I’ve made it no secret that I think the Ember, a battery-powered ceramic mug that will hold your coffee at a desired temperature, is a dumb invention the world doesn’t need. “It’s overdesigned,” I said back in 2017. “I’ll just keep my coffee warm in my Zojirushi thermos,” I wrote. “Who could possibly want this?”

Well for starters, 2007 World Barista Champion James Hoffmann loves his. It was lauded by Gear Patrol, Wired, andย Good Housekeeping. Just yesterday, Sprudge cofounder Zachary Carlsen told me via Slack, “I want one! It’s all I want for Christmas.”

Perhaps… I was wrong?

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With this in mind I come to you, hat in hand, to present the all new Ember Mug 2 and Travel Mug 2, which I now accept as a necessary and even valuable addition to the pantheon of coffee stuff.

The second-generation Ember has all the same technology from the first: four temperature sensors to keep your coffee between 120ยฐF and 145ยฐF, LED lights, Bluetooth connectivity, an automatic shut-off, and โ€œa three-axis accelerometer to recognize movement and wake the mug back up.โ€ (This still all sounds dumb to me, for the record.)

But as Tech Crunch reports, the Ember 2 comes with a 50% increase in battery lifeโ€”from one hour to one and a half hoursโ€”as well as 10- and 14-ounce size options. And with the Ember 2, you can change that LED “to whatever color you wish,” which is pretty sharp. The price of the smart mug also got a face lift, from $80 for the original to $100-130 for the second gen, which isn’t going to deter the Carlsens and Hoffmanns of the world, that’s for sure.

Not to be outdone, the Travel Mug has also been hit with a few improvements. The 12-ounce Travel Mug 2 is slimmer and lighter than the original, thanks to replacing the mug’s manual dial with a “touch-sensitive area” where “you can slide your fingers around to increase or decrease the temperature of whatever you have within.”

It’s about time coffee cups came in NSFW. Beginning your own sensual, romantic relationship with the Ember Travel Mug 2 will only run you $180.

Go buy one! Go buy 10! I for one welcome our new Ember overlords.

Zac Cadwaladerย is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas.ย Read more Zac Cadwaladerย on Sprudge.

Top image via Tech Crunch

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