An Insulated Thermos as Pretty as It Is Functional

Oct 08, 2023

By Alex Beggs

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This is Highly Recommend, a column dedicated to what people in the food industry are eating, drinking, and buying right now. Here, Alex Beggs writes about the cute coffee carafe that changed her breakfast-in-bed game.

Why is it that the more functional we need a kitchen tool to be, the uglier it gets? In the past, when I wanted to keep extra coffee hot, I put it in an old Yeti Rambler, which looks like it's ready for a month in the woods, naked and afraid—and spills when I pour from it. Not ideal, naked or not.

Then this beautiful, matte black thermos full of hot coffee came to me in the freezing depths of February, when I was staying the night at The Harbor Grand Hotel in New Buffalo, Michigan (after dinner at the wonderful Granor Farm). It arrived in an adorable picnic basket alongside glass jars of frittata and parfaits, a breakfast-in-bed spread fit for a slightly hungover queen. As the basket sat on a table while I went back to bed, the coffee stayed hot in its cute carafe, waiting for me. Three hours later, I’d ordered it on Amazon.

The brand is Eva Solo, and its Thimble Double-Walled Vacuum Thermal Carafe is $80 and comes in a handful of colors (marble gray is classy, bubblegum pink is Barbielicious), all of which are sold in random corners of the internet. I went with matte black to match the Fellow kettle every current and former BA staff has. It holds a liter of liquid, which is approximately 4–6 cups of coffee depending on how big your mugs are.

If the Thimble carafe is sold out by the time I write this—hey, just hedging my bets in an unpredictable universe—Stelton's Amphora carafe is another lovely option, though I’m not sure how I feel about the copywriting "jugs and kisses." Both are hand-wash-only, my fellow dishwasher superfans.

So…do you need an insulated carafe that takes up nearly as much space as a blender in the cabinet? If you host brunch, tailgates, holiday breakfasts, game nights, high tea, tarot card readings, book clubs, knitting circles, LAN parties (still a thing?), casual séances, then yes, you do. Or does your household just drink buckets of caffeine as the day drags on? You’ll want it hot, and not burnt and bitter from sitting on the coffee maker's heated base for hours. In my experience, the Eva Solo Thimble keeps coffee at a steaming temperature for up to six hours, depending on how often you’re pouring it (as the contents decrease, more air in the thermos will cool the coffee; this is called heat transfer, nerds). My tip: Pre-fill the thermos with hot water from the tap to warm it up while you make coffee.

Sure, there are millions of Stanley Quenchers out there doing their elevated Big Gulp thing, and I never leave home in the winter without my trusty Zojirushi. But at home, and at my desk, I prefer to drink my coffee and tea out of a lovely ceramic cup, not a travel mug. Pouring from this carafe feels like I’m getting served at high tea by a butler who’ll be there with the hot stuff whenever I’m ready. So what if the butler is me. Isn't it always?