Unfiltered Coffee Podcast: The Theory, Philosophy, and Science of Specialty Coffee

In this episode, we are joined by Kimhak Em in our first cupping to evaluate some of his coffees. Then Eddie and Spencer talk about cloud cafes, delivery coffee and wholesale hardships. Kimhak then joins in to talk about frozen green coffee and his future innovations in his coffee shop.

Segment 1 Coffee Rankings:
1st place
Panama - Hacienda La Esmeralda Gesha
2nd place
Ethiopia - Kayon Mountain

Spe...

In this episode, we try to understand what the job of the barista would be in a fully automated coffee shop, the benefits of automation with covid, and how this may impact the producer. Then we bring back Kimhak to ask him his thoughts on automation and coffee trends more generally.

Special Guest

Kimhak Em is part owner, roaster and barista at his coffee shop PAIR Cupworks in Mesa, AZ. He has 15 years of food serv...

In this episode, we start by cupping coffees that have been exported and imported by our guest Herbert Peñaloza and his buisness La Real Expedición Botánica. Then, we talk with Herbert about how he got started in coffee, why he started exporting and importing himself, and ask about his views on coffee processing.  

Segment 1 Coffee Rankings:
1st place
Colombia - El Crucero
2nd place
Colombia - Agua De Dios<...

In this episode we talk to Daniel Mendoza, he led an interesting career in coffee working for many different coffee roasteries around the country including Buddy Brew Coffee in Tampa, as well as Corvus and huckleberry in Denver. He then moved into the world of Specialty tea, where he helped bring to specialty coffee shops across the west coast. He is now working at Cropster, where he does support and sales. We discuss his work in j...

In this episode, we start by cupping coffee sourced by our guest, Aaron Jordan from The Roast House. The Roast house is a fully organic roastery in Spokane, Washington. We talk to Aaron about his start in coffee, then we dig deep into the organic process and sourcing organic coffees. Aaron also shares valuable insights on growing a roasting team and making sustainable long term decisions. Aaron is such a blast to talk to and we hop...

In this episode, we talk with our guest Curtis Zimmerman owner of Presta Coffee, where he is also the green buyer and roaster. Curtis is a long time friend and incredible person. He talks to us about how he got into coffee, roasting, sourcing, how he thinks about building out cafes and biking. We learned a ton from Curtis and think you guys will love this conversation.

Special Guest

Curtis is one of the most genui...

In this podcast we talk to Anita Tam, owner of Slow Pour Supply, which is a distributor of coffee tools. We talk about how she got into coffee, what makes for good design, latte art, inclusivity, and so much more.

Special Guest

Anita is  incredibly intentional and thoughtful in everything she does. We learned so much from her and were so happy to have her on the show. You can find look at her website Slow Pour Su...

In this podcast we talk to Jake Miller, the CEO and Founder of Fellow, a coffee product designer and manufacture based out of San Francisco. We talk to Jake about a bunch of different aspects of his business including how he thinks about product design, the process behind creating the Ode grinder, marketing, and running his business during covid. This was such a fun conversation for us after using fellow products for so many years....

Our guest today is Blair Smith, the general manager at Presta Coffee. Blair has had a long and storied career in coffee. Starting with a position as a barista at Tart baking company in Massachusetts and then moving across the country to work for Augies, where she would become the general manager. She also started her competition run with Augies starting in 2014, and has now competed at a national level or judged every year since. T...

Our guest today is Steve Holt, founder of Unravel Coffee Merchants, a business working directly with farms in Ethiopia with his partner Ashenafi Argaw. Steve started his specialty coffee career in 2002 at Novo Coffee in Denver, before moving to co-found Ninety plus where he has worked up until he started Unravel.  He has spent years, working on farms in Panama and Ethiopia, helping to create some of the highest quality coffees in t...

In this podcast, Eddy and Spencer break down extraction theory, brewing variables, ways to assess your coffee, and ways to brew better at home.

We created a feedback form and would love to hear back from you guys about how we can make the show better in the future! Click here to fill it out.

Links
Flavor Map

Waters
Third Wave Water
Perfect Water
GC Water
Water Recipes

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Equipment list
Absolute Low end budget (below $50)
Quality coffee
Spring water
Coffee mug
Hand grinder

Solid low end budget (below $300)
Encore/Bodum/Chinese flat burr grinder
Hand Grinder
Thirdwave water
Perfect water
Kettles
Digital Scale
Brewers

Mid/High Tier ($300+)
Niche Zero
Fellow Ode
Timemore Chestnut ...

In today's episode we break down what's happening during coffee fermentation. We start with some definitions, then move into processing types, microorganisms and carbohydrates, fermentation types, environmental factors, and flavor creation. This is all from an essay I wrote that you can find below. 

This is where I put in the disclaimer that I am just a hobbyist fermentation lover and I tried to only put info I ...

In today's episode we talk to Nick Rayer. We were excited to talk to Nick as he is the middle of building his first business. He gives us his in the moment perspective of what it feels like to put it all together, along with some of his ideas on the future. We also get into his jazz career, as well as some talk about working on bar. 

Special Guest

Nick is an amazing human and a great friend of the show. If y...

In this podcast we talk all about coffee species, varieties and the potential threats to coffee as we know it now. We start with out talking about species, then we move into the history of Typica and Bourbon, some thoughts on genetic diversity, what we think the future of coffee may look like and much more.

Disclaimer: Neither Eddy or Spencer are botanists so if you feel something is incorrect, please reach out so we can c...

In this podcast we talk to Shelby Williamson about her coffee journey, learning to taste with her mentor Daniel Mendoza (a previous guest), her roasting philosophy, pros and cons of the different roasters she has roasted on, how to think about green coffee, how to QC effectively, and the future of coffee.

We are deeply sorry about the audio quality on this podcast. We had some mic malfunctions during recording. We hope th...

In this podcast we are joined by our good friend Kimhak Em of Pair Coffee to talk all about espresso theory and what espresso tools will help you pull the perfect espresso.

Items mentioned:
Weiss distribution tool
Porcupress
B plus espresso filter
Ims screen
Ims basket
Vst basket
Cube auto tamp by compak
Puqpress
Science tamp
Malhkonig e65
Malhkonig e80
Mythos 2 clima pro

Seven roasters come together with 50+ years of combined roasting experience to answer questions from instagram and a live crowd.

Follow the speakers:
Kimhak @kimhak.em - Pair @pair.cupworks
Spencer @spencer.aidukaitis - Peixoto @peixotocoffee
Matt - Moxie @moxiecoffeeco
Blair @theblairista, Curtis - Presta @prestacoffee
Randy - Xanadu @xanadu.coffee
Mark - GrindTime @grindtime_coffee


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