24 hours after I poured some near-boiling water in to this flask, mixed in a good dribble of blackcurrant cordial and sealed it up, I opened it up again and the drink inside was still warm. Not "hot", but definitely warm enough to give me a glow on an absolutely freezing cold morning.

So it does what it says on the tin - where a little label says it will keep things warm for 20-hours - and will fend off the cold more than admirably because it was sat around in temps of between 3C-15C for those 24 hours..

I used the TrailBreak again last weekend on a search & rescue callout. It stayed in the car whilst I was out on the ground because it's quite heavy and bulky and my pack is full of more-essential kit. But it acted like a homing beacon, calling me back at the end of each search sector for a nice cup of warming cordial again. Each one was piping hot, but I was saved from any damage by the thick silicone insulation on the bottle (to stop cold hands freezing to it!) and by a very well insulated mug that's a good size to drink from. In fact, the mug is double-insulated itself, so your drink won't burn your hand OR get cold quickly once it's poured.

The TrailBreak comes with two flavours of stopper (one is hidden in the base of the packaging). I prefer the old-school (and slightly better insulating) traditional screw-in stopper, which you take completely off to pour your drink in to the mug. But it also comes with a more modern click-closed stopper which allows you to pour the contents through a small hole, or even sip it directly from the bottle. I have to say that sippy tops scare me because I tend to put super-hot drinks in my flasks and I've got a delicate tongue that is no friend to scolding.

The TrailBreak is a double-walled stainless steel bottle which means it can't break if you drop it. Although it'd be hard to drop it because the silicone coating is very grippy.

A nice feature is that the bottle has a nice wide mouth when the stopper is off for safe kettle-pouring and easy cleaning with a brush.

This is a serious piece of kit though, and it weighs a fair bit at 630g. That's actually more than the pair of walking boots I was wearing that same day and it gives a hint to the type of usage that you can expect the TrailBreak to lend itself to. For me it's a basecamp or car kit. For on trail use I'd take something smaller and lighter like one of Primus' 0.35L Vacuum Bottles instead.

Price: £35 for .75l and £40 for 1L
More: Primus (Store locator)

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