Making Coffee with Lucia Solis

Lucia

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.

  • 1 hour 16 minutes
    #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]

    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

    Sign up for the newsletter for behind the scenes pictures.

    Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
    Intro song: Elijah Bisbee

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    16 November 2025, 12:00 am
  • 1 hour 13 minutes
    #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 equipment
    • How to test your water at home
    • How to fix it, depending on what you're working with

    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: [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

    Sign up for the newsletter for behind the scenes pictures.

    Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
    Intro song: Elijah Bisbee

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    14 August 2025, 9:00 pm
  • 1 hour 10 minutes
    #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


    Support the show on Patreon  to join our live Discord hangouts, and get access to research papers, transcripts and videos.

    Office Hours with Luke: 9am (GMT-6) Friday July 18th 2025

    Sign up for the newsletter for behind the scenes pictures.
     

    And if you don't want to commit, show your support here with a one time contribution: PayPal

    Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
    Intro song: Elijah Bisbee

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    14 July 2025, 10:00 pm
  • 1 hour 4 minutes
    #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. 

    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: [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

    Sign up for the newsletter for behind the scenes pictures.

    Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
    Intro song: Elijah Bisbee

    Support the show

    18 June 2025, 9:00 pm
  • 42 minutes 33 seconds
    #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


    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

    Sign up for the newsletter for behind the scenes pictures.

    Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
    Into song: Elijah Bisbee

    Support the show

    26 May 2025, 8:00 pm
  • 1 hour 20 seconds
    #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

    Sign up for the newsletter for behind the scenes pictures.

    Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
    Into song: Elijah Bisbee

    Support the show

    1 May 2025, 6:00 am
  • 44 minutes 26 seconds
    #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 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

    Sign up for the newsletter for behind the scenes pictures.

    Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
    Into song: Elijah Bisbee

    Support the show

    15 April 2025, 1:00 am
  • 48 minutes 22 seconds
    #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 one time contribution: PayPal

    Sign up for the newsletter for behind the scenes pictures.

    Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
    Into song: Elijah Bisbee

    Support the show

    30 March 2025, 1:00 am
  • 36 minutes 59 seconds
    #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 natural
    • Process-forward coffees, funky coffee
    • Neutral processing 
    • The need for speed, & gentle drying
    • Drying is not just removing water
    • Biggest producer mistakes, not upgrading the drying
    • Fallacy of terroir 

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    3 December 2024, 1:00 am
  • 1 hour 19 seconds
    #67: Addressing Climate Collapse & Coffee Labor in Brazil with Ana Luiza of Fazenda Mió


    In this episode we talk about:

    • How Ana decided to join the family business after pursuing a career in art.
    • The advantages and drawback of growing coffee in a "Full Sun" system.
    • The future of coffee picking and the role of Mechanical Harvesters.
    • Brazil's 6 different biomes.
    • How technology helped Brazil  jump from 6 coffee bags/hectare in 1960 to 29 bags/hectare in 2023
    • How climate change has affected the crop
    • How Precision Agriculture is helping the farm use resources efficiently
    • Tattoos!

    Resources
    Ana's Precision Agriculture Presentation on Coffee Knowledge Hub (you will need to make an account but it's free!)

    Anacafe Presentation on Price Volatility (by Albert Scalla in Spanish)

    Picture of Mechanical Harvester

    Instagram

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    4 September 2024, 3:00 pm
  • 1 hour 6 minutes
    #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:

    • The sugar and acid additions that French and California winemakers use
    • How adding mango to a fermentation tank is completely different from adding passion fruit or citrus
    • How to tell when a coffee is infused with a flavor
    • Cinnamon flavor in a coffee
    • Inoculation vs Infusion vs Co-Fermentation
    • The role of enzymes in removing mucilage
    • Gravity!

    Inquiries about coffee samples 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

    Sign up for the newsletter for behind the scenes pictures.

    Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
    Into song: Elijah Bisbee

    Support the show

    23 August 2024, 4:00 pm
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