Hopper began in 2010 as a plan for a small coffee bar, a relaxed place with good coffee and lunch. While the founders worked out which coffee and which bread to use, almost every question ended with the same answer: make it themselves. A floor oven of the kind used in France came in for the sourdough, and a Giesen roaster for the coffee. Hopper has since grown into an independent business, with a second café in Noord and a third in Zeist.

The roasting happens at Hopper Noord, where the team has built its roast profiles over the years: some coffees for filter, some for a full espresso, and some bought and roasted to go with milk foam, soya or oat milk. Filter and espresso coffee is always in stock in the cafés, and the shop sells an organic Ethiopian espresso and filter coffees by weight.

Everything from the bakery is made in house. The sourdough uses only flour, water, salt and Hopper’s own starter, with no added yeast. The dough rises overnight at low temperature in a proving cabinet and bakes for more than half an hour on the hot floor of the oven, about 48 hours from feeding the starter to the finished loaf. The croissants, biscuits and cakes come from the same bakery, and several other cafés and restaurants serve Hopper’s bread.

Coffee on the shelf

Photograph: Hopper Coffee