When Jenny Linfoot decided to retire from the beachside cabin overlooking Mwnt beach in Ceredigion daughter Rachel realised she couldn't bear seeing another family run the cute coffee and ice cream hut where her mother had worked hard summer in, summer out for the past 40 years.
So Rachel decided to take Caban on herself, despite having a full-time job, thanks to her memories of summers spent playing at, then helping out in the cabin, which is often adorned with colourful buckets and spades, lolly and ice cream menus and has one of the greatest beach views.
Back in 1982, Jenny and husband Richard, who run a nearby farm, decided to try something new and pitched up a tourer caravan at the beach and refreshed beach-lovers, swimmers and walkers with teas and coffees. Four decades later Jenny's Welshcakes are legendary and after 40 summers, most of which were then in the cabin which was rented out to the family by the National Trust after they built it alongside the public lavs back in the 1980s, Rachel says her mother was ready to retire, though she will be kept busy by granny duties.
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"Because me and my sister have our children now she's got a bigger job to do and being a granny," Rachel said. "I worked there as a kid and a teenager scooping ice cream and stuff and I just couldn't bear the thought of it going to a randomer. So I thought 'I'm just gonna take it on'. So yeah, it's been a bit of a refurb and we tried to modernize it slightly. Mum's been there so long it's stayed the same for so long we thought we'd spruce it up."
Instead of old school instant coffee, Caban has a refreshed menu as well as a new look, with oozy cheese toasties and freshly brewed coffee roasted at Tan-y-Groes' Cardigan Bay Roasters and, while they'll do it gradually, Rachel adds that they'll be selling more sustainable beach buckets and spades, trying to replace plastics as much as possible. But don't worry, you'll still be able to get delicious ice cream on a hot day after walking up those Mwnt steps or mooching around the little chapel or coastal path.
The main thing for regular visitors too, is that Jenny's Welshcakes will still be on offer, to go with what she calls 'fancy coffee' and Rachel is also contemplating opening up on New Year's Day and dates people will be likely out walking, outside of the regular season of February half term to the end of October half term.
Despite working full time, Rachel spends most weekends at Caban and during the week it's looked after by their other member of staff, Gwen. It's exactly the sort of hut you like to see by the beach but it's a far cry from how it started, back in the 1980s, with Jenny handing out drinks and snacks through a caravan window.
"Mum and Dad started out with a little caravan just selling ice creams and things and the National Trust then built the toilets and the building that's there. So Mum then moved into that building and had her first little shop and it's just been there ever since," said Rachel, who remembers playing with her sister Christine out the back of the cabin as queues and queues of people would wait for their ice cream. "I loved it as a kid because it would be boiling hot in the summers and you'd be running in and out of the shop, it was a lovely place to work. My Mum took so much pride in that tiny little shop and I hope I can do her proud."
