ProView – VSSL Java G25 Grinder + Nest Pour Over Kit Review

In terms of importance to camping, coffee ranks quite near the top. It is the recovery balm after zero rest in a tent buffeted by gale force winds, it allows us to forge ahead after our quads have been crushed by climbing a local summit, and coffee has even been known to ameliorate the odd camping hangover. For so many reasons coffee stands supreme as an essential ingredient to life outdoors.

We had mixed feelings as we waited for the VSSL Nest Pour Over set and Java G25 Grinder to arrive. Our prior experience with pour-over camp coffee was imperfect at best, an abomination at worst. Cheap plastic baskets, improperly-ground beans stored too long, and memories of weak, lukewarm coffee made us wonder how VSSL could be an improvement. 

Our memories began to fade the moment we cracked open the VSSL box. This was not the pour over coffee we knew and tolerated, this was a top shelf affair. Thumbing through the tiny but clearly-written manual, VSSL confirmed everything we knew before about pour-over was wrong.

Overview

The sturdy Nest insulated mug screws onto a shrewdly designed lid which integrates with the dripper basket, a considerable upgrade from the cheap plastic of our memories! Rounding out the pour over kit was a beautifully crafted fine mesh stainless steel filter. The Nest system is constructed with food grade stainless steel, mugs and dripper are 80% recycled. 

However, the real treasure was the Java G25 coffee grinder. We must caution you now; if you’re out with friends that have any interest in elegant engineering, please don’t show them this grinder until after everyone has a hot cup of coffee. This grinder is a work of precision-machined art, and they’ll be busy admiring it rather than allowing coffee making to commence. 

Java G25 Design

A four-piece metal cylinder of exquisite finish allows you to set the exact grind to fit any coffee making system by easily and intuitively selecting one of 32 (!) grind settings. The catchment cup threads onto the bottom, allowing the grounds to fall neatly in, reducing mess and the horror of wasted coffee. The beans are poured into the top, and the cover and handle satisfyingly click into place with magnets. The handle transforms from a clip to grinder handle with an elegant knob. Grinding coffee is legitimately enjoyable as the G25 spins on silky-smooth bearings. With waning skepticism, we headed into the Alaskan wilderness of the Kenai Peninsula to try real pour over coffee.

Performance

We’ll pause for a moment here and implore those of you interested in this set to use it a few times prior to deploying it in the field. There are few things more vexing than trying to noodle out detailed instructions with unfamiliar equipment, particularly if said noodlers are still in a sluggish pre-caffeinated state. The VSSL instructions are lengthy, yes, but the resultant brew is worth the brain cells. 

With freshly roasted beans poured into the grinder and our kettle on the boil, we let the grinder’s smooth action take the lead. After a quick sprinkle of hot water on the filter and tipping the uniformly ground beans into the steel filter, we poured in a tiny bit of water to permeate the grounds. After a bit, we filled the basket with hot water, and watched as the water slowly trickled through. Despite slightly-below-freezing temps of a cool spring morning, the dripper insulated the steeping grounds against the cold, and as the coffee dripped into the double walled stainless cup, we knew our morning fog was soon to clear.

We were treated to a hot, strong cup of coffee in an insulated mug. The lid screws on easily, and perhaps more importantly, is engineered so that the end of one’s nose doesn’t become stained with the dreaded brown coffee dot so prevalent with travel mugs.

A word on bear country

It’s particularly important in a location like Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula to keep a clean camp so bears aren’t attracted, coffee grounds and other food smells attract the attention of unwanted wildlife like grizzly and black bears. With this in mind we had concerns about cleaning the stainless mesh filter, but they were unfounded. The metal filter cleans easily once turned upside down with a small splash of hot water. Sorry, bears. We tried using cone filters modified to fit as suggested in the instructions, this method lacks the flash of the stainless accoutrement, but does make cleanup moderately easier.

The Final Word

We put our VSSL through its paces and sipped many cups of good coffee. Was it the best camp coffee we had ever experienced? Probably not. It is, after all, pour over coffee, lacking the appealing crema borne from pressurized brewing methods. However, with the insulated mug and work-of-art grinder, you have a versatile (though weighty) coffee set capable of facilitating most brewing methodologies. In addition to the VSSL pour over, we also gave the freshly ground beans a try in an Aeropress (excellent), and Bialetti Moka (also excellent). Clever storage, artistically machined excellence, and unparalleled versatility make the VSSL set a strong candidate for your camp coffee needs, regardless of your brewing method preference.

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