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• Is Coffee Hunter an outdated term?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]

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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

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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Today I bring you a third installment with Pranoy from Kerehaklu. 

In this new episode we talk about:

• The pros and cons of commercial strains vs wild microbes
• The over-complication of fermentations
• The drawback of high altitude farming
• The drawback of honey process
• An alternative to adding fruit to your tank 
• Terroir vs Ecological niche
• Pranoy's approach to cultivating his local microbes

And much more... 

RESOURCES

#56: Finding Work/Life Balance as a Coffee Producer w/ Pranoy Thipaiah from Kerehaklu in India

#34: Robusta, Tropical Fruits and Mechanical Drying. Visiting India w/ Pranoy of Kerehaklu

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.

To connect with Pranoy:
Pranoy's Instagram
Kerehaklu Instagram
Website

Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
Into song: Elijah Bisbee

Support the show

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

Boss Barista Substack

Boss Barista Podcast

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

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Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
Into song: Elijah Bisbee

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 In this listener Q&A episode we talk about:

• How to use Thermoshock
• Does drying pull sugar out of the seed?
• What labels are important on a coffee bag?
• How do I prepare my coffee?
• How to know if you've hit "The One" on a fermentation trial
• How do citrus flavors get into coffee?
• How did a coffee from Panama fool a listener into thinking it came from Ethiopia?
  
  RESOURCES
  Inquiries about coffee samples or future Fermentation Training Camps: [email protected]

• https://www.mdpi.com/2304-8158/11/13/1920 for
  Effect of Six Lactic Acid Bacteria Strains on Physicochemical Characteristics, Antioxidant Activities and Sensory Properties of Fermented Orange Juices
  https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0740002021000538 for Production of volatile compounds by wild-type yeasts in a natural olive-derived culture medium
  
  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

In this new episode I talk about:

• A review of how dry process and wet process are different
• how microbes get into our fermentations
• What I look for in a coffee label, 4 key elements
• how I’ve changed my mind about descriptive processing labels
• studies showing contradictory results when they look at altitude in different countries.
  
  

RESOURCES
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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In this new episode with Natali we talk about:

• Growing up in a coffee producing country, but finding coffee later in life
• Falling into the specialty coffee rabbit hole
• The challenges of running a small business while keeping full time jobs
• Direct trade, fair trade and single origin
• How Natali chooses what information to put on her roasted coffee bags
• Why Decaf is important for night owls & coffee lovers
• Educating new markets

RESOURCES
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.

To connect with Natali:
Instagram
Website

Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
Into song: Elijah Bisbee

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You cannot utter a sentence about Vietnam specialty coffee without including the name Will Frith.
 
In this new episode we talk about:

• Will’s journey from a coffee purist to being more reasonable
• Meeting people where they are
• The importance of a middle class to support a new coffee category
• Will’s rule of thumb for cheap coffee
• What he drinks in the morning
• Being careful to not bring a western mindset to Vietnam
• French occuption and the resulting mash-up culture

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

Vietnam: A New Vocabulary Video

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To connect with Will Frith:
Instagram
Website

Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
Into song: Elijah Bisbee

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Today I bring you a long overdue second conversation with Pranoy from Kerehaklu in India. His first appearance on the podcast was EP#34 in May 2021

I have been wanting to catch up with Pranoy for more than 2 years, and after spending a week together processing coffee and learning we were able to sit down in Jakarta after the intense week of FTC and talk. 

In this new episode we talk about:

• How he has found new markets to export his coffee
• Advice for producers attending coffee Expos like SCA and MICE
• The impact of climate change on his farm, including the changing monsoon season.
• His approach to biodiversity.
• How Covid revived an interest in Indian farm life
• The lingering prejudices of the Indian caste system
• How Australian culture has influenced his life philosophy

RESOURCES
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.

To connect with Pranoy:
Pranoy's Instagram
Kerehaklu Instagram
Website

Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
Into song: Elijah Bisbee

Support the show