What flavours do you want from your coffee?Every coffee bean begins its life green. And if you brewed it up without first roasting it, you’d get a yellow-green cup of grass-flavoured water.But, as soon you apply heat to a bean, the flavour can morph to from something quite vegetative to a very acidic unripe fruit, then a very sweet fruit, and eventually dark ... Show More
Dec 2025
Coffee Quality, Part 3: When the “quality” myth hits the farm
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 q ... Show More
30 m
Dec 2025
Coffee Quality, Part 2: How “quality” became a myth
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 thi ... Show More
25m 33s
Dec 2025
Coffee Quality, Part 1: The birth of specialty coffee flavours
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 ... Show More
23m 30s
Oct 2022
Introducing: The Science of Coffee
The Science of Coffee is a journey into coffee's hidden microscopic secrets to help you make even better coffee at home. Across six episodes, documentary maker and coffee professional James Harper takes you deep into the world of water for coffee, coffee extraction, plant genetic ... Show More
3m 39s
Apr 2024
Unlocking Liberica coffee with Tobias Seewer: flavor, roasting and cultivation
<p>Dive into the world of Liberica and Excelsa coffee with Tobias Seewer from Kebun Malaya! In this video, we explore what makes Liberica coffee unique, from its cultivation methods to its distinctive flavor profile compared to Arabica, Robusta and Excelsa. Learn about the art of ... Show More
40m 44s
Sep 2025
Removing chaff from roasted coffee?
<p>Episode 69: Have you ever wondered if the chaff makes a difference? Typically, larger specialty roasteries will tumble to "polish" their roasted coffee, removing the majority of the chaff in the process, but is this necessary for the home roaster? Does it really affect flavor ... Show More
12m 31s