This is what we woke up to yesterday morning out our back door!
I grew up in Winnipeg, which is a place where people tend to – how shall we say – “embrace” winter. Because if you don’t take on an attitude of winter embracement, you’ll be miserable for a good four to five months of the year. Winnipeg winters are harsh.
Maybe it’s my Winnipeg upbringing or the prairie farm genes from my Mother’s side of the family (I doubt it’s the tropical Indian genes from my Dad), but I love winter. And snow means winter has arrived.
That first heavy snowfall is always the most magical to me, especially when it wafts down in huge lazy flakes, as it did yesterday. Granted, it’s easy for me to be romantic about an idyllic snowfall when I don’t have to commute to and from work in it. But I do recall even when I was commuting, I loved it.
For one job, when we were living in Ottawa, I even skated to work along the Rideau Canal, which becomes the world’s longest skating rink each winter, at 7.8 km / 4.8 miles. Now that was a fantastic – and sometimes frigid – way to start and end each work day. (Winnipeg tried to better the Ottawa record with an 8.5 km / 5.3 mile rink, but the Guiness folks considered surface skating area too, and Ottawa’s 90 Olympic sized hockey rink equivalent area was more than double Winnipeg’s long but thin skating area.)
I digress.
My point is that when it first snows like this I feel a need to stop everything and go out and walk in the snow. So that’s what Chantal and I did yesterday morning.
And in the interest of making the walk somewhat work-related, I decided to do an experiment with our new Plastic Free Wool Insulated Jute Water Bottle Bag. How warm would it keep my tea?
I am a scientist and have the greatest respect for the scientific method, but the snow was calling and I couldn’t find our thermometer. So I boiled some water, threw a tea bag in one of our single-walled Klean Kanteen Wide Mouth bottles, filled it up, slid it in the bottle bag, checked the time, and we were off. (Note: Be careful not to burn yourself if you put hot liquid in a single-walled bottle! You can use the cap to hold it as you put it in the insulated bottle bag.)
Jute is one tough textile. You’ve likely seen it in action transporting large quantities of potatoes or other root vegetables – it’s also known as burlap.
So this bottle bag has a jute exterior and interior, and a layer of wool insulation within to keep your bottle warm or cool depending on your needs. On this day, my need was warm.
There’s an exterior open pocket for bamboo cutlery, a smart phone, a spork, a Moleskine, or a little snack bag of nuts and berries. Or a hanky.
The bag is big and will fit practically any bottle. And there’s a cotton cord drawstring to snugly secure the bottle in the bag.
This bag is made by a trusted, ethical and world class partner supplier of ours located in India. We visited them and their spotlessly clean, beautifully organized factory last year. It’s funny to think of that visit now while tromping through the snow. It was February and hot and humid in India at the time. The factory was cool, but I remember arriving there sweaty and dusty after a half hour drive through the heat.
So what about my experiment? Back at home an hour and a half after adding the boiling water, I unscrewed the cap and steam emerged. Yay!
I have no exact before and after temperature numbers for you, but after 1.5 hours the tea was steaming warm – not so hot to burn the tongue (as I have done in the past when using a Klean Kanteen Insulated bottle and taking a drink after a few hours). Just warm enough to drink comfortably. I had put the bag down several times in the snow while we took photos, so there is definitely some serious insulation action happening.
And in the summer – or if you’re reading this today from India or California or Bali – the insulation will keep your bottle cool and minimize sweaty condensation on the outside of the bottle.
If you do choose to treat yourself to one of these bags and you do some experimenting of your own, please feel free to let us know about your experience by commenting below or writing a product review in the product description.
Life’s an experiment, live it well! Even – or maybe especially, depending on your attitude of winter embracement – if it is cold and snowy.