Review: The Brugo – The Ultimate Travel Mug

Overview

I travel on trains a lot. It’s a bad side effect of falling in love with someone who lives in a different town. However, the hour it takes me to get my beaus home town means I had a great chance to test out a new innovation in travel cups, the Brugo. So does it keep my drink warm, and is it’s boast of creating an optimum drinking temperature with each sip fact or fiction? Read on, and you can even win your own at the end…

Review

A bit of background first. The Brugo (fun name to say it’s designed by Americans) was invented by Spero Pavlopoulos, who apparently cannot function without a morning cup of coffee, but was annoyed at it getting cold and spilling on the move when he bought his morning Starbucks. So he designed his ultimate travel mug, with a non slip bottom, spill resistant top, double insulated walls, and a special zone in the lid where you can ‘tip and sip’ to cool one scalding mouthful to the correct temperature while the rest of it stays as hot as the sun. Plus it’s available in a range of funky colours!

To test out the Brugo I decided to keep a record of how hot it kept my drink over the course of my journey, which takes about an hour and a quarter including walking to the station at my end. A little longer than the average work commute I know, but if it lasts my entire journey, then it’s got to be a damned good cup eh? This is where I would normally have a video to avoid typing so much. But I’d look a bit of a fool narrating a coffee cup on the train, no matter how high tech it was. So enjoy the photos!

6.58 pm

Started making my drink. I’m not a big coffee drinker, so this scientific test will be conducted with hot chocolate. You get a very decent amount in a Brugo, so I doubt you’d have any problem fitting in your grande non-fat skinny latte mochachino with extra cream. As it is I only fill mine about 3/4 of the way up. Test the spill resistant ability too by applying the ‘Lock’ function – and it works fine as long as of course you don’t hold it at a 90 degree angle. Time for a sip! Switching to the ‘Tip and cool’ function at the top I tip the Brugo back for two seconds and swill it round like brandy as directed in the instructions and…

7.00 pm

OW! That bloody hurt! Grab a glass of cold water to sooth my burnt tongue.

Lets try that again…

7.12 pm

So I’ve finally worked out how to Tip and Sip. The longer you swish it round for, the cooler it gets, and you have to be careful not to overfill the zone. It seems a bit much hassle at first to be honest, but I’ve set off to the train and I must admit I’m getting into the rhythm of it now and its becoming a bit more natural.

7.17 pm

Just realised that the ergonomics may be a bit out though. The lack of handle makes it a bit hard to hold with small hands, and I have to keep swapping to avoid the ache in my hand web. I suppose those who drive to work would avoid this with a cup holder.

7.27 pm

I’m on the train now, and have just tried the switch to the ‘Sip’ setting, which doesn’t require you to do the swilling motion. It’s remarkably still a bit too hot, so I swap back to ‘Tip and Cool’. That’s a good sign at least – the insulation is really good. And the non slip bottom is dealing well with the judder of national rail.

7.37 pm

I’ve just noticed a man looking enviously at my cup, but then again he may just have been wondering why I was waving it about so frantically… But it means I retry the ‘Sip’ setting to avoid embarrassment and its now cool enough to use , but importantly my beverage is still nice and warm.

7.52 pm

I’ve just arrived at my connecting station and tried another sip, but it’s beginning to get cold now. Still drinkable, but it’s down to the temperature where you’d be weighing up drinking vs remaking were you at home.

7.58 pm

I’m on my final train with half an hour of travel left, and I’m sad to report that the hot chocolate is now too cold to be nice. But it’s been exactly an hour since I first poured in the water, so the Brugo has done it’s job well. Lets face it – if I were writing at 7.58 am the drink would not have lasted this long anyway.

The Gaj-it Verdict

Design: 7/10 Love the colours, love the idea, but fiddly to get the tip and sip motion right and a bit big for smaller hands.
Usability: 8/10 It’s a travel mug. Not hard to use. Again, tip and sip fiddly but the important thing is that it DOES work once you get the hang of it.
Features: 10/10 No matter my problems, the tip and sip function is very clever, and the non slip bottom even withstood a jerk stop that had me nearly falling off my seat without moving a millimeter.
Value: 6/10 The official UK website sells Brugo for £14.99, which for a travel mug does seem a bit steep. You can pick them up from other websites for between £8 and £12 for a single mug.

We say…

If you’re looking for a non-spill travel mug that will keep your drink at optimum temperature then the Brugo is definitely a good gadget to consider. I think it’s a little pricey when you can get a standard travel mug for a few quid, but you’re paying a bit extra for an ingenious extra drinking idea and some top class design. If you commute a lot and need your caffeine fix at it’s warmest then the Brugo is worth it and you would have an excellent gadget at your disposal. If you’re more of an occasional travel drinker, then I’d say stick to Starbucks and risk the stains.

Buy it

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Win it

We will shortly be running a competition for you to win your very own Brugo mug so watch this space for more details!

Images in this review are from the Brugo website or taken by the author