{"id":1366,"date":"2018-10-17T04:00:51","date_gmt":"2018-10-17T14:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/2018\/10\/17\/more-coffee-less-fossil-fuel-bitter-real-is-the-netherlands-eco-coffee-truck\/"},"modified":"2018-10-17T04:00:51","modified_gmt":"2018-10-17T14:00:51","slug":"more-coffee-less-fossil-fuel-bitter-real-is-the-netherlands-eco-coffee-truck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/2018\/10\/17\/more-coffee-less-fossil-fuel-bitter-real-is-the-netherlands-eco-coffee-truck\/","title":{"rendered":"More Coffee, Less Fossil Fuel: Bitter & Real Is The Netherlands\u2019 Eco-Coffee Truck"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"bitter<\/p>\n

\"bitter<\/span><\/p>\n

In the Northern Hemisphere, official fun-in-the-sun season is over. Yet some lucky autumnal gallivanters in the Netherlands are finding themselves at events with a parking spot reserved for\u00a0<\/span>Bitter & Real<\/span><\/a>. After a busy summer, the electric mobile specialty coffee company that advocates \u201cmore coffee, less fossil fuel\u201d is still on the road. <\/span>Upcoming stops include Rotterdam\u2019s creative lifestyle-outfitting <\/span>Swan Market<\/span><\/a>, Amsterdam\u2019s annual <\/span>jewelry fair<\/span><\/a>, and a <\/span>culinary disco bash in a Breda church<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was at a food truck festival in Amsterdam\u2019s Westerpark that Sprudge caught up with owners Laura van der Have and Minos Eigenheer. Amidst all the vying vehicles and victuals at\u00a0<\/span>Rollende Keuekens<\/span><\/a> this past May, Bitter & Real stood out. Finished in matte indigo paint, the 1971 Citro\u00ebn HY Van is haloed by a hand-drawn wood cutout of the brand\u2019s name and logo\u2014a lightning bolt striking a black demitasse.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"bitter<\/p>\n

Eigenheer and Van der Have<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Van der Have and Eigenheer have been serving specialty coffee from the fully electric vehicle since fall 2015. They spent months refurbishing, essentially,\u00a0<\/span>a rusty cab and chassis<\/span><\/a>\u00a0after purchasing it secondhand from, in their words, \u201ca Citro\u00ebn old-timer freak\u201d in Germany. Today, 300-kilo electric batteries get all three tons of it moving \u201c90-ish kilometers per hour,\u201d says Van der Have, who assures, \u201cwith the wind on your back, it can go up to 107.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Li-ion<\/span><\/a>\u00a0batteries also power the equipment inside. That includes a Tetris-like arrangement of a two-group\u00a0<\/span>Kees van der Westen Spirit<\/span><\/a>, a\u00a0<\/span>Victoria Arduino Mythos One<\/span><\/a>\u00a0grinder, a\u00a0<\/span>Mahlk\u00f6nig EK43<\/span><\/a>\u00a0grinder, a\u00a0<\/span>3Temp one-group Hipster Brewer<\/span><\/a>, a\u00a0<\/span>Marco Ecoboiler WMT5<\/span><\/a>, as well as two fridges (to hold a couple hundred liters of milk, nitro cold brew, beer, and iced tea kegs), an oven to bake fresh sweets (rhubarb frangipane tartlets, anyone?), and a dishwasher.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"bitter<\/span><\/p>\n

To charge its batteries and run all the appliances, a single cord from within the vehicle can plug into some on-location power source. Additionally, 12m2 of solar panels line the roof, producing 1800 watt-peaks of solar energy\u2014asked for a layperson\u2019s equivalent, Van der Have estimates that \u201con a nice summer day that is enough to constantly use a hairdryer.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Of the choice to use solar panels, she explains: \u201cWe wanted to be able to power all this coffee gear anywhere without taking a generator, so we can also function off-grid. And that\u2019s what we often do for catering [at events] where a 400-volt phase power supply is not available.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"bitter<\/span><\/p>\n

Indigenous to warm climates though they may seem, the couple met while snowboarding in Eigenheer\u2019s native Switzerland. Before moving to the Netherlands, he had worked for Revita, a small company that designs water turbines.\u00a0Van der Have started in the hospitality industry at age 15, at boutique hotel and restaurant\u00a0<\/span>Villa Augustus<\/span><\/a>\u00a0in Dordrecht.\u00a0A 15-minute train ride from Rotterdam, the river-surrounded city is nowadays Bitter & Real\u2019s headquarters. Van der Have\u2019s parents have an estate there, which hosts their chicken coop, a garden yielding ingredients for their baked goods, and an old barn sheltering the parked truck and their <\/span>Diedrich IR-12<\/span><\/a>. Since January, they have been roasting their own line of coffees, providing for themselves, <\/span>online customers<\/span><\/a>, and, recently, Villa Augustus.<\/span><\/p>\n

At a typical festival, five or six Bitter & Real staff work in two shifts, and up to five can simultaneously\u2014and seemingly merrily\u2014fit in the tight space. On a good day, they report selling 800 coffees. It is a compact, classy operation, but eco-friendly portability comes with concessions.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"bitter<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOften at catering locations, there is no power outlet that can handle a Spirit and all the espresso bar gear without the help of a big battery bank with inverter,\u201d says Van der Have. \u201cDuring peak hours or while the espresso machine is warming up, we need about six times more energy, which gets drawn from the battery.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Plus, it is \u201cpaper cups most of the time\u2014we very much prefer using porcelain.\u201d Still, she maintains: \u201cWe have sooo many people come to drink coffee that you wouldn\u2019t have in a cafe.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Bitter & Real have undoubtedly upped the standards in mobile coffee\u2014this year all the more apparent with the brand\u2019s freshly roasted beans onboard. However, that was not their explicit intention. Rather, it was \u201chis sustainability vision and my coffee vision [that came] together in this van,\u201d says Van der Have of their enterprise. And, she points out: \u201cIt was not that I really wanted to change festivals. We kinda rolled into it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Once autumn ends, \u201cwe have a semi-winter sleep,\u201d she says, though admits that preparations for the upcoming summer never stop. An exciting project will be putting the finishing touches on their second electric vehicle creation, a 1984 Citro\u00ebn ideal for hauling extra crew, supplies, and really, anything under the sun.<\/span><\/p>\n

For more information and their schedule, visit Bitter & Real\u2019s official website<\/a> and follow them on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/div>\n

Karina Hof is a Sprudge staff writer based in Amsterdam. Read more\u00a0Karina Hof on Sprudge<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The post More Coffee, Less Fossil Fuel: Bitter & Real Is The Netherlands’ Eco-Coffee Truck<\/a> appeared first on Sprudge<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Source: Coffee News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the Northern Hemisphere, official fun-in-the-sun season is over. Yet some lucky autumnal gallivanters in the Netherlands are finding themselves at events with a parking spot reserved for\u00a0Bitter & Real….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[26],"tags":[63,27,65,33,61,32,59,31,30],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1366"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1366\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}