Making Coffee with Lucia Solis

A behind the scenes look at what goes into making one of the world's favorite beverages. Lucia is a former winemaker turned coffee processing specialist. She consults with coffee growers and producers all over the world giving her a unique perspective into the what it takes to get a coffee from a seed to your cup.

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Episodes

#8: "Empowerment": The New Colonialism Trap

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 cof...

Nov 25, 2019•18 min•Season 1Ep. 8

#7: Coffee Travel: Helping or Hurting?

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 ent...

Nov 18, 2019•16 min•Season 1Ep. 7

#6: The Sommelier of Coffee?

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&apos...

Nov 11, 2019•27 min•Season 1Ep. 6

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

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 impr...

Nov 04, 2019•24 min•Season 1Ep. 5

#4: Over Fermentation and Brettanomyces

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 ...

Oct 28, 2019•22 min•Season 1Ep. 4

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

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 cof...

Oct 21, 2019•22 min•Season 1Ep. 3

#2: How Bad Labels Hold Us Back

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 j...

Oct 14, 2019•28 min•Season 1Ep. 2

#1: A Winemakers Perspective on Specialty Coffee

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.

Oct 07, 2019•18 min•Season 1Ep. 1

Welcome to Making Coffee with Lucia Solis

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

Sep 25, 2019•56 sec•Ep. 1

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