Review: Optimus Terra Solo cook set

Time for another Giftmas present review. Like I have said before, I was a very lucky critter and have already reviewed my Sea-to-Summit Alpha cutlery set and Light-My-Fire meal-kit so I wanted to get around to the other loot that came my way. This is the Optimus Terra Solo Cook Set. It consists of two main pieces, a 600mL pot with pouring notches and measuring marks (in both mL and oz), and a fry pan that doubles as a lid. Convection. It works and its real! Putting a lid on your cooking is a considerable energy retention method and  I have found that when out adventuring, you don't want to be running out of fuel with half-cooked noodles. The set comes in a drawstring mesh bag, which enables it to be washed and dry out easily but at the same time keeps it tightly contained to reduce clanking and wear on the surfaces.


This set is 2-piece hard anodized aluminum and are fitted with plastic covered steel arms. The frypan has a spring locking type handle, which feels pretty sturdy, and I expect will hold a load over a fire quite well.Being only a small pan, I don't think you could spread out a whole rasher of bacon, but you could always "chop and stir". That said, it is deep enough that you could also use it as a small pot, for cooking up a variety of tasty vittles.

The larger pot has a deeper body, and the addition of a pouring notch on the left hand side is a great addition, and is subtle enough that it doesn't detract from the lines of the pot, or reduce the capacity in any way.  The folding handles are sturdy and the spot riveting seems solid. On the larger pot the handles wrap around the body, canteen mug style and store right out of the way. High speed-low drag, to borrow the term.

One awesome aspect of this setup is that the combined pot and pan are wide and tall enough to contain a standard 100 g/4 oz gas canister and a collapsible stove so that you get two pots, fuel and a fire source in one handy package.

I'm really looking forwards to my next camping trip so I can whip this bad-boy out and cook my self some delicious noms in a jiffy whilst my camp-mates eat pot-noodle. Ahh, the sweet smell of victory through better technology! At 200g, this lightweight piece of cookware could well mean the difference between eating cold raw food or contaminated water, and hot nutritious possum and dandelion stew, with boiled crater water to accompany.