Every morning I fix myself a large mug of hot tea after getting to my day job or before a marathon of couch surfing on the weekends at home. I don’t drink the tea quickly enough to enjoy the full mug at a temperature that’s just right. I usually end up nuking it in the microwave a couple of times before finally finishing and starting on a new cup. That’s why the Ember mug looks pretty awesome to me. The Ember 12oz. mug that features a customizable temperature control that lets you set the stored liquid’s temperature from 120°F to 145°F with a twist of the base.
An LCD on the mug displays the temperature as you turn the base to set your desired heat level. You can also customize the temperature using an app. That’s right, you can pair the Ember mug with your phone. I don’t know why you’d want to do that instead of just turning the base,
The mug has a built-in battery that charges via a wireless charging base that they call the charging coaster. By itself, the Ember mug will keep your tea or cafe mocha grande frappuccino venti latte (I don’t know anything about coffee if that isn’t glaring obvious) at your set temperature for up to 2 hours per charge. But the mug can keep your hot beverage at your favorite temperature all day long if you set it on the charging coaster.
This all sounds great to me except there are a few caveats to consider. First of all, the Ember mug is/was a successfully funded Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign that ended back in November of 2015 and there are still backers who haven’t received their mugs even though they are currently listed on Amazon and has been picked up by Starbucks.
Another issue is that there are quite a few people complaining about the battery life of the mug on Amazon and the Indiegogo backer’s page. And last but not least, the Ember mug is priced at $149.99 with shipping due next month through the Ember site. I think I’ll stick with my sip, nuke, repeat method of keeping my tea warm. What about you?
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I actually ordered two of these and received them right around Christmastime.
I loved it. I got to drink hot tea for a couple of hours instead of it cooling off so quickly that I couldn’t enjoy it. I could keep it hot even longer if I kept the mug on a charging coaster. Imagine sipping on the same cup of tea all afternoon! Heaven! My husband used his religiously. He claimed to waste less coffee because he finished a whole mug before making another instead of throwing away cold coffee.
If I were writing a mini-Gadgeteer review, I’d tell you how I found the quality of the mug to be top notch (as it should be at that price). I enjoyed the warmest temperatures of 145 degrees for my tea; my husband preferred the lower 135 degrees for his coffee. I had fun personalizing our mugs so we knew which one belonged to each of us (coffee should never intermingle in my tea mug), but otherwise I didn’t find the iOS app to be worth the effort.
Did you notice the past tense I used? Our versions had a manufacturing flaw where it would not turn on by tapping the Ember logo on the mug. We had to resort to sticking a safety pin in the reset hole on the bottom of the mug every time we wanted to use them.
I emailed customer service and they offered to replace them with working models, so I pried the mug from my husband’s hand, boxed them up, and sent them off on Monday. Customer service was quick to answer my email and even emailed me a pre-paid shipping label for UPS to return them.
I miss my Ember mug already. And I don’t expect a fixed mug or a replacement to arrive very quickly, knowing they’re on backorder.
Expensive? Yes. Worth it – yes (to me)! Best tea drinking experience I’ve ever had.
As for the reports of battery life – they are only rated to stay warm for a couple of hours. I think I saw three as my max, which I solved by positioning the charging coasters (and I bought an extra one for the office desk) near where we sit.
Thanks for the mini review. I read a lot of comments where others were complaining about their mugs being defective. I hope they sort out the problems because I’d love to try / review one.
Oh, I don’t recall reading about the interior of the mug? Is it steel?
Yes, Julie. The interior of the mug is steel. The funny thing is, that I have this weird impression that steel-lined mugs leech the flavor out of my tea but I don’t get that with the Ember. (I didn’t like the Teavana mug for that reason.). I’m also prone to leaving my teabag in the mug and was concerned with the Heat overstepping the tea – and that didn’t happen.
Now I really want one 🙂
The price is too steep. My favorite way to keep my tea hot is the Teavanna tumbler. It would keep my tea hot for several hours. http://www.teavana.com/us/en/teaware/tumbler-cups/matte-light-brown-teavana-contour-tumbler -011058256.html?cm_mmc=seng-_-GSPLA-_-Teaware > Tumbler Cups-_-Matte Light Brown Contour Tumbler:011058256
And you don’t have to worry about electronic parts going bad or the battery dying at some point. Looks nice!