A high-tech travel mug?

I’m sent a lot of things to review — video games, cameras, PCs, smartphones and so on. So when a coffee mug arrived at my home office, I wasn’t sure what to think.

In case you haven’t heard of the Brugo, it’s a travel mug with patented technology that allows coffee or tea drinkers to enjoy their hot beverage in the “perfect temperature zone” — instead of burning your tongue (or your leg, if spilled in the car).

Say what? My initial reaction exactly. But the PR guy who sent me the product is a cool guy and he’s sent me some awesome high-tech children’s toys in the past, so I decide to, er, “review” this product.

After all, it’s not unusual for me to run out the door to a meeting, carrying a hot cup of coffee in a travel mug, which I shove in my car’s drink holder before booting on the highway.

First, a bit more background. Apparently, fresh coffee is brewed at a scorching 205 degrees, but the ideal sipping temperature — and peak flavour temperature — is said to be between 150 to 170 degrees.

So after you pour in hot coffee or tea into this Brugo mug and secure the lid, you then ”tip and sip,” which transfers sip-sized amounts (one fluid ounce) of the hot beverage to the — get this — “temperature control chamber,” where it reaches that perfect temperature zone within seconds. Only the liquid from this chamber is what hits your lips until you tip and sip again.

Actually, the Brugo has three options you can select: Lock (when transporting the hot drink and you’re not sipping it); Sip (when your drink has cooled down enough or if you like it scorching; and Tip & Cool (which performs the abovementioned task).

After trying out the Brugo for a few days I can tell you that it works, but the “sip-sized” amounts are smaller than the ones I’m used to taking, so I wasn’t thrilled about that, plus the traveler was too thick to fit in my car’s drink holder.

Being a tech geek, though, I asked the company to explain how the cooling works exactly.

The response was as follows:

The Brugo Travel Mug utilizes the Thermal Dynamic Science of Heat transfer via a heat sink, to reduce the temperature of the hot beverage one sip sized portion at a time. The unique design allows the drinker to transfer 2 ounces of any hot beverage into a chamber that is made of plastic…in this case the plastic chamber is the heat sink that absorbs the heat from the scorching hot coffee, efficiently reducing one sip sized portion of the hot beverage to a palatable temperature.

Huh? Evidently, I’m a tool. So I re-asked the question. The second answer:

A heat sink is an environment or object that absorbs and dissipates heat from another object using thermal contact. Heat sinks are used in a wide range of applications wherever efficient heat dissipation is required; In this case, hot coffee or tea. Heat sinks function by efficiently transferring thermal energy (”heat”) from an object (coffee or tea) at a relatively high temperature to a second object (Brugo’s Patented Cooling Chamber), at a lower temperature with a much greater heat capacity. This rapid transfer of thermal energy quickly brings the hot beverage into thermal equilibrium with the plastic of the cooling chamber lowering the temperature of the hot beverage, fulfilling the heat sink’s role as a cooling device. Efficient function of a heat sink relies on rapid transfer of thermal energy from the first object to the heat sink, and the heat sink to the second object.

OK, I think I got it now. Mmmm, coffee…

Click to learn more about the Brugo mug or order it for yourself (US $20, plus shipping).

Filed Under: First Look > Tech Explained
Tags: brugo, coffee, cool, hot, mug, tea, temperature, Travel