Making Coffee with Lucia Solis

In this episode we talk about:How Ana decided to join the family business after pursuing a career in art.The advantages and drawback of growing coffee in a "Full Sun" system.The future of coffee picking and the role of Mechanical Harvesters.Brazil's 6 different biomes.How technology helped Brazil  jump from 6 coffee bags/hectare in 1960 to 29 bags/hectare in 2023How climate change has affected the cropHow Precision Agriculture is helping the farm use resources efficientlyTattoos!ResourcesAna's Precision Agriculture Presentation on Coffee Knowledge Hub (you will need to make an account but it's free!)Anacafe Presentation on Price Volatility (by Albert Scalla in Spanish)Picture of Mechanical HarvesterInstagram

I was going to create a new episode about Infused vs Inoculated Coffees, but much of what we established back in Episode #39 is still relevant. So I am pulling a Taylor Swift and going to re-release a new version of episode 39, keeping what still works and adding some new perspectives from the last 3 years. In this episode I talk about:The sugar and acid additions that French and California winemakers useHow adding mango to a fermentation tank is completely different from adding passion fruit or citrusHow to tell when a coffee is infused with a flavorCinnamon flavor in a coffeeInoculation vs Infusion vs Co-FermentationThe role of enzymes in removing mucilageGravity!Inquiries about coffee samples or future Fermentation Training Camps: [email protected] the show on Patreon  to join our live Discord hangouts, and get access to research papers, transcripts and videos.And if you don't want to commit, show your support here with a one time contribution: PayPalSign up for the newsletter for behind the scenes pictures.Cover Art by: Nick HafnerInto song: Elijah Bisbee

On today's episode I will be updating you on the coffee we made this harvest season and speaking of the importance of blends.If you’ve listened to even 1 other episode of this podcast, you’ll know that I'm usually trying to discourage the coffee industry from blindly adopting wine culture. Usually I share my thoughts that adopting a wine model benefits consumers more than producers and further accentuates inequality between the coffee buyers and coffee producers. Usually I believe the wine mode does more harm than good.But here is a rare occasion where I think coffee could truly benefit from the wine model.In this episode I talk about:Identity shift from a wine person to a coffee personWhy coffee could benefit from adopting the wine vintage modelHow I approach blending coffee lots in the seasonIs Coffee Hunter an outdated term?My risky coffee sales strategyInquiries about coffee samples or future Fermentation Training Camps: [email protected] the show on Patreon  to join our live Discord hangouts, and get access to research papers, transcripts and videos.And if you don't want to commit, show your support here with a one time contribution: PayPalSign up for the newsletter for behind the scenes pictures.Cover Art by: Nick HafnerInto song: Elijah Bisbee

This episode also comes on the heels of our recent trip to London. Our very first stop was the Nagare coffee shop in Shoreditch in North London. Nick and I do what we usually do when we step into a coffee shop and order the pour overs. They had 2 different coffees on the menu for a pour over so we got one of each and sat back at our cute little table in a cozy cafe, and it was only when we looked down at our empty Kinto ceramic cups that we finally realized we had paid 18£ ($23 dollars!) for 2 small cups of black coffee.I experienced sticker shock because we have been living on farms in Colombia and Guatemala for the last 4 years and we are very out of touch with big city prices. I knew London was going to be expensive but I was not emotionally prepared to spend $11/cup on our daily coffee.Nick and I needed more coffee that morning but if we got 2 more cups at Nagare, we would be close to $50 and we hadn’t even had breakfast yet. In my head, a voice was saying, dang $11 is an expensive cup of coffee. And then immediately another voice said, hold on.... "don’t we want the price of a cup of coffee to rise?"Aren't low coffee prices a big part of the problem with our supply chain?The conversation about the price of a cup of coffee is one I have often. What should coffee cost? Who gets to set the price? How does price reflect value?The conversation about price and value is often at the forefront of my mind because there is such a disparity between what a coffee producer gets paid for growing and processing the coffee and what a consumer pays for a cup of coffee made from their raw material.Resources:https://www.macrotrends.net/2535/coffee-prices-historical-chart-datahttps://ourcountrygarden.co.uk/british-gardening-statistics/https://www.carelink24.org/doctors-prescribe-gardening/https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/02/21/headway/peat-carbon-climate-change.htmlInquiries about coffee samples or future Fermentation Training Camps: [email protected] the show on Patreon  to join our live Discord hangouts, and get access to research papers, transcripts and videos.And if you don't want to commit, show your support here with a one time contribution: PayPalSign up for the newsletter for behind the scenes pictures.Cover Art by: Nick HafnerInto song: Elijah Bisbee