Flask Weather: 10 Nordic Pieces for Cold Autumn Walks

Flask Weather: 10 Nordic Pieces for Cold Autumn Walks

There is a point in October when the coffee stops being drunk at the kitchen table and starts being carried. The light is gone by five, the ground is wet, and nobody in Norway, Sweden or Denmark treats that as a reason to stay in. They put the drink in a flask, the wool in a bag, and walk out anyway.

What changes at this time of year is not the route but the kit. A walk in July needs nothing. A walk now needs something hot, something warm to sit on, and a light for the way back to the door. The ten pieces below cover that, from a bottle small enough for a coat pocket to a litre of tea for four people and a blanket big enough for two. All of them are in stock in the UK, Germany, Norway and Denmark, and every one can be compared on price on ScandiDeals.

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1. Stelton Keep Cool Flask – Pale Green, Coat Pocket

Six hundred millilitres of double-walled steel, finished in a soft yellow-green the maker calls Laevis, with a brushed steel cap that screws down flush. Keep Cool was named for the summer half of the year, but insulation does not care which direction it is working in, and the shape is the useful part now: narrow enough for a coat pocket or the side net of a rucksack, straight-sided enough to drink from without a cup.

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2. Rosendahl Grand Cru Tea Thermos – A Litre, Leaves Included

The one you take when there are four of you. A litre of matte black, faceted down the sides so it does not roll, with a button in the lid that opens the pour and a fine steel basket that drops into the neck. Load the Grand Cru with loose leaves before you leave and the tea is properly brewed by the time anyone wants it. Lift the basket out and the thermos carries coffee instead.

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3. Eva Solo Urban To Go Cup – One Hand, Lid Shut

Not every autumn walk starts at a trailhead. Most start at a bus stop or a bicycle rack, and the Urban To Go cup is built for that half hour: a sage-green cylinder of 0.35 litres with a moulded lid and a small flip spout you open and close with the thumb of the hand already holding it. It holds about what a café cup does. Fill it at home and walk past the queue.

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4. Aida Raw Thermos Bottle – Water, Not Only Coffee

Cold air is dry air, and people drink far too little on a winter walk because they do not feel thirsty until they are home. The Raw bottle is the correction: half a litre of steel in a matte black that hides a scrape, with a narrow neck, a low profile and the series name stamped quietly near the base. Insulated, so it holds water cold on the way out and hot blackcurrant on the way back.

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5. Muurla Teemu Järvi Enamel Mug – Enamel, Ink, Half Litre

Enamel is the correct material for drinking outdoors: steel under glass, light, and prone to chipping rather than shattering when it meets granite. This one holds 55 centilitres, has a rolled black rim and a square handle, and carries a pike and a trout drawn in ink by the Finnish artist Teemu Järvi, whose fish look wet. The Pike and Trout mug takes a generous pour from the thermos and sits flat on a stone.

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6. Moomin Arabia Haru Flask – Small Hands, Short Legs

A child who is cold turns round. A child with their own flask of hot chocolate walks another kilometre, which is the entire argument for the Haru flask: 0.22 litres, light enough for a small rucksack, cream steel printed in blue ink with Tove Jansson's Moomintroll sitting among leaves and flowers. The screw lid is simple enough to manage in mittens. Adults keep finding reasons to borrow it for a single espresso.

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7. Klippan Elk Wool Blanket – Grey Ground, Cream Elk

Ninety by a hundred and thirty centimetres: lap size, not bed size, and that is deliberate. The Elk blanket is woven wool in grey with rows of cream elk walking across it, reversed on the other face, and finished with blanket stitch in a contrasting thread all the way round. Klippan has been spinning wool in southern Sweden since 1879. Keep it in the boot of the car and it will be used every weekend until March.

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8. Røros Tweed Fri Blanket – The Colours Of November

The colourway is called November view, and it is an honest description: horizontal bands of rust, ochre, slate blue, soft grey and deep brown, the palette of a Norwegian hillside in the fourth week of autumn. Fri is woven in wool at Røros, high in the mountains, and at 150 by 200 centimetres it is the large one: two people on a bench, or one person and a long read on the sofa afterwards.

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9. HAY Outdoor Market Flask Bag – Canvas, Red Stripes, Strap

Most bags carry a flask badly, lying it on its side among everything else. The Outdoor Market bag is cut tall and round instead, in cream canvas with narrow red stripes, a drawstring top and a broad red webbing strap for one shoulder. The medium size takes a flask upright with room beside it for a mug, a bar of chocolate and a pair of gloves.

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10. Design House Stockholm Lotus Lantern – A Flame Outdoors, Steady

The walk ends in the dark now, and a light at the door helps. Lotus is a black metal foot with a tall arched handle and a clear glass cylinder that lifts off for the candle, a plain taper standing in the centre. The glass does the work, holding the flame upright in the sort of wind that puts out anything unprotected. Carry it to the step, the terrace table, or down the garden.

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Final Thoughts

The Nordic habit is not heroic. It is a short walk in poor weather, with something hot to drink at the turning point and a blanket to sit on while it is drunk. The kit exists so that the decision to go out takes ten seconds instead of ten minutes, which is the whole difference between walking most weekends and walking twice before Christmas.

Buy the flask that fits the pocket you actually use, one mug you do not mind dropping, and one blanket you will leave in the car. Everything else can wait for next autumn. Sizes, colours and stock differ between the Nordic shops, and so do the prices, so compare them on ScandiDeals before you choose which flask goes in which pocket.