Filter Stories - Coffee Documentaries

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

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

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

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

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