Keeping this blog for as long as I have has afforded me many opportunities to meet many like-minded people and make connections with many different eco-friendly entrepreneurs who are making in roads in their own way for the environment.
I’ve made some great friends and have learned a lot about the types of products that are out there. I remember back in 2004 when I started down the path of vegetarianism and being more environmentally aware, my view of what was out there in terms of ways I could maintain a vegetarian diet and buy/use products that were more environmentally friendly was very narrow.
After looking at and researching a variety of products, I’ve seen that there is a lot out there. And isn’t it funny that as our knowledge of something expands it seem that the market and/or demand for things related to that knowledge seems to grow as well? At least that’s what it seemed like to me as I transitioned into this.
As I mentioned earlier, I’ve had the opportunity to meet/be in contact with a lot of entrepreneurs who have opened my eyes to the different types environmentally friendly of products that are out there. I’ve also had the opportunity to try out a variety of eco-friendly products that would be enjoyed by many environmentalists.
One such product is the thermal water bottle from Green’s Your Colour. If you have read my blog before you will know that Green’s Your Colour is on the list of Eco-Friendly Stores in Toronto post that I did way back.
I’ve owned a few reusable water bottles over the past few years, which have either been given to friends and/or family members whenever I decided to upgrade or try out a new product. I’ve had a couple of those metal water bottles succumb to dents making them less than ideal to hold my water.
I decided to try out the water bottle from Green’s Your Colour to see how the product worked. One of the biggest draws for me to the Green’s Your Colour water bottle was that it was good for both hot and cold drinks. And to add to that, the website claims that it can keep your hot drinks hot and your cold drinks cold for several hours.
I received my 750 mL (that’s 25 oz. for those of you not too keen on the metric system) Green’s Your Colour water bottle and at first glance it looked like any other metal water bottle – oddly shaped, silver, and a lid with a flexible (yet sturdy) plastic attachment to the lid to prevent lid loss. Let’s be honest, a water bottle without it’s lid is pretty much useless, unless you decide to use it as a vase or a planter.
The water bottle I received came with quite a few surprises…well not so much surprises as excellent features. For example, the bottle came with a tea strainer for loose leaf (and bagged tea) as well as an ice strainer - “So you can make margaritas!”, exclaimed one of my friends when I told them about the accessories that came with the bottle. To my surprise, the bottle featured a two-pronged lid. The narrow-necked lid is probably for drinking cold water, while the wider-necked lid is most likely for sipping tea or for sipping water. In any case, I feel that this is a nice addition to the bottle.
One of the first things I really tested with the bottle was whether it would leak and/or sweat from having cold water inside. Bottles I’ve had in the best have either sweat (which isn’t so bad) or leaked (a lot worse when you have notes from several of your school courses not in the binder)
So far so good. I put really cold water from my water filter in the bottle and it did not sweat in my bag. It also didn’t leak, which was another bonus. I guess all that was really left for me to test at this point was the tea strainer and whether the tea would stay (at the very least) warm.
This past week I had an exam (or two) in the afternoon on each day, so I decided to get up early on each day as per usual and fill my water bottle with some loose leaf tea in tea strainer and some boiling water. I figured I would let it steep while I traveled to school and would dump the loose tea leaves when I arrived at school. It turns out, that after my 45 minute subway trek to school the water in my water bottle was still piping hot. And as a bonus the outside of the bottle was at room temperature. Impressed by this, I immediately told every one of my classmates that was nearby at the time about it and had them feel the warmth coming from the open lid and the bottle’s exterior. They were also amazed at the temperature difference.
To put it into perspective, I had made the tea at about 8am in the morning while I was getting ready for school and the tea was still hot at 2pm in the afternoon that day. So much so that it was still a little to hot for me to drink.
So the bottle was able to keep the tea nice and hot for several hours and it was able to keep my cold water cool for a long while. I have not yet had a chance to try out the ice strainer yet (as don’t plan on making margaritas anytime soon with the water bottle), but will try it out once spring rolls around and I start biking again.
I have had a couple of issues with the bottle leaking. Once when I had tea and the bottle was laid sideways in my bag. Thankfully no papers in my bag were wet. I’m not sure if it leaked because of the orientation of the bottle in my bag or if it was because I didn’t close either lid properly. The other time I had an issue was on my way to New York and the bottle was again laid sideways in my duffle bag. I noticed a water stain on the inside of my bag, but did not notice any water droplets from the bottle itself. Again, I’m not sure if it was the orientation of the bottle or if I did not close the lid properly.
In both cases I made sure to check that the lid was tightened and secured and that seemed to prevent any further leakage of liquids onto the other contents of my respective bags.
One other issue that I’ve really had with the bottle, and this was something that several of my friends have mentioned when I showed them the water bottle – the size of the water bottle seemed to be an issue for people I showed the water bottle to. That can easily be remedied by opting to get a smaller sized bottle.
Another issue that I ran into was that the lids would get hot from any hot liquid that was placed inside the bottle (while the body of the bottle remained at room temperature). This isn’t so much of an issue since most people would probably be holding the bottle from the flexible, sturdy plastic handle on the lids. But it is something to be aware and cautious of when handling the bottle if it contains a hot beverage.
One last issue was the fact that this bottle is shaped moreso to be a water bottle and not a receptacle from which to drink hot beverages from. As such there is no handle on the side to hold it like a mug and make you feel like a pretentious, high-end coffee house patron. However, since the body of the bottle remains at room temperature when you hold it, then the fact that you don’t have a handle on it is sort of a moot point (unless you really want that pretentious, high-end coffee house patron feeling).
If you want to purchase one of these bottles, be sure to check out the Green’s Your Colour website.
The bottle comes in 3 different sizes and price points:
- 350mL – $19.99
- 500mL – $24.99
- 750mL – $29.99
There is also a kid’s transition bottle (280 mL), which retails on the Green’s Your Colour website for $24.99. You can also pick up some additional accessories like the tea strainer or ice strainer or a loop cap or a pop up straw lid for a reasonable price.
In spite of the hefty price tag on these bottles (compared to other water bottles you might see around), I think it’s well worth the investment for this bottle that does both hot & cold drinks. The bottles are ethically made in China and are designed and tested in Canada.
