Coffee Up! - A podcast from the wholesale team at Market Lane Coffee

Nowhere are our relationships stronger or more meaningful and reciprocal than with our coffee partners in Rwanda. The tiny country boasts about half a million coffee farms, and with typically small scale plots, focusing on high quality coffee has always been essential for coffee farmers. In this episode, Tyson catches up with Market Lane Co-Owner and GM Jenni to talk about Rwanda. Together they discuss Jenni’s memories of Rwanda, the meticulous work our partners put into producing coffee, and ultimately why she loves the people and the coffee there so much. 

The tiny country boasts about half a million coffee farms, and with typically small scale plots, focusing on high quality coffee has always been essential for coffee farmers.

A content warning: this episode touches on the subject of the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

Let's talk about Kenyan coffee!

Kenya is a region known for producing some of the most vibrant, complex, highly prized, and highly priced coffees. In this episode, Christian catches up with Aislinn Cullen from Melbourne Coffee Merchants (our sister company and sourcing partners). Aislinn talks about her experiences visiting Kenya, how we buy coffee, and some of the challenges facing Kenya’s coffee industry as housing developments on the outskirts of Nairobi are pushing coffee production further to the west.

To find out more about our wholesale coffee partnerships, please visit us here.

Brazil is the world’s largest coffee producer and a staple on our menu at Market Lane throughout

the year. In this episode Tyson catches up with Market Lane’s Head of Quality Control, Toshi Ishiwata, to talk about his favourite coffee producing origin. Together they discuss why Toshi loves Brazil so much, his experiences travelling there, and the people we work with on the ground.

To find out more about our wholesale coffee partnerships, please visit us here.

Ethiopia is widely recognised as the birthplace of coffee and have some of the most elegant and nuanced coffees in the world. In this episode Tyson catches up with Jason, one of the founders of Market Lane, to learn about the significance that coffee plays in Ethiopia’s history and culture, how we source coffee there, and more about his recent travels to this very special origin.

To find out more about our wholesale coffee partnerships, please visit us here.

Colombia is the worlds third-largest growing nation. Unlike other large scale coffee growing regions, though, most of Colombia's coffee is produced by small scale land holders who may typically own only 1 - 3 hectares. In today's podcast, Christian chats with Market Lane's Cofounder Jason to talk about who we work with and how we buy coffee in Colombia. Jason also touches on why these coffees often reflect such incredible value, but also why we need to prepare ourselves for the inevitability of paying more for these coffees in the years to come.

To find out more about our wholesale coffee partnerships, please visit us here.

Coffee was originally brought to Guatemala as a purely ornamental plant. Today Guatemala is the tenth largest coffee growing country in the word; prized for its distinct microclimates and incredibly complex and floral coffees.

In this episode, Tyson sits down with Fleur, the founder of Melbourne Coffee Merchants and one of the founders of Market Lane Coffee, to chat about Guatemala’s eight coffee growing regions, the role that Anacafe plays in supporting quality in the country and the meticulous care that our partner producers take there. 

To find out more about our wholesale coffee partnerships, please visit us here.

This is the third and final podcast of our three-part series; Origin, Variety, Process. 

Throughout this series, Christian and Tyson will catch up with Jason (Market Lane's co-founder) to discuss how a coffee's origin, its variety, and how it is processed will differ significantly from one region to another. Thus, impacting not only the flavour profile in your cup, but also how the coffee is produced and what this means for a producers cost of production.

Part Three: Process

Processing is essentially how coffee producers will remove the seed (what we refer to as coffee beans) from the fruit and skin of the coffee cherry and prepare that coffee to be exported.

How a particular coffee is processed will have a significant impact on how that coffee tastes. For example, some processing methods will produce a more fruit-forward cup, while others can help to reveal layers of complexity and nuance in a coffee.

To find out more about our wholesale coffee partnerships, please visit us here.

This is the second podcast of our three-part series; Origin, Variety, Process. 

Throughout this series, Christian and Tyson will catch up with Jason (Market Lane's co-founder) to discuss how a coffee's origin, its variety, and how it is processed will differ significantly from one region to another. Thus, impacting not only the flavour profile in your cup, but also how the coffee is produced and what this means for a producers cost of production.

Part Two : Variety

Yes, much like the apple and orange varieties in your grocery store, or grapes that are destined to become wine, there are coffee varieties too!

We will also zoom out one level of botanical taxonomy to talk about coffees two most prominent species; Coffea Arabica and Coffea Canephora, also known as Robusta.

To find out more about our wholesale coffee partnerships, please visit us here.

This is the first podcast of our three-part series; Origin, Variety, Process. 

Throughout this series, Christian and Tyson will catch up with Jason (Market Lane's co-founder) to discuss how a coffee's origin, its variety, and how it is processed will differ significantly from one region to another. Thus, impacting not only the flavour profile in your cup, but also how the coffee is produced and what this means for a producers cost of production.

Part One : Origin

Now you may have heard the term 'terroir' before; translated from the French word for 'land', it's a term widely synonymous with the wine industry that denotes a region's character in terms of how something tastes.

What contributes to a region's character may include factors like its unique climate, elevation and cultural agronomy, but can also be impacted by climate change, politics, and socioeconomic factors.

To find out more about our wholesale coffee partnerships, please visit us here.

As we roll out our first Colombian coffee of the season, Jason Scheltus (Market Lane's co-founder) chats with Léonardo Henao of Finca Los Palomos.

To find out more about our wholesale coffee partnerships, please visit us here.