A travel tumbler for tea should taste like tea at four o’clock, not like the coffee you put in it on Monday.
We drank tea from ceramic-lined cups across a workday, checking whether the lining stained, whether the heat held, and whether the lid actually sealed in a bag.
Taste and heat
Steel can make a delicate tea taste metallic. A ceramic lining avoids that until it chips. Vacuum walls hold heat. They also hold it so well that the first sip is a burn if you are not careful. The lid gasket is the piece that fails and leaks into a laptop.
- A lining you can see, so a chip is obvious.
- A lid that seals when you shake it over the sink.
- An opening you can clean past the gasket.
- Heat that is still warm at the end of the day, not boiling at noon.
If yesterday’s drink is still in today’s sip, the cup is not clean, or the lining is.
Between teas
Rinse it as soon as you finish. A dried tannin ring is what makes the next cup taste tired. Take the gasket out once a week. That is where the smell lives.
Buy the cup that is easy to wash and does not add a flavor. Insulation is the easy part.
