I’ve been reading Sue’s wartime rationing blog (until she paused) and the Facebook group and was reminded of the coffee that my Grandma always used, during the war (I wasn’t around but Mum said that’s what they always had) and ever after .
A Camp Coffee poster among other advertisements on a tenement building in 1929
Camp Coffee was created in 1885 by Campbell Paterson (1851-1927) of R. Paterson & Son in Glasgow. The company specialised in cordials, and their best-selling product was a raspberry cordial often added to whisky or brandy to create a drink known as “Cuddle-me-Dearie”. The coffee essence was developed by Campbell Paterson for domestic use, to avoid the complex and then expensive equipment required for coffee drinking.[4]
Legend has it (mainly due to the picture on the label) that Camp Coffee originated as an instant coffee for military use. The label has the classic theme of the romance of the British Raj. It includes a drawing of a seated Gordon Highlander (supposedly Major General Sir Hector MacDonald)[5] being served by a Sikh soldier holding a tray with a bottle of essence and jug of hot water. They are in front of a tent, at the apex of which flies a flag bearing the drink’s slogan, “Ready Aye Ready”. That was also the motto of the 59th Scinde Rifles (Frontier Force) of the British Indian Army. In this context, the Scots word ‘aye’ has the meaning of ‘always’ rather than ‘yes’,[6] and indicates, in the case of the drink, that it is ‘always ready’ to be made.
The original label, by William Victor Wrigglesworth, depicted a Sikh servant waiting on a seated Scottish soldier. A feature of that label was that the server carried a tray on which there was a bottle of Camp Coffee, which carried the same label showing a bottle of Camp Coffee, regressing to infinity. A later version of the label, introduced in the mid-20th century, removed the tray from the picture, thus removing the infinite bottles Droste effect, which was seen as an attempt to avoid the connotation that the Sikh was a servant, although he still waited while the kilted Scottish soldier sipped his coffee.[7][8] Since 2006, the Sikh is depicted as a soldier sitting beside the Scottish soldier, with a cup and saucer of his own
It was good to see it’s still in the shops so I bought a bottle to try. Shame it’s no longer in the nice square glass bottle that I remember.
I remember always having sugar in it when we went to Grandma’s house on the bus each Thursday but it seemed plenty sweet enough to me when I tried it and actually not very nice. I’ll keep it for making coffee sponges…………lots of coffee sponges……..all winter!
Someone asked what the ‘Compost Jelly’ was like – I can safely say………Very Tasty!
I labelled it as ‘Mixed Fruit Jelly’ as I’m giving two jars away and I thought Compost Jelly would put them off eating it!
I tried it on toast and then made scones and bought clotted cream. Definitely extremely edible despite being made from all the bits that are normally chucked out.
I probably will do it again this time next year but will use less water to cover everything at the first cooking to cut down the time and use less electric.
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