Carry On Camping!

I can remember exactly when I had my first cup of ‘real’ coffee – in January 1963 – I was 7, and we had a minor car accident on the icy road. A lady [wearing a fur coat] in a big car stopped to help. Whilst her chauffeur, my dad and others got the car towed out of the ditch, Mum and I sat in her luxurious vehicle and she poured us hot coffee from a Thermos. [My brother was only two months old- he just had milk]I didn’t taste coffee like that again for about 10 years!

We were a household of tea drinkers. There was, lurking in a cupboard in the kitchen, a sinister tin of brown powder, looking like the Bisto used for Sunday’s gravy – which was fished out when inconsiderate visitors said “Oh, I'd rather have coffee, please” but as a family we never touched it!

Then came the advent of “coffee granules” and I started drinking that as a teenager because it was somehow ‘cool’. But what we never had in the house was “Camp Coffee”. Somehow Mum viewed this stuff with suspicion. First up there was the matter of the label

Dad had a ‘thing’ about this picture on the label of the Sikh Servant waiting on the kilted Scottish officer [Camp was manufactured by Paterson's of Glasgow] He felt that it was wrong to celebrate the British Raj because of the way that many Indians were badly treated by the Army and others. [and this was back in the 60s – before ‘political correctness’ came upon us]

Then of course it contained chicory which my mother greatly distrusted.

Chicory was something [like garlic] which came into the category of ‘foreign food, eaten by Frenchmen’ [Mum – like Dad – believed God created all men and women equal, whatever their race – but she definitely didn’t want to eat their food, thank you very much!]

Our next door neighbour had a bottle of Camp Coffee in her kitchen. I was fascinated by it! Like any ‘forbidden fruit’ it was strange and mysterious to me.

Somewhere along the way I developed a taste for ‘proper coffee’ [I am married to the worst coffee snob in this village] but when I did finally taste Camp Coffee, I thought it was awful! [most forbidden fruit is never quite so good when you actually get to try it, is it?]

But now Paterson's have a new, politically correct label, and the guy in the turban is now sitting alongside the guy in the kilt, as his equal – they are sharing a coffee break together

The banner still says “Ready, Aye, Ready” to show that it is easy to make coffee instantly with this product.

I do not think I have ever purchased a bottle – but then Jamie Oliver flourished his on TV this week. He was using it to add flavour to his banoffee pie.

Well, if Jamie uses it – perhaps I too should get some as a cooking ingredient [but never as a drink!]

Two questions remain

1; For Elizabeth - who is teaching out in Ooty – that part of India where the Ladies Of The Raj went to be cool in the blistering heat of the summer – do they still have Camp Coffee in your neck of the woods?

2; If I buy a bottle and keep it in Norfolk, for when I am cooking at Cornerstones, would that be classed as my “Holiday Camp”?