Explore every episode of the podcast Making Coffee with Lucia Solis
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Coffee Producer Toolkit #5: Price | 28 sept. 2026 | 01:09:55 | |
Support the show on Patreon to help us keep making new episodes. Lucia: #64: "What Kind of Coffee Lover am I? How Much am I Willing to Pay for a Cup of Coffee?" James: Filter Stories: The Hard Business of Selling Beautiful Coffee James’ Filter Stories Instagram
Resources:
The Coffee Producer Toolkit is made possible by these leading coffee organisations: The Coffee Quest | BWT | Descamex | InterAmerican | Pinhalense | Novonesis | GrainPro | |||
| The Coffee Producer Toolkit #4: Marketing & Sales | 14 sept. 2026 | 00:58:48 | |
Support the show on Patreon 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 fermentation specialist Lucia Solis (Making Coffee with Lucia Solis podcast), it's built for farmers who want to run their farm like the business it is. Lucia:
James: Follow us through our newsletters and Social media: James’ Filter Stories Instagram
Resources:
Cover Art: Nick Hafner The Coffee Producer Toolkit is made possible by these leading coffee organisations: The Coffee Quest | BWT | Descamex | InterAmerican | Pinhalense | Novonesis | GrainPro | |||
| The Coffee Producer Toolkit #3: Fermentation | 24 août 2026 | 01:07:52 | |
Support the show on Patreon We start with the basics — what is actually happening inside your tank, where the microbes come from, and why your coffee is going to ferment whether you want it to or not. Then we go through five ways commercial microbes can make you money: consistency batch to batch, long fermentations you can run safely, lifting the score of your worst cherries rather than your best, clearing bottlenecks in your wet mill, and extending your coffee's shelf life. We cover what a well-run fermentation actually looks like — the cleaning, the monitoring, the record-keeping — with a step-by-step blue-barrel protocol for smaller farms and guidance on when to move to tanks. We also look at the investment sums needed for commercial yeasts and how to justify them. And we finish with the difficult questions — the environmental worries, whether using a starter culture is the same as adulterating your coffee, and how to talk about all of this with buyers who may view commercial microbes with suspicion. Lucia:
James: Follow us through our newsletters and Social media: James’ Filter Stories Instagram
Resources:
Lucia's Favorite Tools: The Coffee Producer Toolkit is made possible by these leading coffee organisations: The Coffee Quest | BWT | Descamex | InterAmerican | Pinhalense | Novonesis | GrainPro | |||
| The Coffee Producer Toolkit #2: Processing | 10 août 2026 | 01:06:22 | |
In this second episode, we show you how to stop losing coffee to a badly calibrated pulper, why chasing 100% ripe cherries is actually costing you money, the $480 fix that lets a small farm sort cherries perfectly well, how to keep your coffee under 40°C during drying without spending a fortune, why a mechanical dryer isn't the villain everyone says it is, the cheap instruments that will deliver consistent quality across harvests, and ways to treat your wastewater. 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 fermentation specialist Lucia Solis (Making Coffee with Lucia Solis podcast), it's built for farmers who want to run their farm like the business it is. Over two years we interviewed 50+ producers and experts across 20 countries. Each episode takes one part of the business — agronomy, processing, fermentation, storage, quality, sales — and lays out what the best farms are doing. Related podcast episodes: Lucia:
James: Follow us through our newsletters and Social media: James’ Filter Stories Instagram People mentioned in the episode:
Resources:
Lucia's Favorite Tools: The Coffee Producer Toolkit is made possible by these leading coffee organisations: The Coffee Quest | BWT | Descamex | InterAmerican | Pinhalense | Novonesis | GrainPro | |||
| The Coffee Producer Toolkit #1: Farming | 27 juil. 2026 | 01:06:33 | |
The Coffee Producer Toolkit is the podcast that can help you run a more profitable coffee farm. Hosted by coffee journalist James Harper (Filter Stories podcast) and fermentation specialist Lucia Solis (Making Coffee with Lucia Solis podcast), it's built for farmers who want to run their farm like the business it is. Over two years we interviewed 50+ producers and experts across 20 countries. Each episode takes one part of the business — agronomy, processing, fermentation, storage, quality, sales — and lays out what the best farms are doing. In this first episode, we show you how you can benchmark your farm against the two numbers that matter, protect your flowering without paying for irrigation, avoid the exotic variety trap that's costing farmers their harvests, stop wasting money on fertilizer your soil doesn't need, and save weeks of labor a year with tools that cost less than $50. Follow us on Instagram - Lucia (@lluciasolis) - James (@filterstoriespodcast) and tag us in an Instagram story. Join our Patreon community to be a part of our live Office Hours sessions. Stay up to date through our newsletter Discover how James produces Filter Stories episodes by subscribing to his Substack newsletter Related Podcasts: Lucia: James: People mentioned in episode:
Agronomists: Resources
Our partner sponsors | |||
| #81: Nobody Wants to Pick Coffee | 16 juil. 2026 | 00:45:31 | |
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| #80: How Microbiology Can Explain Beginner's Luck | 30 juin 2026 | 00:35:55 | |
Buy Roasted Coffee Here. Dirty Jobs Hawaiian Coffee Clip Support the show on Patreon to join our live Discord hangouts, and get access to research papers, transcripts and videos. | |||
| #79: Farm First: Lalo Perez on Long-Term Coffee Health | 06 avr. 2026 | 01:39:48 | |
Lalo's substack page | |||
| #78: What Is Specialty Coffee? And Who Gets To Define It? | 18 mars 2026 | 00:44:41 | |
If you would like to watch our YouTube video on "What is specialty coffee" If you are a roaster and are interested in participating in the Fermentation Project with James Hoffmann, click here -> For Roasters: Buy Fermentation Kit Listers Movie (bird watching) it's beautiful, I highly recommend this. Email info.luxiacoffee@gmail if you would like to discuss Pluribus or Listers Movie in our Discord server. | |||
| #77: The Most Challenging Harvest We've Had | 24 déc. 2025 | 00:30:49 | |
Roasterkat IG Reel about rain. YouTube version of the Q&A portion James Hoffmann Healthy Coffee Video The 2025/2026 Harvest has not gone according to plan.
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| #76: How Commercial Microbes Threaten The Coffee Industry | 16 nov. 2025 | 01:16:03 | |
Sprudge Best Of Panama Article Cover Art by: Nick Hafner | |||
| #75: Getting Great Water for Coffee | 14 août 2025 | 01:13:39 | |
Water massively impacts your coffee's flavours. But most of us struggle to fix our water because water science is confusing... Join me and James as we go step-by-step through:
Check James' website for all of the visuals mentioned in the episode. Resources: #44: Are Wine Making Techniques the Future of Coffee? Responses, Inquiries, & questions about coffee sales or future Fermentation Training Camps: info.luxiacoffee@gmail.com Cover Art by: Nick Hafner | |||
| #74: Supply Chain Reflections: Consulting Insights from Farm to Roaster w/ Luke Waite | 14 juil. 2025 | 01:10:54 | |
Resources: Responses, Inquiries, & questions about coffee sales or future Fermentation Training Camps: info.luxiacoffee@gmail.com Get a ticket to FTC-10 December 2025 Luke's Website: Pomelo Coffee Consulting Luke's Book: Pre-Order Pomelo book
Office Hours with Luke: 9am (GMT-6) Friday July 18th 2025 And if you don't want to commit, show your support here with a one time contribution: PayPal Cover Art by: Nick Hafner | |||
| #73: Cultivating Identity: A Life Forged by Migration and Fermentation | 18 juin 2025 | 01:04:30 | |
This episode developed thanks to Nick, who thought it would be a good time to revisit a bit of my history in coffee to reconnect with long-time listeners, and to share a bit more about myself with new listeners. We started this podcast about 6 years ago, and if you've been through all 72 episodes, you probably have a good idea about my coffee philosophies. But I also know that not everyone enjoys, or maybe even has the time to go back and start at the very beginning of a podcast. So we thought it would be a good opportunity to give you a bit of my coffee origin story, and a manifesto of sorts, all under one roof. Resources: Responses, Inquiries, & questions about coffee sales or future Fermentation Training Camps: info.luxiacoffee@gmail.com Cover Art by: Nick Hafner | |||
| #72: Planning Your First Coffee Fermentation Trials? Start Here. | 26 mai 2025 | 00:42:33 | |
Today's episode offers a behind the scenes view of how I approach a coffee producer's first time using yeast for their coffee fermentations.
Inquiries about coffee sales or future Fermentation Training Camps: info.luxiacoffee@gmail.com Cover Art by: Nick Hafner | |||
| #71: How to De-Funkify Your Naturals and Get Them to Dry Faster. | 01 mai 2025 | 01:00:20 | |
Resources: Inquiries about coffee sales or future Fermentation Training Camps: info.luxiacoffee@gmail.com Cover Art by: Nick Hafner | |||
| #70: What do coffee cascara and rose wine have in common? Roasted coffee labels, batching your cherries over multiple days | 15 avr. 2025 | 00:44:26 | |
Some of the questions in this episode:
Resources: Inquiries about coffee sales or future Fermentation Training Camps: info.luxiacoffee@gmail.com Cover Art by: Nick Hafner | |||
| #69: Whole Coffee Cherry Fermentations—The Multiple Paradoxes of Naturals | 30 mars 2025 | 00:48:22 | |
This episode is a final harvest update and the behind the scenes of performing whole cherry fermentation with various microbes in an attempt to create a Dry Process/Natural coffee that I want to drink. Resources: Inquiries about coffee sales or future Fermentation Training Camps: info.luxiacoffee@gmail.com Cover Art by: Nick Hafner | |||
| #68: Fermentation vs. Germination: A Look at The Seed From The Inside, Out | 03 déc. 2024 | 00:36:59 | |
I have wanted to make this episode for a long time, but I wasn't sure how to make it work. Finally some research for Dr. Flavio Borem helped crack the topic for me and the result is today's new episode. Things we discuss on this episode:
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| #67: Addressing Climate Collapse & Coffee Labor in Brazil with Ana Luiza of Fazenda Mió | 04 sept. 2024 | 01:00:19 | |
Resources | |||
| #66: Winemaker Tools for Coffee Producers: Sugar & Acid Additions, Co-Fermentation w/ Fruit | 23 août 2024 | 01:06:18 | |
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.
Inquiries about coffee samples or future Fermentation Training Camps: info.luxiacoffee@gmail.com Cover Art by: Nick Hafner | |||
| #65: To Blend or Not to Blend? Wine Vintages, and Harvest Update. | 24 juil. 2024 | 00:37:48 | |
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:
Inquiries about coffee samples or future Fermentation Training Camps: info.luxiacoffee@gmail.com Cover Art by: Nick Hafner | |||
| #64: What Kind of Coffee Lover am I? How Much am I Willing to Pay for a Cup of Coffee? | 04 juil. 2024 | 00:35:02 | |
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://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.html
Cover Art by: Nick Hafner | |||
| #63: Terroir For Busy People | 20 mai 2024 | 00:37:14 | |
Inquiries about coffee samples or future Fermentation Training Camps: info.luxiacoffee@gmail.com Cover Art by: Nick Hafner | |||
| #62: The Commercial Yeast vs Wild Microbes Debate w/ Pranoy of Kerehaklu | 30 avr. 2024 | 01:36:06 | |
Today I bring you a third installment with Pranoy from Kerehaklu. In this new episode we talk about:
And much more... RESOURCES Inquiries about coffee samples or future Fermentation Training Camps: info.luxiacoffee@gmail.com Cover Art by: Nick Hafner | |||
| #61: Coffee Fermentation Review with Ashley Rodriguez of Boss Barista | 22 avr. 2024 | 00:52:19 | |
Boss Barista Substack | |||
| #60: Thermoshock, Where Does Citrus Flavor Come From & How To Find Your Fermentation Soulmate | 15 déc. 2023 | 00:49:17 | |
In this listener Q&A episode we talk about:
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| #59: What's Altitude Got To Do With It? Microbes & Meters Above Sea Level | 21 nov. 2023 | 00:41:29 | |
In this new episode I talk about:
RESOURCES | |||
| #58: Direct Trade & Other Misleading Labels w/ Natali from Nachteulen Coffee | 05 oct. 2023 | 00:49:21 | |
In this new episode with Natali we talk about:
RESOURCES Cover Art by: Nick Hafner | |||
| #57: Will Frith Solves Terroir & Other Lessons From Vietnam | 12 sept. 2023 | 01:01:25 | |
You cannot utter a sentence about Vietnam specialty coffee without including the name Will Frith.
RESOURCES Cover Art by: Nick Hafner | |||
| #56: Finding Work/Life Balance as a Coffee Producer w/ Pranoy Thipaiah from Kerehaklu in India | 29 août 2023 | 01:17:47 | |
Today I bring you a long overdue second conversation with Pranoy from Kerehaklu in India. His first appearance on the podcast was EP#34 in May 2021 I have been wanting to catch up with Pranoy for more than 2 years, and after spending a week together processing coffee and learning we were able to sit down in Jakarta after the intense week of FTC and talk. In this new episode we talk about:
RESOURCES Cover Art by: Nick Hafner | |||
| #55: Coffee Waste, A Feminine Approach, & Confident Processing–With Rani Mayasari | 15 août 2023 | 00:50:34 | |
Today I bring you a conversation with an extraordinary producer: Rani from Java Halu in Indonesia. I do not use this word lightly. Rani is a truly exceptional person and my new coffee crush. I met her because she was the only woman who attended FTC Indonesia in June. Each previous FTC has been minimum 50% female, this is very important to me because so many coffee spaces are still very male dominated. During our plan for FTC Indonesia, I handed over many of the logistics to the Bandung Coffee Exchange team. It was only after 23 tickets were sold that I looked at the roaster and saw 22 males and 1 female. I thought this might make Rani a bit shy but I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Cover Art by: Nick Hafner | |||
| #54: Visiting Producers, Advanced Tourism & The Coffee Hunter with Tom of Sweet Maria’s | 31 juil. 2023 | 01:38:45 | |
The conversation with Tom Owen is wide ranging, but one main theme we talk about is coffee travel and tourism. How the host and guest dynamics play out including the unintentional burden we may be placing on coffee producers when we visit them. Its an interesting time to be reflecting on the role of travel in coffee, since I just had a major trip to teach coffee fermentation. You’ll hear Tom bring this up when he asks me about FTC being a form of advanced tourism. Sweet Maria’s is an incredible resource for curious coffee nerds who want to learn about home roasting basics, green coffee quality, roast profiles and cupping. The website has an extensive coffee library and resource page, so I highly recommend you check it out if these topics interest you.
Cover Art by: Nick Hafner | |||
| #53: Reforesting, Finding Your People & The Hidden Cost of Coffee Production w/ Mark from Finca Rosenheim | 23 mai 2023 | 01:06:40 | |
In this conversation I got to ask him how he feels differently about the coffee industry since our last conversation. I highly recommend you listen to Ep #27 first, or as a refresher because we refer to that conversation frequently in this episode In this episode I follow up with him on his thoughts on:
Cover Art by: Nick Hafner | |||
| #52: Carbonic Maceration in Wine vs Coffee & Two Ways to Improve Robusta | 30 janv. 2023 | 01:24:55 | |
In this episode we talk about:
Support the show on Patreon to join our live Discord hangouts. Resources | |||
| #51: The Kenyan Auction System; Lessons, Takeaways, & Cautions with Vava Angwenyi | 09 déc. 2022 | 00:55:28 | |
Vava | |||
| #50: Listener Q&A: Honey Osmotic Dehydration, Fermenting Green Coffee & What Champagne Can Teach Us About The Flavor of Yeast | 25 nov. 2022 | 00:51:47 | |
Some of the questions I cover on today's episode involve: -how do fruit added fermentations differ from microbe inoculation? -my stance on the usefulness/benefits of probiotics -can we taste yeast in the cup? -what is the future of fermentation for the specialty coffee industry? -we typically ferment cherries or wet parchment but what about fermenting green coffee? -what is honey osmotic dehydration -how can consumers navigate coffee labels when "fermented" coffee produces a wide range of flavors.
If you're interesting in joining me in Colombia in January | |||
| #49: Exposing the Producer’s Gaze & the Success Paradox with Vava Angwenyi | 10 nov. 2022 | 00:44:51 | |
In this episode we talk about:
Resources: If you're interesting in joining me in Colombia in January | |||
| #48: My Philosophies on Coffee Processing, and the Future of the Industry, with Katrien of OR Coffee | 17 oct. 2022 | 01:02:54 | |
Today’s episode is a little different. I am sharing a conversation that I had with Katrien of OR Coffee, A specialty coffee roastery & training center in Belgium. This episode is a little different because I’m not interviewing her, She actually interviewed me for her new podcast, Puur Koffie. Fermentation Training Camp: January 2023 | |||
| #47: Coffee Has a Plastic Bag Problem | 28 sept. 2022 | 00:31:30 | |
In this episode we talk about:
Support the show on Patreon to join our live Discord hangouts. Resources | |||
| #46: What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Wine & Coffee Comparisons | 17 juil. 2022 | 00:45:03 | |
In this episode we talk about:
Support the show on Patreon to join our live Discord hangouts. Resources: | |||
| #45: Reflections on Coffee Flavor Through Processing, Roasting and Brewing with Eystein Veflingstad | 23 juin 2022 | 00:59:30 | |
In this episode we talk about:
Support the show on Patreon to join our live Discord hangouts. Resources: | |||
| #44: Are Wine Making Techniques the Future of Coffee? | 03 juin 2022 | 01:05:40 | |
Next time you set about making your morning coffee, take a moment to peruse the info on your bag of beans. What do you notice? The variety of beans? Flavor notes? Technical details on where the coffee was grown? They're not so different from the sort of blurb you might find on the back of a wine bottle in many ways. And that’s intentional. Specialty coffee has taken a lot from the world of wine. But could the increasing overlaps be a problem for coffee farmers — or even dangerous? In this episode, Scott and Jools join forces with coffee processing specialist and former winemaker Lucia Solis from the Making Coffee podcast to dive deeper into where our coffee comes from and what (if anything) wine's got to do with it. Lucia talks to coffee producer Karla Boza from the Finca San Antonio Amatepec coffee farm in El Salvador and vintner Todd Kohn from the Wayfarer Vineyard in California to shed some light on the techniques behind picking, transporting and processing their precious produce. Take a sip on this (soon-to-be-a-good) vintage episode to pique your curiosity about how coffee and wine are made, and why it matters. — Follow Karla Boza’s farm and Todd’s winery on Instagram Tag our Instagram handles: Scott Bentley / Caffeine Magazine James' Podcasts History of Coffee (do not miss this series!) Filter Stories (producer oriented stories) Fifth Wave (for the economics nerd) Bellwether New Wave Coffee (cafe focused) | |||
| #43: Germination & Drying–Continuous vs. Resting | 14 avr. 2022 | 00:47:45 | |
In this episode we talk about:
Support the show on Patreon to join our live Discord hangouts. Rituales
G. Bytof, SE Knopp, D Kramer, B Breitenstein, JH Bergervoet, SP Groot, D Selmar. Transient occurrence of seed germination processes during coffee post-harvest treatment. Ann Bot. 2007 Jul;100(1):61-6. DOI: 10.1093/aob/mcm068. Epub 2007 May 3. D. Kramer, B. Breitenstein, M Kleinwächter, D Selmar. Stress metabolism in green coffee beans (Coffea arabica L.): expression of dehydrins and accumulation of GABA during drying. Plant Cell Physiol. 2010 Apr;51(4):546-53. DOI: 10.1093/pcp/pcq019. Epub 2010 Mar 5. Cover Art by: Nick Hafner | |||
| #42: Germination & Processing–Wet/Washed vs. Dry/Natural | 28 mars 2022 | 00:42:11 | |
In this episode we talk about:
BUY GREEN COFFEE FROM HONDURAS Cayro Coffee Cover Art by: Nick Hafner | |||
| #41: How Much Effort Should Good Coffee Require? Cometeer Instant Coffee, Cake and Everest | 08 mars 2022 | 00:35:47 | |
In this episode we talk about:
BUY GREEN COFFEE FROM HONDURAS Finca Rio Frio - Dario Enamorado BUY ROASTED COFFEE OR Coffee Video:
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| #40: Listener Q&A: Water Evaporation & Sugar, Avoiding Acetobacter, How to Inoculate w/o Spending Any Money | 06 janv. 2022 | 00:41:00 | |
Welcome to the first episode of the new year and season 3. In this episode we talk about:
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| #39:Infused vs Adulterated coffees, Cinnamon and Fermentation Failures | 15 sept. 2021 | 00:57:43 | |
As many of you know, we've started doing live hang out after the episodes on Discord a week after the podcast comes out. I find this valuable because I get to hear from listeners and we create our own podcast after the podcast together. In the most recent gathering I had Felipe, Jose and Lucas from Ep 38 on the discussion so listeners of the podcast could ask them questions directly. In this episode we talk about:
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| #38:Reverse Engineering a $5 Castillo in Colombia w/ Lucas, Felipe & Jose | 17 août 2021 | 01:04:15 | |
Today's episode features Lucas, a Patron and exporter with Unblended who sold a Kombucha coffee. I invited him and the producers he works with, Felipe and Jose to talk about their experience reverse engineering a $5 castillo. They started with the end goal in mind, the picked the price, the flavor profile they wanted and then created a process to hit their target.
Support the show on Patreon to join our live Discord hangouts. Contact: For connecting, learning more, or suggesting experimentation ideas: Instagram: @Ventolacoffee and @joalherb | |||
| #37: Jamie Isetts Reimagines the Coffee Producer & Green Buyer Relationship | 27 juil. 2021 | 01:20:40 | |
Today I am joined by Jamie Isetts, Sourcing Consultant.
Get in touch with Jamie Isetts Support the show on Patreon | |||