Filter Stories - Coffee Documentaries

This episode explores the black box between coffee leaving the farm and the roaster's warehouse, and how quality can be ruined. Wrapping the coffee in any old plastic bag won't do. We get geeky looking at how hermetic bags like GrainPro actually work.

Part of The Coffee Producer Toolkit, a series made in collaboration with Lucia Solis, it will help you understand coffee farming better than most professionals you'll meet at a trade show.

Each episode takes one part of the farming business — agronomy, processing, fermentation, storage, quality, sales — and lays out what the best farms are actually doing.

Related podcast episodes:

Lucia:

• #68: Fermentation vs. Germination: A Look at The Seed From The Inside, Out (Flávio Borém's drying research and how drying works)

James:

• Filter Stories: Farm to Port – Why Specialty Costs More
• Filter Stories: Freshness and Grinding, Pt 1 (oxidation, diffusion and how to store coffee)

Follow us through our newsletters and Social media:

Lucia's Newsletter

James's Newsletter

Lucia Instagram

James' Filter Stories Instagram

People mentioned in the episode:

• Ronald de Hommel — The Coffee Quest
• Paulino Quintero — Huila, Colombia
• Gilberto Baraona — Los Pirineos, Usulutan, El Salvador
• Marvin Tala — Engineering Department head, GrainPro Philippines
• Hazel Valera — COO, GrainPro Philippines

Resources:

• GrainPro hermetic bags, container liners
• NKG / GrainPro bag recycling
• How to Protect Coffee Against Container Rain
• Data loggers

Cover art: Nick Hafner

The Coffee Producer Toolkit is made possible by these leading coffee organisations:

The Coffee Quest | BWT water+more | Descamex | InterAmerican | Pinhalense | Novonesis | GrainPro

Use ProfilePrint to find the coffee your customers loved last year (without a week of cupping!). Use promo code "FILTER" to get 10% off your first year of a Mini Beluga subscription. Click here to discover ProfilePrint's many uses.

Support hundreds of thousands of coffee farmers with Fairtrade. Discover how here.

What kind of racing car does the Gaggia Classic GT home espresso machine remind you of? Use discount code FS202610 to get 10% off.

Meet the Mazzer Super Jolly g, the iconic grinder that's got even better. Click here to learn about its super fast grinding, bump protection, and 100th-of-a-gram accuracy.

Support Filter Stories at Ko-Fi.com/FilterStories

This episode explores the many ways coffee can get ruined while still on the farm, including fishy concrete tanks, the importance of not using jute sacks to collect coffee cherries, and solutions to unpredictable rains ruining coffee drying on the patio.

Part of The Coffee Producer Toolkit, a series made in collaboration with Lucia Solis, it will help you understand coffee farming better than most professionals you'll meet at a trade show.

Each episode takes one part of the farming business — agronomy, processing, fermentation, storage, quality, sales — and lays out what the best farms are actually doing.

Related podcast episodes:

Lucia:

• #68: Fermentation vs. Germination: A Look at The Seed From The Inside, Out (Flávio Borém's drying research and how drying works)

James:

• Filter Stories: Farm to Port – Why Specialty Costs More
• Filter Stories: Freshness and Grinding, Pt 1 (oxidation, diffusion and how to store coffee)

Follow us through our newsletters and Social media:

Lucia's Newsletter

James's Newsletter

Lucia Instagram

James' Filter Stories Instagram

People mentioned in the episode:

• Orlando Osorio — La Primavera, Huila, Colombia
• Thai Dang — 96B Cafe and Roastery, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
• Flávio Borém — UFLA, Brazil

Resources:

• Perforated harvest baskets/crates
• GrainPro Collapsible Dryer Case
• Dryer PDF (full spec table)
• Borém's intermittent drying research

Cover art: Nick Hafner

The Coffee Producer Toolkit is made possible by these leading coffee organisations:

The Coffee Quest | BWT water+more | Descamex | InterAmerican | Pinhalense | Novonesis | GrainPro

Use ProfilePrint to find the coffee your customers loved last year (without a week of cupping!). Use promo code "FILTER" to get 10% off your first year of a Mini Beluga subscription. Click here to discover ProfilePrint's many uses.

Support hundreds of thousands of coffee farmers with Fairtrade. Discover how here.

What kind of racing car does the Gaggia Classic GT home espresso machine remind you of? Use discount code FS202610 to get 10% off.

Meet the Mazzer Super Jolly g, the iconic grinder that's got even better. Click here to learn about its super fast grinding, bump protection, and 100th-of-a-gram accuracy.

Support Filter Stories at Ko-Fi.com/FilterStories

This episode takes you through the basics of good water for coffee.

To objectively assess a coffee's quality, both producer and buyer need to taste it using the same water. But whose water standards should you choose? Why do roasters often get to define what the "right" water is? What would the coffee world look like if producers set quality standards instead of roasters?

Part of The Coffee Producer Toolkit, a series made in collaboration with Lucia Solis, it will help you understand coffee farming better than most professionals you'll meet at a trade show.

Each episode takes one part of the farming business — agronomy, processing, fermentation, storage, quality, sales — and lays out what the best farms are actually doing.

Related podcast episodes:

James:

• Filter Stories: How Heat Transforms Coffee Beans
• Filter Stories: How to Be a Better Taster
• Filter Stories: Getting Great Water, Step by Step

Follow us through our newsletters and Social media:

Lucia's Newsletter

James's Newsletter

Lucia Instagram

James' Filter Stories Instagram

People mentioned in the episode:

• Karla Boza — Jacinta Y Su Cafe, San Benito, El Salvador
• Paulino Quintero — Huila, Colombia
• Jesús Antonio Chala — Finca El Silencio, Colombia
• Thompson Owen — Sweet Maria's Coffee, USA
• Lahari Balireddi — ASG Coffee, Kenya
• Manuel Barsallo — Agrícola Geisha, Panama
• Lorenz Haschka — BWT water+more

Resources:

• Video: How to Make Cold Brew
• Physical Coffee Diary
• Digital App: Coffee Brew Log
• Digital App: Tasting Notes
• Sweet Maria's guide to roasting in a pan or popper, with video
• Sweet Maria's roasting on a pan or popper tip sheet
• Sweet Maria's air popper resources and video
• Filter Stories guide: Roasting your own coffee (English)
• Guía de Filter Stories: Cómo tostar tu propio café (en español)
• Guide to getting a good sample roast
• Video: How to Cup Coffee at Home
• SCA Cupping Workshop
• Video: How to use an Alkalinity Dropper Kit
• Buy a water test kit
• SCA Water Control Chart
• Water calculator to adjust alkalinity
• Make your Own Water for Coffee
• Video: Make your own water for coffee
• BWT bestmax PREMIUM (under-sink option)
• BWT bestbarista ROC COFFEE
• PDFs of CVA Form in 7 languages
• The SCA Coffee Value Assessment, Extrinsic Criteria List
• Digital App: Catador
• Digital: CVA in your web browser

Cover art: Nick Hafner

The Coffee Producer Toolkit is made possible by these leading coffee organisations:

The Coffee Quest | BWT water+more | Descamex | InterAmerican | Pinhalense | Novonesis | GrainPro

Use ProfilePrint to find the coffee your customers loved last year (without a week of cupping!). Use promo code "FILTER" to get 10% off your first year of a Mini Beluga subscription. Click here to discover ProfilePrint's many uses.

Support hundreds of thousands of coffee farmers with Fairtrade. Discover how here.

What kind of racing car does the Gaggia Classic GT home espresso machine remind you of? Use discount code FS202610 to get 10% off.

Meet the Mazzer Super Jolly g, the iconic grinder that's got even better. Click here to learn about its super fast grinding, bump protection, and 100th-of-a-gram accuracy.

Support Filter Stories at Ko-Fi.com/FilterStories

This episode is a practical guide to tasting coffee, sample roasting and judging quality, built for small producers on a tight budget. That makes it just as useful if you’re early in your coffee journey and want to learn the basics without spending thousands on equipment, starting with a frying pan or a $30 popcorn popper.

If you work in coffee, it reveals the obstacles producers face when they try to discuss quality on equal terms with buyers in the global north.

Part of The Coffee Producer Toolkit, a series made in collaboration with Lucia Solis, it will help you understand coffee farming better than most professionals you'll meet at a trade show.

Each episode takes one part of the farming business — agronomy, processing, fermentation, storage, quality, sales — and lays out what the best farms are actually doing.

Related podcast episodes:

James:

• Filter Stories: How Heat Transforms Coffee Beans
• Filter Stories: How to Be a Better Taster
• Filter Stories: Getting Great Water, Step by Step

Follow us through our newsletters and Social media:

Lucia's Newsletter

James's Newsletter

Lucia Instagram

James' Filter Stories Instagram

People mentioned in the episode:

• Karla Boza — Jacinta Y Su Cafe, San Benito, El Salvador
• Paulino Quintero — Huila, Colombia
• Jesús Antonio Chala — Finca El Silencio, Colombia
• Thompson Owen — Sweet Maria's Coffee, USA
• Lahari Balireddi — ASG Coffee, Kenya
• Manuel Barsallo — Agrícola Geisha, Panama
• Lorenz Haschka — BWT water+more

Resources:

• Video: How to Make Cold Brew
• Physical Coffee Diary
• Digital App: Coffee Brew Log
• Digital App: Tasting Notes
• Sweet Maria's guide to roasting in a pan or popper, with video
• Sweet Maria's roasting on a pan or popper tip sheet
• Sweet Maria's air popper resources and video
• Filter Stories guide: Roasting your own coffee (English)
• Guía de Filter Stories: Cómo tostar tu propio café (en español)
• Guide to getting a good sample roast
• Video: How to Cup Coffee at Home
• SCA Cupping Workshop
• Video: How to use an Alkalinity Dropper Kit
• Buy a water test kit
• SCA Water Control Chart
• Water calculator to adjust alkalinity
• Make your Own Water for Coffee
• Video: Make your own water for coffee
• BWT bestmax PREMIUM (under-sink option)
• BWT bestbarista ROC COFFEE
• PDFs of CVA Form in 7 languages
• The SCA Coffee Value Assessment, Extrinsic Criteria List
• Digital App: Catador
• Digital: CVA in your web browser

Cover art: Nick Hafner

The Coffee Producer Toolkit is made possible by these leading coffee organisations:

The Coffee Quest | BWT water+more | Descamex | InterAmerican | Pinhalense | Novonesis | GrainPro

Use ProfilePrint to find the coffee your customers loved last year (without a week of cupping!). Use promo code "FILTER" to get 10% off your first year of a Mini Beluga subscription. Click here to discover ProfilePrint's many uses.

Support hundreds of thousands of coffee farmers with Fairtrade. Discover how here.

What kind of racing car does the Gaggia Classic GT home espresso machine remind you of? Use discount code FS202610 to get 10% off.

Meet the Mazzer Super Jolly g, the iconic grinder that's got even better. Click here to learn about its super fast grinding, bump protection, and 100th-of-a-gram accuracy.

Support Filter Stories at Ko-Fi.com/FilterStories

What is the right price for coffee? This episode shows what the journey of price discovery looks like from the perspective of a coffee farmer.

Part of The Coffee Producer Toolkit, a series made in collaboration with Lucia Solis, it will help you understand coffee farming better than most professionals you'll meet at a trade show.

Each episode takes one part of the farming business - agronomy, processing, fermentation, storage, quality, sales - and lays out what the best farms are actually doing.

Related podcast episodes:

Lucia:

#64: "What Kind of Coffee Lover am I? How Much am I Willing to Pay for a Cup of Coffee?"

James:

Filter Stories: The Hard Business of Selling Beautiful Coffee

Follow us through our newsletters and Social media:

Lucia’s Newsletter

James’s Newsletter

Lucia Instagram

James’ Filter Stories Instagram

People mentioned in the episode:

• Karla Boza — Jacinta Y Su Cafe, San Benito, El Salvador
• Julia Ortega, Finca Los Pinos, Puebla Mexico
• Edilberto Tovar — Finca La Esmeralda, Huila, Colombia
• Melissa de Gasperín — Rancho San Felipe, Veracruz, Mexico
• Diego Robelo — Aquiares Estate, Turrialba, Costa Rica
• Cristian Reyes — Finca El Rodeo, Santander, Colombia
• César Marín — Chacra D'Dago, Peru
• Gilberto Baraona — Los Pirineos, Usulutan, El Salvador
• Lalo Perez, Biofilia
• ASOPEP, Planadas, Tolima, Colombia
• Piedras Azules cooperative, El Salvador
• Agnes Thieleke, InterAmerican Coffee Europe

Resources:

• Record keeping and profitability analysis
• V-Hub (formerly Cropster Hub)
• Coffee Yield Calculator
• Cost-of-production calculator
• Fairtrade Verified Living Income reference prices
• Specialty Coffee Transaction Guide
• Chad Trewick interview on Bellwether podcast
• Heifer / ASOPEP / Fairtrade Tolima living income study
• Book: The Culture Map by Erin Meyer

Cover art: Nick Hafner

The Coffee Producer Toolkit is made possible by these leading coffee organisations:

The Coffee Quest | BWT water+more | Descamex | InterAmerican | Pinhalense | Novonesis | GrainPro

Use ProfilePrint to find the coffee your customers loved last year (without a week of cupping!). Use promo code "FILTER" to get 10% off your first year of a Mini Beluga subscription. Click here to discover ProfilePrint's many uses.

Support hundreds of thousands of coffee farmers with Fairtrade. Discover how here.

What kind of racing car does the Gaggia Classic GT home espresso machine remind you of? Use discount code FS202610 to get 10% off.

Meet the Mazzer Super Jolly g, the iconic grinder that's got even better. Click here to learn about its super fast grinding, bump protection, and 100th-of-a-gram accuracy.

Support Filter Stories at Ko-Fi.com/FilterStories

This episode explores the strange world of the C market, where movements in the Brazilian currency or rebels boarding a random container ship decide the worth of a Colombian farmer's coffee. Yet specialty coffee still uses this number to price the coffees it says are anything but a commodity.

Part of The Coffee Producer Toolkit, a series made in collaboration with Lucia Solis, it will help you understand coffee farming better than most professionals you'll meet at a trade show.

Each episode takes one part of the farming business - agronomy, processing, fermentation, storage, quality, sales - and lays out what the best farms are actually doing.

Related podcast episodes:

Lucia:

#64: "What Kind of Coffee Lover am I? How Much am I Willing to Pay for a Cup of Coffee?"

James:

Filter Stories: The Hard Business of Selling Beautiful Coffee

Follow us through our newsletters and Social media:

Lucia’s Newsletter

James’s Newsletter

Lucia Instagram

James’ Filter Stories Instagram

People mentioned in the episode:

• Karla Boza — Jacinta Y Su Cafe, San Benito, El Salvador
• Julia Ortega, Finca Los Pinos, Puebla Mexico
• Edilberto Tovar — Finca La Esmeralda, Huila, Colombia
• Melissa de Gasperín — Rancho San Felipe, Veracruz, Mexico
• Diego Robelo — Aquiares Estate, Turrialba, Costa Rica
• Cristian Reyes — Finca El Rodeo, Santander, Colombia
• César Marín — Chacra D'Dago, Peru
• Gilberto Baraona — Los Pirineos, Usulutan, El Salvador
• Lalo Perez, Biofilia
• ASOPEP, Planadas, Tolima, Colombia
• Piedras Azules cooperative, El Salvador
• Agnes Thieleke, InterAmerican Coffee Europe

Resources:

• Record keeping and profitability analysis
• V-Hub (formerly Cropster Hub)
• Coffee Yield Calculator
• Cost-of-production calculator
• Fairtrade Verified Living Income reference prices
• Specialty Coffee Transaction Guide
• Chad Trewick interview on Bellwether podcast
• Heifer / ASOPEP / Fairtrade Tolima living income study
• Book: The Culture Map by Erin Meyer

Cover art: Nick Hafner

The Coffee Producer Toolkit is made possible by these leading coffee organisations:

The Coffee Quest | BWT | Descamex | InterAmerican | Pinhalense | Novonesis | GrainPro

Use ProfilePrint to find the coffee your customers loved last year (without a week of cupping!). Use promo code "FILTER" to get 10% off your first year of a Mini Beluga subscription. Click here to discover ProfilePrint's many uses.

Support hundreds of thousands of coffee farmers with Fairtrade. Discover how here.

What kind of racing car does the Gaggia Classic GT home espresso machine remind you of? Use discount code FS202610 to get 10% off.

Meet the Mazzer Super Jolly g, the iconic grinder that's got even better. Click here to learn about its super fast grinding, bump protection, and 100th-of-a-gram accuracy.

Support Filter Stories at Ko-Fi.com/FilterStories

This episode explores what a trade show actually feels like for a farmer who flew in on money his community pooled together, why a sausage dog opened a door that hundreds of cold emails couldn't, and why learning English may be a better investment for a farmer than a longer fermentation.

Part of The Coffee Producer Toolkit, a series made in collaboration with Lucia Solis, it will help you understand coffee farming better than most professionals you'll meet at a trade show.

Each episode takes one part of the farming business — agronomy, processing, fermentation, storage, quality, sales — and lays out what the best farms are actually doing.

Related podcast episodes:

Lucia:

• #54: Visiting Producers, Advanced Tourism & The Coffee Hunter (farm visits, the buyer relationship)
• #56: Pranoy Thipaia (finding export markets, expo advice)
• #65: To Blend or Not to Blend? Wine Vintages, and Harvest Update (sales strategy, consistency over novelty)
• Cabal Cafe Podcast en Espanol

James:

• Filter Stories: The Hard Business of Selling Beautiful Coffee

Follow us through our newsletters and Social media:

Lucia’s Newsletter

James’s Newsletter

Lucia Instagram

James’ Filter Stories Instagram

People mentioned in the episode:

• Diego Robelo — Aquiares Estate, Turrialba, Costa Rica
• Cristian Reyes — Finca El Rodeo, Santander, Colombia
• Cristian Reyes — Personal Instagram
• Catherine Bedoya — Eje Cafetero, Colombia
• Hamsini Appadurai — Sangameshwar Coffee Estates, Chikmagalur, India
• Melissa de Gasperín — Rancho San Felipe, Veracruz, Mexico
• Edilberto Tovar — Finca La Esmeralda, Huila, Colombia
• Desnudo Coffee (Austin) — Austin, Texas, USA
• Alejandro Rodríguez Delgado — Hacienda San Pedrito, Puerto Rico
• César Marín — Chacra D'Dago, Peru
• Karla Boza — Jacinta Y Su Cafe, San Benito, El Salvador

Resources:

• Algrano — Producer Sign Up
• The list of 144 international trade shows
• Clases Gratis de Inglés en linea - USA Learns
• Clases Gratis de Inglés en linea - Voa News
• English Accent Training
• The SCA Coffee Value Assessment, Extrinsic Criteria List
• PDFs of CVA Form in 7 languages

The Coffee Producer Toolkit is made possible by these leading coffee organisations:

The Coffee Quest | BWT | Descamex | InterAmerican | Pinhalense | Novonesis | GrainPro

Use ProfilePrint to find the coffee your customers loved last year (without a week of cupping!). Use promo code "FILTER" to get 10% off your first year of a Mini Beluga subscription. Click here to discover ProfilePrint's many uses.

Support hundreds of thousands of coffee farmers with Fairtrade. Discover how here.

What kind of racing car does the Gaggia Classic GT home espresso machine remind you of? Use discount code FS202610 to get 10% off.

Meet the Mazzer Super Jolly g, the iconic grinder that's got even better. Click here to learn about its super fast grinding, bump protection, and 100th-of-a-gram accuracy.

Support Filter Stories at Ko-Fi.com/FilterStories

This episode explores why specialty coffee is a luxury business that runs on story more than flavour.

Part of The Coffee Producer Toolkit, a series made in collaboration with Lucia Solis, it will help you understand coffee farming better than most professionals you'll meet at a trade show.

Each episode takes one part of the farming business — agronomy, processing, fermentation, storage, quality, sales — and lays out what the best farms are actually doing.

Related podcast episodes:

Lucia:

• #54: Visiting Producers, Advanced Tourism & The Coffee Hunter (farm visits, the buyer relationship)
• #56: Pranoy Thipaia (finding export markets, expo advice)
• #65: To Blend or Not to Blend? Wine Vintages, and Harvest Update (sales strategy, consistency over novelty)
• Cabal Cafe Podcast en Espanol

James:

• Filter Stories: The Hard Business of Selling Beautiful Coffee

Follow us through our newsletters and Social media:

Lucia’s Newsletter

James’s Newsletter

Lucia Instagram

James’ Filter Stories Instagram

People mentioned in the episode:

• Diego Robelo — Aquiares Estate, Turrialba, Costa Rica
• Cristian Reyes — Finca El Rodeo, Santander, Colombia
• Cristian Reyes — Personal Instagram
• Catherine Bedoya — Eje Cafetero, Colombia
• Hamsini Appadurai — Sangameshwar Coffee Estates, Chikmagalur, India
• Melissa de Gasperín — Rancho San Felipe, Veracruz, Mexico
• Edilberto Tovar — Finca La Esmeralda, Huila, Colombia
• Desnudo Coffee (Austin) — Austin, Texas, USA
• Alejandro Rodríguez Delgado — Hacienda San Pedrito, Puerto Rico
• César Marín — Chacra D'Dago, Peru
• Karla Boza — Jacinta Y Su Cafe, San Benito, El Salvador

Resources:

• Algrano — Producer Sign Up
• The list of 144 international trade shows
• Clases Gratis de Inglés en linea - USA Learns
• Clases Gratis de Inglés en linea - Voa News
• English Accent Training
• The SCA Coffee Value Assessment, Extrinsic Criteria List
• PDFs of CVA Form in 7 languages

The Coffee Producer Toolkit is made possible by these leading coffee organisations:

The Coffee Quest | BWT | Descamex | InterAmerican | Pinhalense | Novonesis | GrainPro

Use ProfilePrint to find the coffee your customers loved last year (without a week of cupping!). Use promo code "FILTER" to get 10% off your first year of a Mini Beluga subscription. Click here to discover ProfilePrint's many uses.

Support hundreds of thousands of coffee farmers with Fairtrade. Discover how here.

What kind of racing car does the Gaggia Classic GT home espresso machine remind you of? Use discount code FS202610 to get 10% off.

Meet the Mazzer Super Jolly g, the iconic grinder that's got even better. Click here to learn about its super fast grinding, bump protection, and 100th-of-a-gram accuracy.

Support Filter Stories at Ko-Fi.com/FilterStories

This episode explores why 30 cents a kilo is trivial for a large farm and unaffordable for a small one, the strange power imbalance that lets roasters define quality when nobody asks a winemaker what yeast they used, and how producers can talk to buyers who think starter cultures are cheating.

Part of The Coffee Producer Toolkit, a series made in collaboration with Lucia Solis, it will help you understand coffee farming better than most professionals you'll meet at a trade show.

Each episode takes one part of the farming business — agronomy, processing, fermentation, storage, quality, sales — and lays out what the best farms are actually doing.

Please spread the word about Filter Stories!

Follow us on Instagram - James (@filterstoriespodcast) and Lucia (@lluciasolis) - and tag us in an Instagram story.

Discover how I make these Filter Stories episodes by subscribing to my Substack newsletter

Stay up to date with Lucia through her newsletter

Write a review on Apple Podcasts

Leave a 5 star rating on Spotify

Support James’ work directly by buying him a coffee at Ko-fi.com/FilterStories

Related podcast episodes:

Lucia:

• #72: Planning Your First Coffee Fermentation Trials? Start Here.
• #76: How Commercial Microbes Threaten The Coffee Industry
• #80: How Microbiology Can Explain Beginner's Luck

James:

• Filter Stories - Coffee Quality, Part 1: The birth of specialty coffee flavours

People mentioned in the episode:

• Lester Lerner, Old Willow Coffee, Colombia
• Victor Chala, Palma Rosa, Colombia
• Fridolin Stocker— Mount Sunzu, Zambia
• Shyira washing station, Rwanda
• Evangelos Filippatos, La Cabra
• La Cabra, Copenhagen
• Helen Riley — Novonesis
• Gunne Øregaard — Novonesis
• Franz Zeimetz — Lost Origin Coffee Labs, Panama
• Alejandra Rodríguez Delgado — Hacienda San Pedrito, Puerto Rico
• Gustavo Arroyo — Rancho Contento, Puerto Rico

Resources:

• pH meter & buffer
• Thermometer
• Novonesis Pichia yeast
• Novonesis Lactobacillus bacteria
• Pressure washer
• Fermentation Log Sheet
• Yeast’s impact on the environment in research on vineyards
• Sprudge Best Of Panama coverage
• Lucia’s Fermentation Training Camp
• Coffee Wet Mill Sanitize
• Opciones para la desinfección del beneficio

• Cabal Cafe Podcast en Espanol

Lucia's Favorite Tools:

• Temperature Gun
• Ambient Temperature Sensor
• Temperature Gun
• pH meter & buffer solution

The Coffee Producer Toolkit is made possible by these leading coffee organisations:

The Coffee Quest | BWT | Descamex | InterAmerican | Pinhalense | Novonesis | GrainPro

Use ProfilePrint to find the coffee your customers loved last year (without a week of cupping!). Use promo code "FILTER" to get 10% off your first year of a Mini Beluga subscription. Click here to discover ProfilePrint's many uses.

Support hundreds of thousands of coffee farmers with Fairtrade. Discover how here.

What kind of racing car does the Gaggia Classic GT home espresso machine remind you of? Use discount code FS202610 to get 10% off.

Meet the Mazzer Super Jolly g, the iconic grinder that's got even better. Click here to learn about its super fast grinding, bump protection, and 100th-of-a-gram accuracy.

Support Filter Stories at Ko-Fi.com/FilterStories

This episode explores why the specialty industry's obsession with exotic processing is a dangerous signal for farmers, five ways commercial microbes can make a farm more money, and what a well-run fermentation looks like on farms of very different sizes.

Part of The Coffee Producer Toolkit, a series made in collaboration with Lucia Solis, it will help you understand coffee farming better than most professionals you'll meet at a trade show.

Each episode takes one part of the farming business — agronomy, processing, fermentation, storage, quality, sales — and lays out what the best farms are actually doing.

Please spread the word about Filter Stories!

Follow us on Instagram - James (@filterstoriespodcast) and Lucia (@lluciasolis) - and tag us in an Instagram story.

Discover how I make these Filter Stories episodes by subscribing to my Substack newsletter

Stay up to date with Lucia through her newsletter

Write a review on Apple Podcasts

Leave a 5 star rating on Spotify

Support James’ work directly by buying him a coffee at Ko-fi.com/FilterStories

Related podcast episodes:

Lucia:

• #72: Planning Your First Coffee Fermentation Trials? Start Here.
• #76: How Commercial Microbes Threaten The Coffee Industry
• #80: How Microbiology Can Explain Beginner's Luck

James:

• Filter Stories - Coffee Quality, Part 1: The birth of specialty coffee flavours

People mentioned in the episode:

• Lester Lerner, Old Willow Coffee, Colombia
• Victor Chala, Palma Rosa, Colombia
• Fridolin Stocker— Mount Sunzu, Zambia
• Shyira washing station, Rwanda
• Evangelos Filippatos, La Cabra
• La Cabra, Copenhagen
• Helen Riley — Novonesis
• Gunne Øregaard — Novonesis
• Franz Zeimetz — Lost Origin Coffee Labs, Panama
• Alejandra Rodríguez Delgado — Hacienda San Pedrito, Puerto Rico
• Gustavo Arroyo — Rancho Contento, Puerto Rico

Resources:

• pH meter & buffer
• Thermometer
• Novonesis Pichia yeast
• Novonesis Lactobacillus bacteria
• Pressure washer
• Fermentation Log Sheet
• Yeast’s impact on the environment in research on vineyards
• Sprudge Best Of Panama coverage
• Lucia’s Fermentation Training Camp
• Coffee Wet Mill Sanitize
• Opciones para la desinfección del beneficio

• Cabal Cafe Podcast en Espanol

Lucia's Favorite Tools:

• Temperature Gun
• Ambient Temperature Sensor
• Temperature Gun
• pH meter & buffer solution

The Coffee Producer Toolkit is made possible by these leading coffee organisations:

The Coffee Quest | BWT | Descamex | InterAmerican | Pinhalense | Novonesis | GrainPro

Use ProfilePrint to find the coffee your customers loved last year (without a week of cupping!). Use promo code "FILTER" to get 10% off your first year of a Mini Beluga subscription. Click here to discover ProfilePrint's many uses.

Support hundreds of thousands of coffee farmers with Fairtrade. Discover how here.

What kind of racing car does the Gaggia Classic GT home espresso machine remind you of? Use discount code FS202610 to get 10% off.

Meet the Mazzer Super Jolly g, the iconic grinder that's got even better. Click here to learn about its super fast grinding, bump protection, and 100th-of-a-gram accuracy.

Support Filter Stories at Ko-Fi.com/FilterStories