I’ve been meaning to write a review on the foldable bowl and cup I own for some time now so here it is.
The Orikaso Bowl
“What is that?” a fellow camper asked me.
It’s a question I’ve gotten a lot on various backpacking and camping trips. It comes up because someone sees me using my Orikaso foldable bowl.
It’s just what it sounds like, it’s a piece of plastic which, when folded origami style along pre-bent lines, becomes a bowl. I love it for a few reasons:
- It’s lightweight – 1.3 oz
- It can pack flat and you can even use the plastic packaging envelope it came with to store it in
- It is flexible and fairly durable
- It’s reasonably priced
I’ve been using mine for a few years now, I mainly use it for oatmeal but have also put soup in it. It holds a lot, I can fit two packets of oatmeal in it easily with room to spare (it’s bigger than it looks in the picture). The thin plastic doesn’t insulate however so when I put something hot in it I am sure to hold the bowl carefully. However I’ve never been afraid that the bowl would come apart, just that my hands would get warm or if I held it by one side it might spill.
Some fellow Orikaso bowl owners I have run into also complain about it being hard to clean because food gets stuck in the folds, however I don’t find that much gets stuck in there (a few instant oatmeal flakes but nothing bigger for example). I unfold the bowl when it’s time to clean it and have no problem.
Orikaso Cup
I found the Orikaso cup on sale and bought it to try it out. I wish I could say I love it as much as the bowl but I find it much harder to put together. There are more folds to it so it takes longer, something that you don’t look forward to in the morning if this is the cup you want to use for your morning coffee (or hot cocoa in my case). I also found it hard to put together as the instructions were hard to follow. I thought it might just be me but I ran into another cup owner who said he had given up and his friends had to do it for him.
It still has the same pros as the bowl though, but to me the weight savings is not that signficant when you compare the cup to what I normally use, a plain brown plastic camping measuring cup with a small handle.
So there you have it, my Orikaso review. I highly recommend the bowl (which I also use as a plate occasionally, I just unfold it and though it won’t lie completely flat on its own, its serviceable if you’ll be eating on a flat surface). I’d say the cup is worth a try, especially if you also get it on sale and if you don’t need to fold and unfold it multiple times in a trip. Otherwise, just get a regular cup.
If you’re interested in the Orikaso bowl, here’ s my Amazon link to the Big Bowl (the one I have). The cup can be found here.