Anyone who spent more than a day in the military has had the pleasure of dealing with the issued GI bottle and the awfully bad tasting water that comes with it. Never, ever, forget anything else than water in these bottles because your water might taste like shit for weeks to come. During winter if it freezes solid you can’t really heat up the bottle to melt the ice because the bottle will also melt. After school of infantry, I moved to the Nalgene bottles but I ended up melting two bottles in the Arctic trying to melt the ice to have something to drink.
Introducing the HeavyCover Titanium Mess Kit. Comprised of a 1qt canteen, a canteen cup, two canteen caps and a cup lid. The fork/spoon combo is sold separately. All the parts made of titanium which compared to plastic is BPA free. fortunately for me, I had the pleasure of trying out this kit during a basic winter warfare course I gave. It gave me the opportunity to try it in what I consider a more ”extreme” setting.
Starting with the biggest part, the 1qt bottle. Much like its forefather, the original 1qt canteen, the HeavyCover bottle contains 1qt of water and is of similar size. The bottle runs slightly larger than the issued bottle as I found out placing this bottle in my SORD pouch. The similarities end up right there. As I’ve said earlier, the main issue I have with plastic bottles is that there’s nothing to do with them once they’re frozen solid. Well no problem here, being made of titanium, just slap this bottle over a burner and voila! Water in minutes. Also, you can use other beverages than water with no fear of having a lingering taste for days to come. A really good upgrade is the size of the neck on the HeavyCover bottle. It is much larger than the issued bottles which means you can poke away the ice that starts forming there more easily.
Unlike issued canteen cups which are made of aluminum, the Heavy Cover Ti cup with not leave a metal taste in your food or beverage when you cook it. It is also much safer for the health than any other metal. Even when having been on the burner for long enough to melt snow to boiling water, the cup handles remained cold to the touch.
As a survival item, this set is really good as it allows you to minimize the space taken by a mess kit. Since the bottle fits in the cup you save up space yet have something to cook with safely. You can boil water right in the bottle to sterilize water you might find in the wild.
At a retail price of $155, this mess set is far from cheap but you have in your hands’ something that has the best weight to resistance ratio on the market. This set will outlast pretty much anything you throw at it. You also get something that is safe for your health when you cook with it in the field. Last but not least, water never tasted so fresh from any bottle I’ve ever owned. Nothing as bad as sh*t water when you are thirsty!
