I recall hearing a talk show host once quip about his disdain for camping ... "why would I want to go camping? I mean, why would I purposely reduce my quality of life?" His tongue-in-cheek comment while funny is also how many people view camping or living either permanently or for extended periods in conversion vans.
We think of deflated air mattress and that rock poking into your back, having to pee in the middle of the night but not wanting to leave your cozy warm sleeping bag, or drinking nasty tasting instant coffee. It all leaves a bad taste in our mouths ... but it doesn't have to be that way. Most of you already know by now that actually you can (1) sleep comfortably either in a tent or your conversion van, (b) drink amazing coffee by brewing it up with an aeropress or something similar, but (c) you still have to get out of your cozy sleeping bag to pee in the middle of the night.
There is seemingly an explosion of people either selling homes and moving into conversion vans or at least doing so for extended periods of times. The spontaneity and flexible it allows is unheralded. Many of us long and dream about such a day when we can go and do the same. To walk away from our 9-5 jobs and make our careers and livelihood sync up with life on the road. To drive from mountain bike hotspot to mountain bike hotspot waking up each morning, brewing up our coffee, and then hitting the trail that you're parked next to.
So the question before you is this ... how are you going to brew you coffee each morning? Ok, obviously the bigger question is how we can ditch our jobs and adopt this lifestyle of a mountain biking nomad. But for the sake of this article we'll just stick to brewing up coffee while on the road. How do you brew your coffee? Aeropress? Pourover? Moka pot? While there is an increasing number of ways to brew and enjoy coffee the most important thing to do is find one that suits you. Not only that, but one that you can do repeatedly with ease. Having a good routine is essential whether at home or on the road.
More than that you need to think through where to pick up your coffee to keep stocked. You may have coffee roasters along the way where you stop in for your resupply of beans. In addition to that if you know where you will be and have address let us know and we can roast and ship you beans ahead of time so that it is waiting for you when you get to your next pick-up location. It's one thing to have all of the tools to brew coffee with, but if you don't have the beans you'll be out of luck. We can certainly help with that.
None of this is rocket science, but simply a reminder to think through your coffee routine each and every morning. If you need ideas for brew methods, we can help. Click on brew methods for ideas.
Words by Sean Benesh, Loam Coffee Founder and Brand Manager. Photos by Daniel Walden