An eating utensil seems like a simple thing — until you don’t have one. Remember getting a pudding in your packed lunch when you were a kid . . . but then realized you didn’t have a spoon? Sure, you scooped the pudding out with a cookie or tried to slurp it like a drink, but damn, a spoon would have been nice.
When I first went backpacking years ago, I ran into freeze dried meals, which are cooked by dumping boiling water into a foil-like bag and sealing it up for a few minutes to cook. When the soupy or stew-like meal is cooked, you can dump it out onto a plate, bowl, or into a handy sierra cup, but why? It just means you have to clean it.
So when you go backpacking, you eat your freeze-dried meals directly from the bag. Unfortunately, those bags are tall and spoons are short. That means you end up getting your hands covered with food from the bag or have to gingerly hold the very end of your short spoon — or fancy-pants spork — to get to the bottom of the bag.
I immediately wondered why the heck hadn’t anyone brought a longer spoon? And I recalled the old milkshake spoons from my youth, but how could I even find one?
Enter the Titanium Long Spoon for Backpacking
Fortunately, some other backpacker had the same idea but had the drive to manufacture a long and light spoon just for backpacking. So what’s the best spoon?
The Optimus Titanium Long Spoon. It’s 8.5 inches long, weighs just .7 ounces, and the shape on the end feels like a luxury delivery system for freeze-dried meals, soups, stews, and mashed potatoes. I’ve never eaten pudding in the backcountry, but it’ll work for pudding, too.
If I could think up some other way to gush about this spoon, I would.
After I bought my first long titanium spoon, it wasn’t long until more started showing up in the packs of our core group of backpacking buddies. At around $10, an Optimus Titanium Long Spoon makes a great stocking stuffer idea.
But what about the spork? Come on, really? How often do you truly need to stab your food while backpacking? Answer? Pretty much never.
So go with the long spoon. TOAKS makes an excellent alternative to the Optimus. Pick one. You won’t regret it.
Get the Gear:
- Optimus Titanium Long Spoon
- Mountain House Freeze Dried Food Pro-Paks
- TOAKS Titanium Long Handle Spoon with Polished Bowl
Looking for great backpacking gift ideas? Check out our 35 Best Gifts for Backpackers guide.
