The Best Travel Mugs

We rarely see a category this lopsided. The Zojirushi SM-SHE48 took the top spot in seven of the eight expert tests we analyzed, and the data behind those wins is not close. Prudent Reviews ran nine mugs through a 15-hour hot test and the Zojirushi held 117 degrees F at the finish, roughly 30 degrees ahead of the next mug and more than double the worst performers. Outside's lab at CU Denver clocked it keeping drinks hot for up to nine hours in winter cold, and America's Test Kitchen kept coffee hot for a full 10 hours.

Insulation that good would not matter if the mug were a pain to live with, but it is not. America's Test Kitchen and Reviewed both singled out the genuine one-handed flip-and-lock lid, and it sealed without a drip across Prudent's shake and tip-over runs and the inverted checks at America's Test Kitchen. This is a mug you can drop into a bag lid-down and forget about.

Durability and support close the case. Wirecutter, which has tested travel mugs for a decade, reports that the Zojirushi is the single most commonly owned mug among its own staff, and describes one colleague's mug surviving drops onto cement with nothing worse than a dent. It is backed by a five-year warranty. When the people who test these things for a living buy this one for themselves, that tells you most of what you need to know.

The Contigo West Loop earns Best Value by getting remarkably close to the winner for roughly ten dollars less. In the same Prudent Reviews 15-hour test where the Zojirushi led, the Contigo finished second at 89 degrees F, ahead of every other mug including far pricier names like Yeti and Hydro Flask. That is the headline: this is not a budget mug that merely gets by, it is the runner-up on raw insulation at a fraction of the premium tier's price.

It also nails the part of daily use the Zojirushi does not. The AutoSeal button seals itself between every sip and opens with one hand while you drive, which is exactly why Wirecutter keeps naming the West Loop its spill-proof, leakproof pick for commuters. It fits a standard car cup holder, where the tall Zojirushi can be a stretch. The current 3.0 version adds an Easy-Clean lid that comes apart for washing, answering the one complaint reviewers had about earlier models.

You give up a clear step of all-day heat retention and you take on a lid with more parts than a simple flip top. For most commutes that is a trade worth making, and it is why the West Loop shows up in more of these expert lists than any mug except the Zojirushi.