Making Coffee with Lucia Solis
A behind the scenes look at what goes into making one of the world's favorite beverages. Lucia is a former winemaker turned coffee processing specialist. She consults with coffee growers and producers all over the world giving her a unique perspective into the what it takes to get a coffee from a seed to your cup.
The Coffee Producer Toolkit #7: Storage
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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 faster fading, and compare plastic tarps with...
The Coffee Producer Toolkit #6: Quality Control
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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 producer's goal...
The Coffee Producer Toolkit #5: Price
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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 production. We c...
The Coffee Producer Toolkit #4: Marketing & Sales
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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 fermentation specialist Lucia...
The Coffee Producer Toolkit #3: Fermentation
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In this third episode, we give you a practical manual to take control of your fermentations and improve your farm's profitability.Â
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.Â
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, clea...
The Coffee Producer Toolkit #2: Processing
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.Â
The Coffee Producer Toolkit is the podcast that helps you run a more profitable coffee farm.Â
Hosted by cof...
The Coffee Producer Toolkit #1: Farming
The Coffee Producer Toolkit is the podcast that can help you run a more profitable coffee farm.Â
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 c...
#81: Nobody Wants to Pick Coffee
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#80: How Microbiology Can Explain Beginner's Luck
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#63: Terroir for Busy People
Dirty Jobs Hawaiian Coffee Clip
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#79: Farm First: Lalo Perez on Long-Term Coffee Health
Lalo's substack page
Ikaria Coffee (Lalo's farm + roasted coffee)
Biofilia (agronomic consultancy)
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#78: What Is Specialty Coffee? And Who Gets To Define It?
If you would like to watch our YouTube video on "What is specialty coffee"
You can watch that here.
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
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.
Nick and I have found ourselves with some down time and therefore have put together this casual, end of year update on how the season is going so far. Spoiler alert: not well.
I've combined a harvest update with listener questions about fermentation.
Questions featured in this episode are:
#76: How Commercial Microbes Threaten The Coffee Industry
Sprudge Best Of Panama Article
Remanence and survival of commercial yeast in different ecological niches of the vineyard
Responses, Inquiries, & questions about coffee sales or future Fermentation Training Camps: [email protected]
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#75: Getting Great Water for Coffee
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:
Why these concepts matter for coffee flavour and equipmentHow to test your water at homeHow to fix it, depending on what you're working withCheck James' website for all of the visuals mentioned in the episode.
Resources:Â
#44: Are Wine Making Techniques the Future of Coffee?
Responses, Inquiries, & questions about coffee sales or future Fermentation Training C...
#74: Supply Chain Reflections: Consulting Insights from Farm to Roaster w/ Luke Waite
Resources:
Responses, Inquiries, & questions about coffee sales or future Fermentation Training Camps: [email protected]
Get a ticket to FTC-10 December 2025
Luke's Website: Pomelo Coffee Consulting
Luke's Book: Pre-Order Pomelo book
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Office Hours with Luke: 9am (GMT-6) Friday July 18th 2025
Sign up f...
#73: Cultivating Identity: A Life Forged by Migration and Fermentation
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.Â
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 o...
#72: Planning Your First Coffee Fermentation Trials? Start Here.
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.
We run through all of the potential variables to pay attention to when designing your first trials with commercial microbes. From cost of production to work-flow and data collection.
This conversation was recorded during a recent Office Hours session through our private Discord community. If you would like to be a part of this community, join Patreon and come participate in the discussion.
View the decision flow-chart here<...
#71: How to De-Funkify Your Naturals and Get Them to Dry Faster.
#54: Visiting Producers, Advanced Tourism & The Coffee Hunter with Tom of Sweet Maria’s
#57: Will Frith Solves Terroir & Other Lessons From Vietnam
Resources:
Inquiries about coffee sales or future Fermentation Training Camps: [email protected]
Support 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: PayPal<...
#70: What do coffee cascara and rose wine have in common? Roasted coffee labels, batching your cherries over multiple days
Some of the questions in this episode:
What typically happens to the water, along with cascara and whatever else is part of a fermentation, after the fermentation has been completed?Cascara is sometimes processed into a secondary product, cascara tea. Are there other secondary products that are made?As a roaster, what should we put on our bags to better point towards the farm?What's the consensus on adding flavor descriptors to bags? Do or don't?How can I store coffee cherry for 2–3 days without creating high damage?Resources:
Inquiries ab...
#69: Whole Coffee Cherry Fermentations—The Multiple Paradoxes of Naturals
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: [email protected]
Support 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 o...
#68: Fermentation vs. Germination: A Look at The Seed From The Inside, Out
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:
Washed processed that tastes like a naturalProcess-forward coffees, funky coffeeNeutral processing The need for speed, & gentle dryingDrying is not just removing waterBiggest producer mistakes, not upgrading the dryingFallacy of terroirÂSupport the show
#67: Addressing Climate Collapse & Coffee Labor in Brazil with Ana Luiza of Fazenda MiĂł
In this episode we talk about:
Resources
Ana's Precision Agriculture Presentation on Coffee Knowledge Hub (you will need to make an a...
#66: Winemaker Tools for Coffee Producers: Sugar & Acid Additions, Co-Fermentation w/ Fruit
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:
#65: To Blend or Not to Blend? Wine Vintages, and Harvest Update.
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 th...
#64: What Kind of Coffee Lover am I? How Much am I Willing to Pay for a Cup of Coffee?
This episode also comes on the heels of our recent trip to London.Â
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 18ÂŁ ($23 do...
#63: Terroir For Busy People
Inquiries about coffee samples or future Fermentation Training Camps: [email protected]
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Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
Into song: Elijah Bisbee
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#62: The Commercial Yeast vs Wild Microbes Debate w/ Pranoy of Kerehaklu
Today I bring you a third installment with Pranoy from Kerehaklu.Â
In this new episode we talk about:
The pros and cons of commercial strains vs wild microbesThe over-complication of fermentationsThe drawback of high altitude farmingThe drawback of honey processAn alternative to adding fruit to your tank Terroir vs Ecological nichePranoy's approach to cultivating his local microbesAnd much more...Â
RESOURCES
#56: Finding Work/Life Balance as a Coffee Producer w/ Pranoy Thipaiah from Kerehaklu in India
#34: Robusta, Tropical Fruits and Mec...
#61: Coffee Fermentation Review with Ashley Rodriguez of Boss Barista
RESOURCES
Inquiries about coffee samples or future Fermentation Training Camps: [email protected]
Boss Barista Substack
Boss Barista Podcast
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Cover A...
#60: Thermoshock, Where Does Citrus Flavor Come From & How To Find Your Fermentation Soulmate
 In this listener Q&A episode we talk about:
How to use ThermoshockDoes drying pull sugar out of the seed?What labels are important on a coffee bag?How do I prepare my coffee?How to know if you've hit "The One" on a fermentation trialHow do citrus flavors get into coffee?How did a coffee from Panama fool a listener into thinking it came from Ethiopia?RESOURCES
Inquiries about coffee samples or future Fermentation Training Camps: [email protected]
#59: What's Altitude Got To Do With It? Microbes & Meters Above Sea Level
In this new episode I talk about:
A review of how dry process and wet process are differenthow microbes get into our fermentationsWhat I look for in a coffee label, 4 key elementshow I’ve changed my mind about descriptive processing labelsstudies showing contradictory results when they look at altitude in different countries.The Altitude of Coffee Cultivation Causes Shifts in the Microbial Community Assembly and Biochemical Compounds in Natural Induced Anaerobic Fermentations
RESOURCES
Inquiries about coffee samples or future Fermentation Training Camps: info.luxiacoffee@gm...
#58: Direct Trade & Other Misleading Labels w/ Natali from Nachteulen Coffee
In this new episode with Natali we talk about:
Growing up in a coffee producing country, but finding coffee later in lifeFalling into the specialty coffee rabbit holeThe challenges of running a small business while keeping full time jobsDirect trade, fair trade and single originHow Natali chooses what information to put on her roasted coffee bagsWhy Decaf is important for night owls & coffee loversEducating new marketsRESOURCES
Inquiries about coffee samples or future Fermentation Training Camps: [email protected]
Support the show on Patreon t...
#57: Will Frith Solves Terroir & Other Lessons From Vietnam
You cannot utter a sentence about Vietnam specialty coffee without including the name Will Frith.
Â
In this new episode we talk about:
RESOURCES
Inquiries about coffee samples or future Fermentation Training Camps: [email protected]...
#56: Finding Work/Life Balance as a Coffee Producer w/ Pranoy Thipaiah from Kerehaklu in India
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.Â
In this new episode we talk about:
How he has found new markets to export his coffeeAdvice for producers attending coffee Expos like SCA and MICEThe impact of c...#55: Coffee Waste, A Feminine Approach, & Confident Processing–With Rani Mayasari
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.Â
During our plan for FTC Indonesia, I handed over many of the logistics to the Bandung Coffee Exchange team. It was only after 23 t...
#54: Visiting Producers, Advanced Tourism & The Coffee Hunter with Tom of Sweet Maria’s
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.Â
Sweet Maria’s is an incredible resource for curio...
#53: Reforesting, Finding Your People & The Hidden Cost of Coffee Production w/ Mark from Finca Rosenheim
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:
coffee certifications and competitionshis relationship with social media and sharing on redditre-investing in the farmlabor availability, what a coffee picker makes in a day in his region, opening new markets with microlots coffee tourism beer yeast fermentationsreforesting his farm and was...#52: Carbonic Maceration in Wine vs Coffee & Two Ways to Improve Robusta
In this episode we talk about:
Carbonic Maceration in winemakingCarbonic Maceration in coffee and best guidelines to followHow to process Robusta differently than ArabicaBenefits of fermentation in coffee fruit vs green seed modificationSupport the show on Patreon to join our live Discord hangouts.
And if you don't want to commit, show your support here with a one time contribution: PayPal
Sign up for the newsletter for behind the scenes pictures.
Resources
Modifying Robusta coffee aroma by green...
#51: The Kenyan Auction System; Lessons, Takeaways, & Cautions with Vava Angwenyi
Vava
Instagram
Website
Coffee Milk Blood Book
Paula
Instagram
Website
Lowell
Instagram
Website
Frankie
Instagram
Christopher Feran
Blog
Resources:
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Support the show on Patreon to join our live Discord hangouts.
And if you don't want to commit, you can show your support here with a one time contribution: <...
#50: Listener Q&A: Honey Osmotic Dehydration, Fermenting Green Coffee & What Champagne Can Teach Us About The Flavor of Yeast
 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.
Resources:
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#49: Exposing the Producer’s Gaze & the Success Paradox with Vava Angwenyi
In this episode we talk about:
Coffee production in KenyaThe similarities between latin and african coffee productionHow we consumers perceive coffee producers vs how coffee producers would like to be seenThe success paradox, when too much financial success can turn off some buyersÂResources:
Support the show on Patreon to join our live Discord hangouts.
And if you don't want to commit, show your support here with a one time contribution: PayPal
Sign up for the newsletter for behind t...
