The personal website of Matt Henderson.
26 January 2004
Just had a birthday yesterday (30-something) and my parents sent me as a gift an aluminum Nissan Thermos. It holds 33 cl. of liquid, which, I think, is about 11 oz. It’s funny, because this sort of thing is so common in the United States, where the long drive to work drinking a large quantity of drip coffee is such a typical aspect of the average American’s day. But here in Europe, your rarely see such things, as people tend to prefer quickly downing a tiny espresso at the roadside cafe. Most of my friends here, when seeing this thermos sitting in the kitchen will say, “What is that?”
Anyway, since I don’t tend to drink 33 cl of espresso at a go (I don’t have a drip coffee maker), I decided to dedicate my shiny new thermos to the after lunch tea. So today, after lunch, I boiled some water, threw in a mint tea bag, and closed up the thermos to let it steep.
About an hour and half later, I noticed the thing sitting on my desk, and thought, “Dang! I forgot about my tea. It’s going to be cold! Oh well.”
Wrong. Very wrong.
As I write this blog entry, some four hours later, my tongue still feels like I decided to lick a hot griddle. I honestly don’t think I’ll ever be able to taste anything again! My neighbors must surely think there’s a screaming lunatic living in this house.
Reading the instruction manual of the thermos after the fact (as usual) I find the big warning that this baby can keep liquids at nearly the same scalding temperature for almost FOUR HOURS! This thing is an absolute marvel of thermal engineering, comparable to, oh, say, the heat shields on the front of the freakin’ space shuttle! If I ever go to Mount Everest, I’ll be the guy having hot chicken noodle soup on the summit.
Anyway, just wish I’d considered all that earlier. Ouch. :-(
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