If you see an odd-looking trike tooling around town, pulling into your favorite park or stationed at a festival, step right up. You’re in for a treat. A freshly brewed treat, no electricity required.
The adorable beverage bars on wheels are designed and built by Velopresso Ltd. in London for enterprising baristas and latte lovers around the globe, and eco-friendly elements are a key part of the package.
In addition to offering a mode of transportation, pedaling — while the trike is stationary — powers the water pump and grinds the beans.
When the trike is parked and set up to serve, the baristas work from the trike’s saddle, feet on the pedals. Those ordering often relish the experience, even before sipping their steamy espresso or iced latte.
“Seeing them in action, with the barista very efficiently pedal-grinding the coffee beans before their eyes, just makes people smile,” says Amos Field Reid, one of the founders and directors of Velopresso. “The baristas, too, love it. [There’s] the satisfaction of producing perfect coffee with their own energy.”
School Project Sparks Business
Reid and Lasse Oiva were post-grad students studying industrial design at the Royal College of Art in England when they devised and built the prototype for a graduation project. After school, they refined the design and in 2012, launched their business.
“Velopresso was conceived against the backdrop of the sustained global renaissance in cycling that is being driven by the desire for more sustainable cities and lifestyles,” the firm’s website says. “We wanted to showcase efficient human-powered, cycling-based technology that could easily replace electrical equivalents, and to instigate more sustainable urban business models.”
Velopresso builds each trike to order, and so far has sent 23 into the world, Reid says.
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