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An original 'Camp Coffee' label. The Paterson Company of Glasgow was catapulted to fame with the world's first instant coffee in 1876: Camp Coffee (an essence of coffee-beans, chicory and sugar poured from a distinctive bottle). The origin of Camp Coffee is believed to have come from a request from the Gordon Highlanders to Campbell Paterson for a coffee drink that could be used easily by the army on field campaigns in India. The regular process of grinding and brewing coffee beans was too complicated and time consuming for a military field kitchen. The creation of a liquid Camp Coffee provided a simpler method. Originally the picture depicted the Sikh as carrying a tray of coffee -- an intermediate version, with the Sikh standing but the tray missing; it is widely believed that this was changed to avoid the imperialist connotations of the Sikh as a servant.The new label is a drawing of a Gordon Highlander soldier and a Sikh soldier sitting down together outside a tent, from which flies a flag carrying the drink's slogan, "Ready Aye Ready". Property of Robert Pool