My PocketRocket

No, it’s not what you think. My PocketRocket is a stove. A lightweight, powerful, handy backpacking stove. I bought it last fall and have been playing with it ever since. I got it primarily for camping trips, but I also toss it in my day pack when I’m just hiking. It’s handy to have with me for a pot of tea.

It also has its own cooking pot; in this case, a lightweight titanium kettle. In fact, I bought the two of them together as a package: it’s the PocketRocket/Titan Kettle Kit, from MSR. The whole package weighs less than 8-1/2 ounces, and a fuel canister only adds another 4 to 8 oz., depending on its size. It will boil a liter (4.2 cups) of water in under 4 minutes. That’s faster than the propane range in my travel trailer.

That’s why I’m writing about it, by the way. I live in my travel trailer (that’s a caravan, for you folks from the other side of the pond), and I use propane for cooking and heating. Last night I realized that I’m almost out of propane, and it was too late to go get more. Fortunately, the temperature is only dropping into the upper 30’s at night, and the trailer’s fairly well insulated, so I didn’t need to run the furnace last night. I did turn it on this morning to warm things up a bit–I’m not that partial to seeing my breath when I’m sitting at my computer–and I’ll be going after propane later this morning, But I also wanted my tea this morning, and decided I’d use my camping gear to make it–again, trying to save propane.

Once the tea was ready, I thought "Why not mention the stove on your blog this morning?" Come to think of it, why not talk about tea at the same time. (This blog is nothing if not eclectic.)

Tea is my beverage of choice. Oh, I drink the occasional cup of coffee, but I’m not the typical American Starbuck’s junkie. For one thing, I’m not about to spend on a single coffee drink the kind of money that can buy me enough high-quality tea leaves for a week’s worth of tea. Besides, I just like the taste of tea more than I like that of coffee.

Then there’s the ritual of tea. Too often our lives today move too quickly. A tea break is a pleasant way to slow down. The brewing ritual helps. Filling the kettle and putting it on to boil. Heating the teapot. Measuring the tea. Pouring the boiling water into the pot. Waiting the proper length of time for the tea to brew. It’s far more enjoyable than driving to the drive-through window at some coffee joint and asking for a tall decaf latté with non-fat milk to go (or, as my friend Pam used to call it, "A skinny transvestite on a leash"), and then driving off. Where’s the enjoyment in that?

I buy most of my tea from Peet’s Coffee & Tea. They have an excellent selection of high-quality teas, including my favorite blend, Irish Breakfast tea. But last week when I went to my local Peet’s store when my supply was getting low, I decided that I drink enough tea that it would be worth my while to buy it in 1-pound packages, rather than the 4-oz. tins I usually get. But when I got there I discovered that you can only get the 1-pound packages by ordering on their web site.

When I got home, I decided that since I was going to have to wait for my order to be delivered, and since I would also have to pay postage, I night as well see what other sources might be available. Now bear in mind that I am very fussy when it comes to my tea. It has to be of a high quality. In fact, I don’t even order tea in restaurants, since they don’t know how to make it properly. Well, I found a web site (teadog.com) that had what I was looking for: Irish Breakfast tea, loose leaves, in 8-ounce packages.

I wouldn’t normally buy tea without first tasting it, but in this case I made an exception for the simple reason that the brand of one of the teas that I found was Bewley’s. Bewley’s are located in Dublin—Dublin, Ireland, not Dublin, California—and have been importing tea into Ireland since 1835. Given those facts, and also the fact that the Irish drink more tea per capita than anyone else in the world, I decided to take a chance and order not 1 but 2 boxes of their tea. And I’ll also admit that my Irish ancestry might have predisposed me somewhat towards an Irish company.

My tea arrived from Dallas (where Teadog is located) less than a week later. It is a nice robust tea, with hints of citrus and malt. Irish Breakfast is blended with India teas, and is fuller and more pungent than ar English blends. I generally drink 4 to 6 cups of it a day.

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