Filter Stories - Coffee Documentaries

This episode explores the black box between coffee leaving the farm and the roaster's warehouse, and how quality can be ruined. Wrapping the coffee in any old plastic bag won't do. We get geeky looking at how hermetic bags like GrainPro actually work.
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:
#68: Fermentation vs. Germination: A Look at The Seed From The Inside, Out (Flávio Borém's drying research and how drying works)

James:
Filter Stories: Farm to Port – Why Specialty Costs More
Filter Stories: Freshness and Grinding, Pt 1 (oxidation, diffusion and how to store 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:
Ronald de Hommel — The Coffee Quest
Paulino Quintero — Huila, Colombia
Gilberto Baraona — Los Pirineos, Usulutan, El Salvador
Marvin Tala — Engineering Department head, GrainPro Philippines
Hazel Valera — COO, GrainPro Philippines

Resources:
GrainPro hermetic bags, container liners
NKG / GrainPro bag recycling
How to Protect Coffee Against Container Rain
Data loggers

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
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.

What kind of racing car does the Gaggia Classic GT home espresso machine remind you of? Use discount code FS202610 to get 10% off.

Meet the Mazzer Super Jolly g, the iconic grinder that's got even better. Click here to learn about its super fast grinding, bump protection, and 100th-of-a-gram accuracy.

This episode explores the many ways coffee can get ruined while still on the farm, including fishy concrete tanks, the importance of not using jute sacks to collect coffee cherries, and solutions to unpredictable rains ruining coffee drying on the patio.
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:
#68: Fermentation vs. Germination: A Look at The Seed From The Inside, Out (Flávio Borém's drying research and how drying works)

James:
Filter Stories: Farm to Port – Why Specialty Costs More
Filter Stories: Freshness and Grinding, Pt 1 (oxidation, diffusion and how to store 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:
Orlando Osorio — La Primavera, Huila, Colombia
Thai Dang — 96B Cafe and Roastery, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Flávio Borém — UFLA, Brazil

Resources:
Perforated harvest baskets/crates
GrainPro Collapsible Dryer Case
Dryer PDF (full spec table)
Borém's intermittent drying research

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
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.

What kind of racing car does the Gaggia Classic GT home espresso machine remind you of? Use discount code FS202610 to get 10% off.

Meet the Mazzer Super Jolly g, the iconic grinder that's got even better. Click here to learn about its super fast grinding, bump protection, and 100th-of-a-gram accuracy.

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

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.

What kind of racing car does the Gaggia Classic GT home espresso machine remind you of? Use discount code FS202610 to get 10% off.

Meet the Mazzer Super Jolly g, the iconic grinder that's got even better. Click here to learn about its super fast grinding, bump protection, and 100th-of-a-gram accuracy.

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

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.

What kind of racing car does the Gaggia Classic GT home espresso machine remind you of? Use discount code FS202610 to get 10% off.

Meet the Mazzer Super Jolly g, the iconic grinder that's got even better. Click here to learn about its super fast grinding, bump protection, and 100th-of-a-gram accuracy.

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

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.

What kind of racing car does the Gaggia Classic GT home espresso machine remind you of? Use discount code FS202610 to get 10% off.

Meet the Mazzer Super Jolly g, the iconic grinder that's got even better. Click here to learn about its super fast grinding, bump protection, and 100th-of-a-gram accuracy.