A Jetboil is a great way to pack a stove with a pot to boil water in for soup, coffee and for preparing freeze-dried meals that are store purchased like Mountain House or Backpackers Pantry. Is that all its good for? Well, it really is handy to have and use it this way if nothing else.
First of all, the JetBoil stove systems are quick and easy to set up, clean and take down. They are built to contain all the basic parts of the system inside the cooking cylinder. There is somewhat of a stacking order depending on what you want to accessorize with but everything will fit inside with the basic kit. There are three sizes of Jetboil stoves to suit your needs. The Zip is the smaller of the set with .8L capacity, the medium 1L Flash (the stove I’m reviewing), and the Sumo which reaches an impressive 1.8L capacity but is more suited to cooking for two or more people in my opinion.
This is a topic that probably has a million different opinions as everyone has different tastes (literally,) but I will just try to explain what has worked for me and some of the other basics I have seen riders use for eating on the trail. The meals I outline will work just as well for a typical weekend ride or a week-long backcountry excursion since most are not perishable.