I bought my first Zojirushi stainless steel mug as a Christmas gift for my wife. She likes to take a lot of coffee with her to work for the day, typically filling both a travel mug and a thermos. I was looking for something that would keep a couple of servings of coffee hot for a long time, but would be easier to drink from than a traditional thermos. I came across this product, with extremely good reviews, and decided to get one for her to try.

After several months of daily use, my wife adores this travel mug. The finish is very durable; my wife’s mug looks like new after months of use. The lid both seals and locks into place when closed, and, when engaged, a secondary locking mechanism prevents the lid from being opened. This is ideal, allowing the user to put the mug into a bag without worrying it will pop open on its own. The lid can be disassembled into component pieces for easy cleaning. The only time the mug leaked was after a complete disassembly, cleaning, and reassembly. After re-orienting an incorrectly installed gasket, the integrity of the seal was restored.

Recently, when my wife was on spring break, I borrowed her Zojirushi to take to work. I was astounded with the performance of this mug and, frankly, jealous. The Zojirushi mug kept my coffee piping hot for over eight hours. I was so impressed, a bought a second mug for myself, which I now use daily.

A variety of colors are available, from the basic black and stainless finishes to blue, pink, and gold. This mug is available in two sizes, 12 and 16 ounces. The diameter of the mug is the same, so the sizes share the same lid, but the 16oz size is taller. The Zojirushi mug is on the expensive side, but I believe the quality more than justifies the price.

[Here’s another review, by Phill:]

If anything, the Amazon reviews for these Zojirushi thermoses read like sycophantic hyperbole and almost turned me off, but my curiosity got the better of me. Turns out none of it is hyperbole. Pour coffee in them in the morning, and it will still be hot in the afternoon (not warm, hot). Ice will still be ice the next day. I bought one a little over a year ago for my wife, who can rarely finish a cup of tea before it gets cold thanks to chasing our toddler around. Then we bought another because she started using it to keep milk and formula cold for our daughter – cold milk in the morning is still safely cool in the evening after long beach or zoo trips.

As for downsides, there aren’t any serious ones for us. The button to pop them open isn’t as smooth as I’d like it to be, and the lid ought to be disassembled into two pieces for cleaning (which is trivial to do). The biggest downside is probably the major upside of its insulation – if you have a habit of waiting for your coffee to cool down before drinking, you’ll want to leave the lid open and even then it’s gonna happen much slower than you’re used to.

-- Ryan Gwaltney 02/2/15