Product Review

For Christmas I had no idea what I wanted. I thought I wanted a new bike seat, since I covered the spot where my old seat was stolen with Saran wrap and rubberbands... Yeah, a bike seat or a miniSD card. What I really wanted and needed, Anna figured out for me.

I am on a coffee diet right now. I forget to drink water because I'm so hydrated from all that coffee (bonjour kidney stones!) I live about two blocks from work and haven't gotten a coffee maker for the office yet. The Starbucks a block and a half away not only over-roasts their coffee (like all Starbucks), they have lines.

Pre-Christmas, I would take a mug of steaming hot coffee with me as I walked down the street. This allowed breakfast to never end. It made the sidewalk feel like an extension of the living room. At the end of the day, I'd carry the mug home. On one such jaunt, a neighbor passed by and offered to drop change in my cup... cute.

So Anna decided that I wanted a thermos for Christmas. That's what I got too, cause that's what she told my sister, who had me for the gift exchange. I got this big stainless steel, feeds the five-thousand, has thick black rubber ends and a sturdy black handle Thermos (TM) brand thermos. It was about as big as our coffee maker, bigger than our french press and too tall to fit on our dwarfish kitchen shelving. But I loved it.

I did however take it back to Target and exchanged it for something that I wouldn't need a keg tap for and could fit in my hipster messenger bag. I got my product review of the day....

Hi I'm Casson Demmon, senior editor for Casson Demmon "the blog" and today I am reviewing the Stanley (since 1913) 16oz vacuum bottle (its just like a Thermos (TM), but smaller and older looking).

The Stanley is a very business oriented device, lots of features and definitely built for the power business user. Design wise there are a couple differences from the competitors; its all touch, no lousy menus to get through and the brushed steel is accentuated with green paint and a cool, retro, simply designed foil sticker smack dab in the middle of its business.

The Stanley does get some smudges on the parts that you interface with. Stanley doesn't provide a microfiber towelette to wipe the greasy finger smudges off like you get when you buy a Sony PSP or an Apple brand monitor, but the Thermos (TM) brand thermos didn't have one either, so whatever, because I've got a dwarf sized drawer at home filled with those things.

If you keep it sealed well while you are typing on a full qwerty keyboard and your daughter happens to bump it over like she always did with your coffee mug, it won't spill all over your lap, CPU and easy-smudging (TM) inkjet printout list of things to do.

It has some traditional navigation controls, like a cup that screws on the top and the ability to stand upright by itself. It also gives off a satisfying hiss from its vacuum seal when you unscrew the cap, which I would be embarrassed about, but I work alone.

I'd say it hold about 3.5 largish cups of coffee which is more than enough storage, so even though it is slimmer than the Thermos (TM) you won't have to sacrifice things like jittery hands or the inability to stop rambling.

All in all I would recommend this product. Even though its smaller than that huge Thermos (TM) it cost me exactly one more dollar. However, that is nothing when you think about all the cross compatibility with hot soups or fancy teas.