Filter Stories - Coffee Documentaries

Episoder

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  Farming: Starved soils and vanishing labour 27.07.2026 44min

  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. 
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  Farming: Water crisis, risky genetics and cash flow crunch 27.07.2026 35min

  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. 
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  Farming: Low harvests and profit blind spots 27.07.2026 25min

  Welcome to 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.  In this first episode, we cover the fundamentals of what makes a coffee farm viable. We look at how farms measure success and why so few know whether they're actually profitable.    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. 
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  History: Guatemala's Inconvenient Truth, Pt 2 20.04.2026 28min

  Specialty coffee changes the story for the indigenous people of Guatemala. Coffee as a tool of oppression finally offers hope....and then something a bit more complicated.   This episode explores the tension between the values of the Mayan communities who grow coffee, and the values that drive the specialty coffee movement.   Many of the signals we typically look for in our coffees - super-specialty flavours, Fairtrade certification, “5th generation family farm” - might actually exclude coffee grown by indigenous Guatemalans.    This episode might change what kind of Guatemalan coffee you buy.    Please spread the word about A History of Coffee!   Follow us on Instagram - James (@filterstoriespodcast)  and Jonathan (@coffeehistoryjm) - and tag us in an Instagram story.    Write a review on Apple Podcasts   Leave a 5 star rating on Spotify     This free educational content for the coffee community was made possible by Mahlkönig, manufacturers of world-leading coffee grinders for 100 years for your home and cafe.      Read Jonathan’s book, Coffee: A Global History   Support James’ work directly by buying him a coffee at Ko-fi.com/FilterStories   Read James’ article on Dieseldorf, the famous German plantation owner, in Standart    Pick up a copy of Prof. Ted Fischer’s excellent book Making Better Coffee: How Maya Farmers and Third Wave Taste Makers Create Value   Follow Juan Jose on LinkedIn to keep up with his PhD on coffee farming in Jacaltenango exploring how ecology, generational memory and ritual all shape how Jacalteco farmers tend the land.      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. 
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  History: Guatemala's Inconvenient Truth, Pt 1 20.04.2026 43min

  When you buy a bag of coffee labelled fifth-generation family farm, it feels like a good choice.    But in Guatemala, that label might actually be a signal for a more uncomfortable truth.   This episode explores how land has been understood, used, and eventually fought over in Guatemala for centuries between indigenous people, Europeans and those in-between.   It’s a story of what happened immediately after Guatemala won independence from Spain. This pivotal period of history gets less attention in the history books, but the suffering of the indigenous people of Guatemala gets arguably even worse.   Fair warning: it's a dark story, and it will make you think twice about what you're really choosing when you pick up a bag of coffee from Central America.     Please spread the word about A History of Coffee!   Follow us on Instagram - James (@filterstoriespodcast)  and Jonathan (@coffeehistoryjm) - and tag us in an Instagram story.    Write a review on Apple Podcasts   Leave a 5 star rating on Spotify     This free educational content for the coffee community was made possible by Mahlkönig, manufacturers of world-leading coffee grinders for 100 years for your home and cafe.      Read Jonathan’s book, Coffee: A Global History   Support James’ work directly by buying him a coffee at Ko-fi.com/FilterStories   Read James’ article on Dieseldorf, the famous German plantation owner, in Standart    Pick up a copy of Prof. Ted Fischer’s excellent book Making Better Coffee: How Maya Farmers and Third Wave Taste Makers Create Value   Follow Juan Jose on LinkedIn to keep up with his PhD on coffee farming in Jacaltenango exploring how ecology, generational memory and ritual all shape how Jacalteco farmers tend the land.    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. 
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  History: Surrogates - Anything but the coffee 02.03.2026 46min

  What happens when coffee disappears?   This is not a thought experiment! It’s happened many times in history: War, blockades, tariffs, ideology, health panics, sanctions, supply shocks.    When coffee is not around, people still need something warm, comforting, and familiar. And throughout history, people have reached for coffee surrogates: roasted plants and grains engineered to look like coffee…but do they actually taste like coffee?    In this episode, Jonathan and James time-travel by taste testing a truly alarming number of coffee substitutes.    Spoiler: you will hear a lot of spitting!    Which leads to the bigger question: can anything actually replace coffee—or will we always come crawling back?     Please spread the word about A History of Coffee!   Follow us on Instagram - James (@filterstoriespodcast)  and Jonathan (@coffeehistoryjm) - and tag us in an Instagram story.    Write a review on Apple Podcasts   Leave a 5 star rating on Spotify     This free educational content for the coffee community was made possible by Mahlkönig, manufacturers of world-leading coffee grinders for 100 years for your home and cafe.      Read Jonathan’s book, ‘Coffee: A Global History’   Support James’ work directly by buying him a coffee at Ko-fi.com/FilterStories   Read James’ article on the history of decaf technology in Standart   See Colin Smith’s amazing coffee museum at Smith’s Coffee in Hemel Hempstead, UK   Get nerdy about the intersection of AI and the occult on Karin’s Subtack, Mercurial Minutes     Do your own surrogate taste test!   Postum Atomo Orzo Fig Dandelion root Dateseed Acorn Chickpea Chicory Root Camp Coffee   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. 
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  History: Ethiopia's wild coffee forests 09.02.2026 48min

  Most coffee is grown on vast plantations using machines, pesticides and fertilisers.    But in Ethiopia, coffee grows wild in humid forests surrounded by birds.    And that wild coffee matters more than most of us realise. It is the genetic ‘library’ we can turn to find new varieties to help us keep coffee thriving in the face of climate change.    But the communities who live alongside them and have safeguarded this genetic treasure often don’t earn enough from coffee to make preservation the obvious economic choice.   Could a great story be the answer to earn higher premiums for these communities? Could that story be that all the coffee we drink today can actually be traced back to a single “mother tree” in Ethiopia?    This episode is about the history of coffee in Ethiopia, how far back the evidence goes, what counts as evidence, and what we should celebrate (and pay for) when we buy “wild” Ethiopian coffee today.     Please spread the word about A History of Coffee!   Follow us on Instagram - James (@filterstoriespodcast)  and Jonathan (@coffeehistoryjm) - and tag us in an Instagram story.    Write a review on Apple Podcasts    Leave a 5 star rating on Spotify     This free educational content for the coffee community was made possible by Mahlkönig, manufacturers of world-leading coffee grinders for 100 years for your home and cafe.    Read Jonathan’s book, ‘Coffee: A Global History’    Support James’ work directly by buying him a coffee at Ko-fi.com/FilterStories   Discover how James makes these Filter Stories episodes by subscribing to his Substack newsletter   Enjoy James’ Standart article about Avicenna and the earliest (supposed) written reference to coffee   Read the scientific paper pinpointing where wild coffee forests are in Ethiopia    Follow Solomon Tselele's work through his Facebook page   Learn more about the Ethiopian coffee ceremony on the Adventures in Coffee podcast   Series 3 of A History of Coffee is a collaboration between documentary maker James Harper of the Filter Stories coffee podcast and Jonathan Morris, Professor of History and author of ‘Coffee: A Global History’.    Ethiopian forest sounds curtesy of George Vlad. Hear more nature sounds here.   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. 
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  History: Hamburg and Europe's coffee trade 05.01.2026 50min

  On a long walk through Hamburg, somewhere between the fish markets and giant cranes, you might stumble a giant bronze coffee bean looks like its crash landed from space.    But this giant coffee bean represents a staggering fact: one in every three cups of coffee drunk in Europe has passed through Hamburg.    In the first half of this episode, we explore the many profound ways coffee shaped one of Europe’s most important cities.    But then the story flips because, once coffee changed Hamburg, Hamburg began to change coffee.   Series 3 of A History of Coffee is a collaboration between documentary maker James Harper of the Filter Stories coffee podcast and Jonathan Morris, Professor of History and author of ‘Coffee: A Global History’.      Please spread the word about A History of Coffee!   Follow us on Instagram - James (@filterstoriespodcast)  and Jonathan (@coffeehistoryjm) - and tag us in an Instagram story.    Write a review on Apple Podcasts    Leave a 5 star rating on Spotify   This free educational content for the coffee community was made possible by Mahlkönig, manufacturers of world-leading coffee grinders for 100 years for your home and cafe.    Read Jonathan’s book, ‘Coffee: A Global History’ (https://amzn.to/3dihAfU)   Support James’ work directly by buying him a coffee at Ko-fi.com/FilterStories   Pick up a copy of Margrit Schulte Beerbühl’s book, Kaffee Ist Fertig!    Read James’ article on Frederick the Great’s attempt to ban coffee in Standart     Go on your own Hamburg coffee tour!   Giant bean  Speicherstadt Museum  Burg Coffee Museum in the Speicherstadt Becking, 100 year old coffee roasters 1950s Rebuilt Coffee Exchange - and an Instagram post coming on @filterstoriespodcast     Go deeper into the story of Mahlkönig’s grinders   Early EKs - post coming on @filterstoriespodcast DK (aka Donkey Kong Dreiphasen Kaffeemühle) Grind-by-Sync espresso grinders EK Omnia Guatemala Matt Perger WBC routine demonstrating the EK Filter Stories episode on grinding curves 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. 
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  Introducing: Series Three of A History of Coffee 29.12.2025 2min

  We’re back with more stories about the tiny psychoactive seed that changed the world and continues to shape our lives today. Is it possible to follow the story not just to Ethiopia, not just to a single town, but all the way back to one tree? We’ll uncover the uncomfortable history of Guatemala — a story about who inherited the rich volcanic soil, and who was forced to work it. We explore what happens when our worst nightmare comes true: coffee disappears from the shelves. What did people brew instead? Was any of it actually drinkable? And we tell the story of how coffee can shape the massive port city of Hamburg, and how Hamburg then went on to shape the global coffee world. If we want to make coffee a more equitable industry that’s also kinder to the environment, a place to start is understanding the stories and systems that put the coffee into your cup this morning.   Press the ‘Subscribe’ button so you don’t miss future episodes.A History of Coffee is a collaboration between documentary maker James Harper of the Filter Stories coffee podcast and Jonathan Morris, Professor of History and author of ‘Coffee: A Global History’. Follow us on Instagram! Jonathan Morris @coffeehistoryjm and James Harper @filterstoriespodcast.This free educational content was made possible with the support of Mahlkönig, manufacturers of world-class grinders for 100 years. Subscribe to The Science of Coffee podcast 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. 
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  Science: Coffee Quality, Pt 3 - When the “quality” myth hits the farm 08.12.2025 30min

  For twenty years, the 2004 cupping form profoundly shaped the specialty coffee world.   But on the hillsides of coffee farms, some of the form’s byproducts have been disadvantaging producers.    In this episode, we follow two producers whose lives collided with the myth of universal quality. These stories reveal how a single idea of “quality” can close doors for the people with the least power in the supply chain.    The new coffee evaluation form, the CVA, is still young, and with any luck it will keep evolving. I hope for a form that can empower even the smallest producers.    Please support my work directly at Ko-fi.com/FilterStories   Other ways you can help: Leave a 5 star rating on SpotifyFollow me on Instagram and tag me in an Instagram storyWrite a review on Apple Podcasts Discover how I make these Filter Stories episodes by subscribing to my Substack newsletter   Go deeper into the story of quality: The original Filter Stories episode about Murray Cooper in Ecuador, Firefly Specialty Coffee Association's new Coffee Value Assessment 2004 cupping form from the Specialty Coffee Association of America SCAA Coffee Cuppers Handbook (4th edition, 2011) Kenneth Liberman's book, "Tasting Coffee: An Inquiry into Objectivity" SCA's video series on the CVA presented by Peter Giuliano     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. 
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  Science: Coffee Quality, Pt 2 - How “quality” became a myth 08.12.2025 25min

  If you ask two specialty professionals what makes a high-quality coffee, you’ll likely get a surprisingly consistent answer: clean, sweet, juicy, bright. To an outsider, they would be forgiven for thinking coffee quality is universally defined.   But the truth is more sober.   In this episode, we examine how a simple cupping form helped create a universal idea of quality. We then look at the evidence that, in fact, it’s just the personal preferences of a small group of people masquerading as universal quality.    Please support my work directly at Ko-fi.com/FilterStories   Other ways you can help: Leave a 5 star rating on SpotifyFollow me on Instagram and tag me in an Instagram storyWrite a review on Apple Podcasts Discover how I make these Filter Stories episodes by subscribing to my Substack newsletter   Go deeper into the story of quality: 2004 cupping form from the Specialty Coffee Association of America SCAA Coffee Cuppers Handbook (4th edition, 2011) Cup of Excellence cupping form Kenneth Liberman's book, "Tasting Coffee: An Inquiry into Objectivity" SCA's video series on the CVA presented by Peter Giuliano     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. 
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  Science: Coffee Quality, Pt 1 - The birth of specialty coffee flavours 08.12.2025 23min

  For the longest time, coffees were dull and bitter. But then a small group of pioneers changed the world.    In this episode, we travel back to the 1960s and ’70s to meet the trailblazers who realised coffees could taste distinctive: sweeter, brighter, cleaner.    We discover how their personal preferences became a movement, then a form, and eventually a global definition of “quality”.   Please support my work directly at Ko-fi.com/FilterStories   Other ways you can help: Leave a 5 star rating on SpotifyFollow me on Instagram and tag me in an Instagram storyWrite a review on Apple Podcasts Discover how I make these Filter Stories episodes by subscribing to my Substack newsletter   Go deeper into the story of quality: Specialty Coffee Association's new Coffee Value Assessment 2004 cupping form from the Specialty Coffee Association of America SCAA Coffee Cuppers Handbook (4th edition, 2011) Michael Sheridan of CQI discussing the inter-organisational politics behind the Houston Expo announcement on Lee Safar's Map It Forward podcast   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. 
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  Science: How specialty coffee woke up to water’s role in flavour 28.07.2025 25min

  For the longest time, the coffee community only cared about water’s impact ruining espresso machine boilers and kettles. But what about water’s impact on coffee flavour?   In this episode, I tell the story of how the specialty coffee community came to understand water chemistry: the pioneering work of the computational chemist Christopher Hendon and British roaster Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood, the genesis of the SCA’s Water Quality Handbook, and where we are today understanding the impact of minerals on our water.   I strongly recommend listening to the two episodes before this one first Getting great water for coffee, step-by-step & The two ingredients in water that ruin your coffee, and the ancient story behind them   Please spread the word about The Science of Coffee!Leave a 5 star rating on SpotifyFollow me on Instagram and tag me in an Instagram storyWrite a review on Apple Podcasts Discover how I make these Filter Stories episodes by subscribing to my Substack newsletter   Want to go deeper into water chemistry? Read the SCA’s Water Quality HandbookBWT White Paper on the effects of magnesium (German)Christopher Hendon’s Instagram where he’ll announce his new version of his book, Water for CoffeeDo an online Certificate of Advanced Studies at the Coffee Excellence Centre   Season 3 of The Science of Coffee is made possible by these leading coffee organisations:   The Coffee Quest | BWT | TODDY | Algrano | Probat   Note: this is a reworked version of my 2022 episode Water for Brewing Coffee, including portions of my 2024 episode How to think like a scientist, part 2. 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. 
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  Science: Why prehistoric rock ruins coffee 28.07.2025 38min

  550 million years ago, earth was perfect. We had perfect water for coffee AND we were living in a vegetarian paradise!   But then Earth changed—violently. The planet shifted from a peaceful, plant-eating paradise to a darker, more brutal world. And in this new world, the chemistry of water was forever altered.   This is the wild story of how earth-shaking forces and the spirits of long-dead critters ruin your coffees today.   This story will help you remember the two invisible ingredients in your water that have a huge impact on coffee flavour and your brewing equipment: calcium and hydrogen carbonate.   Read Marcia Bjonerud’s amazing book, Reading the Rocks     Please spread the word about The Science of Coffee!Leave a 5 star rating on SpotifyFollow me on Instagram and tag me in an Instagram storyWrite a review on Apple Podcasts Discover how I make these Filter Stories episodes by subscribing to my Substack newsletter   Season 3 of The Science of Coffee is made possible by these leading coffee organisations:   The Coffee Quest | BWT | TODDY | Algrano | Probat   Note: this is a reworked version of my 2022 episode Water for Brewing Coffee.   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. 
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  Science: Water, Pt 2 - How to measure and treat it 14.07.2025 43min

  Water massively impacts your coffee’s flavours. But most of us struggle to fix our water because water science is confusing…   …until now! In this special collaboration with Lucia Solis (Making Coffee podcast), I guide her through the two most important concepts you need to understand to get great-tasting water for coffee: hardness and alkalinity.   We go step-by-step through: • Why these concepts matter for coffee flavour and equipment • How to test your water at home • How to fix it, depending on what you’re working with   These aren’t one of my usual narrative episodes—they’re a straightforward, practical guide to help you take control of your water.   By the end of these episodes, you’ll be able to say: “I know what good water for coffee is and how to get it”.   I hope it helps you as much as it helped Lucia.   Check my website for all the visuals mentioned in this episode, including:  SCA graph for excellent water (the “map”) Map of different water hardness across Paris My Berlin water report The nightmarish table of conversions… Results from my water tests in my Berlin studio Bottled water brands rated for their hardness and alkalinity   Please spread the word about The Science of Coffee!Leave a 5 star rating on SpotifyFollow me on Instagram and tag me in an Instagram storyWrite a review on Apple Podcasts Discover how I make these Filter Stories episodes by subscribing to my Substack newsletter   Resources mentioned in the episode:    SCA’s Water Quality Handbook Hardness and alkalinity dripper testing kit (also good for keeping your fishies happy) BWT Penguin Filter Jug (what I used to use with the magnesium cartridges) BWT BestAqua ROC (what now I use) BWT BestBarista (for cafes) Create your own water by adding minerals to very soft or distilled water: JoJo Hersh’s simple calculator using epsom salts and bicarbonate of soda, and Barista Hustle’s more elaborate one.    Want to go deeper into water chemistry? BWT White Paper on the effects of magnesium (German)Christopher Hendon’s book Water for CoffeeDo an online Certificate of Advanced Studies at the Coffee Excellence Centre Read The Craft and Science of CoffeeBarista Hustle's Water courseSome water content on YouTube by James Hoffman and Lance Hedrick     Season 3 of The Science of Coffee is made possible by these leading coffee organisations:   The Coffee Quest | BWT | TODDY | Algrano | Probat     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. 
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  Science: Water, Pt 1 - Alkalinity, hardness and why it matters 14.07.2025 26min

  Water massively impacts your coffee’s flavours. But most of us struggle to fix our water because water science is confusing…   …until now! In this special collaboration with Lucia Solis (Making Coffee podcast), I guide her through the two most important concepts you need to understand to get great-tasting water for coffee: hardness and alkalinity.   We go step-by-step through: • Why these concepts matter for coffee flavour and equipment • How to test your water at home • How to fix it, depending on what you’re working with   These aren’t one of my usual narrative episodes—they’re a straightforward, practical guide to help you take control of your water.   By the end of these episodes, you’ll be able to say: “I know what good water for coffee is and how to get it”.   I hope it helps you as much as it helped Lucia.   Check my website for all the visuals mentioned in this episode, including:  SCA graph for excellent water (the “map”) Map of different water hardness across Paris My Berlin water report The nightmarish table of conversions… Results from my water tests in my Berlin studio Bottled water brands rated for their hardness and alkalinity   Please spread the word about The Science of Coffee!Leave a 5 star rating on SpotifyFollow me on Instagram and tag me in an Instagram storyWrite a review on Apple Podcasts Discover how I make these Filter Stories episodes by subscribing to my Substack newsletter   Resources mentioned in the episode:    SCA’s Water Quality Handbook Hardness and alkalinity dripper testing kit (also good for keeping your fishies happy) BWT Penguin Filter Jug (what I used to use with the magnesium cartridges) BWT BestAqua ROC (what now I use) BWT BestBarista (for cafes) Create your own water by adding minerals to very soft or distilled water: JoJo Hersh’s simple calculator using epsom salts and bicarbonate of soda, and Barista Hustle’s more elaborate one.    Want to go deeper into water chemistry? BWT White Paper on the effects of magnesium (German)Christopher Hendon’s book Water for CoffeeDo an online Certificate of Advanced Studies at the Coffee Excellence Centre Read The Craft and Science of CoffeeBarista Hustle's Water courseSome water content on YouTube by James Hoffman and Lance Hedrick     Season 3 of The Science of Coffee is made possible by these leading coffee organisations:   The Coffee Quest | BWT | TODDY | Algrano | Probat     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. 
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  Science: Farm to port - why specialty costs more 23.06.2025 54min

  Every time we open a bag of beautiful specialty coffee — like Erick Bravo’s from Finca El Chaferote in Huila, Colombia — we’re drinking something that’s been on a long journey.   And I mean long! Over 1500 kilometers north up and down the Andes mountain range, a distance more than twice the height of France.   Along the way, it passes through dozens of hands, machines, and decisions. We follow it through muddy mountain sides, dusty dry mills, and hurricane-battered coastal warehouses — places where all kinds of things can go wrong. A leaky roof. An overly aggressive polishing machine. Or even theft.   But here’s the mystery: getting Erick’s coffee to port costs 50% more than sending a commodity coffee through the same route.   Why?   That question led me deep into Colombia’s coffee supply chains — and what I found changed how I think about the real cost of treating coffee with care.     Please spread the word about The Science of Coffee!Leave a 5 star rating on SpotifyFollow me on Instagram and tag me in an Instagram storyWrite a review on Apple Podcasts Discover how I make these Filter Stories episodes by subscribing to my Substack newsletter   Find your next favourite Colombian coffee from The Coffee Quest   Taste coffees from Erick Bravo’s award winning farm, Finca El Chaferote, and follow him on Instagram.      Season 3 of The Science of Coffee is made possible by these leading coffee organizations:   The Coffee Quest | BWT | TODDY | Algrano | Probat 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. 
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  Science: Why one Colombian farmer chose specialty, and the other walked away 09.06.2025 46min

  I travel to Colombia’s Huila region to answer a question that’s puzzled me for years: if specialty coffee pays more, is better for the environment, and brews tastier cups—why don’t more farmers grow it?   I speak with two producers in the same region whose choices couldn’t be more different. One stakes his future on specialty. The other opts out.   Their decisions come down to more than passion or a hard work ethic. Instead, I uncover two  starting conditions—often invisible to us buyers—that strongly shape whether a farmer chooses specialty at all.   If we want to see more speciality coffee grown, we need to bring down the barriers to specialty. But first we need to understand what those barriers really are.   The answers might surprise you. They surprised me.   Please spread the word about The Science of Coffee!Leave a 5 star rating on SpotifyFollow me on Instagram and tag me in an Instagram storyWrite a review on Apple Podcasts Discover how I make these Filter Stories episodes by subscribing to my Substack newsletter   Find your next favourite Colombian coffee from The Coffee Quest   Taste coffees from Erick Bravo’s award winning farm, Finca El Chaferote   Nerd out on my farm profitability estimations     Season 3 of The Science of Coffee is made possible by these leading coffee organizations:   The Coffee Quest | BWT | TODDY | Algrano | Probat   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. 
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  Science: The hard business of selling beautiful coffee, Pt 2 19.05.2025 39min

  Volume. Cheap. Lame flavours. This is the traditional way of growing coffee in Brazil, and almost every farm does it this way.    But what if you wanted to produce beautiful, distinctive flavours instead—and make a living from it?   In this episode, we travel to Fazenda Paraíso in Minas Gerais, Brazil, where farmer Vicente Pereira and his daughter are on a steep learning curve finding buyers for their beautiful coffees.    Part 2 explores what it looks like for a small Brazilian farm to find better buyers, and the challenge of achieving pricing power.    Behind every beautiful coffee is a family story like this, but it’s a story we rarely get to see close up.    Let’s take a closer look.     Please spread the word about The Science of Coffee!Leave a 5 star rating on SpotifyFollow me on Instagram and tag me in an Instagram storyWrite a review on Apple Podcasts Discover how I make these Filter Stories episodes by subscribing to my Substack newsletter   Source your next lot of specialty green coffee on Algrano   Listen to Firefly to hear a cautionary tale about a specialty farm failing because they couldn't find the right buyers.   Try Fazenda Paraiso's and Sancoffee's coffees for yourself!   Season 3 of The Science of Coffee is made possible by these leading coffee organizations:   The Coffee Quest | BWT | TODDY | Algrano | Probat 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. 
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  Science: The hard business of selling beautiful coffee, Pt 1 19.05.2025 29min

  Volume. Cheap. Lame flavours. This is the traditional way of growing coffee in Brazil, and almost every farm does it this way.    But what if you wanted to produce beautiful, distinctive flavours instead—and make a living from it?   In this episode, we travel to Fazenda Paraíso in Minas Gerais, Brazil, where farmer Vicente Pereira and his daughter are on a steep learning curve finding buyers for their beautiful coffees.    Part 1 unravels the hidden structures of Brazil’s coffee industry: how prices are set, why it’s so hard to create a specialty-focused farm, and why Vicente's farm is unsustainable if he sells his coffee the traditional way.    Behind every beautiful coffee is a family story like this, but it’s a story we rarely get to see close up.    Let’s take a closer look.     Please spread the word about The Science of Coffee!Leave a 5 star rating on SpotifyFollow me on Instagram and tag me in an Instagram storyWrite a review on Apple Podcasts Discover how I make these Filter Stories episodes by subscribing to my Substack newsletter   Source your next lot of specialty green coffee on Algrano   Listen to Firefly to hear a cautionary tale about a specialty farm failing because they couldn't find the right buyers.   Try Fazenda Paraiso's and Sancoffee's coffees for yourself!   Season 3 of The Science of Coffee is made possible by these leading coffee organizations:   The Coffee Quest | BWT | TODDY | Algrano | Probat 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.