Submitted by Eric Daniel
Me and favorite things don't get along. Seems every time I decide I like something and incorporate it into my routine, the manufacturer decides that it's time to move on, leaving me in the unenviable position of having to scour the world (or at least eBay) looking for a replacement for my most recently discontinued favorite thing.
One of my more recent "quests" has been for a replacement coffee cup. While, in the great scheme of things, a good coffee cup might seem a trivial thing, for me, coffee is one of those touchstone rituals that makes all the insanity that goes with combat survivable.
My long time favorite cup of choice was a short, fat 16 oz. cup made for Starbucks. This cup was of double walled aluminum construction, with a foam non-skid pad on the bottom (I supplement the pad with a square of Velcro for absolute stability.) It was absolutely brilliant, so quite naturally, Starbuck quit distributing them years ago (you can literally only find them on eBay now.) Unfortunately for me, when I last rotated out of Iraq, my veteran Starbucks cup decided not to come with me (some lucky sod is going to get an early Christmas present when they find that cup in a humvee) so I've been questing ever since for a replacement.
My new cup of choice is the Thermos-Nissan JMF502 drink/food mug. While taller than my old Starbucks cup (Velcro on the bottom of this thing is a must), one nifty feature this cup has that my old mug didn't have is a second lid to completely seal in the contents of the mug (the lid on the Starbucks was a press-in lid, the lids on the Thermos mug are screw on with rubber gasket seals.) This means that you can put anything in the mug, close it up, and toss it in your CVC bag without having to worry about the contents spilling everywhere.
Be forewarned however, once word gets out that I like this thing, Thermos is likely to get out of the vacuum bottle business all together. Get yours now while supplies last.
