Tea

caorach

Well-Known Member
When stalking in lowland areas I like my tea, and I also like my breakfast. Clearly things are different when hill stalking but if I get up early for some lowland stalking I always look forward to coming back to the car and making my tea and having some breakfast after the morning stalk. On top of all this I like to get my weetabix with some hot milk. I don't ask for much, do I?

Tea from a flask is never great and there is no easy way to carry hot milk so I eventually concluded that I needed some way of boiling my water and heating my milk for breakfast. As many will know there are lots of solutions to this problem but I decided that the most simple was the way I'd like to go and so I got myself a Crusader stove and cup. This isn't really a stove at all and is basically a little dish into which you put something that will burn, often hexamine tablets, and a stainless steel container to hold the milk or water which sits on top of the stove.

The "stove" and cup looks like this:

crusaderstove.jpg


Over the last while I've been experimenting with this stove and thought to relate my experiences in case they might help someone else out, it will save you having to spend some time experimenting like I've done.

I've found that the hexamine tablets are relatively easy to find in camping stores and the like and they produce good heat but can be hard to light, especially on a windy day. It takes quite a while for them to really get going and so a match is useless for this application as it doesn't burn for long enough to ensure the hexamine will spark up. I noticed that some people were using little plastic sachets of a thing called "Greenheat" which is a sort of ethanol gel sold for lighting a BBQ. If I put some hexamine in the little stove and then empty one of these sachets of ethanol gel on top everything becomes really easy to light even in relatively windy conditions, the gel lights easily and then gets the hexamine going. If I need more heat or to keep the fire burning for longer then it is a simple matter to add more hexamine once things are burning well.

Unfortunately the little greenheat sachets were proving hard to find and so getting a reliable supply was a bit tricky plus some stores were charging a pretty penny for them. After some investigation I discovered that the ethanol gel in them was something that is used in large quantities in the catering trade and is referred to as "chafing gel," basically it is used to keep food warm. It is also inexpensive and very readily available, for example:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002UK4VDA/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&m=A36PIODUG2MBYM

I've conducted tests and this chafing gel works at least as well as the little greenheat sachets and a few quid buys you many years supply.

My experience has shown that the best way to go is to use a combination of the gel and the hexamine - put a hexamine tablet into the stove and pour some of the gel on top. Light up the gel and start to make breakfast and if the stove needs topping up then add hexamine. Adding gel, which I decant from the big chafing gel bucket into a plastic bottle for use in the field, while the fire is actually lit appears to carry with it considerable risk unless you were to use a teaspoon or similar to apply it and so it seems much more sensible to add the solid hexamine tabs.

Using this method I can boil water from cold in about 5 minutes or a little more, at least on a calm day, it takes somewhat longer when the wind is blowing the heat away. Getting the plastic lid for the Crusader cup would almost certainly reduce this but I suspect the lid might be prone to melting and so might be more bother than it is worth unless you really are in a big hurry.

So, now you've no excuse for not getting a good cup of tea when out stalking.
 
i carry a bluey an mess tins all scoff warmed in one an water heat up in the other works a treat
as long as make sure always carry spare cartridge of gas
 
Philip, you are a disgrace. An Irishman in the field makes his tea with a Kelly Kettle! Can't seem to find any good photo's of my version of tea making. Anyway, this is brunch in the field a la Claret... Rough Island Lough Erne I think, end of April last year. Makes me start to twitch for the fishing season

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I've never been a kelly kettle fan Brian and like the crusader because I can heat my milk and, as others have said, even soup and the like. I think the only time I've ever had tea from a kelly was fishing for salmon on Grimersta in the Hebrides. It was a flat calm day with bright sun and so there was little or no chance of a fish but I believe Grimersta hold the world record for salmon with 333 for one rod week so it was more to say I'd been there.

I like your photos though and they are very much what Irish lough fishing is about. Less than a month now until some places open for trout though, to be honest, I haven't fished at all in Ireland for the last two years and have confined my fishing to the Hebrides.
 
+1 on Kelly Kettle - never come across anything that boils faster (even in the wind and rain), and I like the idea that the fuel I need is always available wherever I am. Not keen on hot milk so that aspect doesn't bother me, but I can't live without tea.

Knots
 
i use this while out it boils well i use a few pine cones or wood chip easy made and burns very hot for hardly any fuel,atb wayne
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its a paint tin and a bean tin with holes around the top edge for the burner and holes at the bottom for air
 
Philip, just pulling your chain.

You can now get a little frame that sits over the chimney with a little pan on top. You could heat milk or cook sausages or whatever. Must get a set this spring.

I cut up some sunny jims and wrap them in cling film and keep them in my fishing bag. Light the fire lighter and drop in some twiggs and you have boiling water quicker than you would have it at home in an electric kettle.
 
Get a Jetboil.

I have a kelly kettle but PITA getting fuel etc etc. The Jetboil is very light and boils water so fast. I now take it in the car if going a long way and make by own proper filter coffee in motorway services carparks faster than they can in Starbucks and for a lot less cost. Mine lives in the truck.
 
An old gent once advised me that if you kept the tea (without milk) in the thermos and added the milk (that you'd kept in a small glass jar) when you went to drink it...it kept better.

And...he was right! But it is a lot of "faff" to do that! Unless you get those little UHT capsule things.
 
Caorach,

If you get the wind proof/water proof matches they fire up yer hexi blocks nae bother at all. Might save you buying other stuff ;), any outdoor shop should have em.

Mick
 
Break the hexi blocks to light. They will then light just as easy as the firesnot.

Drip candle wax over some cardboard- this will light in all weathers.

Pressed Ali metal lids are available for the crusaders but are not hard to make out of pressed steel (biscuit tin).

A variation on the Kelly kettle is the MKettle- holds as much water as the smallest Kelly kettle but literally 1/2 the size.

At last count I had 27 stoves! One of my favourites is a self made pop can stove made out of a 330 ml can.

Trangias have a place but are bulky, Jetboils are fantastic for water, boil in the bag and noodles and that's about it.

Wilkinsons sell a SS utensil holder- cut a hole in the front to load fuel and you have a multi burner. Use tent pegs for smaller pans. You can burn wood, use a pop can stove, a trangia burner and other burners too and it acts as a windbreak.

Which ever set up I use, it is usually topped off by a metal or crusader mug (with ali lid)
 
Kelly kettle for me, makes a brew for two and a bacone sarnie at the same time. Wouldnt leave home without it even packed when I travel any distance in crap weather just incase.
 
Have too say if it is just Nigel and myself, we tend to bring the kettle and sandwiches - we are usually there to fish seriously. But if the kids are going, it has to be the full edition - fire, grill, sausages, venison & pork burgers the lot. Eight or ten hours in a boat it too much for the kids and a couple of hours ashore messing about cooking makes the day for them.
 
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