****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
Let me tell you a little story about Sistema containers. Imagine a lunchbag, forgotten in an abandoned school back pack on the last day of school in mid-May. Found three months later, in mid-August. Picture, if you will, a half-eaten sandwich and left over yogurt, having festered in the lunch bag all those days...Now imagine opening the Sistema containers and finding that, though a bit crusty, the sandwich was neither moldy nor disgusting in any way. The yogurt, amazingly enough, still smelled pleasant!So, if you've considered Sistema but weren't sure whether the containers any good- they ARE! Those seals, they are the thing of miracles.I like cereal for dinner and I have some long days on campus. Now I can tale my own cereal with me! I read some less favorable reviews of this product and I will try to address some of their concerns. Cereal goes in the bottom and the milk goes on top. This is why the spoon attaches underneath the upper bowl - so it stays dry and not covered in milk, which is what would happen if it was just underneath the lid. Of course, it your're using it for yogurt, this might be inconvenient, but it was made for cereal and milk. It certainly isn't designed to be tossed around. On a normal day, I carry my lunch on a couple of buses and stick in it in a 'frige on campus when I get there. I eat cereal sometime between evening classes. Normally the cereal is nice and dry. The other day, I was rushing too much and dropped my lunch at least three times. I dropped it hard enough that it bounced and/or rolled each time. When I got to my cereal later that day, a little milk had leaked out. Some got around inside my lunchbox, but just a tiny bit. One napkin wiped all contents, and the box, dry as a bone. As for the cereal in the lower compartment, a few drops made it in there, but when I ate it I noticed no difference in the flavor or texture of my cereal. It's not a huge portion, but it does fine for me. Does anyone really need to take a giant bowl of cereal on the go...? Anyway, I have no complaints. I really like this thing. It does exactly what it was designed to do.I'd like it to have been just a tad larger, or the proportions between the sections a bit different. For the intended purpose of keeping the dry and wet ingredients of a yogurt parfait separate until ready to eat, it does that fine. However, I for one don't want the same amount of granola as the yogurt and fruit combined. It would have been nicer either with a third compartment so there would have been one for fruit, one for yogurt and one for granola, or a larger section for the fruit and yogurt and a smaller section for the granola. As it stands, I put the fruit in the bottom, the yogurt in the top, then carry the granola in a zipping plastic bag (considering picking up another relatively small sealable plastic container for one of the ingredients, but that sort of kills the convenience of one stacked container for everything).A couple of reviews mentioned not liking the included spoon. I've had no problems with it and in fact like it. I usually end up not using it since I have utensils at my desk at work, but it seems to snap together nicely and is pretty much a great size for on-the-go convenience were I to use it out and about.OVERVIEW:On my commute to work, I don't like having to carry more than one bag (a backpack). But I do like eating cereal for breakfast. However, bringing cereal to work isn't the easiest thing to do. I was using two separate Pyrex bowls/lids to bring the cereal/milk separately, so this looked like a perfect solution.PROS:* Airtight -- I kept milk in the top portion and very little, if any at all, seeped into the cereal below. None leaked out whatsoever* Spoon It Up -- The included spoon is cool and convenient if you somehow don't have access to oneCONS:* Too Small -- I never follow the serving size directions of cereal (ho only eats a half cup?). Good luck getting anything other than granola into this thing. Try something like Frosted Mini Wheats and you'd be lucky to get 5 biscuits in it.* Spoon It Down -- Any cereal in the bottom compartment will get in the way of the spoon, so if you try to fill it up (as shown in the picture) while the spoon is inside, there'll be no way to close it. You'd have to remove the spoon firstBOTTOM LINE:This is a good idea (just like the rest of Sistema products), but I don't think it's large enough. The breakfast that's pictured is really the only decently-sized breakfast you could eat in this. Any other kind of cereal (besides maybe flakes) just doesn't work well.This has been part of my 365 Review Revue: 1 review a day, with humor along the way.I bought this to bring my homemade parfait to work. I prefer to make my own parfait so I know exactly what went into it.In terms of loading the parfait, it was a bit of trail and error. Here are the two options I tried:- Load greek yogurt on top, topped with honey or jelly- Load dried fruit and granola at the bottomThis method keeps the spoon clean (the spoon is attached to the bottom of the top tray), but find that the top does not hold enough yogurt, and I ended up with too much dried fruit/granola at the bottom.My preferred way of loading:- Dried fruit(s) of my choice at the bottom, add yogurt, and honey/jelly all within the same compartment. It helps if I take a spoon and smooth down the top of the yogurt. I also eyeball it to make sure it doesn't come up too high.- Load the granola on the top tray.- Load the spoon on the top tray together with the granola instead of attaching the spoon to the outside bottom of the top tray. This keeps the spoon relatively clean of yogurt smears.- Put lid on. Place in fridge. Grab and go next morning.I bought 3 of these for 2 of us to use through out the week. Having 3 means we always have one back up in case we left the container at work or if one is in the dishwasher being washed.Great containers, perfect for my overnight oats (the recipe i've used is the slimming world one and it fits perfectly) It does come with a spoon as well which I don't require but i expect it would be good for cereal and milk. I have ordered 4 more so hopefully these will be the same.Take porridge into work in this container use the top section to put my oats in (leave oats in bag) I leave oats in the pack they come in as I've noticed on a number of occasions the milk from the bottom section leaks into the top section making a mess. But if you leave your oats so simple packs unopened it won't matter if milks gets to them as they are in a waterproof packet. The spoon this come with is very difficult to clean as it's a clip on its very hard to get into the grooves to thoroughly clean so I've just binned it and take my own man size metal spoon. Overall great food container works well for me. I've never had it leak milk from the actual container. Would recommend.Great little pot so your breakfast doesnt go soggy on the comute. Gather its more designed fkr yoghurt as milk (in either section) can leak into the other section when moved and tilted. However the container itself is very well sealed. There is also a spoon clicked into the bottom of the divider which is really handy for on the go. Decent size too so get a good portion. I use mine every morning and love it. So useful. Other than milk can move when tilted (so you learn to move it carefully and upright) the only other issue i faced was that when the divider is removed you dont know the fill line. Easily fixed by making the pot or label.The cons:- This is NOT a leakproof container, which means carrying stuff like cereal and milk in it would be disastrous.It leaked my curry in my bag, which was equally disastrous.- The size is awkward, kind of small for lunch and big for breakfast.The pros:- It has a little spoon (though tiny and unsuitable for lunch, only really suitable for tiny cereal in milk which as I said, you wouldn’t want to carry in there...),- it was cheap.- delivery was fast.- I’m sure it’s fine to separate dry food if that’s what you need it for, I guess you can carry lentils (in no juice whatsoever) and rice for example.Only reason I’m not returning is it was cheap and not worth the hassle/packaging waste to return it.This is a great little pot for breakfasts on the go. I've used it for yoghurt and fruit/oats and occasionally for porridge (albeit with milk powder rather than liquid milk).Never had any leakage problems like other reviewers, probably because the only liquid I've put in is yoghurt. Looking at it, it's pretty clear that less viscous liquids would quite easily leak between the two sections.The issue for me is that the spoon is connected to the underside of the top container, hence if you are storing your milk/yoghurt in the bottom container, as I do, you'll open it to find a messy spoon.
