Recently I decided to take advantage of the Government Scrappage Scheme and swap my old beast for something a bit more refined. Everything is great with the new car, except for one thing, it makes a slightly annoying rattle when I used the cup holder.
Now I used to use a stainless steel Planetary Design travel mug; which is brilliant at keeping my coffee hot (possibly too good). I’d make it half an hour before leaving home, for it to be at a drinkable temperature 20 minutes into my journey! After an hour and a half, it would still be reasonably hot.
As this travel mug is made from metal, I thought this might be part of the problem. Stainless steel is fairly resonating. So I decided to try using a different travel mug. As we had just taken delivery of some new porcelain travel mugs, by Sagaform, I chose to use one of these.
Unfortunately, this didn’t solve the problem. I still have a rattling cup holder. But rather than a high pitched ‘ting ting’ my new porcelain mug makes a low grumble.
However, something good has come out of me swapping travel mugs; the coffee tastes much better! I’m not sure of the science behind this (maybe something to do with the prolonged contact of the coffee with the mug), but when I drank from the stainless steel mug there was a distinct metallic taste, which masked the subtleties of the coffee. With the porcelain one, its like drinking from a proper mug, the coffee tastes as it should do.
The only drawback to the porcelain mug is it doesn’t keep coffee hot for anywhere near as long. Even with pre-heating it, you’re talking 45 minutes at a push. But unless you’re a slow drinker that still gives you plenty of time to finish it.
On a final note, if anyone from Mazda is reading, please redesign the cup holders (and start a recall – joke!). I’m sure something simple like a bit of padding and some soft-touch plastics would solve the problem.
Tags: travel mug
[...] this mug in two additional designs: Pix and Flower. Some of you may remember me writing about these travel mugs back in March last year. I still stand by what a said back then. These mugs are great because they’re made from [...]