Family-run mobile coffee bar · Northamptonshire
Great coffee, from a bar we built by hand
The Tipsy Bean was a tired old horsebox until we gutted her and rebuilt her, by hand, into the quirky little bar she is today. The coffee is the special part. Carefully chosen beans, matcha and spirits, hot or iced, served early morning to late evening at events and campsites across the county and beyond.
- Built from scratchOne tired old horsebox, turned into a bar you won’t see anywhere else, entirely by us.
- Five star ratedWe hold a five star food hygiene rating from the Food Standards Agency.
- Food hygiene qualifiedEveryone working with us is qualified in food hygiene for catering.
- Personal licence holdersSo the boozy coffees are in safe, knowledgeable hands.
- Years in eventsWe’ve spent a long time in this world and we love it. The Tipsy Bean is the new part, not us.
Who you’re booking
Us, and a horsebox called Tipsy
The Tipsy Bean was founded by Deb and Tally, mum and daughter, Welsh born and bred and long settled in Northamptonshire, with close family friend Maisie alongside us from the very beginning.
The Tipsy Bean started life as an old horsebox that had seen better decades. We stripped her back to the shell and turned her into something else entirely. What she is now is a warm, characterful little coffee and cocktail bar in reclaimed timber, finished properly and quite unlike anything else you’ll have seen. We designed her ourselves, cut the wood, fitted her out and painted every last inch. No conversion company, no flat pack kit, nobody else’s hands on her at any point. There isn’t a shelf or a counter in her we didn’t make, and she has ended up every bit as us as we hoped she would.
The name came before she did. Tipsy for the cocktails, Bean for the coffee, and something that actually sounded like us rather than another trailer with a pun on the side. Somewhere along the way the short version stuck, and she’s been Tipsy to all of us ever since. By then she’d stopped being a project and become part of the family. We are unapologetically proud of her.
We’ve spent years in the events world before this one. Running them, securing them, and making sure everyone went home having had a brilliant day. So we know a long day on a field from both sides of the fence, and we know what makes the difference on one. That’s why we’re so fussy about how it feels to walk up and order. Unhurried and warm, with a bit of festival about it. Good coffee made properly, and a chat if you want one. We don’t take ourselves too seriously, but we take your event very seriously indeed.
All day, every drink
Everything we pour
There’s no cut off and no separate evening menu. Hot coffee, iced coffee, flavoured milks, matcha and boozy coffee are all on from the moment we open, and the boozy ones come iced as readily as hot. Someone always wants an Irish coffee at two in the afternoon, and we’re not going to be precious about it.
Hot coffee
Made properly
- Espresso & double
- Americano
- Flat white
- Latte
- Cappuccino
- Mocha
- Hot chocolate
- Decaf, always available
Iced & cold
For the warm ones
- Iced latte
- Iced americano
- Iced mocha
- Flavoured milks
- Cans & still water
- Fruit Shoots
Matcha
Hot or over ice
- Matcha latte
- Iced matcha
- Strawberry oat matcha
- Vanilla matcha
- Caramel matcha
Boozy coffee
Named brands, 50ml, hot or iced
- Baileys latte
- Kahlúa coffee
- Disaronno coffee
- Spiced rum coffee
- Whiskey coffee
- Cream float on any
- All of them over ice, if you’d rather
Tea & snacks
The extras
- English breakfast, peppermint, camomile, red berries
- Cakes and traybakes
- Chocolate bars
- Sweets for small hands
We don’t cut corners on what goes in the cup. The beans, the syrups, the matcha and the spirits are all carefully chosen because they’re worth drinking, not because they were cheap. Milk alternatives available. Tell us about allergies when you book and we’ll plan around them.
What people say
Word gets round
The whole vibe was spot on. That lovely chilled festival feeling, music on, nobody rushing you. Half our guests ended up standing by the bar all afternoon chatting. It became the heart of the day.
Honestly, she’s stunning. I was expecting a coffee van and got this beautiful little bar instead. People kept asking where we’d hired it from and I loved telling them the girls built it themselves.
I had the strawberry oat matcha on a whim and then went back for two more. You can tell they use the good stuff. It doesn’t taste like the powdery green things you get everywhere else.
Cold night, dark field, and there’s a Baileys latte waiting. Proper brands, proper measures, none of that mean little splash you usually get. We were back three nights running.
Straightforward to deal with from the first message onwards. Arrived when they said they would, set up without any fuss, and the unit itself is finished to a genuinely high standard. Presentation matters to us and they got it right. I’d book them again.
Best flat white I’ve had outside an actual coffee shop. That’s the review.
Where we love to be
Where you’ll find us
Tipsy is compact enough for a courtyard and happy enough in a field. If you’ve got a pitch and a long day ahead, she’ll slot in.
Shows, ODEs & county fixtures
Five in the morning, chilly start in the lorry park, everyone desperate for something hot. This is exactly what we built her for.
Show fields and race days
Early starts and long days. We’ll be pouring before the first engine turns over and still going when it all packs down.
Street food & producer markets
We hold our own next to the good traders, with carefully chosen ingredients and a bar people want to photograph.
From getting ready to last dance
Coffee through the afternoon and boozy coffee through the evening lull. Tipsy tends to become everyone’s favourite corner of the day.
Birthdays, anniversaries & big ones
Something more interesting than a table of bottles, and a way to keep everyone happily upright until the taxis come.
Away days & open days
Barista coffee on site without borrowing anyone’s kitchen. Invoiced properly, or run as a tab if you’d rather.
Village days & country shows
Family friendly from the start, with soft drinks and sweets for the under tens alongside everything else.
Campsites & glamping weekends
A proper coffee on a cold morning is worth a great deal to someone who slept in a tent. We’re a familiar sight on sites round here.
Touchlines and sports days
Cold mornings, warm parents. We’ll be set up well before the first whistle.
How it works
Two ways to have us there
Full day, unlimited drinks
One price covers the whole event and your guests order whatever they like, as often as they like, all day. It’s a sliding scale based on numbers, so a forty person party and a four hundred person show aren’t paying the same. Popular for weddings, parties and corporate days.
We trade, your guests pay
We turn up, set up and run the bar, and everyone buys their own. Nothing for you to budget for. This is the usual arrangement for shows, festivals and markets where you’re letting pitches.
Which one suits depends entirely on the event, so we’d rather talk it through than put a number on a page. Tell us the date, the place and a rough headcount, and we’ll come back with an honest recommendation and a price.
How we do things
The things we care about
As green as we can manage
Cups, lids and straws are biodegradable or recyclable wherever we can source them, and we’re always on the lookout for better.
Grounds go back out
Spent coffee grounds go onto the compost, or get pressed into fuel for the log burner at home. Very little leaves our pitch with nowhere to go.
Trained and licensed
A five star food hygiene rating, food hygiene qualifications across the whole team, and personal alcohol licences all round.
We’ll work with your site
Every pitch is different. Tell us what you’ve got for power, access and ground, and we’ll sort the rest between us well before the day.
The practical bits
Questions we get asked
How far will you travel?
Northamptonshire is home and we cover the surrounding counties as a matter of course. For multi day events we’re happy to stay over, circumstances allowing. If you’re further out, ask anyway. We’re not precious about a drive.
Are you insured?
Yes. £5 million public liability. We hold full risk assessments and all the usual documentation, and we’ll send everything over to your organiser or venue whenever it’s needed.
Do you have a food hygiene rating?
Five stars. Everyone working with us is qualified in food hygiene for catering, and we all hold personal alcohol licences. We’re as fussy about the boring bits as we are about the coffee.
What do you need from us on the day?
A pitch of roughly 3m by 6m, access to water (a standpipe is absolutely fine), and ideally power. If there’s no power on your site, no problem at all, we’ll bring our own generator. For full day bookings there’s a small extra charge for that, since it’s fuel and kit we’d otherwise not need, and we’ll always say so up front rather than tucking it into a quote. If you’re a show or festival letting us a pitch, it’s simply not your concern, we sort ourselves out. Sensible access to get Tipsy in, and ground that isn’t a swamp, and we’re happy. We’ve worked all sorts of events over the years, from tight courtyards to open fields, so there’s very little that fazes us.
How many people can you serve?
Our two group machine and three of us behind it will comfortably turn out 120 to 150 drinks an hour, and more than that in a rush. Tell us your numbers and how long you need us and we’ll tell you honestly whether we’re the right size for it. We’d far rather say so up front than leave two hundred people standing in a queue.
How long does setup take?
Two hours in, two hours out. That’s not us dawdling. It’s the time it takes to get her set up properly for your event rather than just parked and switched on, and the details are what people remember. We’ll want to be on site well ahead of your guests, and we leave the pitch exactly as we found it.
Is it just coffee?
Absolutely not. Hot coffee, iced coffee, matcha, flavoured milks, teas, soft drinks, cakes and a proper selection of boozy coffees. Kahlúa, Baileys, Disaronno, rum and whiskey, all named brands, all 50ml, all available over ice if it’s warm.
Can we have the boozy ones as shots?
No. They go in the coffee, where they belong.
What about people who don’t drink coffee?
Very well catered for. Matcha, teas, cold drinks, cakes and sweets. Nobody has to stand there holding nothing while everyone else has a nice time.
Can you cater for milk alternatives, decaf and allergies?
Yes to all three. Tell us what you need when you book and we’ll plan it properly rather than crossing our fingers on the day.
What does it cost?
Two options. Either a full day rate where we pour and your guests pay nothing, priced on a sliding scale by numbers, or we simply turn up and trade and everyone buys their own. Which suits depends entirely on the event, so it’s a quick conversation rather than a price list.
Do you take a deposit?
For full day bookings, yes. It holds your date and it’s deducted from the balance. If you’re a show or festival letting us a pitch, there’s nothing to pay us at all. Either way everything goes in writing, so nobody’s relying on remembering a text.
How far ahead should we book?
Two weeks is the minimum we can work with, and popular dates go a long way before that. If your date is close, or we’re already booked, get in touch anyway. We know plenty of good people with trailers and we’ll always try to sort something out.
What if it rains?
We’re Welsh. Rain and wind are just weather to us, and Tipsy has a roof. It has to be genuinely dangerous rather than merely miserable before anyone’s calling anything off, and we’d be talking to you long before it got to that.
Can we see your certificates?
Of course. Just ask and we’ll send them straight over.
Why is she called Tipsy?
The Tipsy Bean came first. Tipsy for the cocktails, Bean for the coffee. She picked up the short version somewhere during the build and it stuck.
Anything we haven’t covered, just ask. We’d rather answer it now than have you wondering.
Check the diary
Tell us the date
A text is quickest. Send us the date, the place and a rough idea of numbers, and one of us will get straight back to you.
07865 348787