Filter Stories - Coffee Documentaries

54 minutes 4 seconds

Producer Toolkit: Decaf - Why it's so hard to find good decaf

Why was decaf so bad for so long, and why is good decaf still so hard to find? In the final episode of The Coffee Producer Toolkit, we go inside a decaffeination plant in Veracruz, Mexico, to see what it actually takes to pull the caffeine out of a coffee bean, and why a farm needs around 50 hectares before single-origin decaf starts to make sense.

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.

Related podcast episodes:

James:

Follow us through our newsletters and Social media:

Lucia's Newsletter

James's Newsletter

Lucia Instagram

James' Filter Stories Instagram

People mentioned in the episode:

Resources:

Coffees cupped before and after Descamex's Mountain Water Process: Brazil Sierra Negra, Peru SHB, Mexican SHG RFA, Colombian Organic JAS, Sumatra Mandailing G1, Ethiopia Sidamo G2

Cover Art: Nick Hafner

The Coffee Producer Toolkit is made possible by these leading coffee organisations:

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.

What kind of racing car does the Gaggia Classic GT home espresso machine remind you of? Use discount code FS202610 to get 10% off.

Meet the Mazzer Super Jolly g, the iconic grinder that's got even better. Click here to learn about its super fast grinding, bump protection, and 100th-of-a-gram accuracy.

Elevate your cafe's menu with Prana Chai: whole leaf tea sourced direct from farmers, blended with fresh whole spices, sweetened with honey. Request a sample here.

Support Filter Stories at Ko-Fi.com/FilterStories

9 November 2026, 4:00 am

28 minutes 55 seconds

Producer Toolkit: Storage, Pt 2 - Why plastics are not all equal

This episode explores the black box between coffee leaving the farm and the roaster's warehouse, and how quality can be ruined. Wrapping the coffee in any old plastic bag won't do. We get geeky looking at how hermetic bags like GrainPro actually work.

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.

Related podcast episodes:

Lucia:

#68: Fermentation vs. Germination: A Look at The Seed From The Inside, Out (Flávio Borém's drying research and how drying works)

James:

Follow us through our newsletters and Social media:

Lucia's Newsletter

James's Newsletter

Lucia Instagram

James' Filter Stories Instagram

People mentioned in the episode:

Resources:

Cover art: Nick Hafner

The Coffee Producer Toolkit is made possible by these leading coffee organisations:

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.

What kind of racing car does the Gaggia Classic GT home espresso machine remind you of? Use discount code FS202610 to get 10% off.

Meet the Mazzer Super Jolly g, the iconic grinder that's got even better. Click here to learn about its super fast grinding, bump protection, and 100th-of-a-gram accuracy.

Elevate your cafe's menu with Prana Chai: whole leaf tea sourced direct from farmers, blended with fresh whole spices, sweetened with honey. Request a sample here.

Support Filter Stories at Ko-Fi.com/FilterStories

26 October 2026, 4:15 am

24 minutes 27 seconds

Producer Toolkit: Storage, Pt 1 - How coffee gets ruined on the farm

This episode explores the many ways coffee can get ruined while still on the farm, including fishy concrete tanks, the importance of not using jute sacks to collect coffee cherries, and solutions to unpredictable rains ruining coffee drying on the patio.

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.

Related podcast episodes:

Lucia:

#68: Fermentation vs. Germination: A Look at The Seed From The Inside, Out (Flávio Borém's drying research and how drying works)

James:

Follow us through our newsletters and Social media:

Lucia's Newsletter

James's Newsletter

Lucia Instagram

James' Filter Stories Instagram

People mentioned in the episode:

Resources:

Cover art: Nick Hafner

The Coffee Producer Toolkit is made possible by these leading coffee organisations:

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.

What kind of racing car does the Gaggia Classic GT home espresso machine remind you of? Use discount code FS202610 to get 10% off.

Meet the Mazzer Super Jolly g, the iconic grinder that's got even better. Click here to learn about its super fast grinding, bump protection, and 100th-of-a-gram accuracy.

Elevate your cafe's menu with Prana Chai: whole leaf tea sourced direct from farmers, blended with fresh whole spices, sweetened with honey. Request a sample here.

Support Filter Stories at Ko-Fi.com/FilterStories

26 October 2026, 4:00 am

42 minutes 1 second

Producer Toolkit: Quality Assurance, Pt 2 - The basics of good water for coffee

This episode takes you through the basics of good water for coffee.

To objectively assess a coffee's quality, both producer and buyer need to taste it using the same water. But whose water standards should you choose? Why do roasters often get to define what the "right" water is? What would the coffee world look like if producers set quality standards instead of roasters?

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.

Related podcast episodes:

James:

Follow us through our newsletters and Social media:

Lucia's Newsletter

James's Newsletter

Lucia Instagram

James' Filter Stories Instagram

People mentioned in the episode:

Karla Boza — Jacinta Y Su Cafe, San Benito, El Salvador
Paulino Quintero — Huila, Colombia
Jesús Antonio Chala — Finca El Silencio, Colombia
Thompson Owen — Sweet Maria's Coffee, USA
Lahari Balireddi — ASG Coffee, Kenya
Manuel Barsallo — Agrícola Geisha, Panama
Lorenz Haschka — BWT water+more

Resources:

Cover art: Nick Hafner

The Coffee Producer Toolkit is made possible by these leading coffee organisations:

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.

What kind of racing car does the Gaggia Classic GT home espresso machine remind you of? Use discount code FS202610 to get 10% off.

Meet the Mazzer Super Jolly g, the iconic grinder that's got even better. Click here to learn about its super fast grinding, bump protection, and 100th-of-a-gram accuracy.

Elevate your cafe's menu with Prana Chai: whole leaf tea sourced direct from farmers, blended with fresh whole spices, sweetened with honey. Request a sample here.

Support Filter Stories at Ko-Fi.com/FilterStories

12 October 2026, 3:05 am

30 minutes 1 second

Producer Toolkit: Quality Assurance, Pt 1 - A practical guide to tasting and roasting coffee

This episode is a practical guide to tasting coffee, sample roasting and judging quality, built for small producers on a tight budget. That makes it just as useful if you’re early in your coffee journey and want to learn the basics without spending thousands on equipment, starting with a frying pan or a $30 popcorn popper.

If you work in coffee, it reveals the obstacles producers face when they try to discuss quality on equal terms with buyers in the global north.

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.

Related podcast episodes:

James:

Follow us through our newsletters and Social media:

Lucia's Newsletter

James's Newsletter

Lucia Instagram

James' Filter Stories Instagram

People mentioned in the episode:

Karla Boza — Jacinta Y Su Cafe, San Benito, El Salvador
Paulino Quintero — Huila, Colombia
Jesús Antonio Chala — Finca El Silencio, Colombia
Thompson Owen — Sweet Maria's Coffee, USA
Lahari Balireddi — ASG Coffee, Kenya
Manuel Barsallo — Agrícola Geisha, Panama
Lorenz Haschka — BWT water+more

Resources:

Cover art: Nick Hafner

The Coffee Producer Toolkit is made possible by these leading coffee organisations:

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.

What kind of racing car does the Gaggia Classic GT home espresso machine remind you of? Use discount code FS202610 to get 10% off.

Meet the Mazzer Super Jolly g, the iconic grinder that's got even better. Click here to learn about its super fast grinding, bump protection, and 100th-of-a-gram accuracy.

Elevate your cafe's menu with Prana Chai: whole leaf tea sourced direct from farmers, blended with fresh whole spices, sweetened with honey. Request a sample here.

Support Filter Stories at Ko-Fi.com/FilterStories

12 October 2026, 3:00 am

48 minutes 33 seconds

Producer Toolkit: Price, Pt 2 - Discovering the true value of coffee

What is the right price for coffee? This episode shows what the journey of price discovery looks like from the perspective of a coffee farmer.

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.

Related podcast 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

Follow us through our newsletters and Social media:

Lucia’s Newsletter

James’s Newsletter

Lucia Instagram

James’ Filter Stories Instagram

People mentioned in the episode:

Resources:

Cover art: Nick Hafner

The Coffee Producer Toolkit is made possible by these leading coffee organisations:

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.

What kind of racing car does the Gaggia Classic GT home espresso machine remind you of? Use discount code FS202610 to get 10% off.

Meet the Mazzer Super Jolly g, the iconic grinder that's got even better. Click here to learn about its super fast grinding, bump protection, and 100th-of-a-gram accuracy.

Elevate your cafe's menu with Prana Chai: whole leaf tea sourced direct from farmers, blended with fresh whole spices, sweetened with honey. Request a sample here.

Support Filter Stories at Ko-Fi.com/FilterStories

28 September 2026, 3:05 am

41 minutes 12 seconds

Producer Toolkit: Price, Pt 1 - How the commodity 'C' market works

This episode explores the strange world of the C market, where movements in the Brazilian currency or rebels boarding a random container ship decide the worth of a Colombian farmer's coffee. Yet specialty coffee still uses this number to price the coffees it says are anything but a commodity.

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.

Related podcast 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

Follow us through our newsletters and Social media:

Lucia’s Newsletter

James’s Newsletter

Lucia Instagram

James’ Filter Stories Instagram

People mentioned in the episode:

Resources:

Cover art: Nick Hafner

The Coffee Producer Toolkit is made possible by these leading coffee organisations:

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.

What kind of racing car does the Gaggia Classic GT home espresso machine remind you of? Use discount code FS202610 to get 10% off.

Meet the Mazzer Super Jolly g, the iconic grinder that's got even better. Click here to learn about its super fast grinding, bump protection, and 100th-of-a-gram accuracy.

Elevate your cafe's menu with Prana Chai: whole leaf tea sourced direct from farmers, blended with fresh whole spices, sweetened with honey. Request a sample here.

Support Filter Stories at Ko-Fi.com/FilterStories

28 September 2026, 3:00 am

43 minutes 21 seconds

Producer Toolkit: Marketing & Sales, Pt 2 - Navigating trade shows

This episode explores what a trade show actually feels like for a farmer who flew in on money his community pooled together, why a sausage dog opened a door that hundreds of cold emails couldn't, and why learning English may be a better investment for a farmer than a longer fermentation.

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.

Related podcast episodes:

Lucia:

James:

Filter Stories: The Hard Business of Selling Beautiful Coffee

Follow us through our newsletters and Social media:

Lucia’s Newsletter

James’s Newsletter

Lucia Instagram

James’ Filter Stories Instagram

People mentioned in the episode:

Resources:

The Coffee Producer Toolkit is made possible by these leading coffee organisations:

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.

What kind of racing car does the Gaggia Classic GT home espresso machine remind you of? Use discount code FS202610 to get 10% off.

Meet the Mazzer Super Jolly g, the iconic grinder that's got even better. Click here to learn about its super fast grinding, bump protection, and 100th-of-a-gram accuracy.

Elevate your cafe's menu with Prana Chai: whole leaf tea sourced direct from farmers, blended with fresh whole spices, sweetened with honey. Request a sample here.

Support Filter Stories at Ko-Fi.com/FilterStories

14 September 2026, 3:05 am

37 minutes 9 seconds

Producer Toolkit: Marketing & Sales, Pt 1 - The power of story

This episode explores why specialty coffee is a luxury business that runs on story more than 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.

Related podcast episodes:

Lucia:

James:

Filter Stories: The Hard Business of Selling Beautiful Coffee

Follow us through our newsletters and Social media:

Lucia’s Newsletter

James’s Newsletter

Lucia Instagram

James’ Filter Stories Instagram

People mentioned in the episode:

Resources:

The Coffee Producer Toolkit is made possible by these leading coffee organisations:

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.

What kind of racing car does the Gaggia Classic GT home espresso machine remind you of? Use discount code FS202610 to get 10% off.

Meet the Mazzer Super Jolly g, the iconic grinder that's got even better. Click here to learn about its super fast grinding, bump protection, and 100th-of-a-gram accuracy.

Elevate your cafe's menu with Prana Chai: whole leaf tea sourced direct from farmers, blended with fresh whole spices, sweetened with honey. Request a sample here.

Support Filter Stories at Ko-Fi.com/FilterStories

14 September 2026, 3:00 am

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:

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.

What kind of racing car does the Gaggia Classic GT home espresso machine remind you of? Use discount code FS202610 to get 10% off.

Meet the Mazzer Super Jolly g, the iconic grinder that's got even better. Click here to learn about its super fast grinding, bump protection, and 100th-of-a-gram accuracy.

Elevate your cafe's menu with Prana Chai: whole leaf tea sourced direct from farmers, blended with fresh whole spices, sweetened with honey. Request a sample here.

Support Filter Stories at Ko-Fi.com/FilterStories

24 August 2026, 3:10 am

35 minutes 50 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:

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.

What kind of racing car does the Gaggia Classic GT home espresso machine remind you of? Use discount code FS202610 to get 10% off.

Meet the Mazzer Super Jolly g, the iconic grinder that's got even better. Click here to learn about its super fast grinding, bump protection, and 100th-of-a-gram accuracy.

Elevate your cafe's menu with Prana Chai: whole leaf tea sourced direct from farmers, blended with fresh whole spices, sweetened with honey. Request a sample here.

Support Filter Stories at Ko-Fi.com/FilterStories

24 August 2026, 3:05 am