Friday, June 09, 2017

Review: Mighty Mug – A Beverage Threat Reduction System

What’s your typical level of clumsy? 

If you have ballerina-level grace or Messi-quality balance, this product likely isn’t your bag. But if you talk with your hands, enjoy cocktails on a porch or a boat, or just bump into things more often than you might like (any of which could easily apply to yours truly), then you might find the Mighty Mug an intriguing addition to your barware collection.

“Mighty Mug” drinkware – which includes wine glasses, beer pint and pilsner glasses, Old Fashioned glasses, and travel mugs – are all equipped with a special base which the company calls Smartgrip. This rubber footing is designed to create a strong vacuum if the mug is nudged from the side, preventing the glass from toppling over. Lifted straight up, however, it behaves as a normal glass. To wit:



I had the opportunity to test the wine stems and beer pints from Mighty Mug’s collection.



My thoughts:

  • On a smooth or finished surface – countertop, dining room table, computer desk, etc. – the mug performs well. Almost too well sometimes. I learned from the Mighty Mug that I tend to tilt a glass slightly when I lift it. The Mug didn’t much care for my technique, keeping the vessel locked in place until I lifted straight up.
  • That said, on surfaces that are anything less than perfectly smooth – say, a table with a “lightly mosaic-ed” tile top, or the wooden arm of an Adirondack chair, the Mighty Mug behaves like a normal glass. In other words, if it ain’t smooth, don’t bump it.
  • I could see the Mighty Mug being of real use on a boat or other moving conveyance. On a smooth surface, changes in direction won’t make the glass slide around with potentially disastrous results.
  • The enemy of the Mighty Mug, I found, is dust and dirt. When I was testing, there was a stretch of bad pollen days. Most of the outdoor surfaces were covered in the light pollen dust. That dust worked its way into the mechanism, causing the Mug’s adherent properties to fade. The makers of the Mug provide care instructions for reactivating the stickiness, but it would be a good idea to clean the bases on a regular basis.
  • My biggest issue with the Mighty Mug, at the end of the day, is that its greatest strengths – durability and stability – are a major aesthetic weakness. The base is quite thick, and while that doesn’t detract too much from the pint glass, it looks a bit odd for the wine glass. Also, necessarily, the Mighty Mug is made out of fairly thick shatterproof plastic. And drinking wine or a pint out of plastic barware, at least for me, detracts from the overall experience. If I’m on a picnic or some such, that’s acceptable, but if I’m relaxing at home – I’d rather use my usual stemware.
All in all, I can see the utility – especially if you’re either out and about or working at a desk where a spill might fry your phone or other electronics. Take that into account before deciding if Mighty Mug is right for you. You can order them from the Mighty Mug website or at any number of other retailers.

1 comment:

  1. I love the heat retention & the non spill features! The cover, the lip, or something else makes it difficult to drink the last 1/3 of the coffee. I take the top off to finish, but it often spills down my chin.

    ReplyDelete