I have been looking at this, and thinking about it, and I have to agree with others here that the joints are problematic. The smallest hole, and it no longer functions.
They have a “squeegee” which is used to clean it, but it would need to be rinsed and dried, otherwise beverage remnants would get into the seams and the plastic case. If the beverages included any sugars, the whole thing becomes a bacteria farm.
Snowpeak makes a much cheaper titanium straw, which will last 1000 years. If you needed it to be smaller, you could pretty easily make hollow threaded sections that screw together.
Or, someone could make a more durable plastic straw for about three cents each. There is nothing really keeping us from washing and reusing regular straws, except their lack of durability.We have plenty of plastic straws in our cutlery drawer that came with drinks, and were washed to be reused. I carry one of the Snowpeak ones. I use it when traveling, to drink bottled drinks that may have been stored in sketchy conditions.
In my experience, metals will affect the taste of acidic drinks, but only if left in contact for a long time. In some cases, it can have an antiseptic effect.
