Steinwielder Pulliam’s very first priority when asking about his potential 1000ml FMJ was, “Will it fit in my truck’s cupholder?” Honestly, cupholder compatibility was not what I was worried about as I was constructing the first of the steins but he laid out the plight of the soda/beer drinking man in Texas (a sentiment echoed by others in Arizona, New Mexico, and Florida). That even the finest of air conditioned cars must be turned off from time to time when you make the quick sprint from vehicle to buildings. It doesn’t take long for a soda left behind to turn into a watered down, flat, warm cup of nastiness to be poured out the window after one very disappointed sip.
If you are drinking beer out of your stein while driving…I can only assume you are in Lousiana or Wyoming*. Why doesn’t California have drive-thru liquor stores? I swear…
*: I have been smacked upside the head by my Lovely Assistant to remind me that drinking and driving is Bad. Also, drinking while driving. A stein full of beer in your cupholder while driving is most definitely an open container violation. Plus, it might spill if you break too hard.**
**: I have been smacked upside the head again.
Anyway, Steinwielder Pulliam did verify that his stein fits in his cupholder nicely but has resisted filling it with ice and soda for a day of errands for fear of spillage…until now. He has made a minor modification to the lid of his stein adding a straw. While this does add a bit of a thermal short circuit from the ambient air temperature to the beverage, this will be far better than transfer through a normal cup. No, I don’t feel like doing the heat transport calculations to verify this so we’ll just have to go with intuition and his empirical testing. Check out his work:
And a close up of his work on the lid using what just might be the finest of AM/PM travel mug straws:
It isn’t watertight mind you, so he’s still going to have to mind those bumps and probably need to rinse the foam lid afterward but I approve of the effort. Failing that, I have replacement foam lids.
It is also a poking reminder of a question I get quite often, “I know you made the HDPE lid for the Playa Grade, but do you have a travel mug style lid, because that would be awesome?” The answer is no, but it’s not for lack of continual searching. The dewars are slightly irregular in size and no off the shelf travel mug lid really fits. But I keep searching and testing in hopes of finding one. Someday, I may just breakdown and commission one if I can find someone willing to make them in batches as small as I need.
Also, must look in to making those stein specific Pelican transport cases again…