My Ember smart mug keeps my tea warm for hours and has £40 off for Black Friday

24 November 2023 , 12:00

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Ember has £30-£40 off their mugs this Black Friday

Is there anything more disappointing than the realisation you’ve forgotten to drink your cup of tea, only to take a sip and discover it’s gone cold? I actually think it’s more heartbreaking than The Notebook, or when you think there’s one last crisp in the packet and there isn’t.

I’ve tried a number of methods over the years to prevent my tea from dying a lukewarm death, from and popping a coaster over one, to those that never really work as well as you’d hope, to even making my cup of tea in a - though it never tastes as good.

I recently introduced an into my life, and while at first I was sceptical about a temperature-regulating cup, I’ve been left more impressed than I thought I would be at this nifty bit of technology. And not once have I fallen victim to a cold cuppa, with my brew staying warm for hours after the kettle has boiled.

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The mug doesn’t look too different from one you might take camping. While some techy gadgets come with flashing lights like a spaceship, the takes a relatively minimalistic and non-showy approach, with a simple design and one LED light to indicate its battery life, charging status and whether your cup has reached its optimum temperature.

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Getting the out of the box, I left it to charge and came back to it a little later to set it up. I often put off setting up any gadgets in my home because I think they’ll be a faff and I’ll need to find the Wifi code, remember a password I made 10 years ago or jump through various other hoops, but all I had to do was download the Ember app and follow the instructions. It really was a doddle and took less than five minutes to do. The pairs up with your phone via Bluetooth, and that’s pretty much it.

In the app, you can customise your prime cuppa, setting your favourite drinking temperature between 50°C - 62.5 °C and customise presets for your favourite drinks, for example, if you like your coffee hotter than your tea, you can save it so that your settings are literally at the touch of a button.

I set my temperature to 58°C and made my cup of tea as I usually would, with a Yorkshire Tea bag and honey, boiling my Swan Smart Kettle. As a former tech-phobe, my kitchen is becoming quite the gadget central, it would seem.

You can set presets and customise your LED light in the Ember app

As I poured the water into my mug, I could see the temperature on my phone rise to 80°C before falling slowly down to 58°C, where the beeps to indicate the temperature, with the LED light flashing pink. You can customise this in the app to flash any colour when your drink reaches your desired temperature, though I am going to change mine as the pink is a bit too close to red, which indicates that it needs charging.

I left my on the side in the kitchen to see how long it would take before either the battery ran low, or the cuppa went cold, except, the latter was never going to happen (unless I let it run out of battery, obviously).

An hour after I made my tea, I checked the app and saw that it was still at a comfortable drinking temperature of 58°C. But 30 minutes later I got the ‘low battery’ notification and had to go into the kitchen to pop it on its charging pad. The 10oz mugs have an off-charge battery life of 90 minutes, which is actually longer than the larger 14oz mug, which only has an 80 minute battery life.

While on the charging pad, the mug will keep your drink warm for as long as needed, even all day, if you really wanted it to.

The Ember app lets you know when your cup of tea is at the perfect temperature - then your mug keeps it there

Other shoppers have loved it, too, describing them as a ‘game changer’, with the mugs clocking up a 4.4 star rating based on over . One said: “How did I live without this? Works great to keep my coffee at the perfect temp - 137F for me. With longer battery life, I’d give it 5 stars. I bought two extra charging pads so that I don’t have to worry about running out of juice while sipping my coffee in my favourite places in my house.”

Another added: “These mugs are a game changer. Hot to the last drop.” With a third so impressed that they have more than one, writing: “I love my beautiful new ember mug! I now have two that I use everyday.”

For me, my only gripe was that, the longer it’s left, it does form a bit of a layer on the top that makes it much less appealing to sip. Realistically though, I’m never going to be leaving my tea for that long in reality, with most of my cups of tea being drunk within the hour, even when I’ve forgot about them.

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While the Ember mug keeps your tea hot 'all day', this does make me wonder if it's worth it

Other shoppers agreed, commenting: “A skim forms, but this is the only thing that bothers me. I would recommend them to friends!” With another writing: “Short battery life - but the coffee stays hot while charged.”

I also really like how the sends you phone notifications when your desired temperature is reached, or lets you know your battery is low. It’s like a little cuppa companion, and feels like a little mate looking out for me as if to say “Don’t forget about your brew”, like my parents or partner do when they’re at home.

In addition to it’s smart features, the is safe to hand wash and submersible up to one metre in water, and intelligently senses when to turn on and off. Clever little thing.

Usually £149.95, it’s not your average mug by any stretch. I’m an Emma Bridgewater enthusiast and consider my £20 mugs to be the height of luxury, so this is another level of expensive. However, some of the mugs have been , with savings of up to £40.

On Amazon, my , saving shoppers £30, however you can get the , down from £129.95, if you were looking to get one a little cheaper. had been stocking the metallic version for £89.99, saving nearly £60 on the RRP, but the deal proved too tempting for tech fans and it’s since sold out, with

I never thought this would be the kind of gadget I’d find myself using, but for those who work from home or from a busy office and are constantly despairing at a mouthful of cold tea or coffee, it really is a great bit of kit to treat yourself to while it’s reduced - or the perfect Christmas present for that forgetful person who is always groaning when they realise they’ve left their cuppa too long.

You can shop the reduced If you're on a tighter budget then the GARMEE Electric Coffee Mug Warmer is £16.99 on Amazon, though naturally doesn't boast the same features as more expensive options.

Bethan Shufflebotham