Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders 251 : Fermentation and the Future of Farming w/ Lucia Solis
How coffee is processed after the harvest is integral to whether or not it reaches its full flavor potential. Farmers depend on their crop's quality and consistency but all too often what happens during processing produces inconsistency and a less than full realization of that coffee's potential. Enter today's amazing guest, Lucia Solis!
Lucia, specializes in "microbial demucilagination", or the use of microbes to process coffee following pulping. Born in Guatemala and raised in San Francisco, Lucia studied Viticulture and Enology at UC Davis prior to working in the wine industry in Napa Valley. In 2014 she started at Scott Laboratories and traveled to Central America applying commercial yeast strains at coffee mills to modulate flavors coming from the tank. Today she is an independent consultant working directly with coffee producers in origin countries to improve processing practices to increase quality.
In her work she is able to help farmers control the variables in processing their coffee in order for them to efficiently produce consistent high quality coffee that opens up more opportunity for them to scale and thrive.
In today's conversation we will be learning about her work and its implications for the future of farming. Additionally we will be discussing our role as retailers, roasters, and consumers in how we have communicated with and influenced the farming community in ways that have been potentially damaging and some helpful mindsets to adopt going forward that create a better chance of success for all parties.
We will cover:
- The role of microbes and fermentation coffee production
- Why fermentation has been undervalued
- Bridging the gap between consumer and farmer
- Creating efficiency and scale
- Do microdots really help producers?
- Romance vs exploitation
- Where do processing traditions come from
- How we shape production
- How consistency is key to quality
Links:
Related Episodes:
072: Taking an Origin Trip w/ Kim Elena-Ionescu : How to go to origin in a mutual beneficial way
060 : Serving the Coffee Plant w/ Hanna Neuschwander, World Coffee Research
140 : A conversation w/ Erika Vonie, Director of Coffee at Trade Coffee
153 : Exploring the Peace Trade in the Congo w/ Mighty Peace Coffee
138 : Joseph A. Rivera on Organic Acids and the Importance of Coffee Science
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