First Look: Roasttrip × Specht One of a Kind Custom Kees van der Westen Spiritello
Kees van der Westen Spiritello, customized by Specht
Every Kees van der Westen Spiritello is already a statement, a single-group, spring-lever machine built in Waalre, the Netherlands, by a workshop that treats espresso machines as industrial sculpture. The one we've just started teasing on is different from every other Spiritello in the world, because there is exactly one of it, and this is the first place you can read the full story behind it.
The machine is a collaboration between Roasttrip, the official Kees van der Westen distributor for the UAE, and Specht Design, the Melbourne atelier known for transforming factory espresso machines into hand-finished, one-off pieces. It wears a luxurious deep burgundy body, gloss black nickel across the lever group and hardware, and ombré burnt walnut on the knobs, handles, and lever. No RAL chart shortcut, no catalog option, a commissioned finish that exists on this machine and nowhere else. You won't find it on Specht's site or anywhere else yet; consider this the first look.
The Base Machine: Why the Spiritello was worth customizing
Specht doesn't build machines from scratch, they select platforms worth elevating. The Spiritello qualifies because underneath the sculpture is Kees van der Westen's most refined single-group engineering to date:
Spring-loaded lever group. The signature of the machine. The spring delivers a naturally declining pressure curve through the shot — high at the start, tapering toward the end — which is the profile many baristas chase with expensive electronic pressure-profiling machines. Here it's mechanical, repeatable, and theatrical.
Adjustable pre-infusion from 1.5 to 4.0 bar, set by a knob under the machine, so the puck saturates gently before the spring takes over.
Dual stainless steel (316L) boilers: a 0.8-litre PID-controlled coffee boiler for shot temperature stability, and a 3.5-litre steam boiler with two 900W heating coils — disproportionately large steam capacity for a one-group machine.
A PEEK piston base and PEEK-tipped steam wand. PEEK is heat-neutral, so brew water doesn't shed temperature into the group, and the four 1.2mm steam holes stay comfortable to handle.
Auto-stop by weight or pressure. Pair it with an Acaia Lunar and the machine ends the shot at your target yield — lever romance with digital discipline.
Fully plumbed or reservoir operation, with a built-in 3.5-litre stainless tank and a quiet 180W internal rotary pump, so it works in a villa kitchen as readily as a tasting room.
At roughly 45 kg and with the lever reaching 808mm at rest, it's a machine you place deliberately, a centrepiece, not an appliance.
What Specht changed and what stayed sacred
Specht Design's philosophy is that the engineering stays untouched; everything the hands and eyes meet gets reconsidered, every visible element finished by hand in their Melbourne workshop.
On this Roasttrip commission:
The bodywork was refinished in a luxurious deep burgundy, a colour that reads almost black in low light and reveals its wine-red depth under café lighting. It's a durable coating developed to survive years of heat and moisture cycles, not a decorative respray.
The lever group and hardware were finished in gloss black nickel, darker and moodier than the factory polish, but still reflective enough to keep the group as the machine's focal point. On a lever machine, the group is the sculpture; black nickel makes it read like smoked glass instead of chrome.
The knobs, handles, and lever are ombré burnt walnut, the wood scorched and shaded so each piece transitions from warm walnut tones into charred dark ends. These are the surfaces a barista touches on every single drink, and no two burnt-walnut gradients can ever come out identical, which is fitting for a one-off.
One honest note on custom work like this: quality can't be rushed. Refinishing, hand-shaping, and reassembling a machine to factory tolerances takes months, not weeks, and that's exactly the point. A commission is a project, not a purchase, and the wait is part of what makes it yours.
Buying through Roasttrip
As the official Kees van der Westen distributor for the UAE, Roasttrip handles the full arc of a commission like this: the design conversation with Specht, factory coordination, shipping, installation, advice on suitable water solutions for local conditions, barista training on lever technique, and ongoing certified service, so a one of a kind machine never means one-of-a-kind spare-parts anxiety. Every Spiritello we deliver is supported with genuine KvdW parts.
The full reveal of this burgundy Spiritello is coming soon — follow to catch it first. And if this build has you thinking about a commission in your own colours and materials, that conversation can start today: at our Al Quoz showroom or talk to a specialist on WhatsApp at +971 58 527 6041.
Roasttrip is the official distributor of Kees van der Westen espresso machines in the UAE. Explore the or visit our Newsroom for more from the workshop.
