Reviews > Cook Gear > Cooking Accessories > Jetboil French Press > Jodi Cornelius > Initial Report

My Background: I have been backpacking for 3 years now and before that I car camped quite a bit. I consider myself somewhat new to backpacking and am on my way towards becoming a lightweight packer. I tend to use a Hennessey Hammock since my only tent is a bivy tent. I prefer the hammock to a tent as the hammock leaves me swinging gently in the breeze with no hard spot from rocks on the ground. Nor do I need to dig troughs for my hips and shoulders (side sleeper) so I can practice LNT (Leave No Trace) much better.

Product Information:

Initial Impression: I received the Jetboil French Press with the Jetboil PCS, Companion Cup, and Maintenance Kit which I reported on in a separate Initial Report.

The French Press comes in 4 parts - the multi-purpose "lid" which is made of a type of rubber, 2 piece plastic plunger with a knob, and the screened filter basket. The 2 pieces of the plunger screwed together with a little difficulty until it finally got tight - after that, it screwed together a lot easier. The plunger is then pushed through the rubber lid and screwed into the screened filter. That screwed on very well. The filter part is only 7/16ths in/1.11 cm and the plunger, when screwed together, is 5.5 in/14 cm long. These will fit inside a small ziplock baggie.

Naturally, as soon as I got a chance, I fired the PCS up. The temperature was 30 F/-1 C so it was a little bit cold. I was pleased to note that the piezo igniter only took one push to start the fire. I put 2 cups/.5 liters of very cold water from our creek (temperature unknown - close to freezing though as there was ice formations along the banks) into the cooking cup boiled the water in preparation for my coffee. Once the water was boiling, I added my coffee, stirred it well, put the French Press on the cook cup and waited for 3 minutes before slowly plunging the filter down. It went very smoothly and did not let any coffee grounds into the drinkable part of the coffee. Very little pressure is needed to plunge the filter. The cozy on the cup also does a good job of keeping the water hot. My coffee stayed hot for the entire time it took me to drink it. I prefer my coffee hot enough to burn my tongue and this stayed close to that temperature for an hour. I will be using the French Press lid for this test instead of the supplied PCS lid as the French Press lid can be used without the plunger and I see no reason to carry 2 lids. I also drink a lot of coffee so the French Press will be used during every trip out.

Jetboil's website states that the French Press will fit inside the PCS.  After a couple of emails to Jetboil, I have discovered that it does, indeed, fit!  There are two places to store the screen per the email I received.  One is upside down under the fuel canister.  The other is upside down inside the black plastic cup.  The rod pieces will store inside the cup once the halves are unscrewed and obviously the lid becomes the lid for the cup and the old plastic lid is discarded or relegated to a spare parts drawer.  In a pdf I received regarding storage instructions, it said to store with fuel canister attached to stove base.  However, I found that it fit just fine with the fuel canister and stove base separated. The picture shown below has the fuel canister connected to the stove base for stability purposes while showing the order the parts go into the PCS.

Another interesting piece of information that I have received is that you can "lift out" the grounds instead of "pressing" them.  To do this you use the coffee press basket upside down.  Just boil your water, screw the basket on upside down and slip it into the Jetboil, then pour in your grounds.  Let them simmer away for about 2-3 minutes and then slowly lift out the basket. The grounds come out leaving only your freshly brewed coffee.  No clean up hassle.

Filter Right Side Up	Filter Upside Down

Test Plan: This test will be conducted during hikes ranging from overnighters to a week long later in the summer in the Allegheny Mountains of Northwest Pennsylvania. The terrain for these hikes range from easy jaunts to moderately difficult up and downs.

Weather conditions: Winter, the temps range from around -10 F (-23 C) to 20 F (-7 C). We get snow just about every day depending on the winter. We usually have at least 3 feet and many times we have much more. Snow ranges from a heavy dense snow to a light powdery snow. Winds will be anywhere from calm to possibly as high as 50 mph/81 kmh. Spring time (which we are coming into now) can range in temperatures from 0 F/-18 C to mid to upper 50s F/13+ C with the weather being snowy, rainy, or sunny. Summer temperatures range from 40 F/4 C to 90 F/32 C. So this test will be used in any number of weather conditions.

Things I like so far: It's a lightweight way to carry a French Press and it takes up very little space in my pack.

Reviews > Cook Gear > Cooking Accessories > Jetboil French Press > Jodi Cornelius > Initial Report