With colder weather in full swing, Japanese staples such as hotly served green tea, miso soup, and ramen seem to get a natural boost in comfort. However, even for those seasoned in holding onto hot tableware can find themselves waiting for their bowls and cups to cool down before bringing them up for a sip or bite. Fortunately Thermos, a Japanese company that specializes in (wait for it...) thermoses and outdoor camping supplies is introducing a solution with their new thermos-style rice and soup bowls that keep your food piping hot but have unheated exteriors.

The new bowls use a stainless steel vacuum insulation structure to make hotter servings easier to handle when serving and picking up to eat. The interior has a ceramic coating resistant to staining, and an especially durable exterior that's hard to break even if dropped. Both types are dishwasher-compatible as well.

Here is a comparative illustration between the thermos tableware and standard tableware. (The thermos types, rice bowl and soup bowl respectively, are featured on the left of each image)

Rice bowls come in two sizes and three colors (capacity 250 ml, 4000 yen) and (capacity 350 ml, 4500 yen), and soup bowls do as well (capacity 300 ml, 4000 yen) and (capacity 400 ml, 4500 yen). They are available in beige, white, black, and red colors on the type of bowl and can be ordered directly from Thermos as well as on Amazon (rice bowl, soup bowl).