The travel mug works perfectly enough, letting you take your coffee on the go while using double walls to keep it warm for a decent length of time. The Ember, however, takes the travel mug to new heights, allowing you to fine tune the temperature of your coffee to the exact level of hot where you enjoy it best.
From the outside, the stylishly-designed drinkware looks more like a gadget than a mug, with its capsule-like shape and all-black finish resembling a tactical flashlight or a mobile speaker. We guess that’s only fitting, since this mug has more gadget in it than any travel mug you can pick up on a stop at the nearest Starbucks.
The Ember, for instance, can immediately adjust the temperature of any drink it’s holding to the exact one you specify by using heat-absorbing, phase-changing material situated at the upper half of the vessel. That means, if you usually wait a few minutes to let the coffee you regularly order cool down before you take a sip, you won’t have to. Simply set your desired temperature using a wheel at the bottom of the mug, with the number appearing in a small capacitive screen on the lower part of the exterior, and it immediately cools it down to that.
When the coffee gets too cold, a heating system integrated in the lower third of the mug can be activated to heat it back up to the desired temperature, so you don’t have to throw away perfectly good beverage once it sits in your mug a little too long. Features include a 12-oz capacity, a two-hour battery life, an accompanying app where you can alternately adjust desired temperature, and a coaster that wirelessly charges the mug every time it’s set down on top.
An Indiegogo campaign is currently running to fund Ember. Pledges to reserve a unit starts at $129.