Update: 5 months later and still great! Avoiding water getting onto the wood has ensured it is still in perfect shape and not warped. It has tipped over a few times, but no breakage to report! :) Very happy. My goal with this purchase was to drink more water. I'm not usually this picky, but after not succeeding in the past with my water consumption goals, I wanted to really think through what kind of product would help make drinking water an enjoyable experience with the least mental resistance possible. I was going to go for a water bottle, but I knew that actually opening the bottle to drink would be a (mental) obstacle based on my use of mason jars and water bottles in the past. I wanted something that was at least somewhat portable and I realized I drink more water when I use a straw. Some things that bothered me about using my current glass straws in glass tumblers was the clinking sound and how they move around while also not really being portable. Seeing there were quite a few options for portable glass tumblers, I looked at a few. A lot of them seem to have bamboo lids that get moldy based on the humid environment created between the liquid and the bamboo (and perhaps lack of proper sealing of the bamboo.) I liked that this one had silicone entirely between the wooden top and the liquid to avoid that problem. Also I don't think this lid is made from bamboo, it looks like actual wood. Bamboo, while a great sustainable material in theory, has a tendency to be a bit like the "plastic" of the wood world in that it seems to break easily and be fragile, especially in wet situations. I had a bamboo lid on a french press, which while it never got moldly, it did split in two in less than a year, another problem I saw with other options. I removed the silicone part of the lid as other reviewers have mentioned when I did my initial washing and boiling of the silicone top before first use. I don't think it said to boil it, but I know it was standard protocol with another brand of water bottles that used silicone, so I figured it couldn't hurt. I noticed the smell of fresh silicone others mentioned, but after boiling and a couple of days of use it has gone away. I plan on just wiping the wood part clean when washing in the future and being careful to avoid water from sitting on the wood to avoid damage. It goes without saying that having a plastic straw in a glass tumbler is a disappointing short-cut. I would have rather it not come with a straw at all. I replaced the plastic straw with a glass one I already had and it fits perfectly. The glass tumbler part is nice. I ordered the 20 oz version but received an 18 oz. I'm thinking there is no 20 oz version and that it's either a mistake or a trick, which ends up costing you a couple of bucks: not enough to make it worth sending back but enough to be annoying. Amazon listings are not very reliable when they are made by other companies, but seeing as this is sold by Amazon themselves, I am a bit disappointed with this lack of fact checking. The denim color is more like the picture where I am holding it, a nice lavender blue. I only poured a cold drink into it once so far (a 12 oz can of seltzer) and it does seem like it probably would sweat significantly with a really cold drink full up. It didn't bother me that much, but I will update it if I feel like it is a significant issue. I'm using this mainly to drink water from a filter, which is room temp, so that wasn't a big factor in my decision. Also to be noted with some reviewers mentioning it tipping over and breaking; being a potter, I knew that the slightly tapered bottom means it will tip over easier than others that are straight up and down cylinders. But for me, all of the other benefits outweighed this potential hazard. I have only had this for two days, and I have definitely been babying it. I think a lot of people have a tendency to be rough with their things in this day and age of planned obsolescence, so I'm trying the ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure route and just being more careful with my things. We'll see how it goes! I would 100% recommend this to someone looking for a fun way to drink more water!
