Stainless steel with glass insulation is the best way to go. Stanley makes these at affordable prices, which can be bought at Walmart or the sporting goods section at Sears. Try not to drop these, as the glass will break and your food won’t stay warm as long. They also complement camping sets very well, if you don’t plan to do a lot of cooking outside this summer. You can also buy plastic sets, but these don’t retain their heat as well and can break easily. The nice thing about soup mugs, too, is portability. You can take them anywhere without getting out your bowl and your spoon. These kinds of items are popular with the Boyscouts, and with summer camps. With some of the heartier soups made today like Campbells Chunky, you can often get an entire meal out of your soup mug. Just heat it up on the stove or in the microwave before pouring it into your thermos, and you’re good to go. If you plan on doing any extended hiking, like the Appalachian Trail, this is an item that makes all kinds of sense to take with you, very practical.
You can also buy traditional soup mugs for at home, such as stoneware or metal soup mugs for dinner. These are often restaurant quality, and will give you a healthy serving size to go with your sandwich or main course. If you go to a typical American diner and or clam chowder or any other kind of soup, it is generally served in a quality stoneware soup mug. These are good to have. Of course, you can get ceramic soup mugs, stainless steel, or plastic, ranging in price from twenty dollars to over one hundred dollars. Nordic Ware makes an affordable soup mug for just six dollars and ninety-nine cents.
For restaurant grade soup mugs, try www.wasserstrom.com. They sell durable mugs for coffee or soup for around sixty dollars. Most diners that bring you a pitcher of coffee will also serve the same large mugs that are used to serve soup, which is nice for serving breakfast. If you own a restaurant or are planning on going into the food service business, you will need to buy a set or several sets of these kinds of soup mugs. They are great for serving lunch, when many menus offer a cup of soup instead of a bowl to go with the sandwich or other lunch menu items. The best soup mug that I found for restaurant grade was the Diversified Ceramics mug, for around one hundred and forty-six dollars. If you have a big enough budget to invest in some fine furnishings for your restaurant or diner, I would recommend these for your line of lunch wares.