The Ultimate Thermos Flask - You surely haven't heard of the winner

When you buy a new Thermos mug, how do you know you are choosing a good one? What are your criterions? Brand reputation? Color? Size? If you are just like me, possibly some of all the three!

But a good thermos flask at its core should do precisely what its competitors do- keep cold things cold, hot things hot, and keep you from experiencing much of either while carrying it around.

Introduction

Over the past few years, through a blend of hoarding behavior and conference giveaways, I've got a bunch of sophisticated insulated thermoses and used them with different levels of satisfaction. But earlier this month, I set out some cash to buy what purposed to be a very nice-thermos type drink carrier, that I hoped can make my daily subway traveling just a little more toothsome.

What I understood while making my thermos selection was that I had a miserable lack of actual information to guide my purpose. Basic things like color, brand and internal volume are available for almost any of these, but a thermos has real-time performance metrics you might know and measure.

Shopping for a thermos mug this way is as ridiculous as purchasing a car knowing just that it is some shade of red, providing seats for 5 and has some horsepower number.

Well, don't get me started on the inutility of most of the product reviews. Half of all the product reviews don't look like anything at all, 25% aren't good enough to know that apparently this wasn't microwave safe, and the rest may offer some valuable insight if only I can isolate them from the others. Most of these stats and reviews deal with qualitative data.

Methodology

I tried to create a hybrid approach to this test, compromising on some of the points of precision and control in an attempt to keep the results relevant to the real-life question I want to answer- which thermos flask is the best? I'll address the possible drawbacks of my methodology later, but I feel the test is more than enough to realize the thermal performance of each of the containers.

The Arminas is unsurprisingly the winner in both my qualitative observations and the quantitative test. Even after 7 hours, the fluid inside was an impressive 142 degrees- much hotter than the next closest container. This is the difference between a hot 100-degree day and a pleasant 70-degree day.

The Arminas was also my favorite to live with a travel mug. It is smaller and more lissome than the others, the outside doesn't noticeably change temperature when full of hot liquids, and the 2-piece top is possibly the best design I've seen. My coffee stays warm all day, and the lissome form factor implies it can be carried easily in my work bag without making it look like a snake that is eaten by a creature.