fair coffee · sharp IT

Critical Beans IT

A Belgian roastery and IT consultancy sharing one obsession — fairness. Fair to coffee growers. Fair to the earth. Fair to the teams we help build systems for.

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Testimonium received

452 km walked to Rome. Next pilgrimage in the making.

the missions

Three roads, one direction.

Mission 01

The Coffee Pilgrimage

Brussels to Rome, on foot. Testimonium in hand. The first walk is done — the next one is already forming.

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Mission 02

Guesspresso

A logbook of every coffee I've loved, and a map anyone can add to — a geo-tagged tasting archive at 212coffees.be.

See the map

Mission 03

Education

Coffee workshops for roasters, cafés and curious drinkers — plus IT/AI knowledge sharing for teams who want to think clearly.

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the shop

Fair coffee, worn well.

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coffee

Single Origin — Peru (organic at source)

250g

€18

tshirt

Coffee Pilgrim T-shirt

S · M · L

€34

The Fermentation Blind Tasting Set (pre-order)

coffee

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The Fermentation Blind Tasting Set (pre-order)

360-440g

€30

coffee

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The Fermentation Set (pre-order)

2kg

€60

For coffee people

Buy single-origin bags, taste kits, and merchandise. Book a workshop for your café, your team, or your kitchen. Everything shipped from Bruges.

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For teams building with IT & AI

Independent IT/AI consulting for companies who want to move deliberately. Architecture, data strategy, hands-on prototypes, and honest advice — no jargon.

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the journal

Notes from the road.

All entries

Day 20·Vitterbo

San Pietro of Vitterbo

A 100km and a crisis of faith. I did not even drink any coffee today. The foot is hurting quite a bit, and for my wife both feet as she does not have appropriate footware. Without her I would not have survived this day or reached Vitterb. The family came to pick her up, and I planned to take a break and join them. But then in the therms I recondidered: so close, less than 100km. Finding a place to stay than proved a big challenge in Vitterbo, but finally a pilgrim guide Pietro came to the rescue, driving all the way from Montefiascone to the center of Vitterbo and opening up his home for me. I got to stay in a very nice little studio, right in the center.

Day 19·Est! Est!! Est!!!

Role reversal

It was a challenging day. I felt something was off with my foot the first step I took. Luckily I had the pleasure of the company of my wife, and even more she took over my backpack to help relax my foot. We reached Montefiascone with some difficulties for both of us, and felt saved when we reached the town's Eurospin to finally enjoy a cold drink: yoghurt! yoghurt!! yoghurt!!! (with strawberries). We had the evening meal together with PapiJac and then had a look around the wine festival, no tasting though. Did get the 100km mark stamp, as recommended by fellow pilgrims as it tends to be closed early in the morning.

Day 18·Bolsena

Reaching Bolsena lake

I just had the loveliest breakfast at San Lorenzo, a place that also combines music and wine "vino e vinelli". I did not enjoy an alcoholic beverage, or maybe it was the heat from the sun, but I started singing again, an original composition that I had started in Belgium, a night in the tent I was not able to fall asleep. So I started having musical inspirations during the walks. Very enjoyable, at least for me. I do share the fragments in the YouTube shorts, but don't expect it do be perfect ;)