Product Review: The Bubba Cup

We use travel tumblers or mugs quite often at our house.  I use one for the water that I drink throughout the day. My husband uses one for his coffee every morning as he is heading off to school. I usually fill one with water for my son as we are heading out to soccer practice.  Travel mugs are made to keep whatever drinks they carry hot or cold, and are also meant to keep the drinks from spilling all over the place when you are driving.  They make life more convenient, and they are environmentally friendly, replacing paper cups or plastic bottles.

As I've said before, summers in Texas are hot.  Probably not as hot as Death "Fry an egg on the sidewalk" Valley hot, but that's a matter of opinion.  It is simply impossible to keep any cold drink cold in the heat of the summer.  The drink in most travel mugs might stay cold for about thirty minutes, until the ice melts, but it is most likely to become lukewarm in second when sitting on a patio or beside you at the pool. Lukewarm tea certainly doesn't taste as good as the iced kind, not to mention the bacteria that starts to multiply in that warm environment.  Most of the travel tumblers we have just cannot keep up with the heat, and I'd resigned myself to only the daydream of a nice cold drink on a hot summer day.

Until I met Bubba. 

We took a travel sized Bubba, pictured above, with us to Fort Worth.  In the morning, I filled the mug with ice and water, and it ended up sitting in our hot car in the inferno that is a Texas summer for around six hours.  When we finally got back to our vehicle, I had no hopes of a nice cold drink, but I was sweaty and parched.  Imagine my surprise when, not only was the water still cold, but the tell tale sound of ice was sliding around in the cup as well! 

You might have met Bubba in his giant sized Keg incarnation, but there are other sizes and styles to fit anyone's fancy.  I have not tried this mug with hot coffee yet, but the instructions say that hot drinks will stay hot.  The only kvetch that I have with some of the Bubba cups is that they are hand wash only, which isn't really that convenient for me.  However, the price is reasonable, and if a person wanted to purchase several mugs, it would be possible to wash all of them at once. 

Nobody from the company paid me for this post.  Nobody gave me a free mug, either, although I wouldn't be unhappy to receive one.  I just like the product, and I'm sharing my happiness.  If you're in the market for a travel mug, look for the Bubba brand. 

Product Review/Giveaway: Snapsac

I am going to try something new today, because trying new things is supposed to be good for you. A very nice lady over at Snapsac sent me this re-usable shopping bag, completely out of the blue. The Snapsac logo is "Smart. Stylish. Shopping." I am not your garden variety shopper, and I am really not considered stylish, but I have on occasion been told that I am smart. Therefore, I am willing to give this review and giveaway a shot.

When I got the package home and opened it, I found this:



I am all for re-usable shopping bags, because I hate plastic bags. I buy re-usable all the time, at just about every store. Why do I buy them at every store? Because I forget all about them being in the trunk of my car. If I had a bag or two that I could just fold up and slip into my purse, then I wouldn't have to worry about remembering where they were. The Snapsac was made for forgetful people like me, which is awesome. No more buying bags at the checkout line!

Then I unfolded the bag.



I am a basic black sort of girl, but the colors of this Snapsac are sharp. This is the "super" tote, and it is a good sized bag. This particular size would be good for a trip to the grocery store the day before Thanksgiving(which I would never do!). A shopper could fit the makings of the entire dinner in the bag, including the turkey, a roasting pan, aluminum foil, green beans, fried onions, stuffing, and the pumpkin pie. I know this because I actually went to my local grocery store and put all these items in the bag to see if they would fit. I was pretty impressed. I was even more impressed when I was able to pick the bag up without any obvious signs of tearing or shredding from the weight. The Snapsac is actually pretty sturdy; it looks none the worse for wear!

My only real problem with the Snapsac is more a reflection of my poor spatial skills; I have been unable to put the bag back into its original snazzy shape. I was horrible at that origami, too. Maybe the company can offer a bag with dotted lines and other directions written on the bag for people like me. The cost of the Snapsac is negligible; the bags that you buy in the checkout line are at least a buck, and they don't hold together well. This Snapsac that I tried out can hold at least the content of three or four of those bags. Stylish AND economical!

Bottom line: Would I buy it? Yes.

I get to give one of these away to a lucky person. Leave your email in the comments if you think that you would like this bag. I am not going to go to a lot of trouble to draw the name; this is a low-budget operation at this stage. I will write all of the names on a piece of paper and have my son pull one out of a jar. The winner will be selected before Friday, Oct 21st, if not sooner. Good luck!