50 Strong Bottles

There are sooooo many water/hydration/bike/exercise bottles on the market these days? How do you choose?

Or, more important to me, how do I choose when I want to review one?

The answer is pretty simple. I like to look at bottles that have something different about them. And these days, that's getting harder and harder.

When the folks at 50 Strong contacted me, the one bottle that I thought was different from all of its peers was the Tornado Bottle. It contains a plastic tornado-shaped curly thing that's meant to help blend things in the bottle. Like if you add protein powders to your drinks.

I thought that was different. I had some stuff I was going to blend. And then ... my attention wandered.

I set the bottle aside until the day I was trying to make a salad dressing and it was lumpy and I was annoyed. And then I thought, hey, I have that tornado thing.

So I dumped the dressing in the bottle and gave it a shake. Then I made a salad. Flipped the top on the bottle, and I poured. And then I thought, hey this thing would be just fine for storing the salad dressing in the fridge, and it's easier to pour the dressing out of this than to try to pour from a canning jar, which is usually what I use.

Am I a genius, or what?

If the Tornado Bottle can handle salad dressing, it can surely hand a protein powder in some juice, right?

The 50 Strong people sell a LOT of different kinds of bottles. They sent me one of the Ice and Go bottles that has an integrated straw. I haven't tested it yet, but it looks study, and I like the straw for sipping.

If you don't like straws and you don't like the pink and gray bottle I got, there are a lot of different colors, shapes, lids, and ways to drink from them. You might as well just go look. Seriously. I'm not going to describe them all. Go. Look.

Best thing is that these aren't super-expensive bottles that you have to guard with your life. They're well-built and should last a long time, but if you happen to forget one at the beach, it's not like you need to take a loan to buy a new one. Very affordable.

The company also has a charitable component, so you can feel good about buying these bottles. Ten percent of the profits go to the 50 Strong Foundation, which awards scholarships to people pursuing careers in manufacturing.

Who's it for: People who carry drinks to go.

Pros: Nice bottles, not expensive, lots of colors and designs to choose from. Made in AMERICA. You don't see a lot of that these days.

Cons: If you go to a lot of events, you might already have free promotional bottles lying about.

Wishes: Um ... it's a bottle. There's not much I ask of it.

Source: I received this from the manufacturer for the purpose of a review.