The lengths I went to be ideologically sound. Remember that "Campaign Coffee" we used to get in polythene bags? We'd then decant it into a Maxwell House jar (not Nescafé obviously). That fooled at least one of our visitors, who would look into the kitchen when offered a coffee to check what was on offer, as she couldn't stand Campaign Coffee (sorry, Leanne). Jeremy, a longstanding coffee connoisseur, gave his verdict: it's a hot drink, it's not entirely unpleasant, but it's certainly not coffee.
That's what led me to get my first cafetière when they were still rare: you could get ground Nicaraguan coffee from the Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign, but you couldn't get instant coffee. As with most charity retailing, it was hard to find anything that you really wanted. I see they're still selling the same coffee mugs as they were in 1985 — possibly the same stock. So I bought this cassette, to show willing.
The NSC has at least sold out of this item. It's a recording of a peace concert, evidently strongly supportive of the Sandinista government, from 1983: Discogs has the details. It's refreshingly home-grown and not trying too hard, or at all, to be fashionable, or metropolitan, or any of those other things that aim to appeal to people like me. There's no guest appearances by Kris Kristofferson, Joan Baez or Billy Bragg — not even Ry Cooder doing the backing.
What coffee do we drink now? Well, I've traded up from the cafetière to a Bialetti, and our most common blend is Cafédirect's Fairtrade Espresso. We still fool the vistors by keeping it in an Illy tin, but that's just because the tin keeps it fresh for longer.
MusicBrainz entry for this album
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