There is something so satisfying about cooking with wood. Gas stoves are efficient and easy to use, but it just doesn’t compare to cooking your dinner by grabbing a handful of fuel from the forest floor. The cons are that wood fires can be smokey, hard to keep lit, and hard to achieve a consistent flame. BioLite’s answer to this? A controllable fan.

The BioLite CookStove has a USB rechargeable airflow system that has four fan speeds and will run for up to 30 hours. That’s the equivalent of 20 gas canisters. Why compare it to a gas stove? Because this baby rips like a gas stove on high. We found that it was very easy to get started and gobbled up anything you threw in it. When you bump the fan up to 3 or 4 you’re basically running a mini incinerator on the picnic table. The battery can be charged in under two hours and will easily run all weekend.

Another bonus is that it’s compatible with the BioLite KettlePot and the BioLite Portable Grill, which gives you enough cooking surface to cook dinner for everyone.

http://gph.is/2hNK1Go

Like any wood fire, you have to tend to it, and using air as extra fuel means you have to do that more often. This didn’t bother us though, as we’re usually sitting around the picnic table chatting anyway. It’s kind of fun to throw a handful of twigs in occasionally, and it’s impressive much output we got with not much fuel.

http://gph.is/2i79cAg

The BioLite CookStove makes cooking with wood more controllable, more reliable, and produces almost no smoke. It was cool to the touch, and felt completely safe for just about anyone to use.  It’s a new twist on a cooking method that we’ve used since the dawn of time, and in our opinion, they improved it.

http://gph.is/2hWj7bw