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.
Last refreshed: ⓘ
Follow this podcast in the Metacast mobile app to refresh it and see new episodes.
Don't just listen to podcasts. Learn from them with transcripts, summaries, and chapters for every episode. Skim, search, and bookmark insights. Learn more
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 beverage...
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 coff...
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 b...
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 ofte...
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 ...
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...
Sofia Handtke shares her unique path into the family coffee business and her experience becoming a Q Grader, emphasizing the critical need for standardized cupping in the industry for fair pricing and quality improvement. She discusses Mapache's commitment to quality and how they're inspiring their children to embrace coffee, contrasting with past generational disillusionment. Sofia also highlights the essential role of branding and marketing for producers to effectively tell their story and add value to their exceptional coffee.
Lucia discusses the elusive nature of coffee freshness, explaining how oxygen and temperature affect flavor, and why vacuum sealing roasted coffee is problematic. She challenges the industry's obsession with freshness over roasting skill and the value of coffee vintages. Furthermore, Lucia critiques coffee shops in producing countries for focusing on brewing methods rather than leveraging their unique access to producers, regions, and cultivars, advocating for a shift towards educating consumers about coffee's origin and quality.
Lucia Solis tackles listener inquiries about coffee fermentation, addressing skepticism by proving its importance through examples like mechanical washing and Kopi Luwak. She delves into how water concentration affects fermentation byproducts and explains temperature's role in submerged versus dry methods, influencing microbial activity. The discussion concludes with insights into distinguishing yeast and bacteria in natural versus induced fermentations and their taste contributions.
In this episode, Lucia Solis describes her work with a unique European roaster in Honduras and a subsequent experience with smallholder farmers in Guatemala. She explains how the best coffee leaves producing countries, leaving locals with lower quality beans. A pivotal moment occurs when she brews high-quality coffee for these farmers, only for them to credit the brewing device, not the bean's origin or cultivation, for its superior taste. This reveals a profound challenge: if producers don't value their own farm work, how can consumers appreciate the true source of coffee quality? Lucia emphasizes the crucial need for producers to taste their own coffee to understand their impact on the final product.
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 ...
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...
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...
Lucia Solis continues her discussion on the Q Grader license, contrasting it with the Sommelier certification to clarify their distinct roles and impacts. She critiques how the Q Grader system, while standardizing evaluation, inadvertently creates an uneven power dynamic, leaving coffee producers behind. The episode delves into the issues of low producer representation, the cost barrier, and the arbitrary nature of coffee scoring, which forces producers to chase ever-moving market standards set by consumers. Ultimately, Lucia and guest Christopher Farrin share their decisions to let their Q licenses lapse, advocating for a re-evaluation of power distribution within the coffee value chain.
In this episode, Lucia Solis recounts her journey to obtain the Q Grader license, an accreditation she initially underestimated. She draws parallels and distinctions with her extensive background in wine sensory training, detailing her rigorous education with perfumer Alexandre Schmitt. Lucia shares the highs and lows of her challenging test week, including a dramatic, hungover Sunday retake, ultimately concluding that coffee and wine sensory worlds are more different than similar.
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...
Lucia Solis shifts from scientific definitions to the subjective experience of coffee quality and value. She shares her personal journey into coffee, including her mom's profound love for it and her own path to becoming a Q grader. Through stories of the best and worst cups she's ever had—a robust Rwandan hotel coffee and a poorly brewed Honduran one—Lucia illustrates what truly makes a coffee "good" and inspires listeners to seek out exceptional coffee experiences.
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. Support the show
In this introductory episode, host Lucia Solis, a former winemaker, shares her unique perspective on maximizing coffee flavor as a processing consultant. She outlines the podcast's focus on preparing coffee cherries for roasting, her fermentation research, and interviews with international coffee producers. Listeners are invited to submit questions and explore the world of coffee production.
