Cup Review: Insulated 11oz Cool Gear Cup with Basic Infuser

And we are back with a new review! This time we are taking a look at the 11 oz Cool Gear tea cup with a built-in infuser. This is my go-to cup for slow-drinking hot tea at home, especially during the winter months and cold nights. I found these on clearance at a B&M store (I believe Staples) and got two of them. The one in the pictures is the unused one. The one in use has a visual stain history of many of the teas I drank (it is a light green color) 🙂

What’s Included

This is a modular cup. You get three main components:

  • the cup itself
  • the lid
  • the basic infuser that attaches itself underneath the lid

You can use the cup + lid like a conventional cup without the infuser. This is a plus because some of the “with infuser” designs won’t let you do this.

The infuser is fairly small but the gaps as you can see in the picture are large enough for bits and pieces of herbal and blended teas to flow through. That, along with the size of the infuser, and the top-loading style means I rarely use the infuser. These days I prefer to have the tea leaves swim freely in the tea pot or cup, and scoop up the leaves and bits and pieces after brewing is completed.

DRINKING TEA

The lid is pretty secure and despite continued use, there were no leakages. It is insulated, it keeps the tea warmer than if you had it in a conventional open-top cup. However, this is not a replacement for a thermos, it cools off faster, so it’s not something that will keep your drink warm for four hours.

The lid is repositionable on the top of the cup, so you can have the mouth of the lid angled in any which direction, which can be handy if you prefer to have it on the left or right side of your desk, or if you have a left-handed versus right-handed preference.

ERGONOMICS

The handgrip is pretty good, it also has a patterned thumb-rest (the blue part). The center of gravity is fairly low, giving it a comfortable hold, and while it’s sitting on a table or desk, it doesn’t feel like you could accidentally touch it and will fall down. The bottom has a reasonable good grip, so you don’t have to worry about it sliding all over.

WEIGHT

These are measurements of the different parts, the cup being empty of course 🙂

Part Weight
Cup only 7.1 oz
Cup + Lid 7.8 oz
Cup + Lid + Infuser 8.1 oz
Lid only 0.6 oz
Infuser only 0.2 oz
Lid + Infuser only 0.9 oz

SPECS

This measures under 11oz in terms of actual usable liquid volume (that won’t cause spillage with reasonable use), whether you are using it with or without the lid. It is BPA-free, and made in China. I did not microwave it or dishwasher-ize it.

AVAILABILITY

I haven’t seen it in any store in a while, so I don’t know if it’s still made. I will update this section if I find it somewhere online or at B&M.

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