I am Ox-Alien and come from Rotterdam (The Netherlands).

I started in the late eighties by tagging my name on everything which came by, especially on places along the train tracks and places up high.

I switched to “street art” around the year 2000.

I created this pink flying head with one eye as an “O” and one eye as an “X”, because of this some people on the streets called it “Ox-Alien” and so a name was born.

I am also part of Lastplak Collective which won the People's choice award of the first Dutch Street Art awards.

Lastplak is a group of eleven painters with different backgrounds and diverse skills.

Our goal is to paint, no matter what surface, size or location.

Our work can be found all over the world, but our home base is Rotterdam, so that's where most of our work can be seen.

But I also participated in mural projects in for example Thailand, France and Greece.

Lately I am painting more on canvas, making prints and having shows.

I see the whole city as one big playground with canvasses, the thing I paint the most are the wood walls they place at construction sites.

They pop up all over the city and I use them as my canvas so a lot of people can see it.

Sometimes with permission but also without.

I think this is around the year 2000.

Yep, art can be anywhere for sure.

Art in a museum is nice but using the city as one big museum is better, people don’t have to buy a ticket to see your work.

That will be the big walls painted in other countries, it’s always nice to leave your work behind in another country.

Traveling and exploring new places, although that’s kind of difficult these days because of Covid.

My parents still had doubts between Bruno and Wilfried.

The most beautiful names had already been used for my older brothers.

Everyone initially called me Wilfried, but over the years I also got Billy and Fitte as a call name.

Until my kids started calling me Willi.

That's what I am now called by my grandchildren.

So you can now call me Wilfried or Willi. I use W!ii! as a stage name, I like the typography of this spelling.

Gerd and I have 2 children, Sam and Maja.

I have spent my active career in special education as a screen printing teacher.

I have been enjoying my retirement together with Gerd for several years now.

We have a museum pass that we use regularly (if Corona permits).

With our Zoo pass we regularly go with our grandchildren to the zoo in Antwerp or Planckendael.

Together we also support 2 Afghan boys, of whom I used to be a guardian.

Yes, I have been a coffee drinker for many years. 

It is a pleasure to try the local small roasters.

I studied ceramics for 4 years at Sint-Lukas in Ghent, where I specialized in pottery.

After my studies I was active for several years as a potter. 10 years ago I started again.

I learned by practicing a lot and attending some workshops where I learned a lot more from Rudy Delanghe.

I like functional shapes.

I like to use simple decorative elements inspired by Asian motifs.

I occasionally give an exhibition of my work. 

If interested, please send me your contact details

wilfried.hoppenbrouwers [at] gmail [dot] com

and I will keep you informed. 

Besides clay, I find screen printing very interesting.

Not immediately ambitions to try out other materials.

My favorite artists are: ceramist Bernard Leach and painters Andy Warhol, Francis Bacon, Luc Tuymans, Panamarenko, Michaël Borremans

I grew up in Borgerhout.

Nice places are the Roma (where I enjoyed my first movie ‘Ben Hur’), Amor, gallery Zeno-X, Borger-hub, ’t Rivierenhof (Bar Starck), Krugerplein (Bar Leon), September lokaal, de Centers, het Laar (Friday market, Bar Bakeliet), Kattenberg 16 ‘were my mother grew up’, Kerkstraat Square near St-Willibrordus, ……….

Our roastery is located in the vicinity of a small town called Bled.

It is a beautiful place with a lake, a small island on the lake and a beautiful view of the mountains.

We like to say we live in the heart of the Alps!

Bled is quite popular with travelers and that’s no wonder; there is nature all around and that makes it a perfect escape from the big cities hustle and bustle.

We often take a stroll/run around the lake and we quite like hiking, so we really have a lot of options – all that almost in our backyard.

We started in 2017, just me (Polona) and my brother (Gaber).

We bought a roasting machine, nothing fancy.

I learned how to roast through lots and lots of YouTube videos and lots of trying and failing, and getting up again and trying again.

I am still learning today – every bean acts differently and we tend to import different beans so it never gets dull or boring!

There are some really good roasteries in Slovenia and I feel people are waking up in terms of wanting good coffee (unintended).

However, the majority are still set in their ways and do not question where their coffee comes from, who roasts it, packs it, and what kind of beans there are in their morning cup.

But things are changing, especially now with all the social platforms – it helps people to get informed.

So, all in all, we are getting there, slowly but surely.

However, my brother living in England comes up with a lot of great ideas and is in charge of our website; me being the roaster, I do all the roasting, and my mother helps a lot with packing.

I also like design so I do our Instagram.

And I plan to do more of that and focus more on marketing to get some more people to get to know our coffee.

The dream is I could one day run our roastery full time.

Right now, it is still a side hustle.

I dream of coffee shops wanting good coffee and not just taking whatever is cheapest.

I would like to expand the roastery, move to a bigger place and be able to serve some coffee at the roastery.

I really think visiting Bled and Bohinj is a must. Paddle-board or kayak on Lake Bohinj, go canyoning in Bled and take a zip line to see the beautiful nature surrounding you.

There is a cool coffee shop in Bled called Tavci Vegan Cafe.

It’s nice to have a cup of coffee there and read a book or even get a tattoo – there is a studio in the same place, called Tavci Tattoo.

I also recommend going to Tolmin for some really nice nature!

If you want to see a nice city, you should definitely go to Ljubljana and enjoy the old streets and cute cafes.

I also really love Maribor – it is not as popular among tourists but it is a very charming old town with the river Drava running through it.

She was born in 1922, that is why there is a 22 in our name.

The “Kolektiv” represents our collective – a group of people who love coffee, starting with our grandma, our mother Marija and then us two.

And whoever likes our coffee, is a part of our Kolektiv. "

Back in the days when I repaired vintage espresso machines as a hobby, a fellow coffee nerd passed on his small fluid bed-type roasting machine with a handful of old greens.

That’s how I started roasting, but it kicked in for good when I had the chance to compete at the 2010 cup tasters world championships at the World of Coffee London.

My co-founder partner, Lajos also started as a home roaster, he even built his own drum roaster.

Lajos (co-founder of our company and former Cup Tasters world champ) is doing the production planning, green coffee buying and logistics, handling our subscription system, setting up our roast profiles and many many more.

Kata, who was our first employee (who started as a production assistant) is now the main production roaster.

#shestheroaster Sabrina came to us from Hong Kong, she’s responsible for the daily quality control, the sample roasting and she’s also packing the webshop orders.

István is our production assistant and handyman, he’s doing countless things other than roasting, he’s even delivering our beans to the cafés around Budapest.

When you become a roaster and set up your own business, you are also becoming an entrepreneur, that’s how I ended up being the office guy in my own company and sitting in the corner the whole day in front of my computer.

Of course, I like to be involved in green buying and quality control and a bunch of other stuff related to the coffee itself, but you can’t do everything by yourself.

It was introduced to me probably by my grandma: a sugar cube soaked in black coffee brewed by an old stovetop moka pot.

I admire The Coffee Collective from Denmark.

They started on a small scale and represented some key values from the start, like being faithful to your coffee producers and being transparent.

Take it simple.

Use light-roasted, seasonal coffees and try to achieve a similar water profile as your roaster (ask your roaster about their water composition).

For us the coffee scene is the highlight of our city.

Next, to explore good coffee and meet up with the funny locals, we would recommend using Bucharest as a starting point to jump into the mountains, nature or seaside.

Visit the famous baths, spas and look out spots over the top of the city.

And of course, eat well and drink some Casino Mocca, haha.

Traveling with my wife and my little daughter or just simply lying on the couch and watching movies.

"Thank you for having our coffee! :)"

In 2003 when I couldn’t find a job and two freelance jobs came to an end before the bar, I was helping with the opening, stopped prematurely, so I decided to do it myself.

We started roasting in 2010 with Jazzy Jeff as head roaster.

He is still in charge now, helped by Yannick and Giel.

It’s a worldwide phenomenon.

Antwerp is probably doing better because we made a solid base and the city is vibrant by itself.

We hope this continues.

Good coffee with love and honesty for all clients.

By doing….

The more you practice, the easier it gets.

A flavor wheel could help.

Or our info cards with descriptions….

Beer.

Wilfa coffee maker.

The Mocca Master is a big over rated machine, in my humble opinion.

The Aeropress coffee maker is the ideal companion when traveling.

Long ago Geoff Watts, vice president of Intelligentsia.

Chris Baca is also a master in his domain and more talking about love and life, which is a good cause, it’s all relative of course.

Stay critical and don’t take anything for granted.

Only do business with companies that are transparent and honest.

The big coffee multinationals did fuck us for many centuries; it’s time for a payback.

Hard to tell.

There are many international if you consider importing.

Eastern Europe seems to be the future of coffee in Europe, maybe even in the world.