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With Father’s Day approaching, I’ve been thinking a lot about my dad and wanted to write a blog about the importance of Father’s Day or rather, how Father’s Day is really important to everyone else...

You see my Dad died when I was very young, and it’s had a pretty profound affect on my life, which I’ve not always been aware of. So when Father’s Day rolls around every year, I tend to think; “Oh what a nice day, for everyone else” and it sort of just passes by and I’m generally just thankful that I don’t have the pressure to come up with a present and spend lots of money buying things.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t completely get lost in the envy of others – although when I was younger I used to be slightly resentful at my much older siblings for having ‘so much more time’ with him!

I guess, Father’s Day could have always seemed to be a quiet reminder of what I didn’t have – a day of loss, glass half full, less-of kind-of-rubbish thinking.

But this is the exact opposite of how I generally (and consciously) choose to live my life.

Mainly, I wonder what my Dad would have thought of my eclectic career, mainly in coffee. Whether he would have supported me in being a barista and an actress over a doctor or a dentist, like my siblings. But mostly, whether he would actually like coffee? Something pretty majorly important to me!

Would his favourite coffee be a cappuccino with half a sugar like my mum? OR would it be a hard-core espresso?

I want to imagine that he’s a bit of a coffee geek and we’d meet in cafes to talk about life, general problems I can’t solve or that I could make us a pour over coffee and sit in front of the telly together talking about how good it tasted and where I got the beans from…

I’ve thought about the impact of fathers in my friends’ lives, and parents in general. Some of us grew up with so much angst, rebellion, criticism against them and the general misunderstanding that they were probably just trying to do the best they could with the knowledge and resources they had at the time. I can't imagine parenthood being easy for everyone.

On the other hand, others will have had an amazing relationship with their fathers (which I did too, until he passed away).

For me, I guess what I didn’t realise was that I was always searching for a “father figure” after my Dad died. And I realised that over the years, I really have had the best of an unfortunate situation. I’ve had so many fantastic male role models and “father figures” in my life for many different reasons: career, film, business, relationships… If you can imagine, it’s like splitting your Dad into multiple people – each one being a specialist in a different area of your life (which is really pretty cool) and I feel so fortunate. Organically, some of my ‘father figures’ move on and new one’s step in depending on what’s happening in life. But I imagine that would be the same with a living father where one might give advice or teach you something as and when it’s necessary.

But there IS one thing that all my “father figures” have in common and that’s COFFEE.

They’re all massive coffee lovers, which has been a connecting factor of all our relationships. Most of my most special and insightful times have been discussed over a cup of coffee – either me making coffee or drinking coffee.

I really can’t imagine that my actual Dad wouldn’t like coffee! In fact I know he would.

I think it’s incredibly important to let the people who actually have an effect on your life know that they did good! For me, Father’s Day is more of a reminder of that.

So, if you have coffee in common with your dad, I think anything coffee related to give your Dad on Father’s Day would be amazing. It’s a gift that says so much more.

Good quality specialty coffee gear can be really expensive – so it’s often hard to buy a full home pour over kit all at once. So I had a hunt for some gear that looks great and makes great tasting coffee, but doesn’t break the bank!

Melitta UK has just come out with some new home coffee gear, which I’ve been using for the past couple months and I’ve been really happy with it. I have since ordered a load of stuff to try. The range I’ve picked here is incredibly good value for money – especially for those dads (and mums) who are just getting in to making pour over coffee at home.

I’ve been using the Melitta unbleached cone filter papers for years now in my batch brewers and manual coffee makers, but I was super surprised to find out that Melitta actually invented the drip brew paper coffee filter!

An entrepreneurial German housewife named Melitta Bentz invented this on 8th July 1908 to filter out the coffee grinds after boiling it. What a lady!!

So Melitta has had a long history in coffee, mainly producing filter papers and coffee makers. It’s great to now see them expanding into modern manual coffee making products too.

If your Dad, father figure, (or even yourself) are into pour over coffees and want to start making them at home, then this is the perfect ‘kit’ to start with.

It’s often expensive getting started and you can mix and match brands but, as a general all-round kit, you can get everything you need to make pour over coffee at home for around £70 which is so much cheaper than when I was getting my first kit together!

I recently took the Gooseneck Kettle away with me surfing, which came in super handy, and the Thermo Mug has become an everyday accessory for both hot and cold drinks. It keeps the heat or cold in and it doesn’t leak. I take it everywhere!

If you want something extra and like creamy, textured milk in your coffee in the morning with your stovetop, a great gift is the Cremio...it's not actually out yet, but it is soon and it would be an awesome gift to any parent who has kids, because it makes great milk for hot chocolates!!

So I feel that I've chosen a few different pieces to make up a good range, that you can always build on. I honestly think any of this coffee gear I've mentioned here would be a really great gift and I’d be proud to give it to my Dad. Straight up.

Thanks Dad, Happy Father's Day. June 17th, 2018.

Head over to Melitta.co.uk

For a pour over kit, you’ll need:

Pour over cone
Filter paper
Grinder
Coffee (TGITC - but Melitta have coffee too)
Gooseneck Kettle
Cup

For these reasons:

They’re a fantastic price (I’ve looked and done my research)
They look great and makes tasty coffee!
Are good value for money (Good quality)
It’s a chance to bond over something you (both) like (maybe you can teach him to brew)
It’s relaxing
Every time he uses it, or drinks coffee, it will remind him of you

***I'll be testing and reviewing the Melitta Barista TS Smart home espresso machine over the next few months, so look out for that, along with various workshops in Manchester later in the year.