GSI Outdoors JavaPress Camping French Press Mug - Stainless Steel - Sand - 15 fl oz

Video Transcript for Review of GSI Outdoors Camping Kitchen - Commuter JavaPress - GSI48GV

Hey everybody. I'm Ellen here at etrailer.com and we are taking a look at the line of GSI Outdoors JavaPress. This is going to be a really nice accessory to have if you're limited on space, limited on time, and you still want to have a great cup of coffee to start your day. So I have actually been using this guy right here for about a week. So I'm going to talk to you about how it's been. These are all going to be the same.

It's going to be the same process to make your coffee. The only difference with this one in particular, is that it actually has a plastic outer carafe and it has kind of a this sleeve. So this one is a little bit lighter weight. So if you're looking for something that is easier to pack or bring with you on a long hike, this would maybe be the way to go. But you are going to sacrifice some of the insulating properties of the other ones.

These keep coffee hot for hours. This one is really only rated for about 90 minutes to keep it hot. Whereas these are rated for about eight hours. So you're losing some thermal capability with this one but saving some weight. So other than that, everything's the same.

Capacity is the same. Process is the same. So let's take a closer look at the guy I have here, and I'll show you actually how to make coffee in the JavaPress. So I have the JavaMill from GSI, with my already pre-ground coffee, and you got some hot water. Now, a quick tip on making good coffee: you never want to use boiling water.

If you use boiling water, you're going to scorch the beans, it's going to taste bitter and it's just not great. So it really only needs to be hot. They recommend between 195 degrees Fahrenheit, 205 degrees Fahrenheit. I think this is going to be a little bit cooler but since your coffee kind of sits in here and you never really extract the coffee from the beans, it will kind of sit there and muddle for a while. So the longer you let the coffee sit the stronger it will get. So I don't mind that my water's a little bit cooler than I normally would use. So you'll see that we have an inner and outer carafe. The outer carafe is metal. It is an insulated material. So it's going to keep everything hot for a long time. I've had coffee stay warm, not hot, but it stayed warm almost 12 hours. It's not rated for that. If you want it to stay hot-hot, it won't be forever, but it does do a really good job of keeping your coffee pretty hot for a while. So they recommend using two tablespoons of grounds for every six ounces of liquid or water. I have about four tablespoons here to go in this. This is about 15 ounces overall. So should be a pretty good ratio. Just pour that in there. And if you're interested in the JavaMill, you can see how that works in my video, on that page. I'm just going to set that to the side. So now I'm going to carefully pour my water in and hope that I don't spill it everywhere. Ha-cha. Think I did okay. And that didn't quite fill it up all the way, but that's all right. It should do pretty well. Now you do kind of want to either swirl it around or stir it around. Let it sit for a few minutes to kind of let the whole thing brew and do its thing. And then once it's been sitting there for a little while you're going to take the inner carafe, the plastic piece, and you're going to plunge this in. It's a good idea to have the lid on first before you do that. You just want to be sure that the mouthpiece is open. That's going to let the air escape as you're pushing it down. So you don't have an overflow of everything coming out where you don't want it to. So, do do, do, do do. I would normally let this sit for several minutes but I'm not going to make you sit here and wait forever for that to happen. So let's just plunge it now. So I'm just going to take it and I'm going to go slow. It's also a good idea to kind of make sure that there's no grounds around the lip that are going to cause an issue with this top seal, which I'll show you in just a second. So I'm going to push that down, just going slow like you would with a French press. That's really all this is, is a French press and to-go cup in one. So, get all the way down. Now I'm gonna bring this closer to you guys so you can see what I'm talking about. But this upper seal has two lips to it. So you want the top one to sit where this one is right now. So you're just going to push this down until it seats on top. So just kind of squish and that bottom lip goes into the cup. And then the top one should seat. Just have to give it a little coaxing. So now that's going to give us a good seal around the cup. It's going to prevent any spills or anything coming out and should give you a nice seal for the rest of the cup. Now I will say it's not completely spill proof. I did have an issue where I just like kind of what it sit on its side for a minute in my car. And I did notice a little bit of coffee leaked out. So that is a possibility, but it does do a pretty good job. And I actually really love this thing after using it for a week. Because I'm always running late and I always want a cup of coffee. And this combines two steps into one where I don't have to worry about doing my French press and then waiting for it to do its thing, and then pouring it into a cup. It can all be in one thing. So the total amount of coffee that it can hold is about 15 fluid ounces, again. And it weighs about 13 ounces overall when empty. So, it's just kind of up to you on whether or not you want to bring this with you on a hike or something like that. I think I might've misspoke earlier. When I said that this keeps coffee hot for several hours. It is rated for 3.5 hours to keep stuff hot, 6.5 to keep stuff cold by GSI's recommendation. Again, that's keeping something piping hot, that same temperature for that three and a half hours. Again, I put in my coffee in the morning and it was super hot. And then it's still at night cause I was kind of sipping on it all throughout the day. It was still warm. So it definitely does keep stuff warm for a long time. And I think it's just a really nice space-saving, time-saving device. You can get it in black. I like everything in black. Or you can get it in the blue or kind of sand color or in the plastic red color. I think they'll all work out really well for you. I think this is a great addition. One last note that I'll give you: dishwasher safe, yes, but I would not suggest it. Just because I did put it through the dishwasher and now I feel like there's a little bit of a soapy taste or maybe just the smell of the soap. And that could just be in the lid, but I just would hand wash it just to be sure that you're not having any issues. And honestly, if you're just putting coffee in here and you don't do anything like creamer or milk, you can probably just rinse it with hot water and you never really have to use soap. So you're not introducing that soapy taste there. I know that sounds kind of gross, but again, if it's just coffee, you're just kind of rinsing and going and making sure that you don't let anything sit in there forever. But that's pretty much my take with this. I think it's a great idea to have, and I hope this video has been helpful in deciding if it's the right choice for you. We do have a lot of other gear here at etrailer.com. So be sure to check it out and thanks for watching..