Making Coffee with Lucia Solis

#51: The Kenyan Auction System; Lessons, Takeaways, & Cautions with Vava Angwenyi

Fri, 09 Dec 2022 16:00:00 GMT

Vava
Instagram
Website
Coffee Milk Blood Book

Paula
Instagram
Website

Lowell
Instagram
Website

Frankie
Instagram

Christopher Feran
Blog

Resources:
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#50: Listener Q&A: Honey Osmotic Dehydration, Fermenting Green Coffee & What Champagne Can Teach Us About The Flavor of Yeast

Fri, 25 Nov 2022 12:00:00 GMT

Some of the questions I cover on today's episode involve:

-how do fruit added fermentations differ from microbe inoculation?

-my stance on the usefulness/benefits of probiotics

-can we taste yeast in the cup?

-what is the future of fermentation for the specialty coffee industry?

-we typically ferment cherries or wet parchment but what about fermenting green coffee?

-what is honey osmotic dehydration

-how can consumers navigate coffee labels when "fermented" coffee produces a wide range of flavors.

Resources:

Sign up for the newsletter for behind the scenes pictures.

Support the show on Patreon to join our live Discord hangouts.

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

If you're interesting in joining me in Colombia in January
Fermentation Training Camp 3

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#49: Exposing the Producer’s Gaze & the Success Paradox with Vava Angwenyi

Thu, 10 Nov 2022 22:00:00 GMT

In this episode we talk about:

Coffee production in Kenya
The similarities between latin and african coffee production
How we consumers perceive coffee producers vs how coffee producers would like to be seen
The success paradox, when too much financial success can turn off some buyers

Resources:

Support the show on Patreon to join our live Discord hangouts.

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.

If you're interesting in joining me in Colombia in January
Fermentation Training Camp 3

Vava Coffee Inc

A bit about Vava Angwenyi...
In 2009, Vava Angwenyi started VAVA COFFEE – a Benefit Corporation (B-corp) with a Social enterprise model that exports, roasts and consults on coffee value chains, the organization aims to contribute to better future prospects for coffee communities and the industry as a whole. The company ensures sustainable livelihoods for the people and communities in which it works.

Vava is also the co-founder and director of business development & fundraising at GENTE DEL FUTURO (People of the Future). GDF formed in 2017 is an organization born out of a partnership between African Plantations Kilimanjaro, Vava Coffee and Oro Molido three private sector players within the coffee sector to tackle two of the main problems we face as an industry - Producer profitability and Next generation involvement. Gente Del Futuro’s focus is to amplify the voices of youth by creating economic empowerment, choices and sustainability for the coffee industry. The organization offers young people a unique and one of a kind learning opportunity by fusing coffee cultures and knowledge from three different growing origins : Tanzania, Kenya and Colombia.

Vava holds a Masters degree-Msc in International Finance and Management from University of Groningen as well as Certificate in Global Asset Management from Warrington College of Business, UF and a BSC in Statistics & Actuarial Science from University of Western Ontario- Canada. Vava’s vision is to challenge the status quo and promote positive social disruption within the Coffee industry. This vision comes from an inborn passion for transformative change and a drive to promote the sustainable production of coffee at various origins by tracing the production of high quality coffee beans to the independent smallholder coffee farmer, who works day in and day out, against major obstacles and with meager resources to produce some of the world’s best tasting coffees, often without an understanding or appreciation of the final fruits of their labor.

Vava is also a Q grader and was part of the 2015 IVLP program a prestigious State Department sponsored program. Vava Coffee has also been recognized over the years for its grassroots initiatives and contribution to smallholder farming communities and Youth in agriculture. Vava served on the SCA board 2019- 2020 on the Finance and Sustainability Committees. In 2019 Vava Coffee was recognized as a Best for the world community Honoree - B Corp.

Vava recently authored the book “Coffee Milk Blood”. Coffee Milk Blood is a project and book inspired by her own experience as an African woman in the industry and the theme of the book touches on appropriate storytelling/depiction of producers - how producers want to be seen beyond the coffee and as Women , the African woman, the culture of the place as well as underpinnings of Colonialism that are the structures we still operate within in our indust

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#48: My Philosophies on Coffee Processing, and the Future of the Industry, with Katrien of OR Coffee

Mon, 17 Oct 2022 10:00:00 GMT

Today’s episode is a little different. I am sharing a conversation that I had with Katrien of OR Coffee, A specialty coffee roastery & training center in Belgium. This episode is a little different because I’m not interviewing her, She actually interviewed me for her new podcast, Puur Koffie.

Fermentation Training Camp: January 2023

OR Coffee Website

OR Coffee Instagram

Puur Koffie Podcast

Cafesmo

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#47: Coffee Has a Plastic Bag Problem

Wed, 28 Sep 2022 16:00:00 GMT

In this episode we talk about:

Plastic Grocery bags vs Paper
Rwanda's Plastic Bag ban
Coffee Processing Glossary
Power dynamics in coffee buying

Resources

Life Cycle of Bags 128 Page Report

NYT Article - New Jersey Bag Ban

NYT - Brad Plumer "Paper or Plastic"

NYT- The Cotton Tote Crisis

Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
Intro song: Elijah Bisbee

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#46: What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Wine & Coffee Comparisons

Sun, 17 Jul 2022 18:00:00 GMT

In this episode we talk about:

The months of making EP 44
Gas Station Cuisine
$17 cup of Yemeni coffee
A winemaker's role and a coffee maker's role
Formula 1 Racing, go karts and Tennis
What does it mean to love coffee?

Resources:

Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
Intro song: Elijah Bisbee

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#45: Reflections on Coffee Flavor Through Processing, Roasting and Brewing with Eystein Veflingstad

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 02:00:00 GMT

In this episode we talk about:

Coffee consulting in Brazil
What is a quaker
Matching coffee processing with roasting
How Eystein roasts high and low density seeds
Extraction and Brewing techniques to maximize acidity
How Eystein would prepare a coffee to show off orange, chocolaty notes
Preparing our bodies and palate to be more sensitive to flavors

Resources:
Connect with Eystein on Instagram @3aondacafe

Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
Intro song: Elijah Bisbee

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#44: Are Wine Making Techniques the Future of Coffee?

Fri, 03 Jun 2022 16:00:00 GMT

Next time you set about making your morning coffee, take a moment to peruse the info on your bag of beans. What do you notice? The variety of beans? Flavor notes? Technical details on where the coffee was grown?

They're not so different from the sort of blurb you might find on the back of a wine bottle in many ways. And that’s intentional. Specialty coffee has taken a lot from the world of wine.

But could the increasing overlaps be a problem for coffee farmers — or even dangerous?

In this episode, Scott and Jools join forces with coffee processing specialist and former winemaker Lucia Solis from the Making Coffee podcast to dive deeper into where our coffee comes from and what (if anything) wine's got to do with it.

Lucia talks to coffee producer Karla Boza from the Finca San Antonio Amatepec coffee farm in El Salvador and vintner Todd Kohn from the Wayfarer Vineyard in California to shed some light on the techniques behind picking, transporting and processing their precious produce.

Take a sip on this (soon-to-be-a-good) vintage episode to pique your curiosity about how coffee and wine are made, and why it matters.

—

Follow Karla Boza’s farm and Todd’s winery on Instagram

Tag our Instagram handles:

James Harper / Filter Stories

Jools Walker / Lady Velo

Scott Bentley / Caffeine Magazine

James' Podcasts

History of Coffee (do not miss this series!)

Adventures in Coffee

Filter Stories (producer oriented stories)

Fifth Wave (for the economics nerd)

Bellwether New Wave Coffee (cafe focused)

SCA Competitions

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#43: Germination & Drying–Continuous vs. Resting

Thu, 14 Apr 2022 14:00:00 GMT

In this episode we talk about:

The class system in Colombia
Specialty coffee shops in coffee producing countries
Extended fermentations, 500 hours
Germination of dry processed coffees, what is going on?
Overview of the role of amino acids
How do we measure stress in coffee cherries?
Stressed grapes vs stressed coffee cherries

Support the show on Patreon to join our live Discord hangouts.

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.

Ukraine Resources:
Ukraine Donations

Rituales
Distrito Cafetero
Pergamino
Desarolladores De Cafe

Stratification of Colombia
Social Class in Colombia
World Bank Statistics on Colombia

RESEARCH PAPERS

G. Bytof, SE Knopp, D Kramer, B Breitenstein, JH Bergervoet, SP Groot, D Selmar. Transient occurrence of seed germination processes during coffee post-harvest treatment. Ann Bot. 2007 Jul;100(1):61-6. DOI: 10.1093/aob/mcm068. Epub 2007 May 3.

D. Kramer, B. Breitenstein, M Kleinwächter, D Selmar. Stress metabolism in green coffee beans (Coffea arabica L.): expression of dehydrins and accumulation of GABA during drying. Plant Cell Physiol. 2010 Apr;51(4):546-53. DOI: 10.1093/pcp/pcq019. Epub 2010 Mar 5.

Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
Intro song: Elijah Bisbee

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#42: Germination & Processing–Wet/Washed vs. Dry/Natural

Mon, 28 Mar 2022 05:00:00 GMT

In this episode we talk about:

The long geographical chain of custody for a cup of coffee
Why do wet process and dry process coffees taste differently
Coffee seeds: orthodox vs. recalcitrant seed
The yeast metabolism case for quality vs the plant metabolism case for quality
Cacao seed germination vs coffee seed germination

BUY GREEN COFFEE FROM HONDURAS

Cayro Coffee

RESEARCH PAPERS

S-E Knopp, G Bytoff, D Selmar, Influence of processing on the content of sugars in green Arabica coffee beans, European Food Research and Technology 2005 223(2):195-201 DOI:10.1007/s00217-005-0172-1

D Selmar, G Bytof, S-E Knopp, B Breitenstein,Germination of coffee seeds and its significance for coffee quality, Plant Biol (Stuttg) 2006 Mar;8(2):260-4. DOI: 10.1055/s-2006-923845.

Ludlow CL, Cromie GA, Garmendia-Torres C, Sirr A, Hays M, Field C, Jeffery EW, Fay JC, Dudley AM. Independent Origins of Yeast Associated with Coffee and Cacao Fermentation. Curr Biol. 2016 Apr 4;26(7):965-71. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2016.02.012.

Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
Intro song: Elijah Bisbee

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#41: How Much Effort Should Good Coffee Require? Cometeer Instant Coffee, Cake and Everest

Tue, 08 Mar 2022 15:00:00 GMT

In this episode we talk about:

Crossing borders on foot
My recent trip to Guatemala and Honduras w/ 2 new producer clients
Brewing coffee as a love poem
How instant coffee has a similar problem to instant cake mixes
When is effort a virtue and when is it a drawback?

BUY GREEN COFFEE FROM HONDURAS

CAFESMO - Hidardo Hernandez

Finca Rio Frio - Dario Enamorado

BUY ROASTED COFFEE

OR Coffee
Silky Drum
Camera Obscura
Yellow Place Coffee

Video:

Last Week Tonight - Everest

14 Peaks Documentary

Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
Intro song: Elijah Bisbee

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#40: Listener Q&A: Water Evaporation & Sugar, Avoiding Acetobacter, How to Inoculate w/o Spending Any Money

Thu, 06 Jan 2022 15:00:00 GMT

Welcome to the first episode of the new year and season 3.

In this episode we talk about:

If sugar follows the direct of water flow, does sugar evaporate out as coffee dries?
The difference between sugar in mucilage and inside the seed.
Can sugar be a preservative?
The benefits and drawbacks of adding cascara to the fermentation
How to inoculate for free
How to control the fermentation in a hot environment vs a cold one.

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#39:Infused vs Adulterated coffees, Cinnamon and Fermentation Failures

Wed, 15 Sep 2021 23:00:00 GMT

As many of you know, we've started doing live hang out after the episodes on Discord a week after the podcast comes out. I find this valuable because I get to hear from listeners and we create our own podcast after the podcast together.

In the most recent gathering I had Felipe, Jose and Lucas from Ep 38 on the discussion so listeners of the podcast could ask them questions directly.

A few things stuck out to me from that conversation that I want to share here because what started as a fun hang out turned out to provide a key insight for coffee producers.

In this episode we talk about:

Tank Additions: Mango, lemons, cinnamon
Wine additions: sugar and acid
Transparency: what does it mean and who benefits
Enzymes vs Microbes like yeast and bacteria
How fermentation is like gravity

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#38:Reverse Engineering a $5 Castillo in Colombia w/ Lucas, Felipe & Jose

Tue, 17 Aug 2021 12:00:00 GMT

Today's episode features Lucas, a Patron and exporter with Unblended who sold a Kombucha coffee. I invited him and the producers he works with, Felipe and Jose to talk about their experience reverse engineering a $5 castillo. They started with the end goal in mind, the picked the price, the flavor profile they wanted and then created a process to hit their target.

In this episode you'll hear from 3 passionate coffee professionals about:

What a successful relationship looks like between producers and exporters
The true cost of experimenting, 80 kilos vs 1 ton
The price the farmer gets vs the roaster price
Their exact process: preparing and caring for the kombucha SCOBY
Their tracking: ph values and number of fermentation hours

Contact:
For special collaborations, samples, or inquiries about USA and HK on-spot inventory from Felipe, Jose and UVI: https://www.unblended.coffee/ or through Instagram: @Unblendedcoffee

For connecting, learning more, or suggesting experimentation ideas: Instagram: @Ventolacoffee and @joalherb

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#37: Jamie Isetts Reimagines the Coffee Producer & Green Buyer Relationship

Tue, 27 Jul 2021 21:00:00 GMT

Today I am joined by Jamie Isetts, Sourcing Consultant.
In this episode we cover:

What a green buyer does
How Jamie became a green buyer
How to organize a coffee contract
Communication red flags between producers and green buyers
Strategies for long lasting relationships

Get in touch with Jamie Isetts

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#36: Lactic Acid 101—Rejecting Inoculation, Fermentation Fight Club & Defining Rot

Sun, 04 Jul 2021 23:00:00 GMT

In this episode I will cover:

the yeast inoculation history of wine to better understand why the natural wine and sour beer movements are rejecting inoculation.
the difference between rot, wild fermentations and controlled fermentations.
the role of salt in a coffee fermentation.
are lactoferments better for low or high elevation farms?
to pulp or not to pulp coffee cherries?
how lactoferments differ from "anaerobic" fermentations and carbonic maceration.

Lastly, I will give you my advice for a successful coffee lactoferment.

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Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
Intro song: Elijah Bisbee

Mentioned in the Episode:
Watch my processing fundamentals video here

Carbonic Maceration YouTube Video

The Noma Guide To Fermentation book

7 Scientific reasons Diagonally Cut Sandwiches Are Better

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#35: Acetic Acid 101—Kombucha & Making a Washed Coffee Taste Like a Natural

Thu, 27 May 2021 15:00:00 GMT

Do you drink kombucha? Coming from California, kombucha is about as normal as orange juice. But I imagine it might not be as popular in other parts of the world. Kombucha is probably more popular in North America and Europe (coffee importing countries) and probably very rare in coffee producing countries.

I can imagine a near future where buyers are drawn to or supportive of kombucha process without understanding what they may be asking producers to do. Or similarly, producers wanting to be ahead of the curve and differentiate their coffee in a new way borrowing methods from beer and wine.

My hope is that this episode helps coffee producers experiment intelligently and with intention, to maximize positive results.

If you’re a coffee buyer or consumer, I hope you’ll be curious and critical if you see these words pop up on a label. I hope the information in this episode helps you be a better consumer by questioning what you read on labels or websites.

Support the show on Patreon
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Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
Intro song: Elijah Bisbee

Mentioned in the Episode:
Watch my processing fundamentals video here
High Acetic Acid producing yeast:
wild yeasts like Hansenula, Kloekera Dekkera and Brettanomyces
Where to buy a SCOBY

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

Thu, 06 May 2021 01:00:00 GMT

Today's episode is another in a series hearing from coffee producers from all parts of the world.

I think one of the common traps we can get into is thinking and talking about "The" coffee farmer. Or "The Average Coffee Farmer." As if coffee farmers are a monolith. The average doesn’t exist. The people who grow and produce coffee are a very diverse group who do it for different reasons in very different conditions.

It’s our nature, that when we learn something new, to compare it to what we already know, we learn by grouping and recognizing patterns and assigning categories. We take large amounts of information and shrink it, and distill it until it’s a small enough unit that we can attach a label.

My hope with these episodes is to take a microscope to the group, get to know the individuals, how they think and what they think about.

Today we get to visit India through the eyes of Pranoy, a 5th generation coffee grower. His family got into the business in 1953 where they have grown different produce in biodiverse, multi-cropped conditions.

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Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
Intro song: Elijah Bisbee

Mentioned in the Episode:

Pranoy's Instagram
Kerehaklu Website

ECRE Podcast

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#33: Listener Q&A: Learning from Thailand, Avoiding Mold Growth in Honey and Dry/Natural Processing in Humid Locations

Tue, 23 Mar 2021 02:00:00 GMT

Today’s questions all come from Dr. Mack in Bangkok, Thailand. Even though he is asking the question on behalf of coffee producers in Thailand, I wanted to answer them on the podcast because they are relevant to all of the newer coffee producing regions.

Thailand didn’t export coffee until 1976!

This is very recent and not a lot of time for coffee growers and producers to develop their craft and catch up with older coffee growing regions like Colombia, where I am living. Colombia was already exporting coffee in 1835.

As new regions begin to grow coffee, the questions in this podcast will become more and more relevant.

Dr. Mack's questions allow me to address a few things like:

How to avoid fermentation during transportation from the farm to mill
How to use yeast with rust resistant varieties
How to do a honey or a natural process while avoiding mold growth (a common problem in humid tropical countries)

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Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
Intro song: Elijah Bisbee

Mentioned in the Episode:

Short videos:
4 Things I don't like about Carbonic Maceration

The Fundamental Problem with Carbonic Maceration

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#32: Where Is Ripeness? Lessons From Brazil on Brix & Color

Tue, 16 Feb 2021 05:00:00 GMT

Our sugar journey is almost complete as we round out the third installment in the Brix series. I hope the previous podcast episodes helped open your mind to some of the challenges we face in talking about sugar in the coffee industry.

Today's episode focuses on ripeness and how counterintuitively sometimes measuring Brix can lead to lower quality coffee.

And to help illustrate this point I'm sharing a lesson from one of my favorite industries: the cork industry. Specifically cork wine stoppers. In 2013 I was invited to visit Portugal as part of a Quality Control trip on behalf of the winery I worked for.

In this episode we will talk about Brix and fruit maturity (ripeness), I will discuss the results of research done on a Brazilian coffee farm and we will see if there isn't a better instrument than a refractometer to help us look inside the coffee fruit and determine what will make a quality cup of coffee.

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Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
Intro song: Elijah Bisbee

Mentioned in the Episode:
Worms and Germs Video Presentation

Comedy Skits: these are weird but hey, maybe you're weird too.
SNL Cork Soakers Skit
John C Riley Sweet Berry Wine Skit

Free conference by The Barista League:
High Density Digital Conference

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#31: What Are We Measuring When We Measure Brix?

Tue, 19 Jan 2021 12:00:00 GMT

I hope the previous podcast episode helped open your mind to some of the challenges we face in talking about sugar in the coffee industry. In today's episode we are adding another element, another piece of the puzzle—the refractometer and the other instruments used to measure sugar.

In today's episode we will see how a refractometer can give a high Brix reading even when there is zero sugar in the sample. Or, how it is possible to get negative Brix readings.

I think understanding more about the the instruments we use, helps us understand the limitations of measuring Brix at all.

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Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
Intro song: Elijah Bisbee

Mentioned in the Episode:
Why is This Happening Podcast: Pappy Van Winkle
TTB Alcohol Tax Chart
Sugar Cane exporting Countries

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#30 Untangling Sugar, Sweetness and Brix

Thu, 07 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Where does sweetness come from? Can something taste sweet that has no sugar? How can we measure sugar in coffee?

This will be a more technical episode where we will talk about the sugar compounds like carbohydrates, sucrose, glucose and fructose and sweetness as a concept. We will also look at how sugar content differs based on processing style: washed, honey or natural.

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Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
Intro song: Elijah Bisbee

Mentioned in the Episode:

Brodie Vissers Youtube channel
Brodie Vissers Instagram

Vanishing Fleece by Clara Parkes

Boss Barista C-Market Part I
Boss Barista C-Market Part II

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#29: How Can Yeast Help in a Rural Ugandan Setting: Consulting w/ The Coffee Gardens

Tue, 08 Dec 2020 06:00:00 GMT

Today you get to be a fly on the wall of a consulting session between myself and a coffee producer in Uganda. The Coffee Gardens is a newer project of coffee producers who have partnered with select coffee farmers in Eastern Uganda. They currently work directly with 300 small holder farmers. They have a micro-processing station in the foothills of Mount Elgon.

This episode might be most relevant to a coffee producer, so if you know any, please pass this episode along to them. Especially if they are curious about using yeast to control their fermentations.

Today we cover how to process undesirable cherries, we talk about the challenges in scaling up from a small trial to full scale lots. We also discuss yeast usage in very rural settings, is it even appropriate? At what volume should a producer consider using yeast?

Even if you’re not a coffee producer I hope you will listen to the questions and concerns of a coffee producer and better understand their reality.

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Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
Into song: Elijah Bisbee

Mentioned in the Episode:

The Coffee Gardens

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#28: Origin, Native, Indigenous and Local: Building Our Coffee Vocabulary

Tue, 24 Nov 2020 00:00:00 GMT

If you started the season with me in October you’ll remember that I started exploring the topic of what we lose when we take a plant from its native environment. Episode #25: A California Coffee Farm & Native vs. Local Yeasts looked at the relationship between coffee trees and the fermentation.

Dr. Aimee Dudley’s research showed that the native microbes do not travel with the plant material and therefore all coffee fermentations outside of Ethiopia are non-native fermentations.

Episode #26: Do Coffee Trees Talk? How Underground Fungi Affect Coffee Quality showed that when we take a plant from it’s native environment the microbes it needs to have strong immune response are also left behind.

So we’ve touched on the above and below ground microbes that we leave behind.
But is it only about microbes?
Are microbes the most important thing we leave behind?
I argue that it is not. As important as I think they are, I think there is something more valuable that is lost.

Today, in part 3 I want to talk about another aspect we miss out on when we take something from its native environment.

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Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
Into song: Elijah Bisbee

Mentioned in the Episode:

Podcast: How Not To Travel Like A Basic Bitch

Dr. Aimee Dudley's Research Lab

Maca Pirate Video

The Nagoya Protocol

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#27: Searching for the Escape Velocity of Coffee–w/ Mark from Finca Rosenheim

Tue, 03 Nov 2020 06:00:00 GMT

We usually hear about coffee from roasters or even people like me, who work with coffee producers but we are not producers ourselves. One of my podcast goals is to bring you directly to the source. Whether it's scientific research or hearing directly from coffee producers.

Often we leave it to coffee professionals and educators to speak about coffee producers but it’s rare to hear directly from coffee producers about their motivations and challenges. And even when we do hear from them on their social media channels, there is a hidden pressure to present a rosy version of reality.

Today’s conversation is with Mark from Finca Rosenheim in the Villa Rica region in Peru.

This conversation is an honest look at some of the challenges producers rarely get to talk about. I asked Mark about organic certifications, climate challenges, coffee competitions, crop diversification, and what happens when markets can’t rebalance themselves.

To get samples or buy coffee from Mark:

Website: www.fincarosenheim.com
Email: Info@fincarosenheim.com
Instagram: @fincarosenheim

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Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
Into song: Elijah Bisbee

Mentioned in the Episode:

Vox Video: Coffee Crisis in Colombia

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#26: Do Coffee Trees Talk? How Underground Fungi Affect Coffee Quality

Tue, 20 Oct 2020 04:00:00 GMT

What is left behind when coffee moves to new locations. What is the trade off for innovation? This episode looks at what else we potentially leave behind when we introduce new plant material to non-native locations.

The inspiration for this episode was a beautiful book by Peter Wohlleben called The Hidden Life of Trees. In it, Peter talks about native forests vs planted forests and the differences we (humans) are able to perceive.

One of the example trees in Peter's book are oak trees. This was an interesting cross over for me because oak is very important for winemaking. Most of red wine is aged in oak barrels and many Chardonnay's too.

This episode is filled with wine information on barrels, tastings and stories of my time in the wine industry.

I enjoyed putting this episode together and I hope you enjoy listening to it. If you would like to support the show and help me make more episodes, join the Patreon community.

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Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
Into song: Elijah Bisbee

Mentioned in the Episode:

Video: How A Barrel Is Made

Video: Dr. Susan Simard Ted Talk

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#25: A California Coffee Farm & Native vs. Local Yeasts

Tue, 06 Oct 2020 04:00:00 GMT

This week I want to talk to you about where native coffee yeast come from. If you are concerned about coffee flavor manipulation by yeast, I hope by the end of the episode you have a broader understanding of where "native" yeast originally came from.

To help illustrate the point, we start with non traditional coffee growing regions like Southern California.

In the episode I will also be sharing research from Dr. Amiee Dudley.

I met Dr. Aimee Dudley in 2017 during SCA EXPO in Seattle when we were on a Re:CO Panel together talking about yeast. I was offering the perspective of practical application of yeast, how coffee producers in situ could use it and Dr. Dudley was presenting her research on yeast genetics. She runs a lab at Pacific North West Research Institute and she is an expert on yeast genetics.

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Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
Into song: Elijah Bisbee

Mentioned in the Episode:

The Coffee Podcast: Jay Ruskey

Frinj Coffee

Dr. Aimee Dudley's Research Lab

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#24: Tea and Coffee: Conscious Uncoupling w/ Aurora Prehn

Mon, 10 Aug 2020 20:00:00 GMT

Aurora is back for another tea chat.

Unfortunately I think coffee and tea are often lumped together in similar categories but they have very different histories and I think it’s worth trying to de-couple these beverages.

Join us as we discuss how:
-tea is largely consumed in it's botanical origins and coffee is not.
-the different flavors of stress (positive and negative)
-over extraction and the role of color
-my thoughts on Cascara tea

Mentioned in the Podcast:

Support the show on Patreon and get Aurora's curated tea flights and download the research paper on Leafhoppers and Oriental Beauty oolong tea.

Aurora's Website

Tea Reading List 2020 located at worldcat.org, curated by Aurora Prehn

How to Taste by Becky Selengut

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#23: Tasting Authenticity—When Different Countries Have Similar Flavor Profiles

Tue, 28 Jul 2020 05:00:00 GMT

What happens when the best in the world can't tell if a wine comes from the Willamette Valley in Oregon or Burgundy, France? What happens when the experts can't tell if the bubbles are from Champagne or California.

Does a place really have a taste? Can we find it in the glass?

That is the premise of terroir, tasting the land, localizing the product. But often, when put "terroir" to the test it cannot be found.

Today's episode starts with the story of the 1976 Judgement of Paris tasting, a famous part of wine history that pitted French terroir-driven wines against terroir-less California wines. The competition had a blind tasting for red wine and for white wines. The red wines were predominantly Cabernet Sauvignon and the white wines were the Chardonnay variety.

We are also going to see what happens when Terroir is used as a basis for certifications. I'll share with you some of the limitations of the "geographic protectionism" and the Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée (AOC) system.

Certifications are usually protective tools but sometimes they can work against the producers they are meant to protect.

How can such a romantic and noble concept, tasting the land, respecting nature - work against producers?

To pick future podcast topics, get access to the scientific papers, ask questions that I answer on the podcast, and help me continue making episodes: consider supporting the show by Joining Patreon Here

Mentioned on the podcast:

The historical origins are from the book Terroir and Other Myths of Winegrowing by Mark A Matthews.

Bottle Shock Movie

A Cougar

Racist Champagne

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#22: Terroir—Part II: Yeast, Bacteria & Transparent Coffee Processing

Tue, 14 Jul 2020 05:00:00 GMT

Welcome to the next installment of terroir in coffee.

This one little word contains a whole world of history and has an important role in the economic viability of certain agricultural products.

After the last episode I heard from some of you who wished I had talked about soil minerals and plant nutrition from soil. Others also asked about the wine making regions like Bordeaux where Terroir is regulated by french law. I cover both of these concerns in todays episode before we get to discuss what I really wanted the episode to be about: microbes and morality.

There is an unspoken understanding that products that express terroir are more moral than others.

I wanted to give you an episode that focused on microbiology, that talked about the yeast and bacteria that contribute to a "taste of place" but I couldn't do it without including the human perception that products that express terroir, products that are "transparent" are superior.

I think we need to be really careful because science doesn't support this view. Any moral component of terroir is a choice to see it through a religious and political lens.

I want to challenge your views on "transparency" and "intrinsic quality".

To pick future podcast topics, get access to the scientific papers, ask questions that I answer on the podcast, and help me continue making episodes: consider supporting the show by Joining Patreon Here

Mentioned on the podcast:

The historical origins are from the book Terroir and Other Myths of Winegrowing by Mark A Matthews.

How to Use a Pressure Chamber

Demeter Fragrance Library

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#21: Terroir—Part I: The Soil, The Science & The Human Element

Tue, 30 Jun 2020 09:00:00 GMT

I'm so excited for you to join me in this discussion about terroir. Terroir comes from latin, for terra - soil. Also translated as land, or “taste of the land”.

Terroir is predominantly a wine concept, so why are we even talking about it in reference to coffee?

If you’ve listened to other episodes, you’ll know that there are certain concepts that the coffee industry likes to borrow from the wine industry. We’ve talked about some of the really bad ones, like using wine or beer tanks to ferment coffee or how a Q grader is not like a sommelier.

From the outside we see the concept used in wine to justify the high prices of a French wine, perhaps we associate it with valuing the land, a sense of place. We know it’s connected to soil, so maybe we assume that terroir also has to do with soil health.

This makes terroir seem like it would be a positive concept to adopt.

I see how tempting it is to think that coffee could benefit from adopting this way of speaking about coffee farms and how it can help sell the coffee beverages at higher prices. Also, it sounds so romantic, and the specialty coffee industry loves romance.

But similar to my argument about “anaerobic fermentation”, terroir faces a similar problem- the word is vaguely understood at best, and then repeated and made familiar by sheer repetition, not by true understanding.

Many of us have a hard time defining this word if we are asked.

I have made this episode to give you a background into the origins of the word so that before we dive head first into regular use in the coffee industry, we have a better understanding of what it means.

While most student of winemaking take terroir for granted, as a given, I was lucky that one of my UC Davis professors challenged the idea. The historical origins are from the book Terroir and Other Myths of Winegrowing by Mark A Matthews. I highly recommend this book for those wanting to go deeper after today's episode.

To pick future podcast topics, get access to the scientific papers, ask questions that I answer on the podcast and help me continue making episodes: consider supporting the show by Joining Patreon Here

Thanks to Patron Brodie for casting the deciding vote!

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#20: Listener Q&A: Slow vs Fast Fermentations, Adding Foreign Yeast, & Post Harvest Effect on Density

Tue, 16 Jun 2020 12:00:00 GMT

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you introduced foreign yeast and bacteria into a coffee farm? Or maybe you're curious if we can speed up a long fermentation by warming it up. How does post harvest processing affect the density of the seed?

In today's podcast episode I’m answering listener questions like these and also sharing how I approach designing a fermentation.

When I was planning this podcast I knew that I wanted it to be a community supported project and that I did not want to rely on advertisements or sponsors that can be annoying or distracting to the information I want to share.

The Patreon supporters are a group of individuals who care about coffee education and support me and this project. They made a monthly pledge to help keep this information free and available to everyone. With their help I can pay for equipment upgrades like a better microphone, I can pay the subscriptions for the editing software I use and cover the monthly hosting fees. Their contribution also allows me to take some time away from consulting so I can document and record these episodes. As part of their membership, Patrons submit questions—often I answer them privately in the message chats but today I wanted to share and record some of them here on the podcast so we can all learn from each other.

Other resources:
Christopher's Blog

My UCDavis Sensory Science Professor
Dr. Hildegard Heymann

Producers I work with:
Luiz—Fazenda California, Brazil
Ana—Finca Esperanza, Guatemala
Sophia—Mapache, El Salvador
Andres—Cayro, El Salvador
Tommy—Greenwell, Hawaii
Sam—Buff, Rwanda

Importers mentioned:
Balzac Brothers
Crop to Cup

To Support this Podcast and become a Patron CLICK HERE

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#19: Botanical Awareness, Tea Fermentation & Processing with Aurora Prehn

Tue, 02 Jun 2020 02:00:00 GMT

For those who know, it may not come as a surprise when I share how much I love tea. But professionally, today is the day I come out of the tea closet. I drink logarithmic levels of tea compared to coffee, and the more I confess that, the more other coffee professionals share with me that they too love specialty teas.

Unfortunately I think coffee and tea are often lumped together in similar categories but they have very different histories and I think it’s worth trying to de-couple these beverages.

Today's episode serves as an introduction the basics of specialty tea and will be the first of many episodes exploring the processing and history of this beverage.

Our guide through the world of tea is my friend Aurora Prehn. She is a researcher of people and plants. Her undergraduate work was a double major in Anthropology and environmental studies. She worked at Rishi Tea and Botanicals as a tea educator. In 2018 she then left to do a masters in ethnobotany in Canterbury, England, which she finished last fall.

Support the show on Patreon and get Aurora's curated tea flights.

If you are inspired to learn more about tea check out the following resources:

Tea Reading List 2020 located at worldcat.org, curated by Aurora Prehn

The True History of Tea, Victor H. Mair & Erling Hoh

The Tale of Tea: A Comprehensive History of Tea from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day, George L. Van Driem

The Soul & Spirit of Tea, Phil Cousineau & Scott Chamberlin Hoyt (Editors)

Tea: History, Terroirs, Varieties, Kevin Gascoyne, Francois Marchand, and Jasmin Desharnais

Plants, Health and Healing: On the Interface of Ethnobotany and Medical Anthropology, Elisabeth Hsu & Stephen Harris (Editors)

Rishi Tea & Botanicals’s Lookbook https://journal.rishi-tea.com/catalogs/

How to Store Tea, Tea Epicure https://teaepicure.com/how-to-store-tea/

US Grown Tea, Specialty Tea Alliance https://specialtyteaalliance.org/world-of-tea/us-grown-tea/

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#18: Anaerobic Fermentation: Building Our Coffee Vocabulary

Tue, 19 May 2020 11:00:00 GMT

In today's Making Coffee Podcast episode, we're taking a deep dive into anaerobic fermentation and how language reflects values.

Specialty coffee is a young industry. In the consumer space we have only recently started to differentiate between processing styles like natural, washed and honey and now we’re jumping off the deep end into the microbiology of these processing styles.

I wanted to record this episode because many Green Buyers ask me what Coffee Producers mean when they label their coffee like this and Coffee Producers ask me what the Green Buyers mean when they ask them for an anaerobic process.

Both parties expect the other one has the answers.

Even if the words are poorly understood they are still copied, pasted and repeated so much that they become familiar through sheer repetition.

We see them so much that we can sometimes convince ourselves that we know what everyone is talking about, or we assume that at least they must know what they are talking about.

But in my observations, it seems like at this point everyone has their individual, personal, un-scientific definition.

And this is a problem because when everyone defines the words differently, we undermine the point of language to communicate.

To Support this Podcast and become a Patron CLICK HERE

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#17: Coffee Photography, Marketing and Consent

Tue, 05 May 2020 02:00:00 GMT

Today's Making Coffee Podcast episode is a continuation of the theme of coffee pickers and their role in quality.

In the previous episode I shared my surprisingly difficult experience trying to source red ripe coffee cherry. It was surprisingly difficult to pay the farmers more for a different quality than they were used to picking because of the established system, a system that developed over decades as a response to chronically low coffee prices.

It's important for me to share this with you because I don’t believe enough of us who enjoy drinking coffee realize how fragile our coffee supply is. Coffee is such a staple in our daily lives that I believe we simultaneously revere it for making our mornings more enjoyable and take it for granted.

For example, many businesses offer free coffee, free coffee refills or free coffee with food. If you look around hotels, restaurants and gatherings you can often find more than 1 “FREE Coffee” sign.

We expect that there will always be coffee. It seems so abundant that there is a real disconnect between the effort it takes to get that cup into our hands and what we are willing to pay for that work. Many of us would be turned off by a $5 cup of coffee but have also likely paid $15 to $20 for a glass of wine. Additionally, it's a lot less common to expect free wine.

To Support this Podcast and become a Patron CLICK HERE

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#16: The Elusive Search for Red Ripe Coffee Cherry

Tue, 21 Apr 2020 12:00:00 GMT

Today's episode is part 1 of a 2 part series talking about the people who pick our coffee.

In episode 15 we went deeply into how a molecule of sucrose in the coffee cherry pulp becomes a flavor compound like banana or peach and gets into the coffee seed.

Flavor is an accessible entry point for specialness.

However, I don’t like talking about flavor and coffee too much. I don’t think coffee flavor is what’s going to help the industry move closer towards long term stability. I think it’s most often a distraction of the larger picture. My concern is the coffee farmers, the people at the source of the value chain.

I think focusing on flavor distracts us from the larger threats to coffee, like climate change, pests and diseases and—what I want to talk about specifically today—availability of labor.

Sitting down to collect these interactions is possible through the support of Patreon. I’m grateful for the 31 individuals who currently support this podcast and it’s through their generosity that I can make it available to you all. As a thank you, I create additional resources on the Patreon account.

To Support this Podcast and become a Patron CLICK HERE

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#15: How Microbes Contribute Body, Acidity, & Fruity Flavors To Your Cup of Coffee

Mon, 06 Apr 2020 12:00:00 GMT

Today's episode is very special because it was picked by the Making Coffee Podcast Patrons. I sent my patrons a poll on what they wanted to hear about next and the topic most people wanted to hear about was HOW fermentation impacts coffee flavor.

How can the same yeast that makes bread rise also make my coffee taste like apricot or jasmine?

Maybe you’ve thought that farmers added fruit to the coffee (and while this sometimes happens—it’s not the kind of flavor we are talking about today). Maybe you thought those flavor differences came from the different plant variety or that different countries of origin explains those differences.

Those are important factors but that’s not the whole story.
In this episode we will go deep into the biochemistry of how a yeast or bacteria can turn the glucose in the coffee fruit into various flavors ranging from lemongrass to mint to raspberries.

There is also a question at the end about how baristas can communicate flavor in a simple way (without having to give a 30 minute science lecture) to their customers.

To pick the next episode, get a copy of the scientific paper that I reference in this episode and ask questions that I answer on the podcast, check out: https://www.patreon.com/makingcoffee

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#14: George Howell on Cup of Excellence, Coffee Pricing and Craftsmanship

Wed, 11 Mar 2020 01:00:00 GMT

Join me in listening to this conversation with George Howell, where we cover topics such as Cup of Excellence, coffee pricing, processing styles, craftsmanship, additives in processing, kamikaze farmers, and much more.

George was awarded the Lifetime Achievement award from the SCA in 1996, even before he helped found the Cup of Excellence program in 1999. He's accomplished a lot towards improving coffee quality and educating consumers on several fronts. What I admire most is that he continues to be an advocate for quality. He's been in the industry 46 years and I was surprised to learn that he continues to travel to maintain his relationships with coffee producers, and visits Antigua every year.

Even though George has had a longer career in coffee than me, and we approach coffee from different points of view and with different backgrounds, I was surprised to learn how much we have in common regarding coffee processing.

Thanks for listening!

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#13: Growing Up On A Coffee Farm, With Sofia Handtke of Mapache

Tue, 28 Jan 2020 16:00:00 GMT

Hello friends,

Today I want to share an interview with Sofia Handtke from Mapache Coffee in El Salvador. I recorded this last November at the end of my time with them. That was my second season working with them and designing fermentation lots at their mill. Over the last 2 harvest seasons we've done about 40 different batches combining 4 strains of yeast, 3 cultivars and various lengths (# of hours in the tank) in an effort to create additional flavor options.

I wanted to interview Sofia and Jan Carlo together but they have a small mill team and a lot of responsibilities so I caught them when I could. In the interview with Jan Carlo we spoke about how Mapache is embracing vertical integration, how he believes this current generation is more open to sharing information, and some of his struggles like disease pressures and how climate change has impacted his farming philosophy. You can catch my conversation with him HERE.

In this conversation I ask Sofia to share her Q Grader experience and talk about her background in coffee. She believes that getting coffee producers and buyers using the same standard language is very important but unfortunately it’s still out of reach for many producers in Central and South America—this is a topic that deserves it’s own episode and it's in the works.

She shares what it was like growing up in a coffee farm and how she and Jan Carlo are engaging their two teenage children to inspire them to see the coffee industry as a career option, unlike her parent’s generation, many of which had to abandon the industry because it was no longer a viable way to make a living.She shares some fantastic insights about coffee branding and marketing and the coffee gear she takes when she travels.

To Support this Podcast and become a Patron CLICK HERE

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#12: The Dark Side of Seeking Fresh Coffee

Tue, 21 Jan 2020 03:00:00 GMT

I'm at the halfway mark of this trip and I officially ran out of coffee.

I mentioned before that a significant portion of my carry-on space was dedicated to roasted coffee. Bringing coffee from home would mean that towards the end I was drinking coffee that was about 2 months old. Generally, I don’t like to drink coffee that is over 2 months old. I don’t like stale coffee but what I’ve found is that many of us drink stale coffee. Maybe not on purpose but if you’re not actively paying attention to your coffee, I can assure you—you’re drinking stale coffee.

And then we train ourselves to like it!

As I mentioned in a previous episode, we prefer what is familiar. If we constantly drink stale coffee, we tend to prefer that profile. We think stale is normal. Freshness is elusive.

Join me as I talk about freshness, staleness and buying coffee from producing countries.

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#11: Listener Q&A: Why Ferment? Submerged vs Dry Tanks, and Can You Taste Yeast vs Bacteria?

Tue, 31 Dec 2019 18:00:00 GMT

Hello friends,

In today’s podcast episode I get to do something a little different. Instead of giving you my thoughts on a particular coffee topic, I’m answering questions from 4 different listeners. Ideally I would like to have an episode for each question because they are rich with topics but many listeners have submitted questions through my website. The pile is growing quite large and I think it would be more helpful if I could keep answers brief to address a higher number of questions.

Today's questions focus on fermentation, yeast, bacteria and temperature:

I remain skeptical about the role and importance of fermentation on coffee quality and flavor.
Would the amount of water added into the fermentation tank affect the concentration of fermentation by products found in the final product?
Is fermentation temperature is largely responsible for flavor differences between submerged (in-water) and dry (out-of-water) coffee fermentations?
I have always been curious as to whether it is primarily yeast or bacteria causing the fermentation inside the fruit?
How would a taster know the difference between yeast and bacteria fermented coffee?

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#10: What Do Coffee Producers Drink?

Mon, 23 Dec 2019 20:00:00 GMT

When most people hear that I’m going to Central America for work, they often say some variation of “how cool! you’re going to have such great coffee” which is true, but only because I haul most of if myself from The United States back to Central America in my suitcase.

Consuming countries pay a higher price for good coffee - so by design the best coffee leaves the countries where it was produced. The coffee that remains is the stuff that wasn’t good enough to export and sell, so by design the locals drink the lower quality coffee.

In this episode I share a story about drinking coffee with small-holder farmer that illuminated another part of the coffee quality problem.

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#9: Doubling Down in El Salvador with Jan Carlo of Mapache

Mon, 02 Dec 2019 19:00:00 GMT

In this episode, I had the chance to speak with Jan-Carlo Handtke of Mapache Coffee.

Jan-Carlo shares important perspectives of what it's like to be a 5th generation producer today. When most people are leaving coffee, Jan-Carlo and his wife Sofia are doubling down, buying new farms and making significant investments in education and equipment.

In this conversation we talk about the role of social media, selling coffee on the local market, and he also shares some of his struggles. We talk about coffee farm irrigation, his Q-grader story, shade trees, and so much more.

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#8: "Empowerment": The New Colonialism Trap

Mon, 25 Nov 2019 21:00:00 GMT

I want to start by thanking everyone who has reached out to me and sent questions/comments or just let me know that you enjoy listening. I started this podcast as my offering to chip away at the knowledge gap between coffee producers and consumers

In today’s podcast episode we’re going to hear from 2 sides of the value chain in very different parts of the world. Brendan from Semilla Roasters in Canada gives the roaster perspective and later in the episode we hear from Vivek, a 4th generation coffee producer in India. He asks for advice because he’s unsure where to start. Can he learn to be a good cupper without having a Q grader license?

To me, the gap is an issue because it determines power dynamics. The simple issue is:
Producers who don’t cup their coffee don't have the power to improve their coffee.

It’s an obvious statement but one that is frequently overlooked because it’s been the standard. Producers often rely on external parties to tell them this vital information. The buyer who is able to cup the coffees is the one who can determine the value.

This alone is bad enough but I’ve seen it lead to a new disturbing trend.

Since the buyers are generally more knowledgeable about the coffee’s quality and since they cup more than producers do, they are uniquely in a position to tell producers how to improve or change their coffee.

Regardless of the good intentions, the buyer is dictating terms, the buyers is still the expert, the buyer has more knowledge, the buyer has more power.

And I couldn’t leave this topic without talking about the word “empower”

I was guilty of using this word to describe my work. It used to be part of my mission statement to “empower producers with unconventional practices”. I had that written on my profile and website.

But as I discuss in this episode, that word now makes me feel uncomfortable and I’ve removed it from my website and avoid using it.

After listening to today's episode, I hope you’ll consider avoiding it also.

Resources Mentioned in this episode:

All Beans Considered: http://allbeansconsidered.com/

Coffee Quality Institute: https://www.coffeeinstitute.org/

Luxia Presentations: https://www.luxia.coffee/instructional-videos

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#7: Coffee Travel: Helping or Hurting?

Mon, 18 Nov 2019 22:00:00 GMT

I’m writing this from a hotel in the small town of Ataco, El Salvador. I’ve been away from home for 21 days out what will eventually be 120.

It’s currently coffee harvest time in Central America this is the time of the year when I am traveling the most seeing clients at their mills and designing fermentation lots.

This is an interesting industry because of the amount of travel required by many parties along the chain (farmers, producers, exporter, importers, roasters and cafes). All of these entities are usually located in different countries with different languages, time zones, cultures and customs. These far apart business need to work together and the best way to have a smooth business is to have strong relationships. The best way I can think of to have strong relationships is to travel and sit with each other face to face and get to know the other's culture.

Unfortunately flying is a huge contributor of carbon emissions.

I’ve struggled with the paradox since I started traveling heavily in 2014.

At home, I am committed to reducing my environmental impact, I don’t have a car, I buy bulk foods in my own reusable containers, I compost all my food waste, Ive reduced my meat consumptions and I’ve stopped purchasing new clothes. Yet the amount of flying I do every year eclipses all the other efforts.

Previous years I spent November to March alternating one week in Central America and one week at home. Sometimes even seeing 3 clients in 1 month and only being home for a handful of days.

In addition to the environmental strain, there was a personal strain as well. That pace was difficult because It kept me constantly on the move and in airports, I was never home long enough to feel refreshed.

There was a moment I felt like I might need to quit working in coffee because the travel was too demanding.

To reduce my travel, this year I’m trying something different. Instead of going back and forth between Central America and the United States, I will stay in Central America all 4 months. My flying is dramatically reduced but not eliminated. Having such a dramatic carbon footprint is not in alignment with how I live the rest of my life, so I’m still working on how to reconcile that.

Join me for today’s episode for more on this paradox and a harvest update.

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#6: The Sommelier of Coffee?

Mon, 11 Nov 2019 20:00:00 GMT

You heard my experience getting my Q grader license on last weeks episode. Today’s podcast is a continuation of the Q grader discussion but focusing on its role with coffee producers.

I mentioned that it’s tempting to use the wine Sommelier certification as a shorthand to describe the Q grader license because the Sommelier’s has been around much longer and its a more familiar term than Q grader.

I’ve been guilty of using this shorthand in the past but its both lazy and inaccurate. I feel it's important to untangle these two tests because if we keep repeating it, eventually we will start to believe it. However tempting it is, these two certifications are different in a fundamental way. The sommelier certification is predominantly used by the service industry (restaurants, etc) and the Q grader license is used as a means of quality control for exporters, importers and roasters.

The sommelier certification is consumer facing, it is not a means to improve wine production quality. There is very little overlap between a winemaker's world and a sommelier's world.

In contrast the Q grader license has a significant overlap in the production and consumer worlds. I value the Q grader license and I'm glad to have a standardized method of coffee evaluation but there is one often overlooked detail that has nagged at me.

Coffee producers are rarely Q graders, they are not the tasting experts, the buyers are. This means that everyone else in the value chain is more of an expert in tasting coffee than the people responsible for producing coffee.

Most of us haven’t considered what it means when the consumer is more sophisticated than the producer. What kind of power dynamic is created when a specialty coffee buyer is more sophisticated than the person who is deciding the flavor profile of the coffee?

I'm also curious about the system of cupping scores perpetuated with the Q grader system.

Join me in today's episode as I imagine a world without coffee scores.

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#5: To Be or Not To Be A Q-Grader

Mon, 04 Nov 2019 18:00:00 GMT

What is a Q Grader?

In the coffee industry the Q Grader license is often compared to the sommelier exam in wine—this is a shorthand that can be useful to provide some vague ballpark approximation, but over the next 2 podcast episodes we will see how different these tests are.

When I started to get serious about working in the coffee industry I was looking for ways to deepen my knowledge and the Q Grader license seemed like a good place to start. If I wanted to use fermentation techniques to improve coffee quality I would need to learn what the industry considered to be high quality.

Because how can we agree on what is coffee quality, without speaking the same sensory language?
To move the conversation of quality forward, I needed to differentiate between preference (coffees people like) and quality (agreed upon criteria that are independent of preference).

I have definitely scored high quality coffees that were not in my preferred flavor profile—conversely just liking a coffee is not enough to qualify it as a good coffee. It needs to meet quality standards of acidity, structure, body, sweetness and balance. I believe it is important to be able to put our personal preferences in context when evaluating a coffee.

Join me on today's episode as I share my experience with the Q Grader license.

To take a sensory class from Alexandre Schmitt: https://www.wineandflavors.com/en/

Maybe we can revive the hashtag: #letcoffeebecoffee

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#4: Over Fermentation and Brettanomyces

Mon, 28 Oct 2019 02:00:00 GMT

I find the term "over fermentation" to be especially annoying. From a biology point of view this term is nonsense.

When coffee professionals use this term it's understood to mean a defect, usually vinegar, "boozy" or like rotting fruit. Everyone agrees that it's a negative trait for a coffee to have. I think it's important to be able to identify this trait but I think this label has held fermentation back and made many (producers and roasters alike) shy away from a process that when controlled can enhance coffee quality.

In this week's episode I answer a listener question about double fermentation and Brettanomyces that gives me an opportunity to untangle the concept from the name we've given it.

"Double fermentation" is another common colloquial phrase mistaken for a scientific label.

It gives the impression that there are two fermentations, but this is not what's happening biologically.

I also talk about the Russian River Brewing Company in Windsor California. I visited earlier this year in July and got to see how they use Brettanomyces and try their Brett Beer. The coffee industry is borrowing from the Beer industry as well as the wine industry and beer yeasts are becoming more popular in mills across Central America. This is an exciting time for coffee microbiology but there are a few cautions I want to give about this particular yeast.

For the visually inclined: I have 3 videos that will breakdown the coffee fermentation process:

https://www.luxia.coffee/instructional-videos

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#3: The Best Cup of Coffee I've Ever Had

Mon, 21 Oct 2019 15:00:00 GMT

If you made it through last week's deep dive about how we talk about and label specialty coffee - you've earned your coffee-nerd badge!

This week I want to pull back the lens and talk more broadly about quality and value. Instead of examining the rigidity of microbiology, this week's episode explores the subjective side of preference and what makes something "good".

I tell you a little about my coffee tasting history and share the story of the best (and worst) cup of coffee I've ever had.

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#2: How Bad Labels Hold Us Back

Mon, 14 Oct 2019 16:00:00 GMT

The first step in expanding the role of processing in the coffee quality conversation is how we label these coffees. I have noticed a lot of redundancy and confusion in how we describe the coffees.
I've heard various forms of; fermented coffees, yeasted coffees, anaerobic fermentation, lactic process, acetic process.

The labels we use set up the foundation, and I argue that when the labels are inaccurate the whole foundation is compromised. This area of fermentation in specialty coffee is just beginning and I think it's important to be as precise as possible as we move forward.

In this episode I talk about why these names are incomplete at best and inaccurate at worst.

I also answer the first listener question:
"Is it possible to "capture" yeasts from our environment in our own farms and apply these to the fermentation to create our own profiles?"

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#1: A Winemakers Perspective on Specialty Coffee

Mon, 07 Oct 2019 03:00:00 GMT

In this very first episode, I wanted to give you a little background on how I approach coffee processing as a former winemaker and microbiologist. I discuss the similarities and differences in the processing methods of wine and coffee, and how they can impact perception and education within coffee processing.

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Welcome to Making Coffee with Lucia Solis

Wed, 25 Sep 2019 00:00:00 GMT

A behind the scenes look at one of the world's favorite beverages. Lucia is a former winemaker turned coffee processing consultant. This podcast will talk about the steps in getting a coffee cherry ready for roasting, share current coffee research in microbiology and have interviews with coffee producers in different parts of the world.

Photo by @a.w.klass
Design by @hafner.nick
Music by @elijahbisbeemusic

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