Sure, thanks for having me!

I’m an illustrator and fashion designer, live in Utrecht, love to dance, and have a fascination for old, hand-drawn medical illustrations.

Recently, I went through my old archive boxes from my childhood and I was amazed at the number of drawings I produced.

I’ve been drawing for as long as I can remember, but here was the smoking gun: I literally drew all the time!

And even though the quality of my illustrations improved over the years, the subject was the same as nowadays - I always drew (parts of) human or animal bodies.

Try not to compare yourself to others.

Do not measure yourself by the number of followers or fame, because then you will never be enough.

(And this is a lesson for life, I’m still struggling with this myself every day.)

I am passionate about hand-drawn medical illustrations - a form of drawings that is used by doctors and surgeons.

And although sometimes they show uncommon or nasty things (such as an illness, an injury, or a deviation), I find the organic, spontaneous shapes and lines of the body so beautiful.

Both inside and outside, both ‘intact’ and ‘broken’.

I like drawing freely, without a goal, without an assignment.

That’s when I feel the happiest and that’s when the result is the best.

“Never stop trying.”

We started our roastery, coffee bar, and concept store in 2017.

Looking to escape the rat race, we started brander out of a passion for light roast specialty coffee.

Against the backdrop of an accelerating society, we believe in slowing down and enjoying the good things in life.

We do not believe in compromising, but keep on searching for the best coffees and roasting them to highlight all the flavours that make them distinct.

Halle is a beautiful small city, only 10 minutes by train from Brussels.

You can stroll around the old city with the beautiful basilica and discover some very nice shops and eateries.

Of course, there is also the Hallerbos, with the stunning purple carpet of bluebells in spring, which attracts people from all over the world.

Elegant and distinguished, but cheeky at the same time.

Titus, our monkey, is like our coffee: stylish with a twist.

Grown high in the ranges of northern Burundi and washed by the same clean mountain waters that feed the Nile River, Gahahe is a four-time winner of Burundi’s Cup of Excellence.

This particular batch of washed bourbon beans has an incredibly nuanced flavor profile.

The fully washed processing brings a crisp vibrancy not typically found in coffees from Burundi.

On the first sip, you will notice a floral bouquet of violet before landing on intense notes of yellow plum and baked apple.

Gahahe becomes more juicy and crisp with each sip.

We are pretty sure you’ll agree that this Gahahe is exceptional with crisp notes of violet and plum!

This Gahahe is super with all brewing methods.

Our favorite is this simple Aeropress recipe:

20g Gahahe medium-coarse grind

Water 85°C 1 pour of 300ml in 35 seconds

Plunger in at 1 minute

Press slowly from 2 minutes for 25 seconds

We are both Canadians from Montreal and both come from traditional business backgrounds: marketing/branding for Veronique and Finance/Web development for Louis-Philippe.

We moved around quite a bit to study/work and so we have learned to enjoy coffee across different cultural settings.

We were always amazed at how different people can enjoy their coffee in such widely different ways.

This curiosity grew into a passion and eventually into a business!

Great question!

We used to purposely (before the pandemic) travel to visit coffee places and try renowned cafes across Europe.

One visit I will always remember was when we went to Truth Coffee in Cape Town, South Africa.

David Donde is a bit of a legend in the Cape Town specialty coffee scene so the coffee is delicious.

What I will always remember, however, is the decor of his Steampunk-themed café, it is wild but fun!

We love them as well!

I wish I could say one of us has this great talent, but we have been working with an artist, Valery Lemay for the last two years now and she is fantastic!

She is based in Montreal and designed our main logo (on the bags) as well as the limited-edition illustrations we use.

We met through a mutual friend for whom she designed an album cover and have been working together ever since.

She is an illustrator as opposed to a graphic designer: all illustrations are hand-drawn and subsequently digitized.

Scoop scoop, perhaps there will be one for the coffee used in this box.

It is a great way to have our coffee discovered by consumers we may not normally reach!

We know taste is subjective and we think there are so many great roasters out there that it is a great way for coffee lovers to try different coffees, roasting techniques/styles, etc.

From a business perspective, it is also quite attractive.

We get the bulk volume of retail orders without the marketing costs associated with reaching such numbers of retail customers.

WIN-WIN!

This Colombian woman is a superstar and she has developed her organic farming methods.

The coffee is fermented twice, once with as much mucilage to enhance the natural sweetness of the coffee and a second time for 60 hours.

The result is a very elegant cup with notes of grapefruit, rose hips, cherry blossom, lychee.”

It’s a really popular question, but the truth is slightly less romantic than the thought of me sitting in my little yellow bus with the fire on, roasting coffee watching the snow falling under the mountains in Iceland!

The truth is, that I am very fortunate to have friends who own a local restaurant.

They allow me to use their commercial kitchen to roast my beans and store my roaster.

Roasting coffee releases a lot of fumes so you need a good extractor fan to keep the air clean enough to breathe safely.

In the highest season when I am working 27 hours a day, I get a trusted team to roast for me under the strict guidelines of my curated roast profile.

I am currently building a roast lab so that I can get a larger roaster than the 1kilo roaster I currently own.

YAY, I love talking about Jeffrey!

Hahaha!

I’m a confessed coffee roast, cat lady!

Jeffrey is my little ginger cat who forgot to grow into a full-sized cat!

He lost one of his back legs in April 2021 and since that time, he has won the hearts of anyone who meets him.

He was attacked by a wild cat and while trying to get away, his leg was broken.

We tried to save it but after several surgeries, we had to make him one leg lighter.

He follows me to work each day or hops in the van and comes with me.

He roams the mountains in the rain, wind, or shine, and then snoozes next to the fire in the bus in between.

I learned very fast that many customers only come to the bus to visit Sir Jeff and this resulted in him getting his own Instagram account! hahahah!

@sirjeffarious He is the most loved, loveless cat in the land!

hahaha!

This will be super interesting for me to study this winter... I’ll keep you posted on that one!

What’s most fascinating is how many American customers want Iced coffee when it’s snowing!

Because of this, I have a snow cone espresso in winter where the customer fills up a cup full of snow and I pour their coffee of choice over it!

Especially outside of Reykjavik! (The capital city) Gas stations and small restaurants only and mainly filter coffee!

HORROR SCREAM!

Within the city, it’s starting to happen but I think I can count on one hand how many microroasters there are.

Icelanders tend to love dark roasts too,

so I have had to adjust accordingly but I still roast mine to medium....

Just a little darker than a middle-of-the-lane medium!

Drinking as much tap water as your body will allow and breathing in the freshest air around!

Hiking is otherworldly here and my main reason for moving to the south of Iceland.

Try some traditional food.... Mmmmm, fried sheep face.

(yuk!) Count the cats!

There are so many!

Come to Skool Beans!!!!...

Then hit the local brewery!

Fun fact and it’s true!!!

Even roasting I break out in hives and drinking it makes me as sick as a dog!!!

When I learned to barista and roast in Melbourne I was taught sight, sound, smell, and texture training.

Why do it???...

I love the science of it.

If vegetarians can cook meat, if blind people can fly planes, and if Jeff can hike mountains with three legs then I am perfectly capable of roasting beans!

This is the first time I have written this in an interview!!!! ”