This episode developed thanks to Nick, who thought it would be a good time to revisit a bit of my history in coffee to reconnect with long-time listeners, and to share a bit more about myself with new listeners. We started this podcast about 6 years ago, and if you've been through all 72 episodes, you probably have a good idea about my coffee philosophies. 

But I also know that not everyone enjoys, or maybe even has the time to go back and start at the very beginning of a podcast. So we thought it would be a good opportunity to give you a bit of my coffee origin story, and a manifesto of sorts, all under one roof.

Resources:

Responses, Inquiries, & questions about coffee sales or future Fermentation Training Camps: [email protected]

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And if you don't want to commit, show your support here with a one time contribution: PayPal

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Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
Intro song: Elijah Bisbee

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Today's episode offers a behind the scenes view of how I approach a coffee producer's first time using yeast for their coffee fermentations.

We run through all of the potential variables to pay attention to when designing your first trials with commercial microbes. From cost of production to work-flow and data collection.

This conversation was recorded during a recent Office Hours session through our private Discord community. If you would like to be a part of this community, join Patreon and come participate in the discussion.

View the decision flow-chart here


Resources:

Inquiries about coffee sales or future Fermentation Training Camps: [email protected]

Support the show on Patreon  to join our live Discord hangouts, and get access to research papers, transcripts and videos.

And if you don't want to commit, show your support here with a one time contribution: PayPal

Sign up for the newsletter for behind the scenes pictures.

Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
Into song: Elijah Bisbee

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Resources:

Inquiries about coffee sales or future Fermentation Training Camps: [email protected]

Support the show on Patreon  to join our live Discord hangouts, and get access to research papers, transcripts and videos.

And if you don't want to commit, show your support here with a one time contribution: PayPal

Sign up for the newsletter for behind the scenes pictures.

Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
Into song: Elijah Bisbee

Support the show

Some of the questions in this episode:

• What typically happens to the water, along with cascara and whatever else is part of a fermentation, after the fermentation has been completed?
• Cascara is sometimes processed into a secondary product, cascara tea. Are there other secondary products that are made?
• As a roaster, what should we put on our bags to better point towards the farm?
• What's the consensus on adding flavor descriptors to bags? Do or don't?
• How can I store coffee cherry for 2–3 days without creating high damage?

Resources:

Inquiries about coffee sales or future Fermentation Training Camps: [email protected]

Support the show on Patreon  to join our live Discord hangouts, and get access to research papers, transcripts and videos.

And if you don't want to commit, show your support here with a one time contribution: PayPal

Sign up for the newsletter for behind the scenes pictures.

Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
Into song: Elijah Bisbee

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This episode is a final harvest update and the behind the scenes of performing whole cherry fermentation with various microbes in an attempt to create a Dry Process/Natural coffee that I want to drink.

Resources:

Inquiries about coffee sales or future Fermentation Training Camps: [email protected]

Support the show on Patreon  to join our live Discord hangouts, and get access to research papers, transcripts and videos.

And if you don't want to commit, show your support here with a one time contribution: PayPal

Sign up for the newsletter for behind the scenes pictures.

Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
Into song: Elijah Bisbee

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I have wanted to make this episode for a long time, but I wasn't sure how to make it work. Finally some research for Dr. Flavio Borem helped crack the topic for me and the result is today's new episode.

 Things we discuss on this episode:

• Washed processed that tastes like a natural
• Process-forward coffees, funky coffee
• Neutral processing 
• The need for speed, & gentle drying
• Drying is not just removing water
• Biggest producer mistakes, not upgrading the drying
• Fallacy of terroir 

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In this episode we talk about:

• How Ana decided to join the family business after pursuing a career in art.
• The advantages and drawback of growing coffee in a "Full Sun" system.
• The future of coffee picking and the role of Mechanical Harvesters.
• Brazil's 6 different biomes.
• How technology helped Brazil  jump from 6 coffee bags/hectare in 1960 to 29 bags/hectare in 2023
• How climate change has affected the crop
• How Precision Agriculture is helping the farm use resources efficiently
• Tattoos!

Resources
Ana's Precision Agriculture Presentation on Coffee Knowledge Hub (you will need to make an account but it's free!)

Anacafe Presentation on Price Volatility (by Albert Scalla in Spanish)

Picture of Mechanical Harvester

Instagram

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I was going to create a new episode about Infused vs Inoculated Coffees, but much of what we established back in Episode #39 is still relevant. So I am pulling a Taylor Swift and going to re-release a new version of episode 39, keeping what still works and adding some new perspectives from the last 3 years.

In this episode I talk about:

• The sugar and acid additions that French and California winemakers use
• How adding mango to a fermentation tank is completely different from adding passion fruit or citrus
• How to tell when a coffee is infused with a flavor
• Cinnamon flavor in a coffee
• Inoculation vs Infusion vs Co-Fermentation
• The role of enzymes in removing mucilage
• Gravity!

Inquiries about coffee samples or future Fermentation Training Camps: [email protected]

Support the show on Patreon  to join our live Discord hangouts, and get access to research papers, transcripts and videos.

And if you don't want to commit, show your support here with a one time contribution: PayPal

Sign up for the newsletter for behind the scenes pictures.

Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
Into song: Elijah Bisbee

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On today's episode I will be updating you on the coffee we made this harvest season and speaking of the importance of blends.

If you’ve listened to even 1 other episode of this podcast, you’ll know that I'm usually trying to discourage the coffee industry from blindly adopting wine culture. Usually I share my thoughts that adopting a wine model benefits consumers more than producers and further accentuates inequality between the coffee buyers and coffee producers. Usually I believe the wine mode does more harm than good.

But here is a rare occasion where I think coffee could truly benefit from the wine model.

In this episode I talk about:

• Identity shift from a wine person to a coffee person
• Why coffee could benefit from adopting the wine vintage model
• How I approach blending coffee lots in the season
• Is Coffee Hunter an outdated term?
• My risky coffee sales strategy

Inquiries about coffee samples or future Fermentation Training Camps: [email protected]

Support the show on Patreon  to join our live Discord hangouts, and get access to research papers, transcripts and videos.

And if you don't want to commit, show your support here with a one time contribution: PayPal

Sign up for the newsletter for behind the scenes pictures.

Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
Into song: Elijah Bisbee

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This episode also comes on the heels of our recent trip to London. 

Our very first stop was the Nagare coffee shop in Shoreditch in North London. Nick and I do what we usually do when we step into a coffee shop and order the pour overs. They had 2 different coffees on the menu for a pour over so we got one of each and sat back at our cute little table in a cozy cafe, and it was only when we looked down at our empty Kinto ceramic cups that we finally realized we had paid 18£ ($23 dollars!) for 2 small cups of black coffee.

I experienced sticker shock because we have been living on farms in Colombia and Guatemala for the last 4 years and we are very out of touch with big city prices. I knew London was going to be expensive but I was not emotionally prepared to spend $11/cup on our daily coffee.

Nick and I needed more coffee that morning but if we got 2 more cups at Nagare, we would be close to $50 and we hadn’t even had breakfast yet. 

In my head, a voice was saying, dang $11 is an expensive cup of coffee. And then immediately another voice said, hold on.... 

"don’t we want the price of a cup of coffee to rise?"

Aren't low coffee prices a big part of the problem with our supply chain?

The conversation about the price of a cup of coffee is one I have often. What should coffee cost? Who gets to set the price? How does price reflect value?

The conversation about price and value is often at the forefront of my mind because there is such a disparity between what a coffee producer gets paid for growing and processing the coffee and what a consumer pays for a cup of coffee made from their raw material.

Resources:
https://www.macrotrends.net/2535/coffee-prices-historical-chart-data

https://ourcountrygarden.co.uk/british-gardening-statistics/

https://www.carelink24.org/doctors-prescribe-gardening/

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/02/21/headway/peat-carbon-climate-change.html

Inquiries about coffee samples or future Fermentation Training Camps: [email protected]

Support the show on Patreon  to join our live Discord hangouts, and get access to research papers, transcripts and videos.

And if you don't want to commit, show your support here with a one time contribution: PayPal

Sign up for the newsletter for behind the scenes pictures.

Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
Into song: Elijah Bisbee

Support the show