Batavia Blog: Selling Ice coffee on a christmas market
Every Tuesday, a new addition is made to the Batavia Coffee blog. In the blog, we write about the road we travelled so far. It all started with an idea that occurred on a bleak day in India. This week: Selling Cold drip coffee at an ice cold Christmas market.
Ice coffee on a Christmas market
After we had been selling our coffee at a pop-up store located in Utrecht we started to get the hang of it. We got a lot of feedback from the people who consumed our coffees, which was great. It was good to see how big the differences were between the six coffees we offered them. To prove that Cold coffee can be consumed everywhere, we decided to participate in the Christmas market in our hometown Leiden. Selling Cold drip coffee at a Christmas market might not be the best idea whit temperatures around the freezing point, but we had good faith.
A hunch of something great
Fortunately, we decided to set up our wooden chalet with the necessary, yet probably flammable, Christmas lights from a cheap mass production store. Honestly, the first days were pretty tough. It was extremely cold outside and although it was not a problem for people to buy our Dutch Coffee it seemed a reasonable step to go out and visit the market. Fortunately, after a day or two, it became a bit drier and soon we wondered if we had enough bottles of coffee in stock. In advance, we decided to start the evening of day three by producing more coffee.
A marathon
On day four it became clear that our planning was off. Instead of just having to sell the coffee at the Christmas market, we now also had to produce coffee twice a day! After we finished working at the Christmas market, we had to produce coffee until late at night just to make sure there was enough coffee for the next day. Waking up early the next morning, we had to paste the labels with sleepy eyes, just before going to the Christmas market again. It was like a marathon. But one thing was clear: Dutch people also like ice coffee during winter!
To be continued…
Batavia Blog: Coffee lovers discovering Batavia Coffee
After the great Christmas market success, we were ready for a bigger audience. It was time to introduce Batavia Dutch coffee to all coffee lovers in the Netherlands. This week, we would like to take you with us to our very first Amsterdam Coffee Festival!
Amsterdam Coffee Festival
Packed with renewed enthusiasm, but still with way too little capacity, we started with the preparations for the Amsterdam Coffee Festival. We bought our first full palette of coffee bottles and produced 400 litres of coffee with our 20 litre prototype batch. With the help of family and friends, we bottled our first “big” batch of a 1000 bottles.
The coffeelovers of the Netherlands
In 2015, we realized that even coffee enthusiasts were still sceptical about drinking cold coffee. A lot of them had never even consumed black ice coffee before. Or worse, confused different brewing methods to prepare black ice coffee with each other.
If it ain’t Dutch, it ain’t much!
During “Business to Business Friday” we found that a lot of (coffee) companies were highly excited about our coffees. Although our stand was placed mildly inconvenient we got a lot of visitors forwarded from other exhibitors. Additionally, our balloons and shirt branded with the text “if it ain’t Dutch, it ain’t much” proofed to be a huge success too! Mom and dad were dragged to our stand so the kids could receive a balloon, leading the parents right in to a nice conversation with us ;). About half way through the day, not a single child could’ve been spotted without a balloon.
Conquering the Netherlands
On Sunday, we were left with just one concern, not handing out too much coffees leaving us empty handed. Eventually, we ended up selling about 900 bottles! We then realized it was time to develop a strategy that would conquer the Netherlands.
To be continued…
Batavia Blog: Black ice coffee on the Dutch market
Every Tuesday a new Batavia Coffee blog appears, in which we take you with us in the world of Dutch Coffee. Last week you could read that we tested over a hundred specialty coffees to finally get a selection of six flavors! In today’s blog, we discuss how we used the opinion of the Dutch public to decide which three of the six flavors was best for Batavia. At Hoog Catherijne, a well know shopping plaza in the center of Utrecht, we let about 600 Dutch citizens taste the different flavors. Also, check out our inspiring recipes with black ice coffee here!
Black ice coffee suits the customer’s palate
After extensive testing and tasting on our own, we decided it was time to test what flavors the Dutch citizens would be most interested in. Through a startup platform in Utrecht we were invited to create a pop-up store at Hoog Catherijne. This was the first event at which we could sample big amounts of coffee to the Dutch public. We tried our best to use this possibility to connect with as much people as possible.
That looks nice!
With a specific goal in mind and a planning that only displayed ‘to do’s’, on reaching the weekend we almost forgot to sleep. At 23:00, the day before opening our pop-up store, we found it necessary to create a bar completely made out of wood, because it would make our playground look slightly better. Eventually, we left home heading for Hoog Catherijne the next morning without any sleep. We survived the first day being barely able to still stand on our feet, but what a successful day it was. A lot of Dutch citizens turned out to be curious about Dutch Coffee Makers and came to ask how the black ice coffee received its name in Asia.
Six hundred tasters
The second day turned out to be a huge success as well. Leaving us with most of our palettes empty. At the end of the weekend about six hundred people tasted our coffee. The flavors from which most coffees sold at the end of the weekend served as an indicator for the coffees we ended up selecting as the final three, namely the Limu, the Santuario and the Yirgacheffe.
Ice coffee on a Christmas market?
Since the start of our company people kept saying that the Netherlands doesn’t have the climate to favor black ice coffee. We did not agree and used their feedback as a motivation to prove them wrong. We decided to sell our coffee at the Christmas market in Leiden. If our coffee could sell at temperatures below zero, then we would probably be ready to sell it in the Netherlands during the winter months too!
To be continued…
Batavia blog: The world of specialty coffees
Every Thursday a new blogpost is added to the Batavia Coffee Blog, in which we take you with us on our Dutch coffee adventure! In the previous weeks, you could read how it all started and which obstacles we had to overcome to bring Cold Drip Coffee onto the Dutch market. Today we will discuss how we selected the current Dutch Coffee flavors for Batavia coffee. A whole new world opened up for use while testing specialty coffees. Also, check out our recipe page for some inspiring recipes made with Dutch Coffee.
Specialty Coffees
A bag of Sidamo coffee beans received from a Belgium specialty coffee brewer in Breda, introduced us to the world of top-notch coffees. Although we have always been big fans of trying new coffees, never before had we tasted a light roasted, fruity specialty coffee. The Sidamo, as a Dutch Coffee, was so sweet and full of fruity flavours that it kind of tasted like roosvicee!
Expanding our range of flavours
Although we were deeply enthusiastic about Sidamo, we realized not everybody could appreciate the fruity taste of the coffee. After expanding our knowledge of specialty coffee flavours, we realized offering different coffee flavours was required to meet the needs of all coffee lovers. This resulted in three different bottled Dutch Coffees.
Testing, experimenting and discussing
In the months that followed, we tested every specialty coffee we could get our hands on. In total, we’ve probably tested over a hundred coffees prepared as Dutch coffee. We even tested them using different brewing methods. Eventually, after long tasting sessions, we selected six different coffee types that caught our interest. A coffee from brazil, a coffee from Colombia, an Indonesian coffee and two Ethiopian coffees. Out of these six coffees we selected three coffees, which we thought, were most suitable for the Dutch consumer.
To be continued…
Batavia blog: Cold drip coffee in the Netherlands
Every Tuesday we take you with us, in the world of Batavia Dutch Coffee. Previous week you could read how our adventure started. Today, we will discuss all the obstacles we ran into when trying to bring cold drip coffee – which is what Dutch coffee is usually called outside of Asia – to the Netherlands.
Testing, a lot!
After the idea started to enter our minds in India, we couldn’t wait to start working on it once we returned to the Netherlands. During the testing phase, we realized at least one thing: not being able to read Korean or Chinese was highly distressing. So, we had to trust our taste buds and test a lot of different coffees! After receiving all the instruments needed to start making the coffee, the testing phase began for real. Putting it nicely, not all coffees we developed were amazing, but we quickly realized that we were only drinking Cold Drip Coffee. This made us feel confident to work even harder.
The first cold drip bottles
Once we truly entered the world of specialty coffees we came to the conclusion that there was so much more to offer. The first cold drip coffees we produced were made solely with wooden instruments and had an expiration date of about three weeks. The expression “hit the ground running” nicely describes our strategy at that point. While we had just enough capacity to produce a couple of bottles we tried selling the coffee right away.
Prototype
Right after we found our first customers, we decided to build a prototype for a bigger production. The resulted in a monster production of about 20 liters of coffee per batch. A few weeks later we realized even this would not be enough. Nowadays we drink about this much coffee at the office a week.
To be continued…
Batavia Coffee: How it all started
It is now almost three years ago that Jits and I started our adventure together, trying to bring Dutch Coffee back to the Netherlands. Ever since 2014 we experienced some great things together, but starting a blog kind of slip our mind during all the exiting things we had planned. So, from now on we would like to include you in our adventure, telling you all about our journey and experiences making Batavia Coffee. If you want to be notified when a new blog is placed, then follow us on Facebook. All new blogposts will be added there. In this fist blog, we will discuss how it all started. Taking you all the way back to the summer of 2013. During his study in South-Korea, Jits discovered ‘Dutch Coffee’ at an airport. The black ice coffee, served in large glasses looked didn’t look Dutch at all, yet the salesman was convinced that it was a typical Dutch drink!
The 17th century
Arriving at the city of Seoul, Jits discovered that the small coffee place at the airport wasn’t the only spot in Asia where black ice coffee was sold, represented as typically Dutch. Eventually, Jits got curious and went to try the drink himself. As a fan of black warm coffee, he found that the black ice coffee was perfect for his taste. The owner of one of the coffee places Jits visited, told him that the coffee was named after the original brewing method founded by Dutch merchants in the 17th century.
Extremely sweet
After finishing his study in Seoul, Jits travelled to India where he met up with me. Together we started working for an IT-company there. In no-time the idea developed to start our own company together. As huge coffee lovers, it wasn’t always easy to get a decent morning coffee in India. During work, our colleagues usually drank thee and the streets were dominated with street carts selling Chai. They did sell ice coffee in bars and restaurants but it was usually made by using a bag of instant coffee decorated with vanilla ice cream on top. It was at an incredibly warm day that Jits told me about his coffee experiences in South-Korea. At that moment we decided that, after nearly three centuries, Dutch Coffee deserved a comeback in the Netherlands.
Batavia Coffee in the Netherlands
We started preparing during our stay in India so that we could launch Dutch Coffee right after arriving back in the Netherlands. We reserved www.dutch-coffee.nl and contacted every supplier of Dutch coffee we could find. Eventually, we found a match with a company called Tiamo. They make both classic Japanese coffee as modern Dutch Coffees. After months of e-mailing the company back and forth with the company we ordered our first shipment which was ready for us upon our arrival in the Netherlands.
To be continued…