Episodes
89 episodes
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.
Price, Pt 1 — How the 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…
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…
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.
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…
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…
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…
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.
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.
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…
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.
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.
Farming, Pt 1 — Low harvests and profit blind spots
This series will help you understand coffee farming better than most professionals you'll meet at a trade show.
Surrogates — Anything but the coffee
This is not a thought experiment! It’s happened many times in history: War, blockades, tariffs, ideology, health panics, sanctions, supply shocks.
Guatemala’s Inconvenient Truth
When you buy a bag of coffee labelled fifth-generation family farm, it feels like a good choice.
Ethiopia’s wild coffee forests
Most coffee is grown on vast plantations using machines, pesticides and fertilisers.
Hamburg and Europe’s coffee trade
On a long walk through Hamburg, somewhere between the fish markets and giant cranes, you might stumble a giant bronze coffee bean looks like its crash landed from space.
Introducing: Series Three of A History of Coffee
We’re back with more stories about the tiny psychoactive seed that changed the world and continues to shape our lives today.
Coffee Quality, Pt 3 — When the “quality” myth hits the farm
For twenty years, the 2004 cupping form profoundly shaped the specialty coffee world.
Coffee Quality, Pt 2 — How “quality” became a myth
If you ask two specialty professionals what makes a high-quality coffee, you’ll likely get a surprisingly consistent answer: clean, sweet, juicy, bright. To an outsider, they would be…
Coffee Quality, Pt 1 — The birth of specialty coffee flavours
For the longest time, coffees were dull and bitter. But then a small group of pioneers changed the world.
How specialty coffee woke up to water’s role in flavour
For the longest time, the coffee community only cared about water’s impact ruining espresso machine boilers and kettles. But what about water’s impact on coffee flavour?
Why prehistoric rock ruins coffee
550 million years ago, earth was perfect. We had perfect water for coffee AND we were living in a vegetarian paradise!
Water, Pt 2 — How to measure and treat it
Water massively impacts your coffee’s flavours. But most of us struggle to fix our water because water science is confusing…
Water, Pt 1 — Alkalinity, hardness and why it matters
Water massively impacts your coffee’s flavours. But most of us struggle to fix our water because water science is confusing…
Farm to port — why specialty costs more
Every time we open a bag of beautiful specialty coffee — like Erick Bravo’s from Finca El Chaferote in Huila, Colombia — we’re drinking something that’s been on a long journey.
Why one Colombian farmer chose specialty, and the other walked away
I travel to Colombia’s Huila region to answer a question that’s puzzled me for years: if specialty coffee pays more, is better for the environment, and brews tastier cups—why don’t more…
How to roast more coffee, faster!
To roast coffee faster, you need to turn up the heat….right?
The hard business of selling beautiful coffee
Volume. Cheap. Lame flavours. This is the traditional way of growing coffee in Brazil, and almost every farm does it this way.
The chemistry of coffee roasting
A mother coffee plant gifts its baby everything it needs to grow—a green seed packed with food. But when we roast coffee, we hijack that gift and turn it into something else: flavor.
Fruit juice or creamy almonds? Your guide to controlling cold brew flavors
When I started making cold brew this last year, I treated it like hot brew filter coffee. But no matter how I adjusted the grind or tweaked the brew time, I hardly got any differences in…
Hot vs Cold — The science behind temperature and taste
For years, I used cold brew as a last resort—the only brew method to tame dark, oily beans that were too bitter for hot water.
Introducing: Season 3 of The Science of Coffee
We’re back with another series of The Science of Coffee—and this time we’re diving even deeper into coffee’s hidden microscopic secrets!
How grinders work deep inside
Deep inside your coffee grinder, tiny changes can have massive consequences.
Protecting your coffee’s flavours
For your coffee to taste its best, it’s crucial you buy fresh roasts and grind fresh.… .….Or maybe not.
How to think like a scientist
In the last episode, I discovered that rinsing my Chemex filter papers was a waste of time! As a result I’ve managed to claw back over seven days of my life left on earth.
How to brew coffee like a scientist
Should you rinse your filter paper before making a filter coffee? Almost everybody in coffee internet says you should.
Why don’t we see more organic coffee farms?
Farming coffee organically is amazing because soils are more alive, birds and insects are more plentiful, farmers avoid getting sick with agrochemicals.
The magic of soil
The world’s farming soils are deteriorating quickly.
Roasting made easy
Roasting coffee can be maddening. Just 4° Celsius is enough to make the same green beans taste distinctly different! And there are so many things roasters can play around with: temperature…
How roasting transforms coffee beans
What flavours do you want from your coffee?
Do you and I taste the same flavours?
Ever wonder why you and your friends can taste the same coffee, but you can’t agree on the flavour notes?
How to be a better coffee taster
So you’ve just taken a sip of a very rare coffee, and flavours of passion fruit explode in your mouth.
Introducing: Season 2 of The Science of Coffee
We're back with another series of The Science of Coffee!
America’s love affair with coffee
America is coffee-obsessed. From Central Perk’s red couch being the centre of major plot twists in Friends to the fact the average American drank more than two cups a day.
Italy’s democratic espresso culture
One morning back in the ‘80s, Howard Schultz walks out of his Milan hotel, stumbles into an espresso bar, and fundamentally changes coffee history.
Haiti, Colonialism and Coffee
Haiti was once the biggest, most profitable coffee growing region in the world.
How coffee houses changed the world
A coffee shop is a lot more than just a place to drink coffee. The seats and sofas encourage you to invite a friend, and chat.
Introducing: Series Two of A History of Coffee
We're back with more stories about the tiny psychoactive seed that changed the world and continues to shape our lives today.
Sonic Seasoning
Imagine you’ve got a cup of coffee in front of you. You haven’t tasted it yet. You therefore don’t know what it tastes like, right?
Latte Foam
When was the last time you picked up a cappuccino with a mountain of foam perched on top? Maybe these are the cappuccinos you make every morning at home.
Espresso Technology
A good espresso is a sublime experience: rich, sweet, and wonderfully caffeinated.
Plant Genetics
How can you make better coffee at home? Well, an easy way is to buy higher quality beans.
Coffee Extraction
How you brew your coffee dramatically affects what you taste. And I do mean dramatic! Brewing up the same bag of coffee beans can taste like a slice of heaven, or a slap in the face.
Water For Brewing Coffee
Water really matters when you’re brewing coffee. Different waters can dramatically change how a single coffee will taste.
Introducing: The Science of Coffee
The Science of Coffee is a journey into coffee's hidden microscopic secrets to help you make even better coffee at home.
Coffee’s Ticking Time Bomb
Sri Lankan coffee has delicious notes of chocolate and caramel. But it’s basically impossible to find, and we’re going to bet you’ve never drank it.
Is really expensive coffee really worth it?
Would you ever pay £75 for 100g of coffee beans?
Coffee Cycle Saturdays
Today I'm sharing the story of a coffee drinker, Jools Walker, and how coffee helped her complete an inner journey.
History 6: The Future of Coffee?
Do you grind your beans fresh before brewing your coffee? If so, you are helping overturn a race-to–the-bottom with deep roots in colonial extraction that today is leaving millions of…
History 5: Desperately Seeking Sustainability
When was the last time you bought a coffee that was Fairtrade certified?
History 4: A Dark Bitter Powder
How do you drink your instant coffee? If you’re like most of the world, you fill your mug with milk and sugar to sweeten the taste.
History 3: Coffee Catches Fire
A hundred years ago one Brazilian man owned so many coffee trees he could fill every inch of a European country with them.
History 2: Slavery, Suffering and Affordable Luxury
Why do we get upset when we’re charged $36 for an ordinary cappuccino?
History 1: A Five Gun Salute to the Origins of Coffee
Here’s a surprising fact: coffee was only invented around the time Michelangelo was chiselling his statue of David.
Introducing: A History of Coffee
A History of Coffee is the story of how a tiny psychoactive seed changed the world and shapes our lives today.
A Girl on a Coffee Farm
Sofía is a teenager living on a coffee farm and was going to school five days a week. But a year later, she’s studying only on Saturdays.
Be careful what you dream (it may come true)
You’ve just achieved a life goal. Now what? Dream bigger? Quit while you’re ahead?
Why El Salvador isn’t bringing back coffee
El Salvador used to grow a quarter of the world’s coffees. Today, it’s barely more than a rounding error. As coffee production fell, illegal migration to America grew.
A Eulogy for Tito
Hector “tito” Vargas passed away in December 2019.
Is your coffee building Trump’s wall? Part 5: How can we support marginalised coffee producers?
You buying a coffee from El Salvador and Trump building a border wall have nothing in common.
Is your coffee building Trump’s Wall? Part 4: The Rich and the Marginalised
You buying a coffee from El Salvador and Trump building a border wall have nothing in common.
Is your coffee building Trump’s wall? Part 3: Requiem for a Coffee Republic
You buying a coffee from El Salvador and Trump building a border wall have nothing in common.
Is your coffee building Trump’s wall? Part 2: El Savage
You buying a coffee from El Salvador and Trump building a border wall have nothing in common.
Is your coffee building Trump’s wall? Part 1: A tale of two El Salvadors
You buying a coffee from El Salvador and Trump building a border wall have nothing in common.
Big and Small in El Salvador: Part 3
We meet a man who came from humble beginnings who has achieved what Armando and Maria have only ever dreamed about.
Big and Small in El Salvador: Part 2
Imagine you’re a coffee buyer on a mission to buy Salvadoran coffee. We visit Armando and Maria’s farms. Which farm would you choose to buy from?
Big and Small in El Salvador: Part 1
20 years ago specialty coffee patted itself on the back for saving coffee farmers, both big and small, from the misery of low coffee prices.
Unseen Bean: Part 2
We investigate why by putting ourselves in Gerry's shoes and experiencing the coffee world as a blind man.
Unseen Bean: Part 1
Gerry has a disability that keeps 2 in 3 adults out of full time work.
Venezuela
What do you do when you want to buy a cafe but your country is collapsing around you?
Stateless
Mikhail is a specialty coffee barista. But he’s stuck on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
Sofía
What were your dreams at 16? Sofía lives on a remote coffee farm in Nicaragua and hers is to be a great english translator.
Aquiares
In Central America, you can’t tell the story of coffee without mentioning war.
Tito, the Panamanian rebel
Tito lives on a mountain in Panama, is a rebel and doesn’t listen to anyone.
Amish
Raymond's family want him to spend his life using a horse instead of a car, to live off the grid and have little contact with the outside world.
Berries and Lemon
Martin is the best barista in Kenya and has a dream to open a cafe. Except, he can't. Kenyans don't drink coffee.
Firefly
Murray is one of Ecuador's most famous coffee farmers. But there's a problem: he's only earning $2 profit from 250 espressos. How does he survive?
Asheville
Sarah has just landed her dream job working as a barista for the best cafe in North Carolina.
