Making Coffee with Lucia Solis

Support the show on Patreon to help us keep making new episodes.
In this sixth episode, we give you a practical manual to judge your own coffee quality, so you can negotiate with buyers on a level playing field.
We start with the simplest step of all: drinking your own coffee. We cover how to brew and taste it, how to build a catalogue of its flavours, and why tasting your neighbours' coffees in a monthly tasting club gives you negotiating power.
Then we look at sample roasting, and why a producer's goal is consistency rather than the perfect roast. With help from Thompson Owen of Sweet Maria's, we go from roasting in a pan, to a $30 popcorn popper, to top-end sample roasters, and lay out the basics of a consistent roast: weight, moisture loss, time and your own senses.
We spend a good part of the episode on water, the most overlooked factor in how your coffee tastes on the cupping table. We start with a blind test at World of Coffee Geneva, where the same coffee tasted completely different just by changing the water. Then we explain alkalinity, how to test it with an inexpensive drip kit and what range to aim for, and we compare the options for getting good water on your farm: bottled water, distilled water with mineral sachets, under-sink filtration, and a full system that matches what your buyers use.
And we finish with grading. How to use the Coffee Value Assessment to describe your coffee in the same language as your buyers and why you should always get more than one independent opinion on your quality.
The Coffee Producer Toolkit is the podcast that helps you run a more profitable coffee farm.
Hosted by coffee journalist James Harper (Filter Stories podcast) and fermentation specialist Lucia Solis (Making Coffee with Lucia Solis podcast), it's built for farmers who want to run their farm like the business it is.
Over two years we interviewed 50+ producers and experts across 20 countries. Each episode takes one part of the business — agronomy, processing, fermentation, storage, quality, sales — and lays out what the best farms are 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
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
Lawrence — BWT
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
Follow us through our newsletters and Social media:
Lucia’s Newsletter
James’s Newsletter
Lucia Instagram
James’ Filter Stories Instagram
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
Support the show
Support the show

Support the show on Patreon to help us keep making new episodes.

In this fifth episode, we give you a practical guide to pricing your coffee to ensure your farm is economically sustainable in the long term.
We start by showing you how the “C” price is actually set, and why it is not what your coffee is worth.

Next, we show you how to calculate your cost of production and the common challenges producers will face doing this for the first time. We then look at how high above your cost of production. We cover where to find what coffees like yours are really selling for: asking other producers, asking roasters for their spot price lists, V-Hub and the Specialty Coffee Transaction Guide. We also explain why spot prices are only a starting point, and how producers add a 15 to 20% premium by offering consistency, trust and a relationship.

And we finish with negotiation. We explain why many roasters would pay more but have never been asked, and how cultural values of humility and harmony can hold you back. We show you a tool for communicating with buyers from different cultures, what to ask for when a buyer won't move on price, and how to charge for investments a buyer asks you to make.

The Coffee Producer Toolkit is the podcast that helps you run a more profitable coffee farm. Hosted by coffee journalist James Harper (Filter Stories podcast) and fermentation specialist Lucia Solis (Making Coffee with Lucia Solis podcast), it's built for farmers who want to run their farm like the business it is.
Over two years we interviewed 50+ producers and experts across 20 countries. Each episode takes one part of the business — agronomy, processing, fermentation, storage, quality, sales — and lays out what the best farms are 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 | Descamex | InterAmerican | Pinhalense | Novonesis | GrainPro
Support the show
Support the show

Support the show on Patreon

In this fourth episode, we give you a practical guide to finding buyers and selling your coffee into the specialty market.
And we finish with the sales conversation itself: the questions to ask in your first five minutes with a buyer, and how to handle the rejection that's coming, because it is coming.
The Coffee Producer Toolkit is the podcast that helps you run a more profitable coffee farm.
Hosted by coffee journalist James Harper (Filter Stories podcast) and fermentation specialist Lucia Solis (Making Coffee with Lucia Solis podcast), it's built for farmers who want to run their farm like the business it is.

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
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
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
Support the show

Support the show

Support the show on Patreon

In this third episode, we give you a practical manual to take control of your fermentations and improve your farm's profitability. 
We start with the basics — what is actually happening inside your tank, where the microbes come from, and why your coffee is going to ferment whether you want it to or not. 
Then we go through five ways commercial microbes can make you money: consistency batch to batch, long fermentations you can run safely, lifting the score of your worst cherries rather than your best, clearing bottlenecks in your wet mill, and extending your coffee's shelf life. 
We cover what a well-run fermentation actually looks like — the cleaning, the monitoring, the record-keeping — with a step-by-step blue-barrel protocol for smaller farms and guidance on when to move to tanks. We also look at the investment sums needed for commercial yeasts and how to justify them. 
And we finish with the difficult questions — the environmental worries, whether using a starter culture is the same as adulterating your coffee, and how to talk about all of this with buyers who may view commercial microbes with suspicion.

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
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:
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 Probe
pH meter & buffer solution
 
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
Support the show

In this second episode, we show you how to stop losing coffee to a badly calibrated pulper, why chasing 100% ripe cherries is actually costing you money, the $480 fix that lets a small farm sort cherries perfectly well, how to keep your coffee under 40°C during drying without spending a fortune, why a mechanical dryer isn't the villain everyone says it is, the cheap instruments that will deliver consistent quality across harvests, and ways to treat your wastewater. 
The Coffee Producer Toolkit is the podcast that helps you run a more profitable coffee farm. 
Hosted by coffee journalist James Harper (Filter Stories podcast) and fermentation specialist Lucia Solis (Making Coffee with Lucia Solis podcast), it's built for farmers who want to run their farm like the business it is.
Over two years we interviewed 50+ producers and experts across 20 countries. Each episode takes one part of the business — agronomy, processing, fermentation, storage, quality, sales — and lays out what the best farms are doing.
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

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:
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
 
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
Support the show