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I came of age in a crucial moment in American history. Between the invention of the 7-Eleven Big Gulp in the 1980s and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s banning of sodas over 16 ounces in 2013, I was born in Texas and raised in Kansas, where I learned crucial midwestern values, like the importance of routinely ingesting 40 ounces of Diet Cranberry Limeade at Sonic Happy Hour.
Now, here I am, living in New York and pretending to be sophisticated: I drink my coffee out of tiny cups. I consume seltzer instead of soda. I make appetizers out of cream cheese and sun dried tomatoes (oh, wait…)
I haven’t seen the bottom of a Big Gulp since 2010. So I thought I didn’t need any large vessels for consuming liquids. Then, in 2019, as an office gift from the marketing department, my colleagues and I received 30-ounce Yeti Ramblers.
The dormant inner Texan within me awoke. Standing around seven inches tall and three inches wide, the Rambler was hideous, sure. It weighed a full pound. It had neither the sleek silhouette of a S’well bottle nor the wide-eyed, youthful turtle-saving promise of a HydroFlask. It was the embodiment of Texas excess (the company is actually based in Austin). I was at once repulsed by it and drawn to its sturdiness: its thick, expertly-crafted double walls of stainless steel, its no-slip coating, its awe-inspiring 30-ounce capacity. In the Yeti, the two sides of me converged. I began using what is essentially a fancy reusable Big Gulp to hydrate myself with the Goop- and Jennifer Aniston-approved substance called Water.
Here’s my recommendation. You begin each workday by filling the Yeti all the way to the top with ice cubes. Then fill the area around the ice cubes with water. You stick a reusable stainless steel straw in, and you drink. (Word to the wise: I do feel that the straw is a crucial element here; the Yeti has a thick rim that I find unpleasant to sip from. Also, lazy as this sounds, it’s annoying to lift the massive thing to your lips each time you want a drink; with a straw, you can leave it on your desk and sip happily, without lifting a finger). Water somehow tastes better out of the Yeti. Maybe it’s some mysterious quality in the stainless steel that enhances the water’s...flavorlessness. Maybe it’s the challenge of getting through the massive volume of liquid, the smugness you feel looking upon this gargantuan representation of your commitment to hydration. Maybe it’s simply the constant availability of icy cold liquid.
You may refill the Yeti several times during your workday, but you’ll never need to replace the ice cubes, because the miraculous cup keeps them cold all day. Sometimes, when we used to actually go to the office, I’d leave my Yeti on my desk filled with water and ice, and I’d return the next day to a still-icy cold drink. This is also optimal for a bedside table at night: You’ll wake up to pleasantly cold water.
The heft and gargantuan size of the Yeti also makes it extremely hard to knock over, meaning it’s great to keep on your desk, especially if you’re the kind of person who ruined a laptop by dumping a Negroni on it.
Basically, the Yeti Rambler is the less-chic way to keep a carafe of water on your desk. If you like drinking water out of ginormous cups; if you love a cup that keeps your beverage cold; if you need something sturdy and spill-proof that you can take on the go and feels built to last: this cup is your 2021 version of the Big Gulp. And if you do want to drink a soda out of it, have a cranberry limeade for me.
