Backpacking is great—hell, we’re headed out west to tackle a section of the PCT next week—but sometimes you just want to pull up to the campsite, toss your gear on the ground and crack open a few cold ones with friends. For times like this, where leisure is the end goal, dehydrated backpacking meals make little sense, and one can only eat so many campfire cooked hotdogs. Enter the Primus Tupike Stove, Sweden’s answer to camp cooking—a category long dominated by Coleman.
We recently took the surprisingly elegant two burner stove Upstate for a weekend of lakeside camping. With a solid half mile between carpark and campsite, testing of the Tupike began well before meal time. At just 9.1 pounds, the stove easily managed the trek. However the handle, outside of its locking function, proved to be very definition of aesthetics over function—the raw oak laths and angular steel is quite uncomfortable in the hand when carried for long distances. But it looks fantastic. As far as we experienced though, this was the only downside to the Tupike.
Set up was a breeze. Just unfold the legs, hook up fuel—an adaptor allows for the use of both propane gas and backpacking fuel canisters—flip out the two windscreens, and you’re good to go. Each burner can be used separately, and lit with either a match or the integrated ignition switch. The burners worked well on simmer, and full blast, making cooking more delicate meals, and simply boiling water, easy.
Overall the design feautres oak laths, brass hardware, and a stainless steel body, making for a dang good looking stove, that will age nicely with use.
On the Inside the two grids are integrated into a single, removable coated steel piece. The drip tray is angled to draw drippings away from the flame, and can be easily removed for cleaning too.
The simplicity of the design is both extremely attractive, and functional, even in high-stress situations. For example, on our second night of camping a surprise thunderstorm erupted out of nowhere, forcing us to scramble to set up a tarp. Though a bowl of pasta was lost to the dirt, the stove itself was easily closed, latched and moved to safety without damage.
All in all, the Tupike seems a worth investment for frequent car campers and backyard cookers alike.
*The Tupike also comes stock with a highly portable, non-stick griddle plate, though due to said weather we didn’t use it. Stay tuned for an update after further use this fall.
