Filter Stories - Coffee Documentaries

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

 

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

 

Check out Standart, the award-winning coffee magazine. Get a free magazine and a free bag of coffee by clicking here.

Use ProfilePrint to find the coffee your customers loved last year (without a week of cupping!). Use promo code "FILTER" to get 10% off your first year of a Mini Beluga subscription. Click here to discover ProfilePrint's many uses. 

Support hundreds of thousands of coffee farmers with Fairtrade. Discover how here. 

Office coffee = easy recurring revenue. WMF’s Elevation 10 and Peak 50 do the work for you. Learn more here. 
 
What kind of racing car does the Gaggia Classic GT home espresso machine remind you of? Use discount code FS202610 to get 10% off.

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

 

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

 

Check out Standart, the award-winning coffee magazine. Get a free magazine and a free bag of coffee by clicking here.

Use ProfilePrint to find the coffee your customers loved last year (without a week of cupping!). Use promo code "FILTER" to get 10% off your first year of a Mini Beluga subscription. Click here to discover ProfilePrint's many uses. 

Support hundreds of thousands of coffee farmers with Fairtrade. Discover how here. 

Office coffee = easy recurring revenue. WMF’s Elevation 10 and Peak 50 do the work for you. Learn more here. 
 
What kind of racing car does the Gaggia Classic GT home espresso machine remind you of? Use discount code FS202610 to get 10% off.

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

 

Check out Standart, the award-winning coffee magazine. Get a free magazine and a free bag of coffee by clicking here.

Use ProfilePrint to find the coffee your customers loved last year (without a week of cupping!). Use promo code "FILTER" to get 10% off your first year of a Mini Beluga subscription. Click here to discover ProfilePrint's many uses. 

Support hundreds of thousands of coffee farmers with Fairtrade. Discover how here. 

Office coffee = easy recurring revenue. WMF’s Elevation 10 and Peak 50 do the work for you. Learn more here. 
 
What kind of racing car does the Gaggia Classic GT home espresso machine remind you of? Use discount code FS202610 to get 10% off.

This episode explores why specialty coffee is a luxury business that runs on story more than flavour.

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

 

Check out Standart, the award-winning coffee magazine. Get a free magazine and a free bag of coffee by clicking here.

Use ProfilePrint to find the coffee your customers loved last year (without a week of cupping!). Use promo code "FILTER" to get 10% off your first year of a Mini Beluga subscription. Click here to discover ProfilePrint's many uses. 

Support hundreds of thousands of coffee farmers with Fairtrade. Discover how here. 

Office coffee = easy recurring revenue. WMF’s Elevation 10 and Peak 50 do the work for you. Learn more here. 
 
What kind of racing car does the Gaggia Classic GT home espresso machine remind you of? Use discount code FS202610 to get 10% off.

This episode explores why 30 cents a kilo is trivial for a large farm and unaffordable for a small one, the strange power imbalance that lets roasters define quality when nobody asks a winemaker what yeast they used, and how producers can talk to buyers who think starter cultures are cheating.

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. 

 

Please spread the word about Filter Stories!

 

Follow us on Instagram - James (@filterstoriespodcast)  and Lucia (@lluciasolis) - and tag us in an Instagram story. 

 

Discover how I make these Filter Stories episodes by subscribing to my Substack newsletter

Stay up to date with Lucia through her newsletter

 

Write a review on Apple Podcasts

 

Leave a 5 star rating on Spotify

 

Support James’ work directly by buying him a coffee at Ko-fi.com/FilterStories

Related podcast episodes:

Lucia:

#72: Planning Your First Coffee Fermentation Trials? Start Here. 

#76: How Commercial Microbes Threaten The Coffee Industry

#80: How Microbiology Can Explain Beginner's Luck

James:

Filter Stories - Coffee Quality, Part 1: The birth of specialty coffee flavours

 

People mentioned in the episode:

Lester Lerner, Old Willow Coffee, Colombia 

Victor Chala, Palma Rosa, Colombia 

Fridolin Stocker— Mount Sunzu, Zambia

Shyira washing station, Rwanda

Evangelos Filippatos, La Cabra

La Cabra, Copenhagen

Helen Riley — Novonesis

Gunne Øregaard — Novonesis

Franz Zeimetz — Lost Origin Coffee Labs, Panama

Alejandra Rodríguez Delgado — Hacienda San Pedrito, Puerto Rico

Gustavo Arroyo — Rancho Contento, Puerto Rico

 

Resources: 

pH meter & buffer

Thermometer

Novonesis Pichia yeast

Novonesis Lactobacillus bacteria

Pressure washer

Fermentation Log Sheet

Yeast’s impact on the environment in research on vineyards

Sprudge Best Of Panama coverage

Lucia’s Fermentation Training Camp

Coffee Wet Mill Sanitize

Opciones para la desinfección del beneficio

 

Cabal Cafe Podcast en Espanol

 

Lucia's Favorite Tools:

Temperature Gun

Ambient Temperature Sensor

Temperature Gun

pH meter & buffer solution

 

The Coffee Producer Toolkit is made possible by these leading coffee organisations:

 

The Coffee Quest | BWT | Descamex | InterAmerican | Pinhalense | Novonesis | GrainPro

 

Check out Standart, the award-winning coffee magazine. Get a free magazine and a free bag of coffee by clicking here.

Use ProfilePrint to find the coffee your customers loved last year (without a week of cupping!). Use promo code "FILTER" to get 10% off your first year of a Mini Beluga subscription. Click here to discover ProfilePrint's many uses. 

Support hundreds of thousands of coffee farmers with Fairtrade. Discover how here. 

Office coffee = easy recurring revenue. WMF’s Elevation 10 and Peak 50 do the work for you. Learn more here. 
 
What kind of racing car does the Gaggia Classic GT home espresso machine remind you of? Use discount code FS202610 to get 10% off.