Little Coffee Bee provides an adorable, three-wheeled, Piaggio Ape, Italian for bee, hence her name, that is kitted out with a state-of-the-art coffee machine and comes with an experienced barista, ready to serve gorgeous, filtered specialty coffee, hot chocolate, tea, and milkshakes along with delicious treats from the bakery.

What do you need to know from an organiser in order to provide a comprehensive quote?

For us to provide our customers with the best possible price, we'll need to know the date and location, a brief description of the event, how many people will be attending, whether it's indoor or outdoor and whether we'll have access to water and electricity. Also, any special requirements or optional extras, such as branding the van with magnetic boards and branded cups.

What advice would you give to a customer looking to hire a provider in your area of work?

Always check out a provider's credentials. What experience do they have? Are they equipped to serve lots of people at large corporate events? What menu do they offer? Where's their coffee sourced from? It's important to ask about the vehicle and its equipment, as well. Some providers don't invest time in looking after their vehicle, but still want to charge the earth. If you're paying a substantial amount for a coffee van to represent your large corporate organisation, you'd expect a rust-free, clean, shiny vehicle with a professional barista.

Please tell us a little bit about how and why you started the business.

I'd spent many years threatening to buy a coffee van. I have always wanted to run my own business, I'm very driven and hard working. Following the pandemic, like many other people, I re-evaluated my work life balance and decided to bite the bullet, so to speak. It's the best thing I have ever done, and I've never looked back. I've met some amazing people along the way, people that ordinarily, I would never get to meet. I pride myself on giving first class customer service and I could never get sick of serving our gorgeous speciality coffee and having people say, thanks, that was lovely! It just makes everything so worthwhile.

Please tell us about a booking you've had through Add to Event, how did it go? Would you recommend us to others?

I've had three bookings on Add to Event, so far. Each one has been so different but equally as enjoyable. If I had to pick one, it would be an event we did at the ACC, Liverpool. It was a 2-day event for a large corporate medical organisation, with 500 delegates attending each day. I was situated outside, it was lovely weather, so many delegates congregated outside to enjoy the baking hot sun, so I was kept pretty busy. It was nice just chatting to people whilst serving them our gorgeous speciality coffee, it was very relaxed and everyone was very appreciative of me being there, I had so many compliments over the 2 days and I was thrilled with the feedback from the organiser and the marketing director from the organisation, who confirmed they would be using me again, next year.