This is another goody recently received from Dooyoo as part of the Christmas contests. My first thoughts were "Oh another tin flask". I did not expect too much from this because I own two similar flasks, although the other two are not brand name. So - would the brand name one be better? Is a flask just a flask, or is it worth paying for a known brand like Thermos? I decided if I were going to review this properly, i would have to find out. They all look pretty similar. Tall, thin and metal with a cup that sits on the top. This flask holds 1 litre which is the same as my old ones, but what really counts is, how hot will this keep my tea?

I started off by heating the kettle, filling this with hot water, letting it stand 5 minutes and dumping it before refilling the flask. This takes the initial chill from the metal, and is something I would always do before filling a flask for a journey. I only filled this with water as I didn't care to waste a whole flask of lukewarm tea, and while I will drink tea like this in a pinch - I won't with a kettle handy. I then let the flask sit for 4 hours, or about as long as I would have with the old flasks, and poured out a bit of steaming hot water. This was still completely hot enough for a cup of tea - and handy because the water had once again gone off, so I helped myself. Now with my old flask I would have just made the tea when filling the flask. Four hours would have left the tea warm enough to drink - but barely, it would not have been warm enough to pour a good strong cuppa. A couple of days later, water service again restored, at least for the time being I decided, if this works for four hours, lets try it for more. Same test, but this time the flask sat for 7 hours. My husband was present when I opened it, and on noticing the puff of steam rising from the kettle, immediately declared "That one's mine", meaning he wants it for his fishing kit.
The water was still hot enough to brew a proper cuppa. So my opinion is that yes, in this case, it is worth paying extra for the branded item, but just how much extra would it cost. I think we bought the old flasks for about £6- £7, so what would this one cost? Well not as much as I thought, £9.99 from amazon with free delivery. For a product that works so much better, I find that a small price to pay.

Any drawbacks?
Well it appears the cup dents easily, as this arrived with a small dent from being posted. I have found this to be true with my other flasks as well though, and it does not affect the function of the item. I also used to love to hold the old flasks on a cold day to warm my hands. That does not work with this as the outside never gets hot, but of course it is the fact that it is better insulated that means the water or tea stays hot, so I can not complain.