It's weird how much certain things from Giant Bomb stick in my head.

But when you're in the market for a travel mug it's twice as bad, because they're on the brain anyway and it doesn't take much for a mention of Zojirushi to follow you around everywhere. It also doesn't help that the vast majority of mugs available at retail (be it large store or small coffee shop) are utter garbage. The one I've got now isn't bad, really, but the finish is starting to flake and it looks hideous.

It also bleeds heat like crazy, which is something common across most mugs, even if they're double-walled stainless steel and even if the top seals okay.

 Oddly enough, the half liter Zojirushi mugs are (or were) cheaper on Amazon.ca than they were on Amazon.com, which almost never happens. And it was an easy buy, as $20 is about what I'd pay for a decent looking Starbucks mug, or even something from Costco or a housewares store or whatever. And I was up for trying something new. 

I'm not entirely sold on the flip-top, but it's functional enough. Unfortunately, it looks like it would be a bitch to clean if you ever left the mug at work and had coffee with cream get up inside the lid, as it's full of dips and valleys and folds and stuff.

 The benefit of all that is that it keeps shit hot. I poured boiling water in it immediately after taking it out of the box (the instructions and box are all in Japanese, which is fine because it's a travel mug and doesn't require anything other than common sense). Four hours later, I popped the top and poured it into a mug, because I had a feeling it would still be goddamn hot. 

It was steaming and not significantly cooler than when it was poured boiling out of my kettle. 

So the good, I guess, is that it doesn't let much heat out - the outside of the mug also remains cool to the touch, which is something none of my previous mugs could pull off. Pour hot coffee in them and you had to use the handle to hang onto it as the steel would hot enough to brand your palms. The downside is that I'm going to have to remember to leave the lid off once in a while so that it can actually cool down to a drinkable temperature, as the deceptively cool exterior means that it would be really easy to burn your mouth.

I guess that's why the instructions have a drawing of a crazy little dude burning the hell out of his mouth with scalding liquid.

(edit - I have no idea why my paragraph breaks are so huge)