Jetboil Flash Cooking System
The Flash does one thing extremely well and the review was right to frame it that way: it boils water very fast, in wind, using very little gas. It is also still in production, which makes this review actionable.
What it is for. Hot drinks, dehydrated meals, porridge, and melting snow. If your camp cooking is "add boiling water and wait", this is the most efficient tool for it, and the integrated pot-and-burner design is why: the heat exchanger on the base of the cup captures heat a separate pot lets escape.
What it is bad at, which no review at the time said clearly enough: cooking. The burner is fierce and the tall narrow cup concentrates heat in a ring, so anything with substance in it catches and burns. You can buy the wider pot accessories and it is still not a frying pan.
Practical notes:
- It is not stable. Use the plastic tripod on the canister; a full Jetboil on uneven ground tips easily, and it is full of boiling water.
- Cold hurts it like any upright canister stove. Keep the gas in your sleeping bag overnight and invert nothing.
- Fuel is proprietary-ish. It takes standard screw-thread canisters, but the regulator is tuned for Jetboil's own mix and performs a little better on it.
So: one person or two, boiling water, in a hurry, often in wind. For anything you would call cooking, a plain canister burner and a wide pot is cheaper and better. Jetboil still sells the Flash and the spare cups.
Part of the guide to stoves and camp cooking.