilling as needed.
While they all love their cups, my husband is the only one to latch
onto his quite so affectionately. Speaking of whom, I need to hurry
and put this travel cup back before he returns and finds it missing!
Product review by Jennifer Harrison, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine ,
LLC, August 2010
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