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Utensils

Top Picks

How we choose: The best utensils highlighted here were selected based on 167 reviews of 70 products. Our top picks are those that are readily-available in the United States and have received the highest overall ratings from reviewers.

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Snow Peak Titanium Spork

user rating: 5 of 5 (11 reviews)

This was a great buy. It performs exactly as a spork should. It is really useful when separating fish meat from the bones.

Reasons to Buy

  • Strong
  • Durable
  • Easy to clean

This spork is really well made and is built to last. I have had mine for two years. It is much sturdier than the plastic alternatives. Definitely worth the purchase. You can also use it as a scraper on fire steel. 

Read more: Snow Peak Titanium Spork reviews (11)

Toaks Titanium Long Handle Spoon with Polished Bowl

user rating: 5 of 5 (3 reviews)

My trusty Long Handle Titanium spoon is the only eating utensil that I need in the backcountry. It is simple and functional, and does a much better job than any spork.

Reasons to Buy

  • Long handle (8.5" total length)
  • Lightweight (0.5 oz)
  • Relatively inexpensive
  • Titanium=durability
  • Easy to clean
  • Flat edge to scrape/cut

Reasons to Avoid

  • Easy to lose or get mixed up with other hikers' spoons.

Ease of Use: A good eating utensil should be one of the simplest pieces of gear. Done right, most backpackers will find that they only need one utensil for fast and effective food delivery. But this is a piece of gear that people often get wrong, IMHO. For years I had it wrong too. I fell into the trap of thinking a spork was the one, all-purpose utensil that I needed for the trail. A sampling of all the utensils I have tried over the years. Having used my long handle spoon for the past four years, I can no longer fathom why sporks have garnered such favor.

Read more: Toaks Titanium Long Handle Spoon with Polished Bowl reviews (3)

Sea to Summit AlphaLight Long Spoon

user rating: 5 of 5 (5 reviews)

Sea to Summit's AlphaLight Long Spoon is an ultralight, anodized aluminum spoon that, due to its superiority, has replaced the Titanium Spork I've carried for nearly 15 years.

Reasons to Buy

  • Ultralight (0.4 oz)
  • Reaches the bottom of freeze-dried food bags
  • Clips to your pack with a 0.05 mini-biner

Reasons to Avoid

  • Loses the tines of a spork
  • Wish the bowl was a bit larger

Most of us have done it...Finished off the last of our Mountain House meal by digging into the bottom of the bag and allowing our hand to be covered in tomato sauce or other goo. It seems to go with the territory. Let's start with a short, slightly narcissistic video. For 15 years, my Snow Peak Titanium Spork has been my companion on every camping adventure, but earlier this year, I stumbled upon the Sea to Summit AlphaLight Long Spoon. There was, of course, a moment of indecision. I mean, I've had my spork almost as long as I've had my wife, and I'm a pretty committed person.

Read more: Sea to Summit AlphaLight Long Spoon reviews (5)

GSI Outdoors Compact Scraper

user rating: 5 of 5 (5 reviews)

A double-sided tool, with a hard, plastic edge for more difficult scraping, and a soft, silicone edge to lightly scrape leftover liquid or softer foods. If you like cooking and don't like washing dishes, this is an essential tool to have as part of your camp kitchen, no matter how small or large it may be. Pair this with some baby wipes and your dishwashing will never be easier. Spending five bucks on this scraper will save you the cost of having to prematurely replace worn-out non-stick cookware.

Reasons to Buy

  • Compact size that nests into almost anything
  • Durable construction
  • Color-coding makes sides easily discernable
  • Extends like of non-stick cookware

Reasons to Avoid

  • Use of lanyard hole makes operation cumbersome

If you like cooking and don't like washing dishes, this is an essential tool to have as part of your camp kitchen, no matter how small or large it may be. It is a double-sided tool, with a hard, plastic edge for more difficult scraping, and a soft, silicone edge to lightly scrape leftover liquid or softer foods. This came included with my GSI Crossover Kitchen Kit, and is easily one of my favorite items in my kitchen. Using this scraper saves time and effort when washing dishes, and if your non-stick cookware is slick enough, it makes a tedious and lengthy chore into a short and simple one.

Read more: GSI Outdoors Compact Scraper reviews (5)

Optimus Sliding Long Spoon

user rating: 5 of 5 (2 reviews)

An extendable-handle spoon that's lightweight and perfect for reaching into the corners of food pouches.

Reasons to Buy

  • Lightweight
  • Extendable
  • BPA Free

Reasons to Avoid

  • A bit flat
  • Has a moving part

What an ingenious little spoon! Collapsed the Optimus Sliding Long Spoon is slightly less than 7 inches long. Fully extended it is 9.5 inches long.   Collapsed versus extended Weighing in at a paltry 25 grams, this little spoon is great for stirring your tea, eating soup, or digging into a bowl of your favorite breakfast cereal. Slide the handle into its extended position and, voila!, it's now perfect for digging out your dinner from the deep, dark recesses of those freeze dried food pouches! No more sloppy hands from using a too short spoon! Taller than a food pouch! When extended, the Optimus Sliding Long Spoon locks into place with a little spring-loaded button.

Read more: Optimus Sliding Long Spoon reviews (2)

GSI Outdoors Pivot Spoon

user rating: 5 of 5 (2 reviews)

Opting to use pivoting hinges instead of a retractable design, GSI Outdoors succeeds in creating a packable spoon that feels neither too weak nor small for the job. The addition of measurement markings on the inside makes this serve double-duty as serving ware and a measuring cup. The high-temp, nylon 66 this is made from is able to withstand contact with hot pots and pans, although it cannot sit (even for the smallest amount of time) in them.

Reasons to Buy

  • Rigid and sturdy construction
  • Attractive color scheme
  • Utensil locks in both open and closed positions
  • Packs well both individually and as part of the Pivot Utensils set
  • Built-in hook allows utensil to be hung nearby or stored

Reasons to Avoid

  • None: easily my favorite of the three Pivot Utensils

As nice as a spatula is, and for as flat as it can fold down, sometimes you need something a little more stable. Sure, I could dish-out my corned beef hash with a spatula, but if I do, I'm that much more likely to miss my target, dropping food on the ground and creating both wasted food and bear food. I love my corned beef hash too much for it to ever hit the ground, and the only utensil I trust with this duty is the Pivot Spoon. Note: the spoon was only rested long enough to take a quick photograph and was not rested longer than that.

Read more: GSI Outdoors Pivot Spoon reviews (2)

Toaks Titanium Long Handle Spoon

user rating: 5 of 5 (3 reviews)

Excellent spoon does exactly what you need it to.

Reasons to Buy

  • Light, long and sturdy.

Reasons to Avoid

  • The pros are also its con. Potential to poke through light material such as backpacks if care is not taken to secure in a way where this cannot happen.

  So it's a spoon. If you do any amount of backpacking at some point you will likely encounter at least one freeze dried meal.  There are people who do not of course but I am not one of those people. If you are one such person you already know that eating from the container these meals is an annoyance. You will often get some measure of the meal on your fingers  using a standard sized spoon to dig into it. Enter the long handle spoon. This one does exactly what you might think. It gets to the bottom easily without you ever having to get your fingers dirty.

Read more: Toaks Titanium Long Handle Spoon reviews (3)

Toaks Titanium 3-Piece Cutlery Set

user rating: 5 of 5 (1 review)

Beautifully made titanium utensils with a good balance, very nice finish. 1.7 ounce total weight, nice size. But lacks a carry pouch.

Reasons to Buy

  • Traditional shape fork, knife, spoon
  • Spoon is actually practical
  • Strong + lightweight Titanium
  • Knife is serrated for cutting
  • Caribiner is high quality (but very small)
  • Slightly smaller than home, but large enough

Reasons to Avoid

  • Caribiner is small (but high quality)
  • No storage pouch
  • Not 'nesting' design

GO-TO-WARE Bamboo ~vs~ TOAKS Titanium Cutlery Since there are several of us going on a trip I figured that I'd buy some Christmas presents for some of the others who will be on the trip and it would give me the opportunity to compare different items. I purchased some TOAKS brand Titanium Cutlery sets and some Bamboo Cutlery sets. Each has some interesting advantages, but as I think you will see, the Bamboo spoon is nearly worthless and the Bamboo knife is an oddity that it hard to describe. The Titanium stuff is very traditional in form, well balanced in your hand, very functional, expensive, strong/stiff and yet amazingly lightweight.

Read more: Toaks Titanium 3-Piece Cutlery Set review (1)

GSI Outdoors Pouch Spoon

user rating: 5 of 5 (1 review)

An inexpensive, long-handled spoon for scraping the last bit of the goodness out of that deep plastic bag or foil pouch.

Reasons to Buy

  • Price
  • Works as advertised
  • One moving part

Reasons to Avoid

  • Too long to fit inside smaller cooking pots

I can’t believe I’m reviewing a spoon. After all, it’s just A SPOON! But in the age of the $22 titanium folding spoon, not all spoons are created—or priced—equal. So here goes. Many of us regular TSers are old enough to remember: when your parents or grandparents took you to the ice cream parlor and you ordered a hot fudge sundae and it was served in a tall kind of goblet with a pile of whipped cream and a maraschino cherry on top and the waitress gave you a special long spoon that you could use to scoop up the cherry first and then at the very end dig that last gobbet of fudge out of the tapered bottom… Yeah.

Read more: GSI Outdoors Pouch Spoon review (1)

Lixada Titanium Folding Spork

user rating: 5 of 5 (1 review)

Lixada’s Titanium Folding Spork is the perfect utensil for a hiker’s ultralight cookset. Compact and light this spork has replaced the other utensils I used to carry. At a price that won’t break the bank, this is one product worth taking a look at.

Reasons to Buy

  • Weight
  • Size
  • Price

Reasons to Avoid

  • Not made in America

Back when I carried Mountain House-style meals, my Sea to Summit Long Spoon made perfect sense. But in the years since, I’ve gotten lighter and more efficient with my camp kitchen. I dehydrate many of my own meals, and I cold soak food in bags and containers much smaller than the MH bags.  The main body of the spork is 3.5 inches long, with a folding wire handle that extends the overall length to 5.9 inches. A sliding bar locks the handle into place so the spork stays locked open while in use.

Read more: Lixada Titanium Folding Spork review (1)

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