Interviews February 2022 | I KNOW JERRY FROM TORONTO

Who was in the February 2022 box?

We cannot get enough of Brno (CZ)⁠ And how are you brewing? in Warsaw (PL).
To Heidelberg (DE) and Bratislava (SK) for the enjoyment of art!

Heidelberg - Germany

Jannik Stegen

He makes illustrations for coffee, beer, and skateboards.
Goddamn it!
I think he has everything JERRY loves.
Maybe a love for nature would make it complete?
Living in Heidelberg, Germany, but can be seen all over the world.

Hey Jannik, can you briefly introduce yourself?

Of course!
Hi, my name is Jannik.
I’m an artist and illustrator, but I also love cooking, being outdoors, anime, and all sorts of things.

You are visible all over the world, how do they get to you?

Sometimes I just find inquiries in my mailbox.
But I also reach out to people I want to work with.
You can find the perfect project nowadays, no matter where you live.
I love it!

Your work radiates positivity.
Where do you get your inspiration from?

My works incorporate everything I am passionate about and reflect on my ideals.
I love to try out new things to see how they turn out.
I could never do the same work twice, it always has to be exciting.

Heidelberg sounds like a great city, what is there to explore?

It has a beautiful forest right next to the old city.
But if time is short going down to the river is also great.
There are a lot of different waterbirds that are always fun to watch!

It seems that you also like coffee.
Are there any coffee shops in Heidelberg that you can recommend?

Oh yes, going out for a coffee is a daily habit of mine.
Moro and Coffeenerd are great places I can easily recommend.
But to be honest I also hang out at Starbucks sometimes.
It's my guilty pleasure.

Which artist would you like to work with?

There are a lot of artists I love!
As long as the project is fun and everybody is motivated I am down for it.

YES PLEASE!
I would like to buy some artwork from you, where can we do?

I don’t have a webshop.
When I am making prints I sell them directly, but there are always some left.
Just shoot me a message and ask.

“Thanks for having me.
Enjoy a good cup of coffee and have a great day!"

Brno - Czech Republic

Jokes Aside

Since Jerry got to know Brno, he has seen business coming from or going to Brno everywhere.
Adam Ondra the rock climber was born here.
And of course not to forget all those great chess masters
The city has a dedication to the installation of Public Art.
Coffee roasters keep popping up like mushrooms.
Here good deeds are rewarded with free coffee, how blissful this is!
And of course, Jokes Aside shuffles his cards here as well.

What’s the story about Jokes Aside?

In the early summer of 2020, I was moving from Prague back to my hometown Brno for a barista job.
My partner Kalliopé had her own coffee shop here and we both knew that we wanted to start a roasting business so we started working on that.
Kalli and her business partner Alex know how to run a business and I was already 9 years in specialty coffee, mostly as a barista.
I felt the urge to start my own business and get back to roasting sourcing and coffee training.
We started thinking about our business values, working on the brand, website, and coffee and we finally launched our first coffee last April.
The core idea was to have something of our own and to start working on the few close relationships with producers and importers we knew personally.

How have you changed from when you started roasting?

Starting a small roasting business literally helped us to survive the series of lockdowns here, because we could sell coffee online without depending on the decreasing coffee shop sales entirely.
We started looking for a space in Brno and after almost a year we found one.
We’re currently finishing the small espresso bar area and there’s a bigger room in the back where production, QC, and courses will take place eventually.
We don’t have our own roaster yet, as we didn’t want to take a bank loan for that in these unstable times.
But we’re slowly and steadily getting there.
There’s no investor behind us so we save pennies from what we sell to customers and coffee shops.
We currently roast our coffees in Prague at our friend’s production space at Grounds.
We’re very grateful for the support we have within the coffee community (mostly abroad).

What can we expect from your coffee?

Clean coffees with as transparent sourcing information as we can provide, sweet profiles that are easy to extract, plus some really cool artwork on the bag and a playlist to accompany that.

Everyone always thinks of Scandinavia when they think of specialty coffee.
But this scene is much bigger on your side of Europe.
Can you tell us about it?

The Scandinavian style was pioneering the specialty coffee in Europe in the early 2000s and then it started spreading into Central Europe later.
In the Czech Republic, we were exposed to big specialty coffee names right from the early days (Square Mile, Has Bean, Drop, Barn, Bonanza).
So many coffee shops here were working with these well-known companies that Czech roasters had to work hard to keep up.
That helped to push the quality of specialty roasting here big time.
Without that exposure, specialty coffee wouldn’t be so popular in the region.

In one of your coffee bags, I found a joker card.
Nice surprise, how did you come up with this idea?

The name “Jokes Aside Coffee” was made as a reference to my @50percentarabica specialty coffee meme account which became quite popular over the last 2 years.
Meaning that coffee itself is not a joke to us, but we still like to be witty.
Adding a Joker card into the bag with a short coffee riddle seemed like a nice surprise we wanted to have.

There is so much to do and see in Brno, what can you enjoy in your city?

Brno is really unique, truly one of the most beautiful and cultural cities I’ve seen in Europe.
We have a lot of parks and public green areas here.
From March to August, the city is packed with concerts, outdoor theater plays, and coffee shopbar life is ubiquitous.
The specialty coffee scene here is staggering.
Whether it’s a long walk in Luzanecky Park, a coffee shop tour, visiting the Spilberk castle, attending a theater play, having a cocktail in a NYC-style bar, or leaving Brno to see the surrounding forests and hills, you’ll be a happy tourist here.

“Always look on the bright side of life.”

Bratislava - Slovakia

Triple Five

The city is strongly influenced by people of different nations and religions, Austrians, Bulgarians, Croats, Czechs, Germans, Hungarians, Jews, Serbs, and Slovaks.
There are galleries all over the city including some very unusual ones!
Amazing street art and murals.
Good food and drink spots.
This city sounds like a wonderful place.
Oohhh, and not to forget, delicious coffee roasted by Triple Five Coffee Roasters.

Who is running the show?
Are you alone or do you have a team??

I am the one who started the show, but in order for the show to run, you definitely need a team!
😊 I am working with my colleague Lukáš in the roastery and we have a great team of talented people working in our café.
We all work closely together.
Good communication and teamwork are absolutely key to making things work.

It seems that you also love art.
What do you think of the combination of art and specialty coffee?

I do love art and am especially fond of minimalistic Japanese and Scandinavian design.
I also think Slovak art has many things to offer.
Combining art and specialty coffee is one of the things we would like to explore more, as there is a lot of potential.
We are already looking forward to working with young artists who will help us with our new branded merchandise.

Who made the beautiful drawings on your bags?

We worked with a small design studio called Malina Studio, which did a complete redesign of our brand and also came up with these beautiful drawings.
They did a wonderful job and we’re very happy with the result!

Is there any project you are working on right now that you are extra excited about?

Yes, we are currently working on a big project: a new roastery, which will also include a café in the same space.
People who will come to enjoy a coffee will also be able to see the roastery.
Our ambition is to bring people closer to the roasting process so that they can get a sense of what is happening to the coffee beans before they drink their delicious cup of coffee 😊

Small town but it looks like there is a lot to do here.
Such as?

Indeed!
The city has changed so much over the past decade.
There are plenty of things to do and things to visit in Bratislava (including a growing specialty coffee scene!), but also many things to discover in the rest of the country – our wonderful mountains, forests, lakes, and castles are definitely worth a trip.

"Come and visit us in Bratislava! :-)"

Warsaw - Poland

Hayb

Once described as the Paris of the East, Warsaw was believed to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world until World War II, which had leftover 85% of its buildings in ruins.
It was rebuilt after the war using paintings by Bernardo Bellotto, a Venetian artist.
But now, rebuilt.
Museums, incredible art and coffee scene.
Woods and street art are everywhere.
Don't hesitate, if all this doesn't convince you...
Hayb Specialty Coffee is located here!
For the third time, they are in our box.
We can't get enough of them!

How did you get into coffee?
Can you give us a bit of background on your career so far?

It all started in 2012 when my father decided to open small coffee roasters next to his house.
I was a student back then.
Next year I decided to join him and started to roast coffee! I was a love at first sign!
Since then we moved to a bigger place and changed our name to HAYB Speciality Coffee.

Jerry loves your quote ‘How Are You Brewing?’
Can you tell us where it comes from?

We were thinking about a new name for our roastery and it was my friend who invented the name!
We were thinking about something unique and unusual.
It comes from „how are you doing?”. „How are you brewing?” was supposed to be our name but then we realized the abbreviation of it sounds great!
That's how HAYB name popped up!

What does coffee go through before it reaches you?

We are working with the best European importers like Falcon or Ally, but also with smaller importers that are working only with specific farms from Ruanda or Brasil.
We are focusing on the freshest crops available so the coffee is fresh and it doesn’t lay in warehouses for months before roasting.
It's a usual way I would say, but we are doing our best to develop relations with farmers so we can import direct from them.

We are always looking for tips on how to make our coffee better at home, any advice?

The most important thing is good quality water and products.
If you have those two things- keep it simple with brewing! 6g coffee for 100g water, temperature 96C. Do not change too many parameters.
Play with grinding settings and find a perfect spot so coffee is properly extracted!

What may people not know about Hayb?

It's a family business, since the beginning it has me and my father :)

When not enjoying coffee, how do you spend your time?

I love traveling.
I’m doing my best to explore the world as often as possible!
I love South America.
Right before the global pandemic, I visited Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay.
I can’t wait till it all is over and we will be able to travel freely!
My other hobbies are sport, cooking and wine!

When Jerry was visiting Poland, he turned on the Polish TV and noticed that everything was dubbed, not just dubbed but everything seemed to be dubbed by the same person. Is this true?

Haha, yes!
We have like two guys who are dubbing everything.
Fortunately, all movies in cinemas are with subtitles :)

"How are you brewing?"

we're the artists! we're the artists! we're the artists! we're the artists! we're the artists! we're the artists! we're the artists! we're the artists! we're the artists! we're the artists! we're the artists! we're the artists! we're the artists! we're the artists! we're the artists! we're the artists! we're the artists! we're the artists! we're the artists! we're the artists! we're the artists! we're the artists! we're the artists! we're the artists!