
Advertise on podcast: Filter Stories - Coffee Documentaries
Rating
5from
This podcast has
74 episodes
Language
EnglishPublisher
James HarperExplicit
No
Date created
2018/08/16
Latest episode
2026/01/05
Average duration
36 min.
Release period
22 days
Description
Coffee stories with an extra shot of history and science. Filter Stories is a podcast revealing coffee’s hidden microscopic secrets, its powerful past, and how your choice of beans impacts tens of millions of people. See the behind-the-scenes stories on Instagram @filterstoriespodcast. If you haven’t already, please subscribe to the show and review us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify!
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We Built This City…On Coffee: Hamburg and the making of Europe's coffee trade
2026/01/05
On a long walk through Hamburg, somewhere between the fish markets and giant cranes, you might stumble a giant bronze coffee bean looks like its crash landed from space.
But this giant coffee bean represents a staggering fact: one in every three cups of coffee drunk in Europe has passed through Hamburg.
In the first half of this episode, we explore the many profound ways coffee shaped one of Europe’s most important cities.
But then the story flips because, once coffee changed Hamburg, Hamburg began to change coffee.
Series 3 of A History of Coffee is a collaboration between documentary maker James Harper of the Filter Stories coffee podcast and Jonathan Morris, Professor of History and author of ‘Coffee: A Global History’.
Please spread the word about A History of Coffee!
Follow us on Instagram - James (@filterstoriespodcast) and Jonathan (@coffeehistoryjm) - and tag us in an Instagram story.
Write a review on Apple Podcasts
Leave a 5 star rating on Spotify
This free educational content for the coffee community was made possible by Mahlkönig, manufacturers of world-leading coffee grinders for 100 years for your home and cafe.
Read Jonathan’s book, ‘Coffee: A Global History’ (https://amzn.to/3dihAfU)
Support James’ work directly by buying him a coffee at Ko-fi.com/FilterStories
Pick up a copy of Margrit Schulte Beerbühl’s book, Kaffee Ist Fertig!
Read James’ article on Frederick the Great’s attempt to ban coffee in Standart
Go on your own Hamburg coffee tour!
Giant bean
Speicherstadt Museum
Burg Coffee Museum in the Speicherstadt
Becking, 100 year old coffee roasters
1950s Rebuilt Coffee Exchange - and an Instagram post coming on @filterstoriespodcast
Go deeper into the story of Mahlkönig’s grinders
Early EKs - post coming on @filterstoriespodcast
DK (aka Donkey Kong Dreiphasen Kaffeemühle)
Grind-by-Sync espresso grinders
EK Omnia
Guatemala
Matt Perger WBC routine demonstrating the EK
Filter Stories episode on grinding curves
How does Perfect Moose detect what kind of milk is in the pitcher? Click here to find out.
What kind of racing car does the Gaggia Classic GT home espresso machine remind you of? Use discount code FS202610 to get 10% off.
What does the Marco MilkPal look like to you? WALL-E? Something Steve Jobs would be proud of? Check it out here.
Introducing: Series Three of A History of Coffee
2025/12/29
We’re back with more stories about the tiny psychoactive seed that changed the world and continues to shape our lives today.
Is it possible to follow the story not just to Ethiopia, not just to a single town, but all the way back to one tree?
We’ll uncover the uncomfortable history of Guatemala — a story about who inherited the rich volcanic soil, and who was forced to work it.
We explore what happens when our worst nightmare comes true: coffee disappears from the shelves. What did people brew instead? Was any of it actually drinkable?
And we tell the story of how coffee can shape the massive port city of Hamburg, and how Hamburg then went on to shape the global coffee world.
If we want to make coffee a more equitable industry that’s also kinder to the environment, a place to start is understanding the stories and systems that put the coffee into your cup this morning.
Press the ‘Subscribe’ button so you don’t miss future episodes.
A History of Coffee is a collaboration between documentary maker James Harper of the Filter Stories coffee podcast and Jonathan Morris, Professor of History and author of ‘Coffee: A Global History’.
Follow us on Instagram! Jonathan Morris @coffeehistoryjm and James Harper @filterstoriespodcast.
This free educational content was made possible with the support of Mahlkönig, manufacturers of world-class grinders for 100 years.
Subscribe to The Science of Coffee podcast
How does Perfect Moose detect what kind of milk is in the pitcher? Click here to find out.
What kind of racing car does the Gaggia Classic GT home espresso machine remind you of? Use discount code FS202610 to get 10% off.
What does the Marco MilkPal look like to you? WALL-E? Something Steve Jobs would be proud of? Check it out here.
Coffee Quality, Part 3: When the “quality” myth hits the farm
2025/12/08
For twenty years, the 2004 cupping form profoundly shaped the specialty coffee world.
But on the hillsides of coffee farms, some of the form’s byproducts have been disadvantaging producers.
In this episode, we follow two producers whose lives collided with the myth of universal quality. These stories reveal how a single idea of “quality” can close doors for the people with the least power in the supply chain.
The new coffee evaluation form, the CVA, is still young, and with any luck it will keep evolving. I hope for a form that can empower even the smallest producers.
Please support my work directly at Ko-fi.com/FilterStories
Other ways you can help:
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
Go deeper into the story of quality:
The original Filter Stories episode about Murray Cooper in Ecuador, Firefly
Specialty Coffee Association's new Coffee Value Assessment
2004 cupping form from the Specialty Coffee Association of America
SCAA Coffee Cuppers Handbook (4th edition, 2011)
Kenneth Liberman's book, "Tasting Coffee: An Inquiry into Objectivity"
SCA's video series on the CVA presented by Peter Giuliano
How does Perfect Moose detect what kind of milk is in the pitcher? Click here to find out.
What kind of racing car does the Gaggia Classic GT home espresso machine remind you of? Use discount code FS202610 to get 10% off.
What does the Marco MilkPal look like to you? WALL-E? Something Steve Jobs would be proud of? Check it out here.
Coffee Quality, Part 2: How “quality” became a myth
2025/12/08
If you ask two specialty professionals what makes a high-quality coffee, you’ll likely get a surprisingly consistent answer: clean, sweet, juicy, bright. To an outsider, they would be forgiven for thinking coffee quality is universally defined.
But the truth is more sober.
In this episode, we examine how a simple cupping form helped create a universal idea of quality. We then look at the evidence that, in fact, it’s just the personal preferences of a small group of people masquerading as universal quality.
Please support my work directly at Ko-fi.com/FilterStories
Other ways you can help:
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
Go deeper into the story of quality:
2004 cupping form from the Specialty Coffee Association of America
SCAA Coffee Cuppers Handbook (4th edition, 2011)
Cup of Excellence cupping form
Kenneth Liberman's book, "Tasting Coffee: An Inquiry into Objectivity"
SCA's video series on the CVA presented by Peter Giuliano
How does Perfect Moose detect what kind of milk is in the pitcher? Click here to find out.
What kind of racing car does the Gaggia Classic GT home espresso machine remind you of? Use discount code FS202610 to get 10% off.
What does the Marco MilkPal look like to you? WALL-E? Something Steve Jobs would be proud of? Check it out here.
Coffee Quality, Part 1: The birth of specialty coffee flavours
2025/12/08
For the longest time, coffees were dull and bitter. But then a small group of pioneers changed the world.
In this episode, we travel back to the 1960s and ’70s to meet the trailblazers who realised coffees could taste distinctive: sweeter, brighter, cleaner.
We discover how their personal preferences became a movement, then a form, and eventually a global definition of “quality”.
Please support my work directly at Ko-fi.com/FilterStories
Other ways you can help:
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
Go deeper into the story of quality:
Specialty Coffee Association's new Coffee Value Assessment
2004 cupping form from the Specialty Coffee Association of America
SCAA Coffee Cuppers Handbook (4th edition, 2011)
Michael Sheridan of CQI discussing the inter-organisational politics behind the Houston Expo announcement on Lee Safar's Map It Forward podcast
How does Perfect Moose detect what kind of milk is in the pitcher? Click here to find out.
What kind of racing car does the Gaggia Classic GT home espresso machine remind you of? Use discount code FS202610 to get 10% off.
What does the Marco MilkPal look like to you? WALL-E? Something Steve Jobs would be proud of? Check it out here.
How specialty coffee woke up to water’s role in flavour
2025/07/28
For the longest time, the coffee community only cared about water’s impact ruining espresso machine boilers and kettles. But what about water’s impact on coffee flavour?
In this episode, I tell the story of how the specialty coffee community came to understand water chemistry: the pioneering work of the computational chemist Christopher Hendon and British roaster Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood, the genesis of the SCA’s Water Quality Handbook, and where we are today understanding the impact of minerals on our water.
I strongly recommend listening to the two episodes before this one first Getting great water for coffee, step-by-step & The two ingredients in water that ruin your coffee, and the ancient story behind them
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
Want to go deeper into water chemistry?
Read the SCA’s Water Quality Handbook
BWT White Paper on the effects of magnesium (German)
Christopher Hendon’s Instagram where he’ll announce his new version of his book, Water for Coffee
Do an online Certificate of Advanced Studies at the Coffee Excellence Centre
Season 3 of The Science of Coffee is made possible by these leading coffee organisations:
The Coffee Quest | BWT | TODDY | Algrano | Probat
Note: this is a reworked version of my 2022 episode Water for Brewing Coffee, including portions of my 2024 episode How to think like a scientist, part 2.
How does Perfect Moose detect what kind of milk is in the pitcher? Click here to find out.
What kind of racing car does the Gaggia Classic GT home espresso machine remind you of? Use discount code FS202610 to get 10% off.
What does the Marco MilkPal look like to you? WALL-E? Something Steve Jobs would be proud of? Check it out here.
The two ingredients in water that ruin your coffee, and the ancient story behind them
2025/07/28
550 million years ago, earth was perfect. We had perfect water for coffee AND we were living in a vegetarian paradise!
But then Earth changed—violently. The planet shifted from a peaceful, plant-eating paradise to a darker, more brutal world. And in this new world, the chemistry of water was forever altered.
This is the wild story of how earth-shaking forces and the spirits of long-dead critters ruin your coffees today.
This story will help you remember the two invisible ingredients in your water that have a huge impact on coffee flavour and your brewing equipment: calcium and hydrogen carbonate.
Read Marcia Bjonerud’s amazing book, Reading the Rocks
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
Season 3 of The Science of Coffee is made possible by these leading coffee organisations:
The Coffee Quest | BWT | TODDY | Algrano | Probat
Note: this is a reworked version of my 2022 episode Water for Brewing Coffee.
How does Perfect Moose detect what kind of milk is in the pitcher? Click here to find out.
What kind of racing car does the Gaggia Classic GT home espresso machine remind you of? Use discount code FS202610 to get 10% off.
What does the Marco MilkPal look like to you? WALL-E? Something Steve Jobs would be proud of? Check it out here.
Getting great water for coffee, step-by-step. Part 2: How to measure and treat your water
2025/07/14
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
How does Perfect Moose detect what kind of milk is in the pitcher? Click here to find out.
What kind of racing car does the Gaggia Classic GT home espresso machine remind you of? Use discount code FS202610 to get 10% off.
What does the Marco MilkPal look like to you? WALL-E? Something Steve Jobs would be proud of? Check it out here.
Getting great water for coffee, step-by-step. Part 1: Alkalinity, hardness and why it matters
2025/07/14
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
How does Perfect Moose detect what kind of milk is in the pitcher? Click here to find out.
What kind of racing car does the Gaggia Classic GT home espresso machine remind you of? Use discount code FS202610 to get 10% off.
What does the Marco MilkPal look like to you? WALL-E? Something Steve Jobs would be proud of? Check it out here.
Farm to port: why specialty costs more
2025/06/23
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
How does Perfect Moose detect what kind of milk is in the pitcher? Click here to find out.
What kind of racing car does the Gaggia Classic GT home espresso machine remind you of? Use discount code FS202610 to get 10% off.
What does the Marco MilkPal look like to you? WALL-E? Something Steve Jobs would be proud of? Check it out here.
Why one Colombian farmer chose specialty, and the other walked away
2025/06/09
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
How does Perfect Moose detect what kind of milk is in the pitcher? Click here to find out.
What kind of racing car does the Gaggia Classic GT home espresso machine remind you of? Use discount code FS202610 to get 10% off.
What does the Marco MilkPal look like to you? WALL-E? Something Steve Jobs would be proud of? Check it out here.
The hard business of selling beautiful coffee, part 2
2025/05/19
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
How does Perfect Moose detect what kind of milk is in the pitcher? Click here to find out.
What kind of racing car does the Gaggia Classic GT home espresso machine remind you of? Use discount code FS202610 to get 10% off.
What does the Marco MilkPal look like to you? WALL-E? Something Steve Jobs would be proud of? Check it out here.
The hard business of selling beautiful coffee, part 1
2025/05/19
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
How does Perfect Moose detect what kind of milk is in the pitcher? Click here to find out.
What kind of racing car does the Gaggia Classic GT home espresso machine remind you of? Use discount code FS202610 to get 10% off.
What does the Marco MilkPal look like to you? WALL-E? Something Steve Jobs would be proud of? Check it out here.
The Speed of Heat: How to roast more coffee, faster!
2025/03/24
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
How does Perfect Moose detect what kind of milk is in the pitcher? Click here to find out.
What kind of racing car does the Gaggia Classic GT home espresso machine remind you of? Use discount code FS202610 to get 10% off.
What does the Marco MilkPal look like to you? WALL-E? Something Steve Jobs would be proud of? Check it out here.
Coffee Roasting: How baby plant food transforms into delicious coffee flavours
2025/03/10
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
How does Perfect Moose detect what kind of milk is in the pitcher? Click here to find out.
What kind of racing car does the Gaggia Classic GT home espresso machine remind you of? Use discount code FS202610 to get 10% off.
What does the Marco MilkPal look like to you? WALL-E? Something Steve Jobs would be proud of? Check it out here.
Podcast reviews
Read Filter Stories - Coffee Documentaries podcast reviews
JaySeeB 2025/07/18
You Had Me At “Water”
This is the show you’re looking for coffee nerds!
77TJ 2025/05/09
Relaxing and educational
James Harper has a gift in telling stories especially about coffee
His honest efforts in researching each podcast in great detail is truly inspirin...
adi_kamath 2024/10/01
Informative and enjoyable
Really enjoy listening to this podcast as a coffee lover myself. The podcasts are really informative and well narrated. Really thankful for this. High...
theCoffeeScientist 2023/05/01
Fantastic!
All of James coffee podcast series are absoulely fantastic! Highly engaging, very well done, completely professional while retaining an openness and i...
#####mmm###### 2023/04/26
Super well done
A must listen for coffee drinkers
CrisinSeattle 2022/05/24
Super informative
Loved all the information provided through world class storytelling. Would recommend this to anyone looking to get a better understanding of the coffe...
BMoreGarrett 2022/05/13
Excellent information on ethics of coffee!
Definitely pushed me to investigate which roasters in my area are paying a real price for coffee that will pay growers a living wage.
moorsmith 2021/04/13
Broad tableau and depth in time
Extremely informative and a very mellow listen. Worth WAY more than $0.28/lb!!
Old Man Beans 2020/08/04
Best Coffee Podcast
Such a valuable resource.
Dre Dre22 2020/06/15
Amazing storytelling!!
Thankful that I found this podcast this morning. I appreciate the work you put in on these episode. You do an incredible job! Keep creating, James!
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