Filter Stories - Coffee Documentaries

32 minutes 32 seconds
Producer Toolkit: Fermentation, Pt 3 - Is using yeast cheating? And who decides?
This episode explores why 30 cents a kilo is trivial for a large farm and unaffordable for a small one, the strange power imbalance that lets roasters define quality when nobody asks a winemaker what yeast they used, and how producers can talk to buyers who think starter cultures are cheating.

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:
James:
- Filter Stories - Coffee Quality, Part 1: The birth of specialty coffee flavours
People mentioned in the episode:
Resources:
- Cabal Cafe Podcast en Espanol
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

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.
24 August 2026, 3:10 am
35 minutes 49 seconds
Producer Toolkit: Fermentation, Pt 2 - The case for avoiding exciting fermentations
This episode explores why the specialty industry's obsession with exotic processing is a dangerous signal for farmers, five ways commercial microbes can make a farm more money, and what a well-run fermentation looks like on farms of very different sizes.

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:
James:
- Filter Stories - Coffee Quality, Part 1: The birth of specialty coffee flavours
People mentioned in the episode:
Resources:
- Cabal Cafe Podcast en Espanol
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

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.
24 August 2026, 3:05 am
22 minutes 31 seconds
Producer Toolkit: Fermentation, Pt 1 - Nature's lottery and coffee's 3,000-year lag
This episode explores why coffee is only fifteen years into a fermentation revolution that wine and bread went through millennia ago, what's actually happening inside the tank when microbes multiply into billions on their own, and why farmers who used to ferment as fast as possible are now trying to do the opposite.

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:
James:
- Filter Stories - Coffee Quality, Part 1: The birth of specialty coffee flavours
People mentioned in the episode:
Resources:
- Cabal Cafe Podcast en Espanol
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

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.
24 August 2026, 3:00 am
28 minutes 28 seconds
Producer Toolkit: Processing, Pt 3 - Critical instruments 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'Dago, Peru
- Manuel Matta, Santa Maria, Colombia
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

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.

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.
9 August 2026, 3:10 am
30 minutes 39 seconds
Producer Toolkit: Processing, Pt 2 - 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'Dago, Peru
- Manuel Matta, Santa Maria, Colombia
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

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.

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.
9 August 2026, 3:05 am
41 minutes 46 seconds
Producer Toolkit: Processing, Pt 1 - 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'Dago, Peru
- Manuel Matta, Santa Maria, Colombia
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

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.

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.
9 August 2026, 3:00 am
44 minutes 32 seconds
Producer Toolkit: Farming, Pt 3 - 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:
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.

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.
27 July 2026, 4:10 am
35 minutes 4 seconds
Producer Toolkit: Farming, Pt 2 - 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:
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.

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.
27 July 2026, 4:05 am
25 minutes 45 seconds
Producer Toolkit: Farming, Pt 1 - 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:
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.

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.
27 July 2026, 4:00 am
28 minutes 44 seconds
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.

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.
20 April 2026, 3:15 am
43 minutes 50 seconds
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.

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.
20 April 2026, 3:10 am
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