There is great comfort in having a cool drink in the heat and a hot
drink in the grips of winter, both of which can be accomplished easily
at home or the office, but is a stretch more difficult when out for the
day. My interest in insulated containers coincided with my gradual
disinterest in carbonated beverages in the warm weather. Having to deal
with the carbon dioxide repeating on me became less fun and thrilling as
I got older. Unfortunately, most vending machines are geared to soda, so
I began looking for alternatives. Coffee really isn't my hot beverage of
choice, so the search was on for portable solution.
The alternative came to me about 7 years ago in the form of a Nissan
vacuum bottle. Unlike other vacuum bottles I was aware of, the Nissan
bottles I purchased were all metal and had no glass. The obvious benefit
is there is no glass to break if the container is dropped. What
attracted me to the Nissan line was the attractive design, engineering
and quality of the product. The external was a brushed stainless steel
and moderately soft plastic. The stopper was not made of cork or rubber
that was force fit into the bottle opening, but a threaded plastic
stopper with two replaceable silicone gaskets. Additionally, the threads
on the stopper are finer than the competition, giving the favorable
impression that the Nissan bottles seal was better and that they were of
a higher level of engineering and quality.
The Thermos Company now owns Nissan, and this is the first of several
reviews on a cross section of their product line. The first item is the
Nissan Travel Mug/Food Jar (JMF500). It is stainless throughout and has
a full five year warranty. The way I read the warranty, short of
crushing the container under Jimmy Joe Bob's pickup with the tandem
wheels, they will fix or replace it. It is designed for beverages or
food, comes with two lids, and has a carrying handle. One lid allows for
sipping your beverage of choice while in motion, and the other seals
tightly with one gasket and makes the vessel leak free. It holds about
16 oz. and for the metrically inclined, that is .47 liters. It is
cylindrical in shape and didn't fit the drink holder in either of the
family cars, so it isn't suitable for motor travel with the sipping lid.
If drinking while motoring is a priority, the Travel Tumbler (JMH400),
which was not tested, might be a better choice. The Travel Mug/Food Jar
is more suited to drinking/eating after one arrives at their intended
destination.
I use the Travel Mug/Food Jar as my principal hot beverage container for
half days. Let me explain. If I'm going out for a meeting, and expect to
be gone for the morning or afternoon, my lovely wife fills the Travel
Mug/Food Jar with hot tea, and I'm off. As you can see from the data
presented in the graph below, the Mug keeps liquids hot for a good 6
hours. I consider anything from 105 to 130 F, HOT and anything above 130
F, SCALDING HOT, so be careful about that first sip.
Cold testing turns out to be a less strenuous test. The differential in
starting temperature and the ambient room temperature is not as wide in
the cold test as it is in the hot test. The initial difference in the
cold test is about 40 degrees fromthe ambient room temperature, but the
initial difference in the hot test is 130 degrees. Liquids around 50
degrees still taste cool, and most home refrigerators cool to about 40
degrees. The Travel Mug/Food Jar will keep your liquids decently chilled
for a good 6 hours. One way to extend the time liquids remain chilled is
to toss in a couple of ice cubes in the mix. As long as there is ice
floating around, the liquid stays around 33 degrees.
We did not test the thermal ability of the Travel Mug/Food Jar as a food
container, but we would expect that food placed in the container would
stay even hotter or colder, since a thicker mixture is less likely to
release its heat or warm up than is plain water.
The Nissan Travel Mug/Food Jar is a nice way to carry a beverage or
small snack. It comes with an L shaped handle for those of us who are
not used to sailor's mugs, and keeps things hot or cold for up to six
hours. It comes with two tops, one for transport, and one for sipping.
However, it is not well suited for use in a vehicle, as it won't fit in
normally sized automobile cup holders. The Nissan Travel Tumbler (not
tested) may be more suited for use on the Interstates.
The Thermos/Nissan Company
300 N. Martingale Road, Suite 250
Schaumberg, IL 60173
(800) 243-0745
95K JPEG Time vs. Temp Graph
