Filter Stories - Coffee Documentaries

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Coffee stories with an extra shot of history and science. Filter Stories is a podcast revealing coffee’s hidden microscopic secrets, its powerful past, and how your choice of beans impacts tens of millions of people. See the behind-the-scenes stories on Instagram @filterstoriespodcast. If you haven’t already, please subscribe to the show and review us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify!

  1. 7 hr ago

    Farming: Game-changing thermometers and poisoned rivers

    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'D**o, 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.

    Farming: Game-changing thermometers and poisoned rivers

  2. 7 hr ago

    Farming: Drying mistakes that ruin coffee quality

    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'D**o, 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.

    Farming: Drying mistakes that ruin coffee quality

  3. 7 hr ago

    Farming: Coffee rockstars and picking's brutal economics

    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'D**o, 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.

    Farming: Coffee rockstars and picking's brutal economics

  4. 27 Jul

    Farming: Starved soils and vanishing labour

    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.

  5. 27 Jul

    Farming: Water crisis, risky genetics and cash flow crunch

    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.

  6. 27 Jul

    Farming: Low harvests and profit blind spots

    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.

  7. 20 Apr

    History: Guatemala's Inconvenient Truth, Pt 2

    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.

  8. 20 Apr

    History: Guatemala's Inconvenient Truth, Pt 1

    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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Coffee stories with an extra shot of history and science. Filter Stories is a podcast revealing coffee’s hidden microscopic secrets, its powerful past, and how your choice of beans impacts tens of millions of people. See the behind-the-scenes stories on Instagram @filterstoriespodcast. If you haven’t already, please subscribe to the show and review us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify!

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