Filter Stories - Coffee Documentaries

Water massively impacts your coffee’s flavours. But most of us struggle to fix our water because water science is confusing…   …until now! In this special collaboration with Lucia Solis (Making Coffee podcast), I guide her through the two most important concepts you need to understand to get great-tasting water for coffee: hardness and alkalinity.   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   These aren’t one of my usual narrative episodes—they’re a straightforward, practical guide to help you take control of your water.   By the end of these episodes, you’ll be able to say: “I know what good water for coffee is and how to get it”.   I hope it helps you as much as it helped Lucia.   Check my website for all the visuals mentioned in this episode, including:  SCA graph for excellent water (the “map”) Map of different water hardness across Paris My Berlin water report The nightmarish table of conversions… Results from my water tests in my Berlin studio Bottled water brands rated for their hardness and alkalinity   Please spread the word about The Science of Coffee! Leave a 5 star rating on Spotify Follow me on Instagram and tag me in an Instagram story Write a review on Apple Podcasts Discover how I make these Filter Stories episodes by subscribing to my Substack newsletter   Resources mentioned in the episode:    SCA’s Water Quality Handbook Hardness and alkalinity dripper testing kit (also good for keeping your fishies happy) BWT Penguin Filter Jug (what I used to use with the magnesium cartridges) BWT BestAqua ROC (what now I use) BWT BestBarista (for cafes) Create your own water by adding minerals to very soft or distilled water: JoJo Hersh’s simple calculator using epsom salts and bicarbonate of soda, and Barista Hustle’s more elaborate one.    Want to go deeper into water chemistry? BWT White Paper on the effects of magnesium (German) Christopher Hendon’s book Water for Coffee Do an online Certificate of Advanced Studies at the Coffee Excellence Centre Read The Craft and Science of Coffee Barista Hustle's Water course Some water content on YouTube by James Hoffman and Lance Hedrick     Season 3 of The Science of Coffee is made possible by these leading coffee organisations:   The Coffee Quest | BWT | TODDY | Algrano | Probat     Check out Standart, the award-winning coffee magazine. Get a free magazine and a free bag of coffee by clicking here. How does Perfect Moose detect what kind of milk is in the pitcher? Click here to find out.   Visiting World of Coffee San Diego? Pull a shot on the gorgeous Slayer Steam Single What does the Marco MilkPal look like to you? WALL-E? Something Steve Jobs would be proud of? Check it out here.

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.   And I mean long! Over 1500 kilometers north up and down the Andes mountain range, a distance more than twice the height of France.   Along the way, it passes through dozens of hands, machines, and decisions. We follow it through muddy mountain sides, dusty dry mills, and hurricane-battered coastal warehouses — places where all kinds of things can go wrong. A leaky roof. An overly aggressive polishing machine. Or even theft.   But here’s the mystery: getting Erick’s coffee to port costs 50% more than sending a commodity coffee through the same route.   Why?   That question led me deep into Colombia’s coffee supply chains — and what I found changed how I think about the real cost of treating coffee with care.     Please spread the word about The Science of Coffee! Leave a 5 star rating on Spotify Follow me on Instagram and tag me in an Instagram story Write a review on Apple Podcasts Discover how I make these Filter Stories episodes by subscribing to my Substack newsletter   Find your next favourite Colombian coffee from The Coffee Quest   Taste coffees from Erick Bravo’s award winning farm, Finca El Chaferote, and follow him on Instagram.      Season 3 of The Science of Coffee is made possible by these leading coffee organizations:   The Coffee Quest | BWT | TODDY | Algrano | Probat Check out Standart, the award-winning coffee magazine. Get a free magazine and a free bag of coffee by clicking here. How does Perfect Moose detect what kind of milk is in the pitcher? Click here to find out.   Visiting World of Coffee San Diego? Pull a shot on the gorgeous Slayer Steam Single What does the Marco MilkPal look like to you? WALL-E? Something Steve Jobs would be proud of? Check it out here.

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 farmers grow it?   I speak with two producers in the same region whose choices couldn’t be more different. One stakes his future on specialty. The other opts out.   Their decisions come down to more than passion or a hard work ethic. Instead, I uncover two  starting conditions—often invisible to us buyers—that strongly shape whether a farmer chooses specialty at all.   If we want to see more speciality coffee grown, we need to bring down the barriers to specialty. But first we need to understand what those barriers really are.   The answers might surprise you. They surprised me.   Please spread the word about The Science of Coffee! Leave a 5 star rating on Spotify Follow me on Instagram and tag me in an Instagram story Write a review on Apple Podcasts Discover how I make these Filter Stories episodes by subscribing to my Substack newsletter   Find your next favourite Colombian coffee from The Coffee Quest   Taste coffees from Erick Bravo’s award winning farm, Finca El Chaferote   Nerd out on my farm profitability estimations     Season 3 of The Science of Coffee is made possible by these leading coffee organizations:   The Coffee Quest | BWT | TODDY | Algrano | Probat   Check out Standart, the award-winning coffee magazine. Get a free magazine and a free bag of coffee by clicking here. How does Perfect Moose detect what kind of milk is in the pitcher? Click here to find out.   Visiting World of Coffee San Diego? Pull a shot on the gorgeous Slayer Steam Single What does the Marco MilkPal look like to you? WALL-E? Something Steve Jobs would be proud of? Check it out here.

Volume. Cheap. Lame flavours. This is the traditional way of growing coffee in Brazil, and almost every farm does it this way.    But what if you wanted to produce beautiful, distinctive flavours instead—and make a living from it?   In this episode, we travel to Fazenda Paraíso in Minas Gerais, Brazil, where farmer Vicente Pereira and his daughter are on a steep learning curve finding buyers for their beautiful coffees.    Part 2 explores what it looks like for a small Brazilian farm to find better buyers, and the challenge of achieving pricing power.    Behind every beautiful coffee is a family story like this, but it’s a story we rarely get to see close up.    Let’s take a closer look.     Please spread the word about The Science of Coffee! Leave a 5 star rating on Spotify Follow me on Instagram and tag me in an Instagram story Write a review on Apple Podcasts Discover how I make these Filter Stories episodes by subscribing to my Substack newsletter   Source your next lot of specialty green coffee on Algrano   Listen to Firefly to hear a cautionary tale about a specialty farm failing because they couldn't find the right buyers.   Try Fazenda Paraiso's and Sancoffee's coffees for yourself!   Season 3 of The Science of Coffee is made possible by these leading coffee organizations:   The Coffee Quest | BWT | TODDY | Algrano | Probat Check out Standart, the award-winning coffee magazine. Get a free magazine and a free bag of coffee by clicking here. How does Perfect Moose detect what kind of milk is in the pitcher? Click here to find out.   Visiting World of Coffee San Diego? Pull a shot on the gorgeous Slayer Steam Single What does the Marco MilkPal look like to you? WALL-E? Something Steve Jobs would be proud of? Check it out here.

Volume. Cheap. Lame flavours. This is the traditional way of growing coffee in Brazil, and almost every farm does it this way.    But what if you wanted to produce beautiful, distinctive flavours instead—and make a living from it?   In this episode, we travel to Fazenda Paraíso in Minas Gerais, Brazil, where farmer Vicente Pereira and his daughter are on a steep learning curve finding buyers for their beautiful coffees.    Part 1 unravels the hidden structures of Brazil’s coffee industry: how prices are set, why it’s so hard to create a specialty-focused farm, and why Vicente's farm is unsustainable if he sells his coffee the traditional way.    Behind every beautiful coffee is a family story like this, but it’s a story we rarely get to see close up.    Let’s take a closer look.     Please spread the word about The Science of Coffee! Leave a 5 star rating on Spotify Follow me on Instagram and tag me in an Instagram story Write a review on Apple Podcasts Discover how I make these Filter Stories episodes by subscribing to my Substack newsletter   Source your next lot of specialty green coffee on Algrano   Listen to Firefly to hear a cautionary tale about a specialty farm failing because they couldn't find the right buyers.   Try Fazenda Paraiso's and Sancoffee's coffees for yourself!   Season 3 of The Science of Coffee is made possible by these leading coffee organizations:   The Coffee Quest | BWT | TODDY | Algrano | Probat Check out Standart, the award-winning coffee magazine. Get a free magazine and a free bag of coffee by clicking here. How does Perfect Moose detect what kind of milk is in the pitcher? Click here to find out.   Visiting World of Coffee San Diego? Pull a shot on the gorgeous Slayer Steam Single What does the Marco MilkPal look like to you? WALL-E? Something Steve Jobs would be proud of? Check it out here.

To roast coffee faster, you need to turn up the heat….right?   No!    In this episode, we explore the three powerful methods of heat transfer that revolutionised roasting. We’ll journey from humble beginnings—when roasting three kilos took half an hour—to machines that now roast hundreds of kilos of coffee in the time it takes you to boil a kettle.    But beans roasted at lightning speed look strange, and taste… well, you’ll find out. Join us as we test-drive an industrial tangential roaster where first crack remind me of fireworks crackers.    We also see the whale-sized roaster so massive it’s worth you a Guinness World Record.    We have the technology today to roast coffee faster than ever, so why aren’t we all roasting at recording-breaking speeds?   ---------------   Please spread the word about The Science of Coffee! Leave a 5 star rating on Spotify Follow me on Instagram and tag me in an Instagram story Write a review on Apple Podcasts Discover how I make these Filter Stories episodes by subscribing to my Substack newsletter   Check out the Probat roasters mentioned in this episode:   Emmerich Spherical Roaster - "Pink Hydrant" Large ball roaster - “Sputnik in a pizza oven” G45 early drum roaster - “Old school steam train”  Early tangential roaster Sample tangential roaster - "Shoebox" Neptune 4000, the largest drum roaster in the world! - "The whale"   And there are lots of other specialty roasters from Probat I didn't have time to showcase, including their new hydrogen powered roasters. See them all for yourself!.   Theodor von Gimborn's wikipedia page     Go deeper into the science of roasting   Read Mark Al-Shemmeri’s coffee roasting blog Do a Certificate of Advanced Studies with the Coffee Excellence Centre Explore Barista Hustle's online roasting learning Learn more from Morten Münchow and his coffee roasting courses Read Morten’s paper in collaboration with the University of Copenhagen on Roasting Conditions and Coffee Flavour Follow Filter Stories on Instagram for my infographics Learn more about first crack on my episode Coffee Roasting, Part 1: How heat transforms coffee beans     Season 3 is made possible by these leading coffee organizations:   The Coffee Quest | BWT | TODDY | Algrano | Probat     Check out Standart, the award-winning coffee magazine. Get a free magazine and a free bag of coffee by clicking here. How does Perfect Moose detect what kind of milk is in the pitcher? Click here to find out.   Visiting World of Coffee San Diego? Pull a shot on the gorgeous Slayer Steam Single What does the Marco MilkPal look like to you? WALL-E? Something Steve Jobs would be proud of? Check it out here.

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.   But what is flavor, at a microscopic level? What actually happens inside the bean when heat meets those nutrients?   In this episode, we shrink down to witness the Maillard reaction up close—a wild chain of molecular collisions that transforms baby plant food into aromas we adore.    Grab your popcorn - you’re getting a front row seat at the wildest chemistry show in coffee.    ---------------   Please spread the word about The Science of Coffee! Leave a 5 star rating on Spotify Follow me on Instagram and tag me in an Instagram story Write a review on Apple Podcasts Discover how I make these Filter Stories episodes by subscribing to my Substack newsletter Ethiopian forest sounds curtesy of George Vlad. Hear more nature sounds here. Explore Probat's roasters     Go deeper into the science of roasting   Do a Certificate of Advanced Studies with the Coffee Excellence Centre Grab a copy of Anja Rahn's upcoming book on coffee science through her Instagram Explore Barista Hustle's online roasting learning Learn more from Morten Münchow and his coffee roasting courses Read Morten’s paper in collaboration with the University of Copenhagen on Roasting Conditions and Coffee Flavour Follow Sebastian Opitz on LinkedIn Follow Filter Stories on Instagram for my infographics     Season 3 is made possible by these leading coffee organizations:   The Coffee Quest | BWT | TODDY | Algrano | Probat     Check out Standart, the award-winning coffee magazine. Get a free magazine and a free bag of coffee by clicking here. How does Perfect Moose detect what kind of milk is in the pitcher? Click here to find out.   Visiting World of Coffee San Diego? Pull a shot on the gorgeous Slayer Steam Single What does the Marco MilkPal look like to you? WALL-E? Something Steve Jobs would be proud of? Check it out here.

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 flavor…   Then it hit me: cold brew isn’t just a slower hot brew—it’s a completely different game with its own rules!   In this episode, I speak with leading coffee researchers who break down the microscopic dance between water and coffee that explains why cold brew plays by its own playbook.   And I bring you in on the brewing secret that can turn your brews from fruit juice to nutty creaminess.    ---------------   Please spread the word about The Science of Coffee! Leave a 5 star rating on Spotify Follow me on Instagram and tag me in an Instagram story Write a review on Apple Podcasts Discover how I make these Filter Stories episodes by subscribing to my Substack newsletter Explore TODDY’s cold brewing kits     Go deeper into the science of cold brew   Do a Certificate of Advanced Studies with the Coffee Excellence Centre Read Jiaxin (Jessie) Liang’s equilibrium extraction SCA 25 article and her published article Discover all of UC Davis' cold brew research through the Coffee Science Foundation Learn how to do a cold brew cupping with Toddy Follow Filter Stories on Instagram for my infographics       Season 3 is made possible by these leading coffee organizations:   The Coffee Quest | BWT | TODDY | Algrano | Probat Check out Standart, the award-winning coffee magazine. Get a free magazine and a free bag of coffee by clicking here. How does Perfect Moose detect what kind of milk is in the pitcher? Click here to find out.   Visiting World of Coffee San Diego? Pull a shot on the gorgeous Slayer Steam Single What does the Marco MilkPal look like to you? WALL-E? Something Steve Jobs would be proud of? Check it out here.

Discover the surprising world of cold brew as scientists reveal why it offers a unique flavor profile compared to traditional hot brewing. Learn how temperature can enhance certain beans, bringing out hidden floral notes you never thought possible. The discussion unfolds fascinating insights into flavor extraction, making you rethink your brewing choices. Before you reach for the kettle, consider the refreshing possibilities of cold water!

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!   Over the past year, narrative audio producer and coffee professional James Harper has scoured academic journals, ventured deep into coffee farms, and conducted bold tasting experiments.   Now, he’s weaving those discoveries into captivating audio stories that reveal why coffee tastes the way it does—and how we can make it taste even better.   In this new series, you’ll learn about cold brew extraction science, explore innovations in roasting, and follow the shifting business models that shape farmers’ livelihoods. You’ll also take a journey through commodity vs. specialty supply chains and examine the historical, sociological, and philosophical perspectives that define what “specialty coffee” truly means.   Press the “Subscribe” button so you don’t miss an episode! https://bit.ly/3TdDnHO   For more coffee science and behind-the-scenes content, follow James on Instagram @filterstoriespodcast. https://bit.ly/2Mlkk0O   The Science of Coffee is a spin-off series from James Harper’s documentary podcast, Filter Stories.  https://bit.ly/3ajoT5e   Season 3 is made possible by these leading coffee organizations:   The Coffee Quest | BWT | TODDY | Algrano | Probat Check out Standart, the award-winning coffee magazine. Get a free magazine and a free bag of coffee by clicking here. How does Perfect Moose detect what kind of milk is in the pitcher? Click here to find out.   Visiting World of Coffee San Diego? Pull a shot on the gorgeous Slayer Steam Single What does the Marco MilkPal look like to you? WALL-E? Something Steve Jobs would be proud of? Check it out here.