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Sexy titanium travel accessories from Snow Peak

by Pam Mandel (RSS feed) on Jun 3rd 2011 at 2:00PM

The spork is one of those things you really shouldn't leave home without. Yeah, it's dorky and has funny name, but it's your friend when you want a yogurt from the corner market and all you have to eat it with are those stir sticks in the hotel coffee condiment package.

And the refillable coffee or other beverage canister, well, are you really still taking your coffee to go in a throw away paper cup? It's not like you can't find those refillable things as swag at every other conference you attend, right?

Say you're not too uptight to reuse your own coffee container, but you don't want one that says "large software company" or "weird beverage with additives" on the side. Say you want something that's mad stylish, sexy even. Say you want your spork to express the fact that you are traveling light, practical, and know your metallic elements. Snow Peak has the gear for you and it's dead sexy stuff, too.

Here's what hot about the spork: The colors, for starters, those yummy brushed metal colors. They're not painted, the color is bonded to the metal through some kind of crazy magic, so while yeah, they'll fade over time, they'll still hold that shiny blue, that that glowing purple, that sparkly green.There's a punchhole on the handle so you can put it on your key ring. And really, it's pretty. Also, for now, there's no mention of the mighty spork on the TSA's prohibited items list -- I checked.

As for Snow Peak's Kanpai bottle/canister, it's super sharp too, and super light weight. It's got three lids for it -- one for hot, one for cold, and one with a sliding valve for drinking. You can store the cold lid in the freezer, making your canister the perfect tiny icebox for one can of soda (or, uh, adult beverage). The drinking lid has a tight enough valve on it that it's not going to leak when it's in the water bottle pocket on the outside of your daypack. It comes in silver white, or red, and it's also a very sharp looking piece of gear.

Snow Peak makes a lot of other smokin' hot gear -- their Hozuki camping lantern won a Travel+Leisure design award. The gear in the Snow Peak lines isn't cheap (the spork comes in at a modest $9.95, but the canister retails for $69.95.) but it's well designed. It's the kind of stuff an outdoorsy person like me wants someone to give them as a gift, or that you'd want to give to someone that's got everything but might appreciate a really good one that's meant to last forever. (See also: Cafe latte set. Want.) Super lightweight. Serious style. Yeah, I like pretty much all of this stuff. It's the truth.

Filed under: Biking, Hiking, Gear, Camping, What's in Your Pack?, Gadling Gear Review