Making Coffee with Lucia Solis

Support the show on Patreon to help us keep making new episodes. In this eighth episode, we give you a practical manual to take your coffee into the fast-growing market for decaf. We look at what it takes to decaffeinate coffee yourself on the farm. Then, we take you inside the Descamex plant in Veracruz, Mexico, to see how the Mountain Water Process works at scale, from steaming and osmosis to slow drying and in-house caffeine testing. We cover what decaffeination does to flavor: a mellowing...

Support the show on Patreon to help us keep making new episodes. In this seventh episode, we give you a practical manual to protect the quality you've worked so hard to create, all the way from the coffee tree to the export container. During picking, we look at why heavy jute sacks crush and heat your cherries, and why smaller, ventilated, stackable baskets protect both your fruit and your workers. On the drying patio, we cover what unseasonal rain does to your parchment, from mould to faste...

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 pro...

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 pr...

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 f...