Snow Peak Ti-Mini Solo Combo 2.0 Backpacking Cookware Review

Bottom Line

After trips in the Rocky Mountains and the deserts of Utah, we’ve developed an appreciation for the additional features that the Snow Peak Titanium Mini Solo Combo 2.0 offers with its two-pot design. Gone are the days of having to enjoy coffee and breakfast one at a time. 

This incredibly lightweight combo offers excellent weight savings while cleverly nesting together to take up minimal space in your pack. The interior easily accommodates a small fuel canister, backpacking stove, and extra cooking accessories. 

The combo’s functional feature set, although minimal, offers excellent ease of use. The foldable handles are robust and stay clear of heat for safe and sturdy handling. The graduation markers on the pot’s interior are ideal for precise measuring with both metric and imperial units in extremely detailed increments.

The Snow Peak Mini Solo Combo comes at a hefty price tag, likely due to its sturdy titanium construction. While the thoughtful design is well worth it for the dedicated ultralight backpacker with the right cooking style, we would have liked to see a few more features at that price tag. For budget shoppers or backcountry chefs, check out our complete review of our favorite backpacking cookware.

How We Tested

It’s our priority to bring you experience-based reviews of high-quality gear. We’ve taken this cook set out on the trail in the Rocky Mountains and deserts of Utah, using and abusing it in a variety of conditions and with a variety of meals. Additionally, we’ve evaluated each individual feature at home through careful, quantitative testing.

Cooking Performance

The ultralight titanium construction of the Mini Solo combo prioritizes weight savings and compactibility while sacrificing some cooking performance. Out of the three most common cookware materials – titanium, aluminum, and stainless steel – titanium is the most fickle to cook with.

The thin, titanium pots of the Mini Solo heat up quicker than other materials and less evenly. The relatively small diameter of the Mini Solo however mitigates this flaw surprisingly well, especially if paired with a stove of similar diameter.

This pot can be a bummer to clean. It doesn’t have a non-stick coating and has a moderate potential to create hot spots. So if you are the “set it and forget it” type of cook, you’ll probably get a good burn layer at some point. At that point, the Mini Solo needs hot water soaking and some elbow grease to clean.

Ultimately, this cook set is best suited for boiling water or cooking watery meals that aren’t likely to burn on the bottom of the pot. For more involved cooking, be sure to keep a watchful eye on your meal, periodically removing it from the flame and stirring often.

Weight & Packability

The Snow Peak Mini Solo Combo is designed to shed significant pack weight. At just 6.9 ounces, this combo is the fourth lightest cook set that we tested, which is quite impressive considering it includes two pots. To shed even more pack weight, the kit can be used with just the large pot at 4.5 ounces, or 3.7 ounces for the small one.

The kit boasts an exceptional 257mL of cooking capacity per ounce of weight and takes up about 111.4 cubic inches of pack real estate – about the size of a pickle jar.

Should you choose to bring along the entire kit, you’ll find that the pots cleverly nest together with the larger one inside the smaller one. Top it off with the lid and contain it all in the included mesh stuff sack. Our one gripe with the stuff sack is that it fits loosely, creating a fair amount of rattle, and doesn’t do a great job at keeping the lid on.

The larger pot has plenty of room for one 4-ounce fuel canister and additional cooking accessories like a stove, lighter and utensils. Alternatively, it will fit two 4-ounce canisters stacked together (an 8-ounce canister is too wide) without room for a stove.

Usability

Despite its simple feature set, the Snow Peak Mini Solo combo offers decent ease of use. For handling, the set includes a lid with an insulated silicone lifter and folding metal handles on each pot. Most uninsulated metal handles tend to get hot over a stove and are difficult to hold, but the handles on the Mini Solo stay relatively cool, especially on the larger pot.

If you opt to leave the smaller pot at home to save weight, you’ll also be losing one of the combo’s key features. The small pot doubles as a measuring cup, with detailed graduation markings in both milliliters and ounces. The markings make precise measuring easy with 100mL and 1oz increments. 

Unfortunately, the lid lacks handy features such as drain holes, a pour spout, and a pressure release valve. Depending on your preferred camp meals, this could be a deal breaker.

Durability

Although titanium has an incredible strength-to-weight ratio, the material is kept very thin on the mini solo to minimize weight and production costs. The titanium is easy to flex with our hands and lacks reinforcing ridges everywhere except the rim.

Because the titanium is so thin, it makes the pot prone to warping. The lid may fail to fit perfectly after years of use, and we’ve already noticed some slight cupping on the bottom of the pot after moderate use. Cupping is annoying because it can cause a wobble and increases the chances of becoming a sad camper trying to recover their meal off the ground. 

The handles, however, are well-built and very sturdy. The foldable pot handles are attached via a titanium sheet with eight different weld points. The robust silicone lid handle is also firmly attached and shows no signs of degradation.

Should You Buy the Snow Peak Ti-Mini Solo Combo 2.0?

The Snow Peak Titanium Mini Solo Combo is ideal for the ultralight backpacker seeking a bit more versatility beyond a single pot.

The added cup allows for items like coffee alongside breakfast or sharing a meal with a friend, and the clever packing system accommodates additional cooking essentials. Snow Peak makes all of this available in an impressively lightweight package, allowing you to keep pack weight down and cover big miles. 

Although the combo lacks some standard features on the lid, it functions well. The handles are cleverly designed to stay clear of heat and provide safe, stable handling.
Don’t expect this cook set to satisfy a backcountry culinary connoisseur, however. The thin titanium is meant for simple tasks like boiling water, soaking oatmeal, or cooking watery/buttery meals that are not fated to stick to the pot.

The thin material also creates a potential sacrifice in terms of longevity. Due to its lesser durability and high price tag, the Mini Solo Combo is best suited for adventurers who treat their gear with care.

What Other Backpacking Cookware Should You Consider?

We’ve reviewed a wide variety of cook sets in our full guide to backpacking cookware to satisfy everyone’s cooking needs.

Toaks Titanium 750mL Review: The lightest cook set on our list and a heck of a budget buy, the Toaks Titanium 750mL has a few more features on its lid and offers optimum weight savings.

Evernew Titanium Pasta Pot 1L Review: We think the Pasta Pot is the best all around cookware for the ultralight backpacker with its 1-liter capacity, fully featured lid, and insulated handles. It doesn’t however come with any additional pots. 

SOTO Thermostack Combo Review: The Thermostack Combo is another multi-pot kit with unique 4-season features like an insulated mug and pot cozy. The aluminum pot has better cooking performance than titanium, but is a bit on the heavier side.