Geoffzone
Don’t know who wrote the song but it goes like this:
‘All I want is a proper cup of coffee, made in a proper copper coffee pot,
I may be off my dot, but I want a proper coffee in a proper copper coffee pot,
Iron coffee pots and tin coffee pots, they are no use to me, If I can’t have a proper cup of coffee in a proper copper coffee pot, I’ll have a cup of tea.’
I’m a coffee nut so have always liked that song. It’s a tongue twister too so try it fast!
So my trucks have always had the means. ‘Instant’ ruled the road roast for a while. Then I graduated to toting a plunger. But they were glass and broke. Off-road storage was a problem. Much like carrying Tilley lamps with vulnerable windows and mantles that were taken over by economical and brilliant LEDs. They also abolished the kero pong, the warm glow and companionable hiss!
A lesson learned
My most memorable plunger catastrophe was most graceful. We were lunching in dense cloud up a mountain in Otago. It was cold and clammy with no sign of its expected amazing view. Boiled the billy, loaded the plunger, warmed my cup. Sat on the edge of our plateau park.
The brew went to the cup. As it rested I emptied the grounds the usual way – out with the plunger, toss the grounds energetically away Into The Void (there’s a movie). Could have made a movie vignette of the glass beaker sailing in full ballistic flight up into the mist.
Grounds still encased it crashed onto rocks below and was completely destroyed. The tinkling, shattering sound and image of glass shards twisting and glinting in the weak misty sunlight is with me twenty years later.
I was devastated. What was I to do? No coffee for more days in the wilderness? The plastic handle and retrieved plunger clutched in my fingers was no consolation whatsoever. Would I survive? Sob...
On return to civilisation I bought a cheap plunger with a clear plastic beaker. It saved the day and lasted well. It never broke but did have a habit of the beaker expanding when full of hot water so it didn’t fit the plunger and also allowed grounds to get past it into the ‘liquor’. A minor prob, the coffee tasted fine. And when it cooled it was loose in the holder so easily fell out, which could be messy.
I’d long ago tried coffee bags but they were a fizzer. Later yet I discovered a new brand that actually works rather well. Jeds, there’s five, now six grades, and they’re available in most supermarkets. I’m a convert and have done away with plungers and loose coffee. Much tidier.
A ‘proper’ coffee pot
A few weeks ago I found in a junk shop a proper copper coffee pot! We think it’s Turkish, it seemed unused but neglected. A good clean rectumified that. Its cute but actually quite crudely made from bits of spun brass and unfinished castings with copper rivets and the handle is wrapped in thin plaited leather.
It looks quite exotic with a long beak-like spout and hinged lid. We’ve tried coffee from it and its good. The spout has a hinged cover with a cute, mysterious, curl at the end. It seems with that open it pours to one cup, closed it can pour to two cups! How clever.
It may yet get an upgraded ticket from the kitchen dresser to the Gypsy Rover. Which would be entirely appropriate! Though I’d be back to carrying messy coffee grounds and having to deal with their dregs. At least a squeezed-out bag is fairly harmless when back in its package...