COOLSINGEL
SPAR
“One tree, brought back to its city in an educative zero-waste project, broadening minds and opening hearts in the true spirit of Christmas.”
COOLSINGELSPAR products were made from a 16 meter high Abies Grandis.
A giant spruce, that served as the Rotterdam Christmas tree in front of City Hall in 2017/2018. The fine tree grew solitary in Luxemburg for the last 45 years.
Bloesembar used the entire spruce in an educational zero-waste project. With four educational institutions and about 150 students we stripped the tree and used trunk till tip, every piece of bark, wood and needle to create culinary products.
We worked with eight Rotterdam based Michelin starred chefs and patissiers to create high-end recipes with the COOLSINGELSPAR products. We created a festive moment with all people involved to launch our first product: Coolsingelspar Single Batch Syrup.
In the beginning of December 2018, we were ready to serve our alcoholic and nonalcoholic ‘Champ du Champ’, served festively as a champagne-like toast.
100% Rotterdam
Educational
Zero-waste Project
Collaborated with:
4 Educational Institutions
8 Rotterdam Chefs,
7 Michelin*
200 students
1 Tree
1800 Kg Tree trunk
500 Kg Needles
Turned into:
350 L Single Batch Syrup
50 Bottles Champ du Champ 13%
80 Bottles Champ du Champ 0%
200 Coasters from the top wood
5 Kg smoking dust
75 Champagne Chests from the trunk
During the whole process of transforming the Coolsingel Spar into drinks, our team had a wonderful following of a group of 6 students from Grafisch Lyceum Rotterdam. They documented the process in pictures and reported all findings on their Wordpress website. This website gives a great insight in how we have worked, and how all involved students collaborated on the tree transformation, guided by Forêt Atelier as a reciprocal gesture to next generations.
500 kilo’s of needles, picked with over 150 students and 50 volunteers, to create culinary products, with the Single Batch Syrup as a core product to cook and shake with. On launch day, eight chefs cooked with the students of Horecavakschool Rotterdam, to show the route of fresh product to consumer experience.
Not a single bit of the tree was thrown away, even the ashes were turned into soap and ceramics, as a last means to have this natural giant take care of our bodies and surroundings.
The tree trunk offered beautiful fragrant wood to create new products with. Gefixt by Bowy&Julian designed and created 75 chests for the Christmas tree champagne. Two graduate students from the woodworking college in Rotterdam managed the project tree trunk. They learned in the design process how to use and direct a team of builders. In their school, they set up a small factory line of 20 students whom put together all the elements of the chest. The fragility of the chest itself turned out a valuable lesson. There were many to take from building with Spruce Wood on this scale, but the end product is a beautiful collaboration. After quite a commercial start of 2018 Christmas tree life, all products of the tree are now sold out.
The final syrup bottles used and sold.
The champagne bottle was wrapped back into the bark of the tree, while incorporating a charcoal drawing into the design.
GeFixt by Bowy & Julian produced these laser-cut chests for the 75 bottles of champagne.