Filter Stories - Coffee Documentaries

This episode explores how just a handful of cheap instruments can ensure quality is reproducible year-on-year, and the wastewater crisis poisoning rivers behind picture-perfect coffee farms.

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:

Making Coffee with Lucia Solis — How to De-Funkify your Naturals

Making Coffee with Lucia Solis — Germination: A Close Look at Coffee Drying

James:

Filter Stories: Why One Colombian Farmer Chose Specialty, and the Other Walked Away

 

People mentioned in the episode:

Lester Lerner, Old Willow Coffee, Colombia

Orlando Osorio, La Primavera, Colombia

Astrid Medina, Tolima, Colombia

David Velásquez, Los Naranjos, El Salvador

Jesús Antonio Chala, Finca El Silencio, Colombia

Victor Chala, Palma Rosa, Colombia 

Melissa de Gasperín, Rancho San Felipe, Córdoba, Mexico

Norberto Suárez, Boquete, Panama

César Marín, Chacra D'Dago, Peru

Manuel Matta, Santa Maria, Colombia

 

Resources:

Innovakit: canguaro (picking sleeves)

Pinhalense Cherry Floater

Pinhalense Vertical Pulper

Pinhalense Mechanical Dryers

Tolva — Plastic Vertical Hopper

Moisture Meter (Mid Tier)

Moisture Meter (High End)

Cenicafé Low-Water Wet Milling (Ecomill-type systems)

Flávio Borém Drying Research

DIY Moisture Maths (weight + fixed volume)

 

Lucia's Favorite Tools:

Temperature Gun

Ambient Temperature Sensor

Temperature Probe

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.

This episode explores the simple drying mistakes that compromise months of careful work, and the low-cost fixes that protect a coffee's shelf life and 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. 

 

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:

Making Coffee with Lucia Solis — How to De-Funkify your Naturals

Making Coffee with Lucia Solis — Germination: A Close Look at Coffee Drying

James:

Filter Stories: Why One Colombian Farmer Chose Specialty, and the Other Walked Away

 

People mentioned in the episode:

Lester Lerner, Old Willow Coffee, Colombia

Orlando Osorio, La Primavera, Colombia

Astrid Medina, Tolima, Colombia

David Velásquez, Los Naranjos, El Salvador

Jesús Antonio Chala, Finca El Silencio, Colombia

Victor Chala, Palma Rosa, Colombia 

Melissa de Gasperín, Rancho San Felipe, Córdoba, Mexico

Norberto Suárez, Boquete, Panama

César Marín, Chacra D'Dago, Peru

Manuel Matta, Santa Maria, Colombia

 

Resources:

Innovakit: canguaro (picking sleeves)

Pinhalense Cherry Floater

Pinhalense Vertical Pulper

Pinhalense Mechanical Dryers

Tolva — Plastic Vertical Hopper

Moisture Meter (Mid Tier)

Moisture Meter (High End)

Cenicafé Low-Water Wet Milling (Ecomill-type systems)

Flávio Borém Drying Research

DIY Moisture Maths (weight + fixed volume)

 

Lucia's Favorite Tools:

Temperature Gun

Ambient Temperature Sensor

Temperature Probe

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.

This episode explores why chasing avant-garde processing before nailing the basics is a trap for most producers, the brutal economics behind selectively picking and ways to sort coffee cherries in the wet mill. 

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:

Making Coffee with Lucia Solis — How to De-Funkify your Naturals

Making Coffee with Lucia Solis — Germination: A Close Look at Coffee Drying

James:

Filter Stories: Why One Colombian Farmer Chose Specialty, and the Other Walked Away

 

People mentioned in the episode:

Lester Lerner, Old Willow Coffee, Colombia

Orlando Osorio, La Primavera, Colombia

Astrid Medina, Tolima, Colombia

David Velásquez, Los Naranjos, El Salvador

Jesús Antonio Chala, Finca El Silencio, Colombia

Victor Chala, Palma Rosa, Colombia 

Melissa de Gasperín, Rancho San Felipe, Córdoba, Mexico

Norberto Suárez, Boquete, Panama

César Marín, Chacra D'Dago, Peru

Manuel Matta, Santa Maria, Colombia

 

Resources:

Innovakit: canguaro (picking sleeves)

Pinhalense Cherry Floater

Pinhalense Vertical Pulper

Pinhalense Mechanical Dryers

Tolva — Plastic Vertical Hopper

Moisture Meter (Mid Tier)

Moisture Meter (High End)

Cenicafé Low-Water Wet Milling (Ecomill-type systems)

Flávio Borém Drying Research

DIY Moisture Maths (weight + fixed volume)

 

Lucia's Favorite Tools:

Temperature Gun

Ambient Temperature Sensor

Temperature Probe

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.

This episode explores what plants really need from the soil beneath them, and the labour shortage forcing farms to rethink how the work gets done.

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:

#79: Farm First: Lalo Perez on Long-Term Coffee Health

 

James:

The Science of Coffee: The Magic of Soils

The Science of Coffee: Plant Genetics

 

People mentioned in the episode:

Fernando Castillo Guatemala

Paulino Quintero, Colombia

Orlando Osoria, Colombia

Julia Ortega, Mexico

Sergio de la Vequia, Mexico

Hugo Lopez, Innovakit

Manuel Mata, Colombia

Sam Knowlton, Soil Symbiotics

Lalo Perez, Biofilia 

 

Resources:

Anacafe technical management 

Coffee Cascara Compost Guidelines (English) 

Compostaje de la pulpa/cáscara de café (Espanol)

Netafim Drip Irrigation manual

Innovakit: abonador (fertiliser applicator) 

Innovakit: aroplateo (tree guard for weed whacking) 

Innovakit: selector de arvenses (low-drift sprayer)

Innovakit: canguaro (sleeves) 

World Coffee Research variety catalogue

Recommended varieties: Centroamericano, H1, H16, Mundo Maya

Coffee&Climate Toolbox

Access Agriculture

World Coffee Research Resources

Barista Hustle’s Coffee Farm Management series

 

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 growing water crisis in coffee farming, why farmers are drawn to risky coffee varieties and coffee farming's hidden cashflow traps.

Part of The Coffee Producer Toolkit, a series made in collaboration with Lucia Solis, this series 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:

#79: Farm First: Lalo Perez on Long-Term Coffee Health

 

James:

The Science of Coffee: The Magic of Soils

The Science of Coffee: Plant Genetics

 

People mentioned in the episode:

Fernando Castillo Guatemala

Paulino Quintero, Colombia

Orlando Osoria, Colombia

Julia Ortega, Mexico

Sergio de la Vequia, Mexico

Hugo Lopez, Innovakit

Manuel Mata, Colombia

Sam Knowlton, Soil Symbiotics

Lalo Perez, Biofilia 

 

Resources:

Anacafe technical management 

Coffee Cascara Compost Guidelines (English) 

Compostaje de la pulpa/cáscara de café (Espanol)

Netafim Drip Irrigation manual

Innovakit: abonador (fertiliser applicator) 

Innovakit: aroplateo (tree guard for weed whacking) 

Innovakit: selector de arvenses (low-drift sprayer)

Innovakit: canguaro (sleeves) 

World Coffee Research variety catalogue

Recommended varieties: Centroamericano, H1, H16, Mundo Maya

Coffee&Climate Toolbox

Access Agriculture

World Coffee Research Resources

Barista Hustle’s Coffee Farm Management series

 

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.