The Best Tumbler

You may ask, “Why do I need a tumbler?” Well, what we’ve discovered in talking to our readers is that people are—apparently—infinitely curious about what to carry a beverage in. Over the past year, we’ve offered guides to water bottles, hydration packs, wine glasses, coffee mugs, and more, and we still get questions about things like tumblers (hence this guide) and growlers (a jug for beer; we have a guide to them, too). We don’t expect to go farther down that soggy road into lesser-known vessels—no goatskin botas or maté gourds (we hope)—but the idea of owning multiple means of avoiding landfill-clogging disposable bottles and cups is one we like. We hope you like it, too.

We tried to get our hands on every new tumbler coming out in early 2018 while we did our original research. On the ground at the summer Outdoor Retailer 2017 trade show, we stopped at every booth with a tumbler on display and received an in-depth rundown from the designers themselves, highlighting what made each model unique. We’ve returned to OR’s Summer Market every year since—apart from 2020, for obvious reasons—monitoring developments in the tumbler field (among others). In 2022, we compared the new versions of our top two picks with the old versions to make sure they lived up to their predecessors.

Usually internet research is our first step when we begin testing in a category, but for this guide, we were fortunate enough to be able to do our initial research in person. We walked the floors of the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market trade show, an annual event where hundreds of brands showcase their latest innovations, and picked up every tumbler on display—18 in total.

We spoke to the designers and manufacturers of each tumbler and asked a lot of questions: Does it fit in a cup holder? Does it have a splash guard or straw integrated into the lid? Is the tumbler dishwasher safe? What is it made out of? What’s the finish texture like? How many color choices? How many size options? Does it have anti-skid traction on the bottom? Can it meet an entire day’s worth of needs as a singular vessel: sunrise coffee, mid-morning smoothie, ice water with lunch, afternoon lemonade with the same ice, sunset beer, evening cocktail, nighty-night tea?

Lid design may be the largest differentiating factor. The standard lid has a medium-size opening at one side of the mouthpiece designed to restrict flow from hot drinks yet allow cool beverages to pass with fluidity. Some tumblers have additional, accessory lids, such as sliding, rotating, or flip covers for the opening, which create a splash-guard effect but are not leakproof.

The best choice in tops has an all-in-one integrated lid that closes completely and can accommodate a straw. The straw is a surprising necessity for iced drinks or smoothies to prevent sloshing. The final factor in lid design is cleanability. Gunk such as coffee milk tends to get stuck in crevices. Most brands have taken this into account; however, small, unattached parts may not be simple to disassemble and reassemble (and may have a tendency to disappear).

But we found that the most technically functional lid designs don’t matter a whole lot to the average person longing for hydration. We spent an entire evening around a campfire with about 100 industry designers and professionals and asked many, many questions about their tumbler of choice. The only thing that truly mattered to most respondents was how the tumbler felt in their hands. (Brand loyalty is common, as well; folks tend to find their faves and stick with them.)

We did two tests to see how well these tumblers kept drinks hot and cold. The packaging tends to emphasize that this one or that one keeps drinks “four times colder” or “colder longer.” Four times colder than what? Longer at what temperature? In addition, they all come in different capacities. We picked vessels that were similar sizes, but the tumblers still had slight variations that would affect heat and cold retention. We concluded that trying to test the tumblers hyper-scientifically wasn’t practical.

As the tumbler is the ultimate car-travel vessel, either during commutes or on road trips, we concluded that three hours of retention for heat and four for cold was plenty. It doesn’t sound like much time, but that lets you brew your morning joe, dump it in your cup, sip it while you dress, get into traffic, and arrive at the office with your cup still piping hot. That also lets you make your smoothie, go to the gym, and still have a cold, refreshing drink waiting when you’re done.

The cold test

We pulled our fast-to-heat-up-inside black sedan into the parking lot in front of the 7-Eleven in downtown Salt Lake City. The outside temperature gauge read 92 °F—typical for the high desert of Utah mid-summer. With the closest watering hole slightly out of range for a quick dip, we opted for a tried-and-true American classic instead: the 7-Eleven Slurpee. Conveniently, we had 15 insulated tumblers to fill.

We filled them to the brim with 26.3 °F icy Slurpee and capped each with a lid and straw.

All 15 sat in the front seat of the sedan on the roof of a downtown parking garage, where the internal temperature topped out at 112 °F. We checked the progress of the melt every hour without opening the lid to verify whether a bit of slush was still in the tumbler. If the Slurpee turned to pure liquid, its tumbler was out.

Our control Slurpee in the standard 7-Eleven plastic cup lasted about an hour, while the insulated counterparts were continuing to hold form at approximately 50% of the original density into hour three. By hour four, the Corkcicle was the first to have its contents fully liquified, and the Coleman was on the verge. At hour five, the Reduce and the EcoVessel contained liquid.

Slurpee test results

The hot test

McDonald’s infamous “Caution HOT!” coffee is between 195 °F and 205 °F. According to the National Coffee Association, that is the correct temperature to brew your coffee. “Your brewer should maintain a water temperature between 195 to 205 degrees Fahrenheit for optimal extraction,” the association states. But that’s much too hot to drink: “One study has shown that coffee drinkers typically drink their coffee at 140 degrees Fahrenheit or below.”

We started lower than brewing temperature and filled each tumbler with 180 °F hot coffee (no creamer). Every 30 minutes for three hours, we measured the internal temperature with a digital probe thermometer. There was one standout (EcoVessel), a pool of final contenders, and a field of tumblers that for the most part all worked just fine. The coffee in our disposable cup was cold in 20 minutes.

CamelBak KickBak Tumbler: The hot and cold retention was really good, but the two-sided flip lid on the CamelBak was polarizing. It was a design that solved all sorts of issues—splashing, straw access—yet some testers said they hated flipping lids. (The size we tested, which held 20 ounces, has since been discontinued, as has the 30-ounce size.)

Coleman Brew Stainless Steel Insulated Tumbler: We wanted to love this design, as it fit well in the hand and had a rare, no-skid bottom, but it did poorly in insulation tests.

Corkcicle Classic Tumbler: This is one of the few tumblers with a no-skid bottom, and it offers some other good design elements as well, including a splash-resistant lid, an ergonomic grip, and approximately one billion colors to choose from. It performed on the lower end of the insulation tests.

EcoVessel Metro: This 16-ounce tumbler was superb in all ways, from insulative performance to hold ergonomics to the lid seal, but it was just too small. After we first published this guide, EcoVessel came out with a larger size, but—in a Goldilocks twist—the new version held 24 ounces and was massive. That may explain why it has since been discontinued.

Otterbox Elevation 20: Although it holds only 20 ounces, it feels massive in the hand.

Pelican Travel Tumbler: This was a top performer in insulation, and we really liked the splash guard on this lid. It’s just a very big vessel, too burly (like, way burlier than the Yeti) for most people. (This model has since been discontinued.)

Reduce Cold 1 Tumbler: The lid felt fussy, with multiple flips for the mouthpiece and the straw hole.

Thermos Stainless King Tumbler: Though Thermos calls it a tumbler, we thought this was more of a hot-drink-only type of vessel.

Zoku 3-in-1 Stainless Steel Tumbler: Our testers were really affected by the rounded—perhaps voluptuous—shape of this tumbler. That may seem overly dramatic, but after seeing other, straighter designs, our testers tended to set the Zoku aside.

This article was edited by Eve O’Neill and Christine Ryan.