Filter Stories - Coffee Documentaries

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.

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.

Welcome to The Coffee Producer Toolkit, a series made in collaboration with Lucia Solis of the Making Coffee with Lucia Solis podcast. 

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. 

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.

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.

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.