SM-SA36PB Stainless Steel Mug, 12-Ounce, Pearl Pink

Let me start with, I am a diehard Brumate user. Due to an upcoming trip, I researched “best no spill travel mug that keeps drinks hot the longest”. A couple of tests said this ranks #1. So I bought it. I can confirm this keeps hot liquids hot for 12-14 hours! Beyond that it still kept liquids pretty warm. Was able to throw in my carry on bag and in my back pack without any leaking or spilling. This holds the same amount of liquid as my 25ounce Brumate. Travel footprint was smaller than my Brumate which was great as I traveled by train and threw it in a back pack. If you are looking to keep hot piping hot for a long period, buy it. No spill, checks this box also, slender design, perfect here too. I would absolutely buy again in another color.

Outstanding product! The gold color is beautiful. I love it so much I bought another one for my cold electrolyte water, and another to give as a gift. But what is truly impressive is that my hot tea stays the same temperature for hours, and the cup is leak proof. It is slim and lightweight so it easily fits inside a tote bag and the water bottle pocket of a crossbody bag without being bulky or heavy.

Zojirushi SM-SA48-BA Stainless Steel Mug, Black, 16-Ounce First, I don't write reviews often, but feel compelled to do so. I can't stop telling people about this little gem! I was using a Contigo autoseal style cup and was happy with it. It kept my coffee hot for 4-6 hours if left full all day. If I drank say half of it, the temperature would hold closer to 4 hours. That is to be expected. It was my favorite cup as it kept my coffee hot and it was my only spill proof travel mug. Sure I have a dozen insulated coffee mugs, but none that I could put in a bag or throw on the leather seat of my Lexus and not worry about it spilling. Well, I dropped the Contigo cup shortly after purchase and it dented in the side pretty good, but its function was fine. After about six months it started leaking after another drop and the plastic threads of the lid cracked and could no longer hold a seal. So, I was back on the hunt for a new travel mug. I roast my own coffee and am pretty particular when it comes to my coffee. I literally have spent thousands on coffee and espresso equipment. It would be considered an addiction. Needless to say, I like to have my addiction hot and often. Kind of reminds me of my wife! Similarly, I get irritable if you decrease my enjoyment of either of these addictions. So, needless to say, the cup needed to be replaced asap. So, I go to Amazon and find the Contigo Autoseal and put it into the cart. Prime baby, I'll have it in a couple days. Hey, what is that in the recommended products. A Zojirushi SM-SA48-BA Stainless Steel Mug, interesting, six months earlier I had researched bread making machines and turns out Zojirushi makes the best one, I bought it and we have been very impressed with its thoughtful design and quality. A few months later I broke my thermal pitcher I pour my french press brew into immediately after extraction. So here I go to Amazon and similar story, I purchase a Zojirushi thermal pitcher and it was also a great product. So the Zojirushi SM-SA48-BA Stainless Steel Mug caught my eye. Wow, 1100+ reviews and 5 star rating. You don't see that too often. $26 dollars compared to the Contigo $15, hmm, that's a lot. I will just order both. Now, to say that I am impressed with this little gem is an understatement. At first look on Amazon, I didn't like the design. The flip lid seems like it would be a pia. Always having to flip to take a drink, when I was used to the Contigo and just pushing the button and taking a drink. A few reviewers also stated they hit their nose on the lid. I really didn't think I would like it, but what the hey, I'll give it a try. The package arrived as expected with the two cups, I attached a picture with a soda can so you can compare the two products. First impressions: Form - They both look really good as far as form factor. I got the white Contigo, because it was $12 compared to $15 and up for other colors. Not considering colors, I like the look of the Zojirushi. I believe this is a more of a personal preference issue. So pretty close just looking at them. Design - The Zojirushi really pulls ahead in this department. When you pick up these mugs up out of the box, you will immediately lean towards the Zojirushi. As you can see in the pictures, compared to a soda can the Contigo is a bit larger in diameter and the Zojirushi is a little smaller. My hands are on the smaller side of a male hand and the Contigo feels big. Kind of like picking up a soda can compared to a two liter soda bottle. The soda can feels more comfortable in your hand. This is an exaggeration, but it is the accurate way you will feel when comparing the two. The Zojirush, just has a nicer hand feel. It is comfortable to hold in a relaxed position. Like the 2 liter bottle, the Contigo took more effort to hold. The Contigo wins when it comes to getting coffee from the mug into your mouth quickly, but hold on. If you are a coffee drinker, like me, who enjoys the experience of drinking coffee. The mouth feel of the cup, the aroma of the coffee as you inhale through your nose taking that first air infused slurping sip. The best environment for this experience is a good warmed open ceramic or porcelain mug. Short of that, every other form is a compromise. The mouth feel of the mug, the openness as you tilt the mug to inhale the aroma, and the ability to sip with a slurping type sip where you take in a little air with the liquid to enhance your ability to taste the subtle rich notes of the coffee. This is where the Zojirushi shines, as it simulates the porcelain mug the best. When I was like you, reading the reviews, this didn't occur to me, until I took my first sip from the Zojirushi. Again, the flip lid seemed to be less efficient way than the Contigo, and maybe it is, but the advantages to coffee enjoyment are great. Here is why, think about drinking out of the Contigo. It is like drinking out of a straw. You suck from the little hole at the edge of the lid and there is no air exchange, like sucking out of a straw. Think about drinking a beer out of a straw, you lost the joy of drinking the beer, but you got your alcohol. The Conitgo was the same way, but at the time was worth having a spilless cup of hot coffee. You got your caffeine, but lost the joy of the cup. You comprimise on mouth feel, air exchange with the slurp and aroma of the coffee, but you get hot and spilless. The Zojirushi, on the other hand, has less compromise in these areas. Due to the flip lid, they were able to design a drinking rim similar to drinking from a cup with enough room for plenty of aroma to escape and you can slurp as you take a drink. So, this design allows you to enjoy your coffee to the fullest, even in a travel mug. No, you are not sitting on the porch with comfy clothes and sluping on a warm mug of deliciousness, but you are getting the best coffee drinking environment I have found in travel form. The other impressive thing on design, this thing can keep your coffee hot all day long. The Contigo will keep a full mug of coffee hot for about 6 hours. About 4 hours if you only fill it half way or drink half. The Zojirushi really shines here also, I put coffee from my french press into this little gem at 8 am and drank from it all day and that evening at 6pm, ten hours later, the last drink was drinking temperature, not just lukewarm. Wow, I was impressed. Another note, I can fit the Zojirushi in my back pocket of my jeans or fit it into the inside jacket pocket, where the Contigo is just too fat to make that work. Needless to say, make this purchase and just enjoy your coffee. If you drink Folgers coffee, disregard everything I have said, as you just won't understand. This is one of those stupid things, but I am so impressed and this is one of those products that has literally made my life a little more enjoyable and I appreciate it!

I've found my unicorn! This mug fits in my handbag, is leakproof, features a lock mechanism, and has a gorgeous aesthetic. The best part of all is that my coffee stayed HOT. I brew my coffee at 7:30 AM, commute, and then sip it casually throughout the morning. I like the button-press flip top; no need to fumble around with the lid while driving. There is also a spout, so less chance of leaks or spills. Coffee stayed piping hot long after lunch hour. Buy it!

Been using this brand tea cup for almost 10 years and it is the only cup I will ever use. i have bought it for all my family members at this point. Durable. Great gift. A little pricey but definitely worth it, because I can make my coffee the night before it it will still be hot in the morning. I couldn't ask for more. Heat retention is exceptional! lid quality is great

First, I ordered the Zojirushi SM-SC60AV Stainless Mug, 20 oz. in turquoise blue. I know there are a lot of options, and it helps to know exactly which product the person is referring to. I believe this is the "older" model, due to the color? But I am not really certain. I have things I LOVE about the Zojirushi, and things I don't like. So, I will go thru each of them. For me, the most important thing about my coffee is that it stay hot. I am a bit addicted to my coffee, drink it all day, and prefer my pour overs to getting crappy coffee out or worse, from a pot sitting for hours in the office. I also drive/travel a lot. I think I've tried just about every higher end coffee mug -- but for me, the deciding factor is the mugs ability to keep things hot for long periods. Not warm -- hot. So that's the most important thing to me. My go-to and tried-and-true mug always comes back to my big old Thermos Stainless King 16 oz. travel tumbler. It keeps coffee warm for hours -- at least 6 easily. What I hate about it is that it is big for my hand -- it's really bulky. I have smaller hands, so if I have gloves on, I literally have trouble holding it. It's also a bit heavy. I mean, it could be a weapon. The other thing is that the way the lid works, if it's at all dim/dark in the room, it's hard to tell if it's closed or not. If it is closed correctly, it doesn't leak -- but if it's on open, liquid will pour out easily. I love the Contigo Autoseal/or Snapseal size, and ease of opening and closing -- but their inability to keep coffee hot enough for long periods, is a deal breaker for me. Enter the Zoirushi. My hope was that I would find an alternative to my tried-and-true thermos mug. My goal was a container that kept coffee very hot, and that was easier to carry. Ideally, that I would have TWO containers of coffee to take when traveling! The Good: The Zoirushi met both of those qualifications beautifully. The coffee stays extremely hot inside for hours. In fact, I am so much of a dork that I tested both my thermos and the Zoirushi with a cooking thermometer starting with 210º F. Both of them were in the 190's at 3 hours, and in the 180's after 6. That's pretty impressive. I even left it overnight -- and it was still warm the next day. The size and weight is also very good. It's far more narrow than the thermos, which makes it far easier for me to hold. It's also appreciably lighter. Most importantly, it doesn't leak at all. Additionally, it has a lock on the cap for extra protection if you put it in a bag, etc. The Bad: Despite all it's good points, there are bad points -- the first, and most important, is that I hate drinking out of it directly. The flip lid is in my face if I am driving, and just in the way in general. Secondly, despite washing it repeatedly and using it for over a month, I HATE the smell of the top. It's terrible, and I can't figure out why. Third, it is not good while driving even without the lid. It pours out of a hole -- easy to burn your mouth. So, would I still buy it. Yes. It's great -- but I use it to carry extra coffee to refill my old standby, or even a regular mug at my destination. It keeps stuff crazy hot, it's easy to pour from, is light, and the taste of the coffee is fine if I don't have to smell the lid.

I was not satisfied with the performance of my travel coffee mugs, so I set out to find one that would keep my coffee hot for as long as possible. I gathered together a variety of travel hot beverage containers from my own personal collection as well as any others I could borrow. Some that I found do a remarkable job of retaining heat. Presumably, these same containers will be remarkable at keeping beverages cold as well. Don’t want to get into the thermodynamics of it, but at room temperature, the change in temperature from hot to ambient is always faster and more noticeable than the change from ice cold to ambient. OK, so I wanted to do something more than just a subjective comparison of different containers. It doesn’t do much to say my coffee is warm, hot, or scalding after 3 hours, so I decided to do a quantitative temperature comparison. First I filled them with boiled water, and then measured the temperatures over 24 hours or more. I’m uploading the results in tables and graphs. See for yourself how each one performs over several hours. The comparison includes some generic double-walled cups that might only be insulated with Styrofoam, or maybe even just air. These were grouped together as the worst performers. The best performers were the vacuum wall stainless steel cups. These were somewhat similar in performance, but there were a few that were much better than others. I recently bought a Contigo, 20 oz. vacuum wall stainless steel travel cup with a screw-on top with a pop-up opening. Nice, and much better than anything I was using at the time. Then I heard about the acclaimed performance of Zojirushi travel cups, so thought I’d try one. In short, it was amazing. If possible, it was too good, because if I filled it with hot coffee straight from the coffee pot, I ended up with coffee that was too hot to drink for at least 3 hours. Yes, I heard that complaint from other reviewers, but didn’t believe it. It’s true. Maybe not too surprisingly, one of my oldest thermos bottles was the best performer. Unfortunately, it has a vacuum glass liner and a very small opening. That makes it somewhat undesirable to use for travel or carry. Overall comments: Zojirushi containers are great at heat retention, and they are beautiful. Also, the Life Sky UQTOGB is a beautiful deep red. Life Sky says it’s red, and you better believe it’s really red, unlike the Zojirushi that claims to be red, but is really a rose or pink color. The Life Sky does not leak, even when the top is loose. The top seal is different from the similar style Zojirushi The Life Sky seal is wider that the Zoji seal, and as a result of that, the seal tightens down when the top is turned only a half-turn, and forms a leak-proof seal. If the Life Sky top is tightened too much, it gets to be very hard to loosen later. Tighten it just enough to be leak-proof, and it’s much easier to open later. Zojirushi containers do not leak, and the tops are easy to turn, but because of the thinner seal, they need to be tighter. Some reviewers say they have trouble with the Zojirushi SM-YAE48-GA, but I have had no problem at all. This one did not leak, and like the Life Sky, the seal is thicker, so the characteristics are similar. Separately, I compared a few stainless steel “sports bottles” which have screw-on tops, but do not have any pop-up covers for drinking. These are from Life Sky, Geysa, Glacier Point, and Simply Simily. Simply Simily and Glacier Point bottles were larger in size, but not so much larger in volume. They were better at heat retention, presumably because they have more space between the walls. The Life Sky and Geysa bottles were almost identical, the main difference is that the Geysa bottle has a highly polished exterior. It did not perform any better than the Like Sky bottle, which is about half the price. The screw tops were so similar that they were interchangeable between the Glacier Point, Like Sky, and Geysa bottles. One thing I noticed will all, is that at the top where there is no vacuum wall, they all get warm. These comparisons were run at 3 separate times. Once with 10 different cups of varied construction. Then 2 more times, keeping the groups among cups with similar designs. Update 3/16/16: I'm not happy with the way my graphics uploaded to this review. The original was high resolution, but Amazon reduced the size to the point that it's unreadable. So here's some raw data. These are temperatures vs elapsed time in hours & minutes. The column headings are numbered, and the number key is below the temperature data. If you look at the heat loss vs time, the best performer was an old glass-lined vacuum thermos jar with a loss of 54 deg at 19 hrs, 30 min. Second place was the Zojirushi at a loss of 61 deg at the same time. Watch for more reviews to be added to some other travel vacuum bottles. Hot Beverage Container Temperature (F.) vs. Time Hrs Min 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 0 0 190 181 181 179 174 165 159 168 165 174 0 40 186 168 177 168 143 132 125 138 136 168 1 5 185 165 176 163 134 120 114 127 123 167 2 5 177 158 172 150 107 98 95 107 104 163 2 30 176 154 170 147 102 93 91 100 96 161 3 15 172 149 167 140 96 84 82 91 89 159 4 0 167 145 165 132 87 70 70 82 75 156 11 30 140 114 145 96 66 62 62 64 64 131 19 30 118 93 127 86 113 29 30 100 80 111 75 Hot Beverage Container Heat Loss (F.) vs. Time Hrs Min 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 40 -4 -13 -4 -11 -31 -33 -34 -30 -29 -6 1 5 -5 -16 -5 -16 -40 -45 -45 -41 -42 -7 2 5 -13 -23 -9 -29 -67 -67 -64 -61 -61 -11 2 30 -14 -27 -11 -32 -72 -72 -68 -68 -69 -13 3 15 -18 -32 -14 -39 -78 -81 -77 -77 -76 -15 4 0 -23 -36 -16 -47 -87 -95 -89 -86 -90 -18 11 30 -50 -67 -36 -83 -108 -103 -97 -104 -101 -43 19 30 -72 -88 -54 -93 -61 29 30 -90 -101 -70 -104 Brand 1 Subzero camp thermos 2 Thermos Food jar 3 Thermos glass-lined bottle 4 Contigo travel vacuum bottle 5 COPCO 6 BODUM 7 Starbucks 8 Holland America 9 Generic 10 Zojirushi SM-SA48-NM

A popular life hacking site periodically polls its readership for the best products of a particular type. This mug was the second in their top-five list for coffee mugs. The top mug was from Contigo. While I liked the look of the Contigo and the fact that it was less expensive than this model, I actually decided the Zojirushi was better for me personally. I'll explain this a bit more in case you have the same issues. The most-important thing for me in a mug like this is that it keeps the coffee hot. I work in a role where I could be called away on a moment's notice and have to leave my coffee behind for a couple of hours. In an ordinary mug, this means I'll come back to find it room temperature. The Zojirushi will keep it hot for hours on end. I've filled it at 7am and had it still comfortably warm at 1pm the same day. My old stainless steel Thermos mug, which was almost as expensive, did well too. A problem I had with the Thermos mug was related to my preferring cream and/or powdered creamer in my coffee. This tends to cause chunks of sediment to build up inside the mug. The lid on the Thermos mug couldn't be disassembled easily, so the gunk tended to accumulate in it and periodically you'd get "chunks" of the stuff with a sip of coffee. Not terribly appetizing, and probably not very sanitary either. My wife was so concerned about it that she frequently soaked the lid in hot soapy water and banged it on the edge of the sink to release this gunk. (It bugged me, but not enough to bother to do this.) I didn't like seeing her distressing over this so I decided to replace the mug. The Zojirushi lid can be completely broken down and cleaned. The inside of the mug is also relatively easy to clean, though a tad narrow. A bottle brush will take care of that. Because it's made of metal (except for the plastic lid), it's pretty durable. I've dropped it on the concrete garage floor and it suffered only a minor scuff. The Thermos was also quite durable, but the paint on it started flaking off almost from the first wash. Not so with the Zojirushi. It looks as good as it did the day I got it. The lid has a locking mechanism that keeps it from opening accidentally. That means you can risk putting it in a backpack or bag and (unless you really jostle it around or don't seal it properly) won't find a bag full of beverage later. The lid opens easily with the press of the silver button, and clicks shut. Since it remains physically attached to the mug, you don't have to worry that you'll lose it. My biggest complaint is that the lid does sometimes bump into my nose, which is kind of a bummer when the little gray rubber piece has coffee on it (and who really wants their nose to come into contact with their coffee mug?). But this is a very minor annoyance and hasn't detracted much from my appreciation of the mug. My only other complaint, which is also minor, is that you can't put this under the spout of a Keurig coffee maker. Because it's designed to be thin and tall, the height makes it too tall to put underneath the spout of the Keurig. I don't own any other similar single-cup makers so I can't tell you if that will be a problem for you or not. With the lid removed, the mug stands almost eight inches tall. It's also about eight inches in circumference, which is pretty narrow for a travel mug. It fits with room to spare in the smaller cup holder in my car ('02 Mustang) or my wife's ('08 Edge). When I use this mug with the Keurig, I have to put another mug (usually my old Thermos) under the coffee maker to capture the coffee, then transfer it into the Zojirushi. Apart from the lid bumping my nose when I tilt the mug far back and it not fitting under my coffee maker, it's virtually the perfect coffee mug. Light when empty, and keeps the drink warm for hours. You won't go wrong with this one.