A way of Quickly ruining a morning is taking a sip from your cup expecting the hot coffee or tea to only be met with ice cold liquid. Or, on the other hand, desperately wanting ice water only to find it lukewarm. For those moments, you need an insulated travel mug. There are tons of stainless steel mugs, bottles, and tumblers on the market. These are our favorites.
We tested each bottle with cold water and hot coffee, outside in indirect sunlight and inside in air conditioning. During testing, none of the bottles failed to approximately live up to their claims for how long they would keep cold liquids cold and hot liquids hot. It’s rare to come across an insulated bottle that doesn’t work these days, but it’s also rare to find one that really stands out. Rather, I’ve noticed that the features that tend to make or break a bottle are the tightness, the outer coating, and the cap. While all of these bottles can keep cold drinks at temperature, you may prefer to get a dedicated insulated water bottle if that’s all you need.
Be sure to check out our guides on the best coffee subscriptions, the best coffee grinders, the best espresso machines, the best portable coffee makers, the best AeroPress coffee makers, and how to make better coffee at home.
Updated June 2024: We made the Hydro Flask cup a top pick and added Owala’s SmoothSip and W&P’s Porter to honorable mentions. We’ve also moved all bottles that use lead solder to the avoid section and updated prices and links throughout.
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A note on lead solder
Since we started testing water bottles and coffee tumblers, it’s come to light that some brands use lead solder to seal their insulated bottles. Lead is found at the bottom of stainless steel lined bottles. While it’s unlikely to be exposed, we think it’s an unnecessary risk given that many of our favorite brands use other methods to seal their bottles. We’ve looked at which brands have confirmed they use lead in our ‘avoid’ section below and will keep this guide updated as we hear from others.