United Kingdom-based Enola Gaye has nearly 30 years of experience selling a multi-colored array of smoke and paint grenades for use in sports like paintball and airsoft, as well as for celebrations and special effects. The company has spun off a survival branch that applies smoke grenade-inspired design to products like the Ultimate Match, a powerful, weather-resistant firestarter that shoots out a mini inferno to spark flammable material into a warming fire. Simply pull the pin and get 'er burning.
EG Survival calls it the "Ultimate Match" as a product name, but it really more closely resembles the greater company's smoke grenades in form and function, albeit a grenade that shoots out a stream of fire instead of colored smoke. The small, handheld cylinder measures 4 inches (10 cm) long by an inch (2.5 cm) in diameter, making it easy to pack one or more in a jacket pocket or backpack.
A pyrotechnic device, the Ultimate Match houses both an igniter and a self-oxygenating fuel system that allows it to go well beyond any match in putting out some serious fire-starting flame. As with EG's smoke grenades, it activates via a pull-ring ignition that starts sparking like a flare, then turns into a powerful blaze of flame. That flame burns at up to 1,200 °F, fiercest in the first 20 seconds before burning steadily for an additional 100 seconds. It's essentially a flare optimized for smooth, fire-starting flame instead of bright signaling.
The integrated fuel system ensures the Match puts out a strong, steady blaze more effective than any weak, flickering match flame. It's designed to keep burning through high winds, hard rains and other unfavorable conditions, helping one get a fire lit even when it seems impossible. EG even shows the Ultimate Match starting underwater and firing out the same fierce flame after being pulled up into the open air.
Long story short, if you can't start a fire with this thing, you're going to have trouble ever starting one, period.
You'll still want to build your base of tinder, kindling and fuel, but after watching the Ultimate Match in action, we're wondering if you won't be able to light the kindling directly without any tinder. While a fun experiment for a home fire pit, we wouldn't recommend trying that particular shortcut in a survival situation or if a sole Ultimate Match is your only means of low-hassle, non-primitive fire-starting.
The Ultimate Match itself is water-resistant, and EG is working on a fully waterproof casing for it to ensure it stays dry when hiking and adventuring, remaining ready for immediate action whenever it's needed.
EG Survival introduced the Ultimate Match in 2024 and showcased it this month at the 2025 Outdoor Retailer show. It sells the Matches in three-packs for a US$20 retail price and currently has them marked down to $15 – seems like an affordable enough price for a piece of hassle-free fire-starting gear, and a three-pack means you can try one out ahead of time and still have a pair to pack into the wilderness.
EG Survival rounds out its current lineup by repurposing a couple of its colored smoke grenades as signaling devices for survival situations.
The video below gives a quick introduction to the Ultimate Match and includes footage of the aforementioned underwater ignition:
Source: EG Survival
