Making Coffee with Lucia Solis

50
Food #83

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.

Recent Episodes
  • #69: Whole Coffee Cherry Fermentations—The Multiple Paradoxes of Naturals
    Mar 29, 2025 – 48:22
  • #68: Fermentation vs. Germination: A Look at The Seed From The Inside, Out
    Dec 2, 2024 – 36:59
  • #67: Addressing Climate Collapse & Coffee Labor in Brazil with Ana Luiza of Fazenda Mió
    Sep 4, 2024 – 01:00:19
  • #66: Winemaker Tools for Coffee Producers: Sugar & Acid Additions, Co-Fermentation w/ Fruit
    Aug 23, 2024 – 01:06:18
  • #65: To Blend or Not to Blend? Wine Vintages, and Harvest Update.
    Jul 24, 2024 – 37:48
  • #64: What Kind of Coffee Lover am I? How Much am I Willing to Pay for a Cup of Coffee?
    Jul 4, 2024 – 35:02
  • #63: Terroir For Busy People
    May 20, 2024 – 37:14
  • #62: The Commercial Yeast vs Wild Microbes Debate w/ Pranoy of Kerehaklu
    Apr 30, 2024 – 01:36:06
  • #61: Coffee Fermentation Review with Ashley Rodriguez of Boss Barista
    Apr 22, 2024 – 52:19
  • #60: Thermoshock, Where Does Citrus Flavor Come From & How To Find Your Fermentation Soulmate
    Dec 15, 2023 – 49:17
  • #59: What's Altitude Got To Do With It? Microbes & Meters Above Sea Level
    Nov 20, 2023 – 41:29
  • #58: Direct Trade & Other Misleading Labels w/ Natali from Nachteulen Coffee
    Oct 5, 2023 – 49:21
  • #57: Will Frith Solves Terroir & Other Lessons From Vietnam
    Sep 12, 2023 – 01:01:25
  • #56: Finding Work/Life Balance as a Coffee Producer w/ Pranoy Thipaiah from Kerehaklu in India
    Aug 29, 2023 – 01:17:47
  • #55: Coffee Waste, A Feminine Approach, & Confident Processing–With Rani Mayasari
    Aug 15, 2023 – 50:34
  • #54: Visiting Producers, Advanced Tourism & The Coffee Hunter with Tom of Sweet Maria’s
    Jul 31, 2023 – 01:38:45
  • #53: Reforesting, Finding Your People & The Hidden Cost of Coffee Production w/ Mark from Finca Rosenheim
    May 23, 2023 – 01:06:40
  • #52: Carbonic Maceration in Wine vs Coffee & Two Ways to Improve Robusta
    Jan 30, 2023 – 01:24:55
  • #51: The Kenyan Auction System; Lessons, Takeaways, & Cautions with Vava Angwenyi
    Dec 9, 2022 – 55:28
  • #50: Listener Q&A: Honey Osmotic Dehydration, Fermenting Green Coffee & What Champagne Can Teach Us About The Flavor of Yeast
    Nov 25, 2022 – 51:47
  • #49: Exposing the Producer’s Gaze & the Success Paradox with Vava Angwenyi
    Nov 10, 2022 – 44:51
  • #48: My Philosophies on Coffee Processing, and the Future of the Industry, with Katrien of OR Coffee
    Oct 17, 2022 – 01:02:54
  • #47: Coffee Has a Plastic Bag Problem
    Sep 28, 2022 – 31:30
  • #46: What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Wine & Coffee Comparisons
    Jul 17, 2022 – 45:03
  • #45: Reflections on Coffee Flavor Through Processing, Roasting and Brewing with Eystein Veflingstad
    Jun 22, 2022 – 59:30
  • #44: Are Wine Making Techniques the Future of Coffee?
    Jun 3, 2022 – 01:05:40
  • #43: Germination & Drying–Continuous vs. Resting
    Apr 14, 2022 – 47:45
  • #42: Germination & Processing–Wet/Washed vs. Dry/Natural
    Mar 27, 2022 – 42:11
  • #41: How Much Effort Should Good Coffee Require? Cometeer Instant Coffee, Cake and Everest
    Mar 8, 2022 – 35:47
  • #40: Listener Q&A: Water Evaporation & Sugar, Avoiding Acetobacter, How to Inoculate w/o Spending Any Money
    Jan 6, 2022 – 41:00
  • #39:Infused vs Adulterated coffees, Cinnamon and Fermentation Failures
    Sep 15, 2021 – 57:43
  • #38:Reverse Engineering a $5 Castillo in Colombia w/ Lucas, Felipe & Jose
    Aug 17, 2021 – 01:04:15
  • #37: Jamie Isetts Reimagines the Coffee Producer & Green Buyer Relationship
    Jul 27, 2021 – 01:20:40
  • #36: Lactic Acid 101—Rejecting Inoculation, Fermentation Fight Club & Defining Rot
    Jul 4, 2021 – 01:13:49
  • #35: Acetic Acid 101—Kombucha & Making a Washed Coffee Taste Like a Natural
    May 27, 2021 – 55:44
  • #34: Robusta, Tropical Fruits and Mechanical Drying. Visiting India w/ Pranoy of Kerehaklu. 
    May 5, 2021 – 55:44
  • #33: Listener Q&A: Learning from Thailand, Avoiding Mold Growth in Honey and Dry/Natural Processing in Humid Locations
    Mar 22, 2021 – 36:26
  • #32: Where Is Ripeness? Lessons From Brazil on Brix & Color
    Feb 15, 2021 – 59:40
  • #31: What Are We Measuring When We Measure Brix?
    Jan 19, 2021 – 38:30
  • #30 Untangling Sugar, Sweetness and Brix
    Jan 6, 2021 – 36:00
  • #29: How Can Yeast Help in a Rural Ugandan Setting: Consulting w/ The Coffee Gardens
    Dec 8, 2020 – 44:48
  • #28: Origin, Native, Indigenous and Local: Building Our Coffee Vocabulary
    Nov 23, 2020 – 40:30
  • #27: Searching for the Escape Velocity of Coffee–w/ Mark from Finca Rosenheim
    Nov 3, 2020 – 01:12:25
  • #26: Do Coffee Trees Talk? How Underground Fungi Affect Coffee Quality
    Oct 19, 2020 – 01:02:23
  • #25: A California Coffee Farm & Native vs. Local Yeasts
    Oct 5, 2020 – 50:20
  • #24: Tea and Coffee: Conscious Uncoupling w/ Aurora Prehn
    Aug 10, 2020 – 01:03:33
  • #23: Tasting Authenticity—When Different Countries Have Similar Flavor Profiles
    Jul 28, 2020 – 51:08
  • #22: Terroir—Part II: Yeast, Bacteria & Transparent Coffee Processing
    Jul 14, 2020 – 57:02
  • #21: Terroir—Part I: The Soil, The Science & The Human Element
    Jun 30, 2020 – 42:55
  • #20: Listener Q&A: Slow vs Fast Fermentations, Adding Foreign Yeast, & Post Harvest Effect on Density
    Jun 16, 2020 – 39:31
Recent Reviews
  • pdxjk
    The conversation with Tom…
    …was top notch. Every coffee marketer and copy writer should HAVE to listen to this discussion. And more arts and crafts at SCA, please.
  • Sweetmarias
    Why didn’t I check out this podcast sooner?
    To answer my title, I don’t know. I first heard of Lucia’s work in 2017 from Heleanna in Ethiopia. And it took me 6 years to listen to episode 1 ! The podcast is both very relatable, even while trying to make concepts I find fairly challenging more accessible. Lucia seems to really want people to get it, and I think that’s what makes someone a good teacher. Some of this is very provocative and makes a listener like me spin off different ideas, even opposing ones or to want to add something else to an issue I find missing … and to me that’s really the hallmark of good “content”. It activates the listener, provokes you to think about the ideas in to respond. and Lucia accommodates this dialogue through her Patreon dialogues where people can submit questions or be involved in a informal conversation. If you have an interest in coffee, in sensory science, or chemistry, I think you can approach this podcast from many directions and find it enriching. The way Lucia talks, shares information and opinion, and brings up her own experiences that can_or even contradict and complicate other parts of the message, only enrich the listening experience for me. I see another review where somebody criticizes this exact point, the fact she was a late comer to Coffee, and it was not that appealing to her, or that her podcast isn’t “sterile “ enough?!? . Well, I find those all to be the strong points of her work that she doesn’t generously shares here, and I suppose some reviews nullify themselves by their own choice of words. Lol.
  • anorimaki27
    This just sounds like ranting, not research.
    I could update this later; trying hard to give it an honest listen… Show should be retitled to “Coffee VS. Wine” I came for research-based, neutral, and sterile information, but starting off, the first six episodes have me convinced she is just upset that coffee isn’t wine and does not have the same highly privileged and europeanized history as wine. Even considering her background in wine and fermentation from this lens, It feels as though she attempts to have a neutral tone while using language that implies otherwise; that, even given the history of coffee as an agricultural crop, it should be different and is therefore “wrong” instead of ONLY talking about the way it is and what can be done to improve it(many of which issues are already being confronted and addressed in the small ways that they can be over time) Going on about childhood in a household that had an espresso machine and her many travels to places trying hotel coffee and how it “shouldn’t be good”? sounds so very privileged, especially considering she’s implying that this is not something she came to out of interest or passion, but rather something she forced herself and/or was forced into for work. The whole tone just has me wondering, “why don’t you go back to wine?!”
  • Tibiredhead
    Bummed
    Was pumped to listen to this podcast and almost immediately she makes a red headed step child joke. Not sure why you would think this is ok to make fun of people with red hair
  • Chris Deferio
    Understanding and Real Passion
    Lucia has consistently delivered not just information about the world of coffee processing but she ushers the listener into actually understanding the landscape of this important topic and creates at the kind of feeling all of us in coffee want to create in those we serve - deep appreciation for coffee and thirst to know more.
  • Stephen Enke
    Coffee, Fermentation, and Fun!
    Easily the best resource I’ve happened across over the world of coffee. Lucia is intelligent and friendly making me the podcast fun and educational. I can honestly say this podcast has been instrumental in my shift into the coffee industry - I’m very grateful for Lucia and all the little microbes that make good coffee possible! 🦠☕️☺️
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