Thompson and Lucia Solis chat about the complicated relationship of the coffee buyer and the farmer, and the culture of coffee sourcing.
Making Coffee is a wonderful podcast series hosted by a wonderfully knowledgeable person: Lucia Solis. With a background in chemistry and the wine industry, she comes to coffee with unique perspectives as she works with coffee producers to improve their fermentationFermentation in coffee processing traditionally referred to the stage in wet-processing of the coffee. We now understand that fermentation happens more broadly in nearly all processes, including honey... methods. Her enterprise is based now in GuatemalaGuatemalan coffee is considered a top quality coffee producer in Central America. Due to our proximity to Guatemala, some of the nicest coffees from this origin come to... and is called Luxia Coffee Solutions.
In this podcast, titled Visiting Producers, Advanced Tourism & The Coffee Hunter with Tom of Sweet Maria’s, Lucia and Thompson are focused on something else though, not coffee processingThe removal of the cherry and parchment from the coffee seed.: Coffee is either wet-processed (also called washed or wet-milled) or dry-processed (also called wild, natural or natural.... The talk is about the issues around coffee travel that come up when a buyer “works” with a coffee producer. Even the term “we work with” has become ubiquitous in coffee marketing when a roaster speaks of a farm they buy from. Is that a fair characterization of the relationship?
While Thompson’s perspective come from a lot of experience traveling to coffee-producing areas, Lucia has substantial time invested on farms, in coffee mills, trying to help farmers increase the consistency of their coffee quality, and improve their outcomes in the crowded and confused marketplace.
You might also be interested in our other Podcast episodes on this topic:
Coffee Tourism and Travel Part 1 and 2
EthiopiaEthiopia, formerly known as Abyssinia, or a coffee cultivar: Ethiopia, or more specifically the Empire under Haile Selassie, was known as Abyssinia. The name is Latin, derived from... Coffee Travel Part 1 and 2
Here is the link to our goofy old “Handfeel CuppingCupping is a method of tasting coffee by steeping grounds in separate cups for discrete amounts of ground coffee, to reveal good flavors and defects to their fullest.... Video” Dan and I did on the CoffeeShrub youtube, mentioned in the podcast too!