Depends on whether or not you're actually trying to cook food. If all you're doing is heating, can't beat a Jetboil. If you want to cook, we love our Optimus Nova for that. Aluminum pots only, though. We backpack on the Pacific Crest Trail. Thru-hikers almost all use a Jetboil. I've never seen alcohol. They're all about light and fast. Quick rice and bean flakes is about it for their cooking, but they carry everything with them for days. Bike camping, we go to a grocery store and buy easy to cook up food, but most of that is designed to be cooked in a kitchen which has a stove and pots and pans. We carry almost no food with us, so that's very different from a thru-hiker. Thru-hikers go for 10+ hours/day. When we tour, we don't ride that many hours, so we have time to shop and cook. We tour our tandem with only rear panniers.
We haven't had any trouble flying with a multi-fuel stove. We put it and our fuel bottles through the dishwasher on the start end, and do similar on the return end.
Last edited by Carbonfiberboy; 09-17-15 at 09:46 AM.