Quickly, before my husband returns, I finally have an opportunity to examine this amazing coffee mug and tell you about it. The moment the package arrived at our doorstep, my husband descended upon the Contigo stainless steel travel cup and has rarely been seen without it ever since. I tried to explain to him that readers want to know details about this product, but it seems to have become his security blanket, and he has been unwilling to give it up. You may think I'm exaggerating, but I'm not the only one that's noticed. Last week, a colleague commented, "Your husband must drink a lot of coffee. I never see him without his . . . his . . ."

"His lovey?" I provided.

"Yes! It does seem that way, doesn't it?"

You see? I'm not exaggerating.

By some strange stroke of luck, he accidentally left it behind today after carrying it near him for two solid months. And now I understand why. First, the mug is perfectly weighted and fits in my hand just right. That's normal enough, but it fits just right in my husband's hand as well, and he's left-handed with hands much larger than mine. So yes, it's very comfortable to hold, but that is not the wonderful part. You'd never believe it, but I am shaking this mug upside down like a crazy person right now, and not a single drop is even hinting at coming out. I knew this amazing fact already thanks to a broken cup-holder in my car that sent my husband's mug flying toward my legs. Not a drop spilled.

Contigo cups have an amazing, patented feature called AutoSeal® that makes their mugs 100% spill and leak proof. I've never seen anything like this. To release the coffee, you gently press a button as you sip. The button must be pressed down for anything to come out. This sounds as if it might be a hassle, but it isn't in any way. The button falls directly where your fingers rest on the back of the cup and fits into the curve of your hand so that pushing the button is almost part of the same effort of simply holding the cup. When you release the button, it automatically seals. If your children have ever had sippy cups, you might be cringing right now at the idea of an adult sippy cup, but let me assure you of two things. (1) It is effortless to drink out of, nothing like a sippy. (2) No one around you will ever suspect any sippy-cup connotations whatsoever. The mug has a sleek, elegant design that does not in any way resemble a sippy cup.

Another excellent feature is the insulation. The stainless steel mugs are double-wall, vacuum insulated and will keep your drink hot for 4 hours or cold for 12. These are the times given by Contigo; I would actually say the temperatures hold for even longer than that. The amazing thing is that they are so well-insulated that the outside temperature of the cup gives no indication of the temperature within. You cannot tell how hot or cold your drink will be by feeling the mug. In fact, it took my husband a couple weeks to get used to it working so well. He burned his tongue many times after assuming the contents couldn't still be too hot. One morning, he left it in the car during church. He returned to take a sip three hours later and still burned his tongue. It's that good!

And now that I have had the opportunity to examine his "lovey," I've fallen in love and will be buying one for myself. My children already have their own Contigos, so I am the last one in the family to order one. The Kids Cups are 9 oz and are Pthalate, PVC, and BPA-free. These aren't insulated, but they are completely spill and leak-proof, thanks to the AutoSeal® technology. I can send the kids to bed with these cups and not worry about wet sheets. This is great news for our kids in top bunks that have missed out on bedside tables for night-time water. The lid is all one piece, so there will never be a need to dissect a cup and scrub with toothpicks and q-tips to get chunky milk out of a child's cup after he's left it in the hot car in August. These cups are dishwasher safe, and I love Contigo for this fact.

One last benefit to the AutoSeal® lids is that children don't have to do any sucking to to get a drink out of the cup. This leaves no risk of malforming their mouths or damaging their speech patterns as there is with sippy cups. When the release button is pushed, liquids flow freely from a small but perfectly adequate opening. One of our sons required speech therapy years ago, so this is a feature I really appreciated--one feature of many.

We love the cups. They are perfect for any roadtrip or picnic, but we also use them every day. Each child has his own color of cup and leaves it on the counter all day, refilling as needed. While they all love their cups, my husband is the only one to latch onto his quite so affectionately. Speaking of whom, I need to hurry and put this travel cup back before he returns and finds it missing!

Product review by Jennifer Harrison, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, August 2010