The coffee scene in Belgium has grown enormously in recent years.Naga has recently joined it. Qinyi & Ludo focus mainly on coffees from Asia.

Can you tell us why you mainly focus on coffees from Asia?
After several trips in Asia and as coffee geeks, we were frustrated with not being able to find those amazing coffee we had the chance to drink over there. So the observation was clear: let’s introduce those specialty coffees and put a spotlight on the cultivators from Tropical Asia countries.

You roast your coffees together with another roaster, is that right?
Yes. It was important for us to roast our coffees in Belgium and find someone skilled, motivated and with knowledge about Asian coffee. Jasper was the right guy. In the box we have chosen a coffee from Myanmar.

What can you tell us about this coffee?
This coffee is incredible! ( Of course it is 🙂 ) Asia is a young continent in the specialty coffee industry. Tired of secretly producing opium for drug lords while being pursued by the authorities on the one hand, and selling poorly processed coffee to brokers and middlemen on the other, the farmers of Hopong started to seek a new way of life. Through social media, they learned that other farms were receiving help from an NGO on how to create high-quality natural products. They took a great leap of faith and fully embraced specialty coffee production and became true coffee producers. The climate is not always suitable for a natural process but with patience and hard work, Bant Sauk farmers from Hopong community, produce a sweet and balanced natural coffee. You can find more details about this organic coffee on our packaging and our website.

What is the best way to brew this coffee? Any advice?
This is the way we like to drink it at NAGA:
Origami with Kalita wave filter.
– 15g coarse (42 red clix on C40)
– 250 ml of Spa at 93°
– Bloom : 50ml in 50’’
– 100ml gently in the center (osmotic flow style). Let it drain.
– At 1’50’’, last 100ml more aggressively to disturb the bed.
– Finish with a twist and let it drain to 2’50’’ Please share with us your recipe.

Naga is based in Rixensart. Jerry knows this place only from the abandoned warehouses. What else can we do here?
Haha :)) it’s funny that you know about this place. It was actually a paper factory in Genval (neighboring place). But now they have arranged it in shops and restaurants. I use to hang out there with my friends when I was a teenager. Rixensart is quiet and small but still cute. We are next to Genval Lake and 15 minutes from Brussels and Louvain-la-Neuve.
There’s a lot to do about specialty coffee in Wallonia.
Exciting but not easy to make people change their habits.

“We see specialty coffee as a playground and an incredibly fun world. With NAGA we want to make this playground even bigger and more fun for the adventurous palate. We will never stop being curious and excited about what we do and we would like to share this NAGA philosophy with people. From the blooming of the tree to the bloom of your coffee. Please take care and enjoy ;)”

If you are born here on public transport, you travel for free forever. How crazy is this! Not only this but also how many good coffee roasters there are in this country! After Coffee Proficiency, Nieczapla and Hayb, this month we have Good Coffee from Warsaw – Poland.

Jerry would have loved to hear your coffee story. How did coffee become your passion?
We – the couple that runs the roastery – always had a passion for good quality, natural food and good taste. We both grew up in small places where food came from family-owned gardens, forest and from local farmers, and it was 100% seasonal, fresh and cooked on a fire stove. We always followed our taste wherever we went. The turning point in coffee was our trip to Guatemala, Lake Atitlan, where we met the owner of a local coffee shop and a nano roastery where he served delicious coffees. Soon after that, we bought our first roaster and our first roasts were made in our studio apartment in the attic. We prayed that none of the neighbors would call the fire brigade seeing clouds of smoke coming out of our rooftop windows. Our roastery is still quite small, one of the smallest in Poland. And we want to keep it that way.

There are many public bicycles in Warsaw. Can Jerry assume that Good Coffee is delivered by bicycle in Warsaw?Yes, many of our customers collect their coffee by bike, and we did use to deliver coffee by public transport in the past. Now that the quantity of coffee we roast is much bigger, we tend to use car courier services.

There are many museums in your town that are free one day a week. Which ones do you recommend we visit?
Copernicus Science Centre and Polin (Jewish History Museum) Outside of Warsaw, you should definitely try to see works of a very interesting artist: Karol Palczak. His amazing paintings can now be seen in Bielsko Biała. Whenever you get a chance to visit his exhibition, do it! You have a nice city with many forests.

Where do you most enjoy drinking your coffee?
We love it no matter when and where and very much hope you will too.

“Coffee is a huge physical work and effort and we always think about it when drinking beautiful, tasty brews. We especially often think about the pickers who do some of the most challenging job in coffee production cycle. They carry heavy loads, work many hours during harvest, often pick cherries on steep fields in scorching sun, with strong winds carrying dust. In these demanding conditions they have to perform the highest precision picking only the most ripe cherries. Their work is one of the most crucial things that decide about the quality of coffee.”

From the homeland of the Olympic Games Here they not only produce tasty olives and delicious cheese. But also many world coffee champions. From Athens – Greece we present to you The Underdog.

Can you tell us how ‘you’ became The Underdog?
We always root for the underdogs. They are humble and work hard in silence towards their goals. This has been our mentality since we took our first steps in the industry.

Please tell us more about the competitions you are taking part in?
We believe the coffee championships is a great way to practice your skills as a barista. If someone from our team decides he wants to compete, we all come together under the guidance of Tasos and help each other in any way we can to become better in our everyday jobs and learn something new as a team.

How is the coffee scene in Greece?
We always see Greek Champions placing very high in almost every World Championship these past years. This sets the bar higher every year and more people want to follow and take part in the local Specialty Coffee scene, which is a great thing as it reaches people that had no idea or just didn’t care until then, and makes them want to improve and “compete” with each other, pushing everyone to become better.

What do you recommend doing in Athens?
A coffee tour is a must. Lots of great places to visit and have a chat. The city is full of sights like the Acropolis, the national gardens, Lycabettus hill, the temple of Poseidon just to name a few. Make sure to plan ahead as the amount of sights can be overwhelming!

Tell us about where you grew up and how it influenced your creativity?
I grew up in an old house with a lot of ornamentation. On summer days, the garden smelled of tar. That must be why I like abstract comics.

When did you decide to become an artist?
I haven’t.

You used to teach at a school in Borgerhout, Are you still doing this?
No. I do run the screenprint workshop at Sint-Lucas, though. Which technique do you prefer to work with? Dip pens and brushes. Black ink and gouache. Riso and screenprint.

What places do you recommend we visit in Antwerp?
Middelheimmuseum. The harbor of Lillo. The kelp forest of De Putten van Ekeren.

“I like coffee. Coffee is nice.”