Andrew Helms and Eloise Van Wynbergen were selling Dutch style doughnuts today at Ozone coffee roasters to carry on a Dutch New Year's Eve tradition.

Oliebollen and New Year's Eve are a match made in heaven for New Plymouth woman Eloise Van Wynbergen.

In keeping with Dutch tradition, Van Wynbergen and her fiance Andrew Helms staked themselves outside Ozone's The Bean Store Cafe in New Plymouth on Wednesday morning to sell traditional Dutch oliebollen - deep fried dough with apples and currants mixed through it and doused with a generous layer of icing sugar, or cinnamon sugar.

On New Year's Eve, oliebollen is the treat of choice in the Netherlands, to help soak up the cold and some of the alcohol on the traditionally cold winter's night, Van Wynbergen said.

Despite their pop-up store appearing on New Year's Eve eve, it was still a great opportunity to spread around some Northern Hemisphere cheer, she said.

"It's as close to New Year's Eve as we could get.

"It's quite weird making the oliebollen in the heat of summer, because of course it's in winter over there at the moment."

Van Wynbergen established her business Montfoort with partner Helms two years ago, selling traditional Dutch sweet foods including stroopwafels, poffertjes, bitterballen and oliebollen.

Just saying the names of the foods was a bit of a mouthful for customers but she tried her best to encourage correct pronunciation of the treats, rather than Dutch pancakes (poffertjes) or donuts (oliebollen).

"You don't want to make it too difficult because then people get scared off ordering, so donut is the trigger word, but then when they order it's oliebollen."

She taught herself the recipes and her father created a cast iron poffertje pan instead of trying to ship one over, Van Wynbergen said.

The New Plymouth couple, now based in the capital, have established themselves in the market scene and now distribute stroopwafels in Wellington supermarkets and a few venues in Taranaki, including the Ozone bean store.

Their next venture would be to find a food truck to take their treats on the road, she said.

"We did originally think about having a Montfoort store but we came to the conclusion that a food truck or a caravan is just so much better - you get to travel and go to festivals."

Van Wynbergen had worked in the New Plymouth hospitality industry for years and said it was incredible the connections she'd made her along the way.

When the couple come home they try to run a pop-up store or get to the Seaside Market, she said. And next year they will be part of the world of foods on offer at Womad in March.

"It's great because you're basically serving to family and friends here."