friday favourite – packing cube follow-up

I love them! We arrived in the Azores, I opened my suitcase to three neatly packed cubes, and then some other stuff squished around them. I really liked how it helped me think about what to bring and get organized before we left.

When I was packing my things to go home, I wasn’t as motivated to neatly fold my shirts into their cube so I shoved things in. Plus on the return trip I usually wrap the small pottery bowls I invariably buy in my soft t-shirts.

 

At the last minute, I tucked the Aeropress coffee maker between two packing cubes in my suitcase. Smart idea! The house we rented only had a large espresso pot. With two decaf and four high-test coffee drinkers in the house, the aeropress allowed everyone to make their own fresh cup, at the strength they liked, whenever they liked. If you don’t own one, pick one up, it even comes with a travel case!

And in case you are curious, the Azores were amazing…hiking, fresh fish, inexpensive good wine and incredible scenery! I’ll have more information and photos on my travel blog shortly.

HAR

 

a great cup of joe

I wouldn’t go so far as to say we are coffee snobs…we just happen to love a great cup of java. And the process of making it is as important as the first sip. Not unlike how we tackle a great G & T! When we are on vacation, there’s often a picture of a cappuccino among the scenic shots.

We are both pretty partial to our Freiling french presses. I also have an Aeropress and single cup drip/pour over. They make a slightly different cup for different times of the day.

We just heard about a cool new travel coffee set called Dripkit described as Great Coffee Made Easy that we’ll be trying out on our next trip.

And we’re just as particular about our mugs.

CJR

costa rican coffee

Before boarding our small ship for a week off the coast of Costa Rica, we found a coffee plantation tour that we could just squeeze in during our one free morning.

Britt Coffee has a small plantation at their roasting facility that was about 45 minutes from our hotel in San Jose, Costa Rica. The hotel arranged a taxi for us, we paid for the tour and lunch and we were on our way.

The tour was very entertaining with two hosts who must have a background in theatre! Throughout the plantation there were coffee stations so by the end of the tour we had tasted most of their blends, and had a caffeine buzz!

 

I wanted to buy some coffee but didn’t really want to carry it with me all week on a boat. Clearly I wasn’t the only one who thought this way since they made it very easy to ship coffee home. I placed my order, it arrived last night and this morning I ground my Costa Rican beans and drank my coffee watching the snow fall!

 

HAR