With winter edging itā€™s way into our lives, getting through the cold mornings and evenings has completely changed since our Minipresso became a fundamental part of our travel routine. During our weekend trips, there is nothing better than stopping to check out a spot and enjoying the perfect espresso before the paddle out to a wave.

We recently took it for a test drive to the Overberg, where we stayed in and old cottage with no electricity. Our exploration of this fairly untouched part of the coast line included stopping in at some our favourite surf spots on the way back home ā€“ Hermanus, Onrus, Bettyā€™s Bay, Witsands and then finally back to Cape Town.

As long as you have hot water, the Minipresso is all hand powered so you can make your brew anywhere. It doesnā€™t need any batteries or electricity (which is really awesome when you want that rugged weekend with only a camp fire). We always take along a small double hulled thermos with us with hot water, itā€™s good for the whole day. Before we left the farm, we tested this whole theory out with boiling some hot water on the fire outside, zapped that into our thermos and after an hour drive and then surfing Onrus for 2 hours – it was still hot.

This version of the MiniPresso is the GR ā€“ for ground coffee. (the Minipresso takes capsules) It takes standard grinds, and we always take our handheld grinder with everywhere too. Also no electricity needed to grind beans as fine as you need for an espresso! It’s a very unique style of coffee to have on the go that you don’t need a lot of water to make like other brew methods. Most of the time we pack very light, just the essentials and itā€™s a relief that it literally takes up 20 cm of our backpack space (with the grinder).

One thing we must mention is that as we were just past Bettyā€™s, we stopped off at Koelbaai, there were some guys taking waves at the Caves. The view is incredible and we really just didnā€™t want our trip to come to an end. We pulled off on the cliffs and started making an espresso with our Minipresso, right there on the rocky ledge. Sure enough we had a few tourists come and ask us what this was and they were really impressed that we were enjoying an espresso right there and then.

So apart from the Minipresso being really cool, we love taking it with us on our weekend adventure trips ā€“ weā€™ve loved the taste and richness of the espressos it makes, and we like that itā€™s compact and hardy. Where are we off to next? The Garden Route!