Deep Aroma and Birdsong

“I have high hopes that something excellent might happen very soon.”

That was my caption to this photo taken a year ago when we went camping as a family. It was 7AM and we had (rather typically) had a sleepless first night with the children in the tent. No blame to the children – they were four and six at the time and camping was (and still is!) super exciting to them – but let’s just put it this way: I needed coffee.

I am so thankful to whoever in the last 10-20 years decided it would be a good idea to start producing coffee brewing kits that were good to take on the go. It is so lush to be able to treat yourself to a cup that really tastes good even when you are sitting in a flimsy chair in a field with nothing but a camping stove in front of you to do the work of heating the water up.

All I had to do was grind some coffee beans at home before we left (I could have taken a hand grinder along, but that seems far too labourious for me) and pack a brewing kit. At the time I chose my cafetière.

In fact, I might go as far as to say that good coffee tastes even better when you are that close to Nature. At seven in the morning, your children are already full of beans and running around, and you get to sit there listening to birdsong while inhaling the deep aroma of lifeblood from your travel mug.

My single-serving cafetière was a godsend to me that day.

And I now see camping not only as wholesome fun for the family (and maybe the only travel we can do at this stage after Covid!), but also as a special chance to spend some extra moments savouring my favourite brews.

Win-win.