Initial Report

Orikaso Picnic Set Initial Report

Personal Information:
Name: Christine Korhonen
Age: 31
Gender: female
Height: 5'4" (1.6 m)
Weight: 150 lb (68 kg)
E-mail: chris@wormguy.com
Location: Western Montana
Date: May 9, 2005

Backpacking Background:
I'm in Montana where I'm enjoying the summers and becoming re-acquainted with winter. Now that I'm back above the snow line, I'm attempting some winter camping and snowshoeing. I'm a lightweight backpacker mentally, if not always in practice. My summer pack weight is around 19 lb (9 kg) with a tent, but my winter pack hovers around 25 lb (11 kg).

Product Information:
Manufacturer: Flatworld
URL: www.flatworld.co.uk
Item: Orikaso Picnic Set (contains 2 cups, 2 bowls, 2 dishes)
MSRP: £9.99
Color: Red

Dimensions:
Listed Weight: 8 oz (223 g) for entire set
Measured Weight: Cup - 1.4 oz (40 g); Bowl - 1.2 oz (34 g); Dish - 1.6 oz (45 g) each; Entire set- 8.4 oz (238 g)
Measured Size- Flat: Cup - 8" x 8¼" (20 cm x 21 cm) + 7" (18 cm) handle
                                   Bowl - 9¼" (24 cm) diameter + 1¼" (3 cm) tabs
                                   Dish - 9½" (24 cm) square

Assembled: Cup - 3½" top diameter x 2¼" base edge x 3" high (9 cm x 6 cm x 8 cm)
                   Bowl - 6½" top diameter x 2¾" base diameter x 3" high (17 cm x 7 cm x 8 cm)
                   Deep Dish - 5" top edge x 4" base edge x 2¾" high (13 cm x 10 cm x 7 cm)

Measured Volume: Cup - 1 c (240 mL)
                                Bowl - 2 c (470 mL)
                                Deep Dish - 2 1/2 c (590 mL)

Orikaso Description:
Orikaso dishes are plastic dishes that fold flat for storage. The Orikaso picnic set comes with two cups, two bowls and two dishes (or plates), all of which can be flattened and snapped together to form a package 9½" (24 cm) square, around the size of a sheet of notebook paper (though a little thicker).

Packaging:
The picnic set came folded flat in a paperboard hanging display envelope. I was very impressed by how small and light the package was. The packaging showed written and photo instructions for assembling the cup, bowl, and dish with a couple of assembly options for the dish. These photos and instructions are also shown on the Flatworld website. The envelope advertises a lifetime guarantee for the picnic set and has some common sense caution tips. Along with standbys such as "wash before use" and "children should be supervised", an interesting caution is "Hot food and drink will soften dish." This will be tested. My favorite caution is "Do not unfold when in use." I'll keep that in mind.

The picnic set was shipped with the two flattened dishes snapped together and the other pieces folded neatly between them. This was a neat storage trick, one that took me a while to duplicate. So I unsnapped the dishes and tried to figure out how to fold these things.

Item Descriptions:
Dish- The dish seemed the easiest to figure out, but I was soon proven wrong. The dish is a square piece of plastic with several crease lines running through it and snaps on the corners. Two corners have two snaps each, while the other two corners have one snap each. The pictures on the display envelope show the dish folded into seven configurations: three dish configurations, three funnel configurations, and laid flat as a cutting board. The funnels involve either pouring from an unsnapped corner or snapping one of the single-snap corners together and then pouring. It is also suggested that a snapped corner could hold a coffee filter and hot water can then be poured through. I don't drink coffee, so won't be testing this.

To make the dishes, the edges are folded up along the creases and the corners snapped together. For the Deep Dish, the innermost creases are used. I was surprised by how small the volume of the Deep Dish was compared to the surface area of the piece laid flat. When the dish is folded like this, there is quite a bit of plastic tied up in the corners that isn't converted into usable space. The sides of the Deep Dish seem a little steep and the top opening narrow at first glance, so these aspects will be tested.

For the other two dish configurations, a second crease line closer to the outer edge of the plastic is used. This second crease is only found on three of the four sides. A three-sided Shallow Dish was easily made by folding along these outer creases and snapping the outer snaps. I'll have to see how useful this configuration is. Before now, I've never thought about using a three-sided dish.

A four-sided Shallow Dish is also pictured on the display. This was not as easily made. Since the fourth side only has one crease line, the dish turns out to be shallow on one end and deep on the other. Looking closer at the picture, that's just what is shown. I couldn't tell this at first because I thought the dish was sitting on a slanted surface to elevate one end for the photograph. Not the case! This configuration is very odd. One end is 1½" (4 cm) deep while the other end is 2¾" (7 cm). If the fourth side had an additional shallow crease and all four corners had two sets of snaps, then a true Shallow Dish could be made. From looking at the website, I was most excited by the Shallow Dish since it seemed the ideal size for me. I'm a little disappointed that is configuration is not as elegant as it could be. I will still test this Shallow-Deep configuration for its usefulness.

Bowl- The bowl is the most ingenious piece. There are no snaps. The creases on the bowl run up and down the sides instead of running parallel to the top edge, as in the dish. Folding these creases form pleats in the plastic that overlap and raise the bowl's sides. The bowl has a nice surface area to volume ratio. I like how the tabs lock the bowl in place like true origami. After seeing all of the pieces, I'm most excited by the bowl. I'll see how well it works out in the field.

Cup- The cup is the most complicated item, with ten pictures and a paragraph of text for instructions. The cup has a huge ½" (1 cm) snap holding together the plastic folds on the front. The snap seemed overkill at first glance, but it does hold four layers of plastic in place, so has a lot of stress on it. The first time I tried out the cup, I put it together backwards with the snap on the inside. That didn't work. Now I know what the cup is supposed to look like and how it's supposed to go. I still have a problem getting the handle folded right, but it's getting easier each time. I was a little surprised at how small the cup is when folded. The cup has a max fill line while the other pieces don't.

Expectations from Website:
The Flatworld website has good pictures and folding instructions for the pieces and describes suggested uses for each item. The website does not have detailed dimensions or weight information on each piece. From the website, I thought that the dish would be most useful. There is a lot of discussion about the many configurations for the dish that is very flashy. After looking at and handling the pieces, the simplicity of the bowl is now more attractive to me. This doesn't come through on the website.

Test Plan:
I will test these dishes along the trails of Montana, Wyoming, and California. I will pay particular attention to ease of assembly in the field and the usefulness of the different configurations.

Read more reviews of Flatworld gear
Read more gear reviews by Christine Korhonen

Reviews > Cook Gear > Cooking Accessories > Flatworld Orikaso Picnic Set > Christine Korhonen > Initial Report

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