doms useful stuff

This thermos is one of the things I love about life. 

The awesome: 

1. I toss it in my knapsack full of piping hot coffee with no fear that it will drip. 
2. Amazingly, the bulky lid holds almost no leftover liquid after each sip which means I can take a sip, close it, turn it upside down with almost no worry of drips. 
3. It keeps stuff hot. I drink LESS coffee because it takes so long to drink. Each sip is like the first sip of hot, hot coffee. It tastes better. 
4. I no longer dirty my spoons. Two sugars, pour coffee, close lid, shake vigorously and drink. I have gone from coffee that gets sweeter as you get to the bottom in my old mugs to coffee that tastes exactly the same from top to bottom. 
5. It feels good. 
6. The liquid flows out from the drinking opening at the perfect pace. With liquid this hot it is often a gamble tilting a mug of coffee towards your face, especially in a car. But the magical lid of this thermos lets the perfect amount of liquid roll forward. It's special. I get the feeling someone spent a lot of time working on the mechanics of this pour. 
7. The opening mechanism is simple to open and close one-handed although it's easier if you have something to press down on. 
8. You can drink from either end. You can rotate the opening mechanism in a continuous circle in either direction. These two features mean that no matter how you pick it up you are not far an from opening. 
9. It's tough. Dropping may make this mug less pretty but unless you drop it from more than ten feet onto solid concrete I don't see it breaking. Even then I'd say there is a 70/30 chance it would still work. 

The could be better: 

1. While the 'OPEN' AND 'CLOSE' buttons are just fine for most uses, it is not an effective system if it's too dark to see or you can't look down at the mug (because you are driving, walking). I have no idea how they would solve this and keep it simple but I don't want to point out it's shortcomings. 
2. The delicate finish is my biggest problem with this thermos. Everything else about this thermos is rugged, why use this thin, easily-scratched paint? It's like wrapping your hammer in gold foil. I scratched mine in the first two days. Since then I have been very careful and hand-wash but I know it's only a matter of time. 
3. It would be nice if there was a dot or mark on either end to tell you when your mouth was over the opening on the opposite side. It would mean you did not have to look down at the top.

Notes: 

1. When tightening the lid be gentle. Once you hear the rubber squeaking stop. Over-tightening will damage what is an excellent but vulnerable system. 
2. Fill it with hot or cold tap water before you add your drink and it will stay at the desired temperature even longer. 
3. Do not use a spoon or other metal utensil inside the thermos. Shaken, NOT STIRRED! 

Buy it at Amazon for $20 plus shipping: