Ember Ceramic Mug

What is the Ember Ceramic Mug?

Tired of your hot drinks getting cold before you get around to drinking them? The Ember Ceramic Mug is here to sort you out. A temperature-controlled mug, Ember uses an integrated heating element to keep your hot drink at the perfect drinking temperature until you’re finished.

A neat design, great app and brilliant performance make the Ember a great partner to anyone fed-up with cold drinks, but it’s expensive compared to a thermal cup.

Related: Best coffee machine

Ember Ceramic Mug – Design and build quality

The Ember Mug is available in black or white. From the outside, it looks much like a regular mug, but there are tell-tale differences. First, there’s an LED at the front that glows to show you the charge status of the mug. Flip it over, and there’s a button underneath to turn it on and off; definitely not your standard mug, then.

At 340g, the Ember Ceramic Mug is a little heavier than your traditional mug, but it’s far from a struggle to lift it. It can take 295ml of liquid; given that the Nespresso Vertuo Mug capsules deliver 230ml of drink, I can’t knock the Ember Ceramic Mug’s capacity.

Although the body is IPX7-rated for complete submersion, the Ember Ceramic Mug is not suitable for dishwashers and is handwash only. That’s a minor inconvenience, but a dishwasher-safe model would be great to see.

It ships with a charging coaster, which you place the mug on to charge its integrated battery.

Ember Ceramic Mug – Features

A thermal mug is designed to keep your drink hot for as long as possible, but it doesn’t control temperature. That’s the key difference with the Ember Ceramic Mug, which is about temperature control and maintaining your drink at the perfect drinking temperature.

To do this, you have to hook the mug up to the Ember app on your phone via Bluetooth. I found the connection to be very reliable and didn’t run into any problems. It is also the first time that I’ve ever had to update the firmware on a drinking vessel.

From the app you can select the temperature that you want the mug to hold your drink at. There are preset values, such as 57C for coffee, although you can set the temperature manually between 50C and 62.5C.

Once set, the mug turns on the moment you put liquid into it and, assuming there’s any battery left, turns off when you finish drinking. Importantly, your phone pings when the mug is the right drinking temperature, telling you it’s ready to go. The mug remembers the last temperature that you set, so next time you use it you can just pour your drink in and go.

From the app, you can also start a tea timer, with different preset times for different tea types (black, green, herbal, etc). You can also change the colour of the LED on the front of the mug. This doesn’t have any effect, other than making it easier to see which mug is yours.

Related: How to make the perfect espresso

Ember Ceramic Mug – Performance

As soon as my phone pinged to let me know that my coffee was ready at 57C, I dropped a thermometer in and discovered that the mug was spot on. Testing 30 minutes later, and the temperature was still the same. It meant that I could enjoy a coffee over a longer period and the first sip to the last one were all at the same temperature.

Battery life is quoted at an hour when a drink is poured in hot, and the Ember Ceramic Mug is set to 54C. As Ember points out, external temperature, the liquid temperature at pour, how fast you drink and the set temperature all affect battery life. At worst, you’re looking at around 40 minutes from a charge, though.

Why buy the Ember Ceramic Mug?

At £79.95, the Ember Ceramic Mug is far from cheap and is most likely the most expensive mug that you’re going to buy. Is it worth it? Well, if your drinks go too cold before you finish them or you just want to enjoy your tea or coffee at a constant temperature, then yes. Impressive temperature control and long-enough battery life certainly impress and give a consistency that neither a traditional mug nor a thermal cup can match.

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