Takeya Glass Bottle with Silicone Sleeve

Pros: Reusable, dishwasher safe, glass, silicone sleeve

Cons: none for me, some might consider the lack of a straw or spout a problem.
I’m a water fanatic.  Never thought I’d say those words—for the 26-plus years I smoked, I hated water.  Tasted awful, like ashtrays smelled.  I needed my drinks strongly flavored and carbonated to scour out the taste of the cigarettes.  But since I quit nine years ago?
I’ve become something of a connoisseur of waters.  I used to think people who said they could tell the difference between one water and another were being pretentious.  Now I know they were being honest.  I found that I couldn’t stand tap water with ice cubes (ack!), and every reusable water bottle I’d ever owned (and I’d owned many) tasted like crap plastic or crap metal.  Either way, the flavor was awful to me.

My love of water led to something of an impasse between me and my teenage son.  See, he took all those lessons I gave on recycling, reusing, reducing, and threw them right back at me.  How could I justify bottled water?   How could I, even if I was recycling, justify sucking down 70 bottles of water every two weeks?
Kid was right.  And I knew he was right.  Yet, I really couldn’t stand the flavor of tap water in plastic or metal.  So, as a compromise, we picked up 20 Voss waters in glass bottles and began reusing the bottles.  Problem was, they were only 12.7 ounce bottles.
And then hubby found Takeya bottles at Costco.  Made in Japan, these are large (22 ounce/.65 liters) glass bottles, no silly, nasty tasting plastic straws or spouts, with a silicone sleeve to protect.  He snapped up four 2-packs and I’ve been happy ever since.  In fact, it’s been months  since we bought any bottled water.

And once again, we have peace at home.
Takeya water bottles are, above all, thick and sturdy.  They don’t have an “oops, don’t bump it against anything” feel to them.  They are, of course, heavier than plastic or most metal, and that’s okay with me.  I’m not looking to haul ten of them around at a time.  The necks are fairly wide, and smaller ice cubes can fit easily, if you’re so inclined.
The silicone sleeves, which are not meant to be removed, give protection with hard knocks.  I don’t know how it would do hitting pavement, but it keeps the glass intact when it tumbles from countertop to hardwood floor.  These sleeves come in a variety of colors—we have black, red, blue, green, and purple.  The sleeves have cut-outs on the side to make water level visible.  I like that.  While these bottles/sleeves do seem to keep water colder than plastic reusables, I wouldn’t say that the sleeve gives any long-term coldness.

The lids are a sturdy, hard black plastic that screw down airtight and leakproof.  No fancy flip-up spout or internal straw.  This is a bottle with a lid, nothing complicated.  That may make it unsuitable for folks doing a century ride who need to be able to take a drink without fiddling with a lid, but for the rest of us, this is great.   The top of the bottle also has a small handle/hook for snapping on with a carabiner or clasp and attaching to a backpack or belt.
Now, the company advertises these bottles as being made of “pure glass,” and I’m not sure what that means.  Might just be advertising, might be meaningful.
One of the best features, other than the “doesn’t make the water taste gross” part?  These puppies are dishwasher safe!  A few sites say “top rack safe,” but the packaging just reads “dishwasher safe.”  We’ve washed the bottles bottom rack (heat dry OFF) a number of times, and they come through just fine.  We often hand wash the lids, though they’ve come through in the top rack basket A-okay.  The silicone (again, don’t remove it) fares marvelously in the dishwasher, and the whole shebang is nice and clean.

And that’s about it.  I really am enjoying these bottles.  Easy to clean, no nasty taste, big enough to keep me happy, and not too pricy, really.  We got ours at Costco, and if you have a Costco membership, I definitely recommend you pick them up there–at 10 bucks a pair, they’re half the price you’ll find them elsewhere.  However, if you don’t have a Costco membership, they’re still a good deal on Amazon at 10-11 a pop.  I know 11 bucks or so a bottle seems really expensive, but, in just a few months, they’ve already paid for themselves, and I expect them to last a long time.  If you’re looking to reduce your footprint and save money in the long-term, I recommend Takeya glass bottles with the silicone sleeve.  Unreservedly.