Beverages

Maria doesn't drink hot drinks very often, so the coffee and tea caper in our van is usually a 1 person affair; hence the small plunger and tea pot.

Coffee

taken on our first ever caravan excursion

from a few years ago from the deck at Clark's Beach

This morning overlooking Simpson's Creek

 

Coffee tastes better when you grind it yourself. I've had this coffee grinder since we had our first caravan, when my habit was to get up early and do some work before others started the day. Maria and Johanna joke that whenever I grind my coffee (most mornings in the caravan unless we buy one from a cafe) it reminds them of those early years laying in bed trying to sleep while I sat outside and ground away.

Some friends and I visited Marvel Street Coffee for some tasting mornings and Nico kindly gave me one of his cups, just the right size for my morning brew.

Tea

I've recently become a convert to rooibos tea, a red tea from South Africa that has the qualities of green tea but more like a black tea to drink. I love this organic blend that I get from GoVita. A couple of months ago Maria found this perfect little van tea pot. Classic but unbreakable, I love it.

Other hot drinks

I find this enamel stove top pot with a pouring lip really useful for other hot milk drinks, such as hot chocolates or chai lattes.

Coldies

These aluminium cups are the ones we had as kids. They still have my mums initials on the bottom so they are a prized artefact for our travels in the van.

I have also had an irrational like of traditional bottle openers. I've had one for a while (see equipment page photo), but I've made a habit of scouring vintage and antique shops for an old one. Today, as we were exploring the Northern Rivers hinterland, we wandered into a shop in Burringbar and discovered not one, but containers of them, held under the counter, sorted by price depending on their value to collectors. Really? These are collectibles! I settled on a $25 piece from the 1920s by Corona. It seemed appropriate given we are in the grips of the COVID-19 pandemic as I write.