Although very meticulous, my coffee regimen is reasonably consistent. With wide eyes, I make my way to the kitchen, fill the kettle with water, and set the temperature to 200 degrees Fahrenheit. When I’m ready to play with my son or check TikTok on my phone, I grind some coffee beans, pull out the Chemex, add and rinse a new filter, weigh everything, add 40 grams of beans, and carefully pour 600 milliliters of hot water into my reliable silver Yeti Rambler. You know, it’s a life.
The Ember Tumbler has been insinuating itself into that routine for the past few weeks. Ember’s newest product, the $199 Tumbler, lives up to the company’s well-known mugs in that it keeps your drink at the ideal temperature for hours on end. By default, its built-in heating system will maintain your drinks at 135 degrees Fahrenheit, but you can adjust the temperature using the Ember app if you pair it with your phone over Bluetooth.
For a long while, the Ember Mug remained a constant in my life, despite two aspects that annoyed me. It was a regular mug with a handle, so I couldn’t carry it with me on the train or in the car. It could only hold 10 ounces of drink, which is not enough; happily, there’s a 14-ounce one now. A travel mug was really Ember’s initial product, but it was only 10 ounces in capacity. (People, what are we doing here?)
Theoretically, the Tumbler fixes every issue I have! Its capacity of 16 ounces, or 473 milliliters, is significantly greater. It also has two lids: one with a grip that completely closes the mug and the other with a sliding piece that you may click open to sip from. With a three-hour battery life, you should have enough time to complete your tea or coffee. The tumbler is everything I could have hoped for, at least on paper.
It’s a little more nuanced than that in actuality. It is, in fact, everything I wanted for my particular use case, which now involves working from home rather than commuting to an office. It is a pleasure to sip coffee every morning from the tumbler. It feels substantial, almost like you’re holding a luxury item rather than just a cup, and it’s comfortable to sip from with the lid on or off. My coffee stays hot for hours when I carry the tumbler down to my basement office in the morning and place it on the spherical charging pad that comes with it. Beautiful!
The Tumbler is a letdown as a travel mug, though—like, for people who go outside occasionally. On a few occasions, I observed that my coffee seemed to cool down even faster than it did in my regular travel mug when I wasn’t keeping it on the charging pad. I conducted several experiments by contrasting the battery-operated tumbler with my well-insulated, battery-free Yeti Rambler. (This is just my favorite insulated travel mug; there are many excellent ones out there.)
I started by pouring nearly boiling water into each mug, and after finding a thermometer, it took me around 60 seconds to find out the temperature in each. Our control number was this one.
- The start temperature of the Rambler: is 205.9 degrees Fahrenheit
- The start temperature of the tumbler: is 204.6 °F
I then covered both cups with their lids, shut them, and stepped away from them for an hour. The “I made coffee and then something came up” test is what this is. I then took another reading of their temps.
- After an hour, Rambler recorded 180.7 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Temperature of the tumbler after an hour: 149.4 degrees F
Pros and downsides are listed here. The Rambler retains heat more effectively than the Tumbler, but the latter’s function is to allow my drink to cool to the perfect temperature for drinking (you can adjust the temperature using the Ember app on your phone; it defaults to 135 degrees Fahrenheit, which the app claims is the ideal temperature for coffee) and then utilizes internal heaters to maintain that temperature. Therefore, the quick decline may not yet indicate a concern.
I then opened the mouthpiece on each lid and let them sit outside for an additional hour. This test is known as the “early morning meeting.”
- Two hours later, Rambler recorded 162.7 degrees Fahrenheit.
- The temperature in the tumbler after two hours: 139.2 degrees F
Same thing! After two hours, the Tumbler is perfectly cold for drinking, but the double-insulated Rambler retains its heat. Everyone is successful.
I raised the stakes for the third hour. I left both mugs outside in the 40-degree Fahrenheit wind of my morning, lids on and mouthpieces open. The “warm drink on a cold day” test is what this is.
- Three hours later, Rambler recorded 144.1 degrees Fahrenheit.
- 3 hours later, the tumbler registered 135.1 degrees Fahrenheit.
I’ll say it again: this is a double win. Despite the challenging conditions, both are losing heat, but they are still functioning well, and the tumbler is still at its ideal temperature. Both of my beverages are still perfectly edible three hours later.
I took both mugs inside, closed their mouthpieces, and gave them another hour. This is the “maybe I should have just switched to my afternoon coffee” test.
- Four hours later, Rambler recorded 135.0 degrees Fahrenheit.
- After 4 hours, the tumbler reached 113.7 degrees Fahrenheit.
It’s the tumbler that we have an overly chilly drink from for the first time. As promised, the battery failed at the end of the third hour, and now that there is no heater and little insulation, the temperature is dropping swiftly. The Rambler, meantime, is still clinging on.
Even though leaving them overnight wasn’t a real-world use case for my final test, I had already poured all the water. I refer to this as the “overnight left out” test.
- After twelve hours, the temperature of the Rambler was 99.0°F.
- Tumbler temperature after 12 hours: 76.5 °F
Both are unfit for consumption here, but the Rambler is managing to keep my drink warmer by a significant margin. Practically speaking, the tumbler is at room temperature.
These exams gave me confirmation of two things. First off, the tumbler does a fantastic job of rapidly reaching the ideal temperature for your drink and maintaining it there for a few hours. One for the elegant mug! However, Yeti’s cup is unquestionably a better option if my objective is to keep my coffee hot and palatable—sometimes even too hot—for as long as feasible.
In a hilarious skit, comedian Brian Regan shops for a refrigerator while strolling around an appliance store. “For $600, this keeps all of your food cold,” the salesperson informs him. “This refrigerator costs $800, but it keeps all of your food cold.” The salesperson then moves on to the next one, puts his arm over it, and begins his sales pitch, saying, “Look, $1,400 keeps all your food cold.”
That’s my opinion about the Ember Tumbler. It fulfills its purpose, which is to keep all of my drinks warm in this instance. However, the Yeti 16-ounce Rambler is only $30 instead of $200 for the Tumbler, and it holds my coffee warm enough to drink for longer. I can also remove the cover or add an ice cube if I need it to cool down more quickly. Maintaining the heat in my drink is far more important to me than accelerating its cooling down.
The tumbler works excellent if you’re like me and spend most of your day running from the kitchen to the basement, with the charging pad never more than a room away. When I leave my coffee on the pad, it stays at or around the perfect temperature of 135 degrees Fahrenheit for the whole day. Though absurdly pricey considering that my microwave is just above, it’s a nice mug none the less. However, I’m taking the Rambler with me when I leave the house. Thirty dollars heats everything I drink.
