The People Behind Your Coffee
By Buenos Beans
The People Behind Your CoffeeSep 10, 2021
EP #8 - New Generation Coffee Importers
We speak today with Jola and Agata, from the green coffee importers 88 Graines. We learn a lot about the work of a high quality green coffee importer, about living in Guatemala and creating relationships with local farmers, as well as the community work Jola and Agata are involved in.
EP #7 - Burundi: Hope Through Coffee
We speak today with Eddy Nkanagu, who is the director at Greenco, a coffee production company in Burundi. You may have tried their coffees already through roasters like Goriffee, North Star, or Nomad, who were included in our April 2021 box with one of Greenco's coffees.
We discuss some topics like creating stores for their farmer community, which are run by the community members; working with female farmers, giving them financial and entrepeneurship training; irregular coffee production cycles and their impact on farmers; and much more.
If you liked this episode, subscribe for more content, and stay up to date on our Instagram, Facebook, and Website.
EP #6: Normal is boring: Producing extraordinary coffee in Indonesia
We speak today with Wildan Mustofa from Java Frinsa Estate, a coffee producer from Indonesia. You may have tried their coffees already through roasters like Muttley and Jack, Rocket Bean, Friedhats, or PALE, who were included in our January 2021 box with one of Wildan's coffees.
This is a relatively short discussion but it packs a punch - we discuss the challenges of coffee producers in Indonesia, we learn how Wildan's lactic coffee processing aims to replicate the profile of Kopi Luwak but without the animals, and we also learn about a new process (still unnamed) which is based on the protein fermentation used in the typical Indonesian superfood Tempeh.
During the conversation we happen to find out we had already tried one of his coffees during our honeymoon in Indonesia three years ago, which was pretty exciting!
Listen up for all this and much more!
If you liked this episode, subscribe for more content, and stay up to date on our Instagram, Facebook, and Website.
EP #5: Caffeinated journey from Melbourne to Poland
In this episode, we speak to Kasia and Blair, from PALE Coffee Roasters in the city of Cracow, Poland.
We included two of their coffees in our January 2021 box and we couldn't have been happier with them!
In this episode we speak about:
- The challenge of moving from Australia to Poland to start a coffee business
- Their thoughts and tips on home brewing recipes
- What is the true pursuit in specialty coffee
And many more!
We hope you enjoy this conversation with PALE Coffee Roasters as much as we did!
If you like it, subscribe and stay tuned. We will share more exciting episodes in the coming weeks!
EP #4: Roasting, competing & travelling to coffee origins
In this episode, Juanma speaks to Jens Crabbé, who is a 2 time Belgian Cup Tasters Champion and the founder of MOK coffee roasters.
We included Jens' coffees in our February 2021 box and we were very happy to share them with you.
In this episode we speak about Jens' beginnings in the coffee world, his trips to visit coffee producers in Latin America, the best pieces of advise for people making coffee at home, and also, stay tuned to the end, as Jens has a special gift for our listeners.
[POL] Odc. #3: wypalanie kawy i robienie cold brew w Polsce
Dziś prezentujemy nasz pierwszy odcinek po polsku!
Rozmawiamy z Jarkiem Pilarczykiem, który jest odpowiedzialny za dobór kaw i ich wypalanie w Kyoto Coffee Roasters, polskiej marce oferującej cold brew i kawę specialty.
Jarka poznaliśmy we wrześniu 2020 roku podczas Warszawskiego Festiwalu Kawy i od razu zakochaliśmy się w jego kawie. Wypalane przez niego ziarna z Meksyku i Kostaryki trafiły do naszego grudniowego boxu.
W czasie tej rozmowy:
- prześledzimy drogę Jarka z kawowego korpo do własnej palarni rzemieślniczej
- poznamy od kuchni proces wybierania i wypalania kawy specialty
- dowiemy się, jak powstało polskie cold brew z dodatkami takimi jak tonik, pomarańcza czy mięta.
[ENG] EP #3: Roasting Coffee and Making Cold Brew in Poland
When you think Poland do think cold? And cold… brew? And specialty coffee? Listen up, you will learn all about it from this conversation!
This episode #3 will be a little bit different from all the previous ones.
Aga spoke to Jarek from Kyoto Coffee Roasters and the original conversation was in Polish. We will publish it as a separate episode and if you speak this beautiful language, you will be able to hear directly from Jarek himself. But for those of you who don't, we recorded a summary in English of all the things we learnt from Jarek.
Who’s Jarek? He’s the roaster and coffee selector at Kyoto, a Polish company which produces cold brew and roasts specialty coffee. We got to know him in September 2020 during the Warsaw Coffee Festival and we were blown away by his coffees. He is the person who roasted the coffees from Costa Rica and Mexico we shared in our December 2020 box.
In this episode we will discuss topics such as:
- Jarek's journey from a big international coffee company to his own craft roastery
- the behind the scenes of the process of choosing and roasting specialty coffee
- how Polish cold brew coffee with tonic, orange and mint came into being
EP #2: Producing Sustainable Coffee in Mexico
In today's episode, we speak to Carolina Bolivar and Alexander Andersen, who are the main people behind DM Sustainable, a specialty coffee project in Mexico. We discuss topics like how Finca El Olmo produces coffee using clean energy, what is shade grown coffee and how it's good for the environment, coffees that taste like pizza, and much more.
EP #1: Growing specialty coffee in Costa Rica with Diego Guardia
In today's episode we speak to Diego Guardia, one of the main people behind Hacienda Sonora, a specialty coffee farm in Costa Rica. We discuss the journey from a sugar cane plantation to specialty coffee, why direct trade is not necessarily the only answer to all the farmer's problems, the art of picking coffee cherries, the importance of teamwork and scientific analysis in producing great coffee, and much more.