If you love your pre-adventure / post-adventure bevis, you might have noticed over the past year that restaurants are doing away with straws or only providing them on request. It’s all because of a trend sweeping municipalities and entire countries to ban single-use plastics. That’s why we’ve been a little crazy about straws lately, and believe we’ve found the best budget reusable straw on the market.
Disclaimer: We’re gonna talk about things like dragons and lip temp. Don’t worry, it’ll all make sense soon.
Reusable straws are environmentally responsible
Yea ok, so we’re probably the ones you’ve seen pulling straws out of their pockets at the local burger joint. It probably looked funny at first, but let me tell you, it’s pretty awesome knowing we’re not contributing to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
A lil’ background on the evolution of reusable straw materials
If you were an early adopter, reusable straws have gotten better over the past few years.
Plastic, reusable straw v1.0
First there were plastic straws. While easy to reuse, they’re not so easy to clean. Making matters worse is the fact that these straws tend to warp and lose their structure when exposed to hot liquids or hot summer days. And of course, once a plastic straw is broken or bent, the sucking performance of the straw decreases. This type of straw is by far the most economical budget reusable straw, but also the most prone to damage.
Stainless steel, reusable straw v2.0
Then there were metal straws (technically metal straws have been around for a long time as tea strainers). Primarily made from stainless steel, these straws hold their structure well with both hot and cold liquids and don’t bend, but are a little difficult to clean and store. Overall, metal straws are a huge improvement over their reusable plastic predecessor.
Silicone vs. stainless steel
Stainless steel straws certainly do the job of transporting liquid from a cup to a mouth, but unfortunately tend to transport hot and cold temperatures of the beverage to your lips as well. That’s no good for a part of your body that has an extreme amount of nerve endings.
Silicon on the other hand does a great job of insulating lips from liquid, and a thick-walled silicon straw keeps its structure in temperatures up to 400 F (we don’t suggest ingesting liquids anywhere close to that temperature unless you’re a dragon).
Our pick for best budget reusable straw
As you may have guessed, there are a ton of reusable silicone straws on the market. In our experience, the GoSili straw and accompanying stainless steel tin is the perfect combo for a simple, sustainable straw (say that three times fast).
Use and cleaning
We won’t say too much more about using this straw (most has been said above), but something we love about GoSili straw, is that they make an extra long variety that works well in taller water bottles and tumblers. What we’re most impressed with is how easy these straws are to clean. Both dishwasher and boil safe, there are two methods available to clean these straws that don’t involve a brush. And, because the straws are translucent, it’s easy to tell if there’s debris stuck inside.
Storing your straw
The problem with rigid straw materials (like plastic and stainless steel) is that they’re hard to store. If you’ve ever tried to cram a straw inside a pouch inside a pocket before, you know how awkward trying to be environmentally conscious can be. The reason we think this is the best budget reusable straw is that it comes in a small reusable pillbox container that nestles nicely into a front or back pocket. It’s so simple, we can’t believe someone didn’t come up with it sooner.
If you’re looking for the best budget reusable straw that won’t freeze or burn your lips off (or if you’re a dragon), this is the one. A special thanks to GoSili who graciously responded to our request for a product sample to review for this article.