I began my professional career in the fashion communication industry in Madrid,

the city where I’m currently living.

Being surrounded by so many designers, stylists and magazines,

led me to develop my most creative side,

starting my first works as an illustrator, and over time, illustration became my way of life, my main job.

I also lived for some years in the United Kingdom and Belgium,

taking advantage of all the stimuli that these countries offered me to develop my own style.

I normally wake up at six and after five minutes,

I’m already on my desk drawing.

Then, a couple of hours later,

we wake up our daughter and sit down for breakfast together.

I had the chance to make an exhibition in Caffenation,

that’s how I met Rob Berghmans, and some months later,

he told me that he was writing a book for which he’d need illustrations.

During our meetings, he told me such amazing things about coffee and I found all the beauty about this beverage.

I would say that he shared with me a passion for coffee that I keep using today in my illustrations.

From an aesthetic point of view,

there is a growing industry of beautiful instruments with stunning designs.

I usually introduce iconic coffee instruments in my illustrations because I love them.

Apart from this, on a deeper level,

I use coffee in my illustrations as an evocative element,

appealing to the memories and emotions that this warm and cozy drink reminds us of when we see it.

just adding art to coffee boxes.

Or using art to make beautiful packaging

people and everyday activities, always with a sharp eye for small details.

Many of the protagonists of my works are among the icons of popular domestic culture,

in homely settings, living alongside everyday consumer products.

The world of feelings and emotions occupies also a preferential place in my work,

presenting the characters in evocative contexts that would be completed with the viewer's own experience.

I love reading, especially Victorian novels.

Also, I love meeting friends around a great table with food and drinks.

You said anything… :)

It’s been a pleasure making this collab.

Thanks for the chance!"

As it helped to get the study work done.

After that, I worked as a consultant for one year for a big firm,

but that wasn’t completely my piece of cake.

So I turned back to my passion,

slurping coffee all day long in a coffee bar.

But as my studies were done I needed to have an income so I started a new coffee bar.

This was 2008, and from there on I lost it completely,

all the geeky coffee stuff came into my life and we started roasting in 2011.

So that is how it went.

So doing better then, more, than the existing norm.

and a student if we get really busy,

the coffee bar is run by Stefanie and Wouter,

the most friendly baristas on earth.

although I’m sometimes tempted to do the administration where I live,

it’s just more comfortable.

But that is fine, my work is my passion so I don’t mind if it sometimes mixes.

Especially when you can drink great coffee.

but we also like a good piece of metal and stoner, afro jazz or reggae.

We just invested in a color sorting machine to get our coffee even better,

so that is something we are working on now.

We try to collect a lot of data (not only roasting process data,

but also on the characteristics of the beans),

in addition to more standard quality controls involving tasting.

We also like to assess the "usability" of our coffees during the design phase of the roast profiles,

i.e. making sure that a given roast level is suitable for the recommended brewing methods.

and I've been trying to learn the piano for a few years now, and also enjoying live concerts again)

I find this coffee is a good example of how complex and delightful a "simple" washed coffee can be.

Ethiopian coffees are those that made me fall in love with specialty coffees years ago,

so it's also a personal "Madeleine de Proust" when I get the chance to taste this kind of citrus-tea-high acidity mix again.

More specifically,

Duromina is a coffee cooperative in Jimma, which was created in 2010,

with the objective of improving the living conditions of the farmers,

through greater attention to the quality of the coffees grown,

and after investing in a washing station (only natural coffees were produced in this area before 2010).

I find it very satisfying to witness how well they performed.

with no clear plans for the future!

It’s a very good question with many possible answers.

Of course as we all… from planet Earth,

but ok, let’s get into it more seriously. .

We were both working as medical laboratory technicians. Without going into too much detail, in essence, our job was about making things accurate and precise (those two are not the same!).

Coffee was always there with us (as it is usually with medical staff).

We were drinking it to try origins, to feel caffeine in our veins, to make our time there bearable…and it was quite a toxic job!

Soooo... we decided to twist things 180 degrees. . Start making coffee.. you know, accurate and precise:-)

It was a struggle at the beginning,

trying to make a mental switch from being an employee to playing a real-time strategy game called Coffee Roastery.

Other than that, having a pharmaceutical and analytical background proved to be very helpful.

After all, roasting coffee is a “Process” not so different from a “Process” of measuring C-reactive protein concentration in serum:-)

You just have to dial into variables hard enough.

because we have something that I call the game of words,

when you are forbidden to say a word,

instead, you have to describe it using other ones…

so we have a crane in the logo,.

The bird and shipyard crane on his back as well..,

how to say crane when this word is not permitted… literally Nieczapla means “not a heron”.. Get it.:-)?

Especially cosmos (for Patryk) and 3d graphics (for Filip). All graphics which are available to see on Instagram or FB are made by Filip,

who got really geeky about 3d graphics in some part of his life,

and he`s using his skills to make some eye-candy stuff for us.

Most of the stuff is being driven by my cosmos addiction as you already noticed :-)

The designer type graphics (our logo etc.) are made by Marek Marciniak.

This is the biggest geeky feature of ours.

We even make our own analyzers for coffee.

We`re constantly seeking, exploring and acknowledging specific conditions that make coffee perfect.

We`ve got some wild ideas about what is needed to make coffee from our roaster better.

And making those ideas real is what we do daily:-)

Or just lay on a couch waiting for a customer and playing Diablo II.

I would like to talk about the metropolitan area rather than Gdańsk.

Agglomeration counts about 1 million people and is composed of Gdańsk, Gdynia, Sopot and surrounding cities.

You can take here what the city can give,

you can rent a car and after 70min be at the open Baltic sea,

you can walk in the forest which we have a lot even in the city, we have a lot of bike paths,

we have excellent conditions on Hel Penninsula,

which is a really safe and relatively shallow water reservoir to learn windsurfing and kitesurfing.