Ember launched a new version of its electric travel mug earlier this year, adding a key Apple feature – Find My Support. You might be wondering, why does a mug need ‘Find My’? I’m not sure I have a great explanation, but it’s a nice add-on for a product positioned as a small luxury.
The Ember Travel Mug 2 costs $200, and the reason it’s so expensive is because it’s self-heating. It can keep a drink at your desired temperature for three hours on the go, or all day while on the included charging coaster. The temperature can be set from 120°F to 145°F, which is hot, but unlikely to cause burns.
As a non-coffee drinker I have no insight into coffee temperature, but some internet research suggests that this is an ideal coffee temperature range. I know there are some people out there who love coffee really Hot, but if the higher end of warmth works for you, this cup will get the coffee at your desired level.
Although I don’t drink coffee, I do drink tea, and since I drink the green, oolong, and white varieties, I’m fairly well versed in beverage temperatures. Burn your tongue in the range of 150 to 160 degrees. For me, 145 is uncomfortably warm, and 138 is just about right. By default, the Ember mug is set to 135, but you can drop it up to 145 or lower in Cup or the app.
Design-wise, the Ember mug looks like your average travel cup. It has a soft touch silicone exterior in black and a stainless steel interior that holds 12 ounces of liquid. 12 ounces is on the small side for a travel cup, and I wish it could hold more, but it needs to fit in a cup holder and have room for batteries, heating elements, and other hardware.
The Ember mug has a logo on top that can be interacted with to control the mug, and a series of LEDs on the bottom that let you know cup status, temperature, whether the cup is empty, and if the battery is dead. The Amber Mug knows when liquid is inside and immediately detects what has been poured.
You can swipe to change the ember temperature on the mug or in the app. Adjusting the temperature on the cup is easiest if you want to change it regularly, but if you need to set it to your preferred temperature, it’s quicker to do it in the app. The app is decent, and has presets for different drinks such as 135 degrees for coffee, and 131 degrees for latte. Some temperature choices feel a bit arbitrary, but all presets are editable.
If you want to make tea in a mug, there’s a tea timer and a recipe section with a few drink options. There’s a health integration feature that can estimate how much caffeine you’re consuming per day by how often you refill your Ember mug.
Since it is a travel cup, it works with a battery. Battery lasts about three hours, give about 20 minutes. My test was initially at 138 degrees, and was able to keep the cup at that exact temperature until the battery died. It charges via a charging base that needs to be plugged in and can keep a drink hot all day long with the cup in the base.
If you’re using it at a desk, it’s convenient to keep it on the charger for all-day heat, and the option to grab it when needed is useful. I’m a slow drinker so I can drain that three hour battery life and I always appreciate the charger option. The charger on the Ember mug is unfortunately not USB so I have to plug a separate cable into an outlet, which I’m not a fan of. I’d love to be able to power it through a dock/my computer but that’s not an option.
The Ember mug is not double-walled and when the battery runs out, it cannot keep a drink warm for long. Compared to many cheaper tumblers with insulation like the Yeti, the Ember mug has advantages and disadvantages. It doesn’t keep drinks warm without power and is expensive, but it can keep a drink at a certain temperature for a long time, which cannot be replicated by an insulated cup.
If I pour 175 degree tea into a Yeti, I have to open the lid and wait for it to cool, or wait a long time to drink it. With the Ember mug, it gets to my preferred temperature much faster and stays there. The Amber Mug is also capable of reheating a drink that has gone cold, so you can pour lukewarm coffee into it to reheat it, though this takes a long time and doesn’t seem like the best use case.
In terms of functionality, there are a few things to be aware of. The Ember mug uses a press down lid, which I like because it doesn’t seem to leak at all, but it’s easy to drink from. If I toss the Ember mug in a bag, it won’t drip, which isn’t always the case with travel cups. You have to make sure it’s not fuller than the inside line of the cup, but it seems to work well if filled properly.
If the amber mug is upside down or moved around a lot, some pressure may build up and some small liquid droplets may fly upwards when the lid is pressed. Ember warns about this and recommends keeping it away from your face when you press the lid, but it hasn’t been a major problem when I’ve used the cup. There is no hole for straw, which I miss. I like to use a glass straw for tea and similar hot drinks to avoid teeth stains, but the no-leak lid design doesn’t accommodate that feature.
Surprisingly, you can’t microwave the Ember Mug 2, nor can you put it in the dishwasher. The lid can go in the dishwasher, but the mug itself needs to be hand washed. The charging base should be kept dry and you should ensure that the underside is dry before placing the cup on the base.
Beyond keeping a drink warm, the Ember Mug 2 has ‘Find My’ integration as a new selling point. You can add the Ember mug to the Items tab of the ‘Find My’ app, where it can be tracked like an Airtag. Ember Mug uses the Find My Network to take advantage of any nearby iPhones to relay the mug’s location, so if it goes missing, you can track it down.
Misplacing a travel mug seems a lot more unusual than losing keys or a wallet, but I guess it happens, especially if you regularly take Ember to multiple locations. I let the Amber Mug’s battery die and then I waited a full 48 hours to see how long the Find My feature would work, and even then Find My worked.
The Ember mug is designed with some power reserve, so even if the cup is no longer hot due to a low battery, it can still be found via Find My. It goes into a sleep mode when there is no liquid inside to heat, which conserves the battery. I was concerned that ‘Find My’ would stop working if the battery ran out, but it seems there is a period where you can find the cup with low battery.
I don’t think Find My is an essential feature for a drinkware, but it’s pretty cool to have on a $200 cup. It’s also not a feature you want to see on a mug, so if you have it in a bag that’s then stolen or misplaced, you can track it down without being any wiser.
last row
It’s hard to justify a $200 smart travel cup because there are “dumb” travel cups that do almost as much for a fraction of the price, but I think the Ember mug price The $200 price that it sells for.
The original design of the mug is solid – it fits well in a cup holder, has a sleek look, and the lid is easy to drink from and doesn’t seem to leak. It holds the temperature for a cup of coffee or throughout the day if it’s on the charging base, it supports touch controls, and it has a ton of LEDs for status updates. Who doesn’t want a cup that says hello in the morning, lets you know the exact temperature of your drink and adjusts with a swipe? With ‘Find My’ integration, getting lost won’t be easy either.
My biggest complaint about the Ember mug is probably the size. It would be nice to get an XL version that holds more liquid, because while I want to enjoy a hot drink for many hours, I don’t want to refill frequently. Besides that, the Ember mug has so many bells and whistles that it’s hard to complain about anything other than the price.
If you often lose your cup, either at work or in the car, Find My will likely be a useful feature addition. You will either be able to track the ember mug or it will show its last known location so you can determine where it is.
Ember Mug is not a device that anyone demand, but I think hot drinkers will get a lot out of it. This is a product you can buy for someone who has everything and I wouldn’t hesitate to give it as a gift. I’d like to point out that the desktop version of the Ember mug is $150, so $50 less, and it holds more. On the downside, it only works for 80 minutes from the charger, but it’s a good option if you plan to primarily use Ember on a desk.
how to buy
Ember Mug 2 can be purchased from the Ember website for $199.99.
Note: Ember provided MacRumors with an Ember Travel Mug 2 for the purpose of this review. No other compensation was received.
