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Post by Magnus B. on Mar 28, 2020 13:05:13 GMT -8
Hey y'all, I hope you are all healthy, safe, and employed. A few months back I was waiting for my local Cabelas store to open, and wandered into a Walmart to kill some time. I soon found myself eyeballing a piece of gear. I love gear! It was a Stanly French Press. After examining the selection on the shelf. I decided to purchase one. I ran a few trial coffee brews with it in my kitchen. I performed well. I then headed out into the forrest to shoot a gear review video for my YouTube channel. Can you all take a look at my video, and tell me what you think of it? I am pretty darn satisfied with the French Press. Click here to watch my video.
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Post by trinity on Mar 29, 2020 7:18:06 GMT -8
Nice video, and looks like a nice press, though I personally wouldn't take anything this heavy into the back country. I don't generally watch videos, but I think yours is well done, informative and to the point. I have a Snowpeak titanium coffee press that I took on a few trips before deciding it wasn't worth the weight and hassle, but I know that good coffee is really important to some. Now my wife and I use it for car camping trips.
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gabby
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Post by gabby on Mar 29, 2020 7:48:55 GMT -8
I have a Snowpeak titanium coffee press that I took on a few trips before deciding it wasn't worth the weight and hassle Me too. Why did I buy that thing? Why did I buy 90% of the stuff I now have in the back room, slowly aging? Every purchase, I now know, carries the cost (and extra weight and time) of its maintenance. Then there's the "attachment syndrome" that a few of us - don't look at me! - have. I also have a glass "French press" in the kitchen downstairs. And a glass hot chocolate mixer sitting somewhere down there too. Then there are my 2 dozen (or so) Japanese matcha cups and bowls, which I use for coffee. These aren't even good for car camping. I suppose I could get bamboo baskets in which to carry them, slung from my rearview mirror ... ETA, FYI: I didn't watch the video all the way through. I watched enough to attempt to id the guy who made it. But I did click the link: that's probably all he wanted, anyway. I started to post the specs and make a comment, but I held back. As you noted, trinity, this guy is probably not a "backpacker", though I'm not anymore either. When I say "I'm a backpacker" in explanation of all the gear (and suspect predilections I have) to some stranger, the wife will invariably say something like: "Then go backpacking, for God's sake - and give the rest of us a little peace!"
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jazzmom
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Post by jazzmom on Mar 29, 2020 8:08:34 GMT -8
Then there are my 2 dozen (or so) Japanese matcha cups and bowls, which I use for coffee. Gabby, those are beautiful... I envy your collection! I've been picking up sake cups in my travels for a long time.
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gabby
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Post by gabby on Mar 29, 2020 8:42:19 GMT -8
Gabby, those are beautiful... I envy your collection! Those aren't really mine - I snatched a couple of photos off the web instead of pulling mine out of the "tea cabinet" downstairs, where some of them are still in boxes. I have bought all of the ones I have at a local Japanese grocery - Asahi Imports - closer to downtown on Burnet Road. I can't resist their bowls and cups, and I always buy a couple of bottles of saki, condiments, pasta, fish and sometimes cooking gear. asahiimports.com/So, unlike you, I don't travel all that far. Sadly, the new H-Mart is pretty much putting the old small, local Chinese, Japanese & Korean stores out of business. My daughter tends to go through the collection and steal the prettiest ones for her "tea ceremony". Characteristically for her, and true to the nature of what she's learned from Japanese culture, she only keeps one. She took classes in "tea ceremony" while in Japan, as well as lessons on the koto. Her room is a shrine to Japanese culture, including movies, books and games. She has 2 kotos, which she's played at a few local concerts for an audience. She is shy and wouldn't claim to be all that good, but I have a video of her playing, if I could find it. She's slowly becoming more "Americanized", but she retains the retiring nature of the Japanese culture, and is often "offended" at my much more brash and crude American-trained mind. ETA: I took pictures of my own cups and bowls - and the "converted" tea cabinet (it was an old cherry wood TV cabinet), but I should really refrain from messing this thread up any more than I already have. If a moderator shows up, I don't have a problem with moving stuff, though that's asking people to go too far, perhaps. I apologize for being my stupid self, and wandering far, far afield.
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Post by trinity on Mar 29, 2020 12:41:46 GMT -8
These aren't even good for car camping. I recall a thread on Backpackinglight in which someone posted photos of the ceramic mugs he makes, which he always takes backpacking. To him, the extra weight is worth being able to drink his coffee out of a nice ceramic mug. Pretty much everyone agreed the weight penalty was worth it. Uncharacteristically generous behavior from the BPL crowd. I have at a local Japanese grocery - Asahi Imports Following you way off topic here.... I've been shopping at Asahi (originally called Shigeko's) for as long as I can remember. (at least since 1970 or so). Early on the Shigeko family ran the business out of their garage, selling to the few Japanese-American families in Austin at the time. Eventually they moved to North Loop, which is the place I remember the most fondly, then eventually to their current location. I hope they are able to continue in business.
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crawford
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Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.--Edison
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Post by crawford on Mar 30, 2020 6:56:34 GMT -8
I can respect it. A bit heavy for me, Starbucks Via Columbian works for me and doesn't add too much weight. Every hiker has their own "comfort items" so its good you made the review.
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Post by Magnus B. on Mar 30, 2020 8:20:38 GMT -8
I have a Snowpeak titanium coffee press that I took on a few trips before deciding it wasn't worth the weight and hassle Me too. Why did I buy that thing? Why did I buy 90% of the stuff I now have in the back room, slowly aging? Every purchase, I now know, carries the cost (and extra weight and time) of its maintenance. Then there's the "attachment syndrome" that a few of us - don't look at me! - have. I also have a glass "French press" in the kitchen downstairs. And a glass hot chocolate mixer sitting somewhere down there too. Then there are my 2 dozen (or so) Japanese matcha cups and bowls, which I use for coffee. These aren't even good for car camping. I suppose I could get bamboo baskets in which to carry them, slung from my rearview mirror ... ETA, FYI: I didn't watch the video all the way through. I watched enough to attempt to id the guy who made it. But I did click the link: that's probably all he wanted, anyway. I started to post the specs and make a comment, but I held back. As you noted, trinity , this guy is probably not a "backpacker", though I'm not anymore either. When I say "I'm a backpacker" in explanation of all the gear (and suspect predilections I have) to some stranger, the wife will invariably say something like: "Then go backpacking, for God's sake - and give the rest of us a little peace!" It is more than just about the "click" to me. I enjoy making videos. I like feedback to know how well I did, so I can do better in the future. How many times do I have to go backpacking in a year to earn the title "back packer"? I only made it out twice last year. We had a trip on the calendar for early April, but Covid 19 cancelled that. I won a lottery to go to the enchantment core zone on May 23, but now that is up in the air too. I am not even sure I will have a job to go back to at this point. Alas, I enjoy car camping, and canoe camping too. I personally would not pack this French Press on my back, unless I was hiking with serious coffee folks. Which I typically am not. I will definitely use it in the canoe, and car camping. Last year we did a 6 mile overnight up the Dosewallips river valley. My buddy Gene (a retired Marine) packed in a 3# tomahawk ribeye stake, and a light weight grill to cook it on. I packed in a remote thermometer so, I would not screw up cooking it for us. That was the best "backpacking" meal I have ever had. :-)
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Post by trinity on Mar 30, 2020 10:16:16 GMT -8
Magnus B. , sorry to hear about your lost trip, and I hope you are able to keep your job, it must really be anxiety-provoking to have that uncertainty. I hope it all works out for you--including your May trip. Stay well.
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gabby
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Post by gabby on Mar 30, 2020 10:34:15 GMT -8
First of all, I wasn't so much trying to give you a hard time. I was agreeing with trinity , whose comments were pretty much in agreement with what I would have posted, had I posted when I first read your OP and been in a "prettier place" at the time. But my mood when I first saw this thread was on the "dark side" (it's getting very close around the house these days, just FYI), and I figured there was no real reason to make all the snide remarks I was tempted to make about the weight (2.5 pounds as I recall - the Snowpeak Ti French press ref'd by trinity , which I also own and consider to be too heavy and bulky for regular use, given its limited purpose - weighs 6.3 ounces) and suitability of your review for this backpacking forum. In the first place, that's not something I should do, and it's not something I like doing all that much either. I have done occasional videos of relatively hulking white gas stoves here myself - for my own amusement and pleasure - and so I also know that not everything considered here absolutely needs to be entirely appropriate and weigh only 30g. But still. It is more than just about the "click" to me. I enjoy making videos. I like feedback to know how well I did, so I can do better in the future. I feel that skepticism is a useful tool when perusing the internet. There are so many cases of "pretend" out here that it's hard not to get sucked into thinking everybody is NOT on the up-and-up. We get a lot of "one post Johnnies" here, and it's a hard matter to read accurately. But I think my own status as a "backpacker" might be something of a joke here too. It's not important. I've gone "glamping" too. In fact, what I mostly do is take some food, my tent and bag and a good book out to a state park to "get some air" (which I'm badly in need of right at this moment, in fact) and relax. On the other hand, in a sort of FYI about this site ... I find myself thinking here that, should we start a discussion on this forum about My buddy Gene (a retired Marine) packed in a 3# tomahawk ribeye stake ... we'd probably spend days - maybe weeks, and page after page of a thread, or maybe two ( because the vegetarians and those who renounce and abjure beef entirely, or favor chicken instead, would start their own threads to tout the protein and health advantages of a meatless diet, or a diet composed of fowl, pig or goat instead, based on arguments about relative weight or effect on health) - yeah, we'd spend days debating why you'd pick that particular cut of beef over something smaller and lighter and boneless, and why, if you just had to have one of those particular cuts, you wouldn't save the weight of the bone and extract it before going out? There would be extended and laborious discussions of taking the time to cook "test" ribeyes, chicken, pork, lamb (and maybe even some grilled asparagus and tomato for comparison - but never, never, never okra!) before deciding on what to take and the exact cut, and there would definitely be someone who'd argue that you'd get the same food value and taste by going with a much smaller filet mignon. He might even start his own thread. And, should someone somewhere suggest that they just had to have this particular cut of beef, there'd be long, tedious debates that went on forever about whether or not, to preserve the flavor and style of the original cut, it wouldn't be better to remove the bone and drill out the marrow for cooking, saving the weight of the bone but retaining the flavor. All to save an ounce, and to serve your own favorite. We ain't Marines, and we don't haul no 3# tomahawk ribeye. We stop at the trailhead and cook and eat it there, since, you see, that way it's reduced to minimum weight, and serves as fuel for the trail - "multiuse". (But some of us carry the beer to the top of the mountain. But only pale ale. And only if we can't fool the wife or buddy into carrying it for us.)
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Post by Lamebeaver on Mar 31, 2020 8:39:57 GMT -8
Nice system Magnus B. ! I particularly like your koozy. The only component I would add would be an aluminum wind screen for your stove. I'd make mine so it comes at lest 1/4 way up the side of the cup, to more efficiently channel the heat from the stove. This would then become my "go-to" method to boil water for FBC.
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Post by Magnus B. on Apr 2, 2020 8:18:27 GMT -8
First of all, I wasn't so much trying to give you a hard time. I was agreeing with trinity , whose comments were pretty much in agreement with what I would have posted, had I posted when I first read your OP and been in a "prettier place" at the time. But my mood when I first saw this thread was on the "dark side" (it's getting very close around the house these days, just FYI), and I figured there was no real reason to make all the snide remarks I was tempted to make about the weight (2.5 pounds as I recall - the Snowpeak Ti French press ref'd by trinity , which I also own and consider to be too heavy and bulky for regular use, given its limited purpose - weighs 6.3 ounces) and suitability of your review for this backpacking forum. In the first place, that's not something I should do, and it's not something I like doing all that much either. I have done occasional videos of relatively hulking white gas stoves here myself - for my own amusement and pleasure - and so I also know that not everything considered here absolutely needs to be entirely appropriate and weigh only 30g. But still. It is more than just about the "click" to me. I enjoy making videos. I like feedback to know how well I did, so I can do better in the future. I feel that skepticism is a useful tool when perusing the internet. There are so many cases of "pretend" out here that it's hard not to get sucked into thinking everybody is NOT on the up-and-up. We get a lot of "one post Johnnies" here, and it's a hard matter to read accurately. But I think my own status as a "backpacker" might be something of a joke here too. It's not important. I've gone "glamping" too. In fact, what I mostly do is take some food, my tent and bag and a good book out to a state park to "get some air" (which I'm badly in need of right at this moment, in fact) and relax. On the other hand, in a sort of FYI about this site ... I find myself thinking here that, should we start a discussion on this forum about My buddy Gene (a retired Marine) packed in a 3# tomahawk ribeye stake ... we'd probably spend days - maybe weeks, and page after page of a thread, or maybe two ( because the vegetarians and those who renounce and abjure beef entirely, or favor chicken instead, would start their own threads to tout the protein and health advantages of a meatless diet, or a diet composed of fowl, pig or goat instead, based on arguments about relative weight or effect on health) - yeah, we'd spend days debating why you'd pick that particular cut of beef over something smaller and lighter and boneless, and why, if you just had to have one of those particular cuts, you wouldn't save the weight of the bone and extract it before going out? There would be extended and laborious discussions of taking the time to cook "test" ribeyes, chicken, pork, lamb (and maybe even some grilled asparagus and tomato for comparison - but never, never, never okra!) before deciding on what to take and the exact cut, and there would definitely be someone who'd argue that you'd get the same food value and taste by going with a much smaller filet mignon. He might even start his own thread. And, should someone somewhere suggest that they just had to have this particular cut of beef, there'd be long, tedious debates that went on forever about whether or not, to preserve the flavor and style of the original cut, it wouldn't be better to remove the bone and drill out the marrow for cooking, saving the weight of the bone but retaining the flavor. All to save an ounce, and to serve your own favorite. We ain't Marines, and we don't haul no 3# tomahawk ribeye. We stop at the trailhead and cook and eat it there, since, you see, that way it's reduced to minimum weight, and serves as fuel for the trail - "multiuse". (But some of us carry the beer to the top of the mountain. But only pale ale. And only if we can't fool the wife or buddy into carrying it for us.) I am sorry to read that your mental state is in a dark place. We all go into the forest to have a good time, in our own unique ways. It is not a competition. We are all in this together. I wish you well brother.
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swiftdream
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Post by swiftdream on Apr 2, 2020 13:59:14 GMT -8
Love those tea bowls Gabby.
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Post by dayhiker on Apr 2, 2020 20:43:41 GMT -8
Nice Video, but I hate cleaning a French Press , even at home with running water.
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rebeccad
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Post by rebeccad on Apr 3, 2020 8:13:06 GMT -8
Nice Video, but I hate cleaning a French Press , even at home with running water. This. I’ve been using our camping, because making the coffee is easy, and it stays hotter than doing a pour-over. But cleaning it is a pain, for sure. I wouldn’t want one backpacking, but I’ve given up on that and use instant, unless doing something easy with another coffee drinker at altitude, in which case I will carry the percolator.
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