Part 3 of 5: Felipe Croce and David Bray explain how The Common Ground Collective could change coffee sourcing, pricing, and financial risk management. They discuss calculating prices from production costs rather than relying primarily on the C market, developing transparent producer-roaster partnerships, and sharing the consequences of crop losses.
Read MorePart 2 of 5: Felipe Croce and David Bray explain how The Common Ground Collective is developing a 15-year partnership between coffee producers and roasters. They explore shared investment, regenerative agroforestry, a proposed 40% harvest allocation to the farm team, and the commercial possibilities of building coffee supply chains differently.
Read MorePart 1 of 5: Felipe Croce of FAF Coffees and David Bray of Blue Butterfly Coffee Roasters join Lee Safar to explain the origins of The Common Ground Collective. They explore coffee price volatility, regenerative farming, and why building longer-term relationships between producers and roasters could help create more resilient supply chains.
Read MorePart 5 of 5: Bram de Hoog of Paso Paso Coffee joins Lee Safar to examine how coffee businesses can approach regulatory compliance as an opportunity rather than a deterrent. They explore EUDR preparedness, packaging safety and recyclability, customer trust, and why building a responsible business means considering the impact it has on everyone connected to it.
Read MorePart 4 of 5: Bram de Hoog of Paso Paso Coffee joins Lee Safar to explain the fundamental differences between wholesale and retail coffee roasting businesses. They examine pricing structures, operating costs, customer margins, payment terms, and why growing beyond a roastery's existing capacity can require significant investment before generating additional profits.
Read MorePart 3 of 5: Bram de Hoog, co-owner of Paso Paso Coffee in Germany, joins Lee Safar to discuss why building resilience in coffee requires taking calculated risks and investing in long-term relationships. They explore farmer ownership, operational efficiency, rising green coffee costs, and why helping wholesale customers remain profitable is essential to creating a sustainable roasting business.
Read MorePart 2 of 5: Bram de Hoog of Paso Paso Coffee joins Lee Safar to explain how five coffee farming families became shareholders in a German roastery while continuing to supply its green coffee. They discuss producer feedback, fair commercial relationships, excess inventory, and the financial realities of importing coffee directly, including how Paso Paso reduced costs by importing its first container independently.
Read MorePart 1 of 5: Bram de Hoog, co-owner of farmer-owned Paso Paso Coffee in Germany, joins Lee Safar to explain how his experience as a green coffee trader has shaped a different approach to operating a roastery. They explore long-term demand planning, reducing supply-chain risk, building wholesale customer relationships, and why producer-focused branding has become central to Paso Paso's business model.
Read MorePart 5 of 5: In the final episode of "Being 'Not a Man' in Coffee," Lee Safar and Coffee Lab founder Isabela Raposeiras explore what men can do to create a safer, more respectful coffee industry. From believing women and listening without judgment to challenging harassment, supporting women-owned businesses, mentoring colleagues, and improving representation, they discuss practical ways to move from awareness to action. Content warning: Discussions of sexual assault, workplace violence, harassment, and discrimination.
Read MorePart 4 of 5: In Part 4 of "Being 'Not a Man' in Coffee," Lee Safar and Coffee Lab founder Isabela Raposeiras examine behaviours towards women that should no longer be tolerated in the coffee industry. From dismissing professional expertise and public humiliation to aggressive communication and disregarding personal boundaries, they discuss how these behaviours affect women and why colleagues must intervene. Content warning: References to sexual assault, workplace violence, harassment, and psychological abuse.
Read MorePart 3 of 5: In Part 3 of "Being 'Not a Man' in Coffee," Lee Safar and Coffee Lab founder Isabela Raposeiras examine the boys' club culture in the coffee industry and how silence, influence, and professional loyalties can leave women vulnerable. Through personal accounts of threats, online harassment, reputational attacks, and workplace intimidation, they question the responsibility of colleagues and industry leaders who witness unacceptable behaviour but fail to intervene. Content warning: Discussions of sexual assault, rape threats, death threats, and harassment.
Read MorePart 2 of 5: In Part 2 of "Being 'Not a Man' in Coffee," Lee Safar and Coffee Lab founder Isabela Raposeiras explore the different ways women experience unsafe workplaces in the coffee industry. Through personal accounts of physical violence, psychological intimidation, gender discrimination, and workplace harassment, they examine why women often feel unable to speak up and how employers and bystanders contribute to cultures of silence. Content warning: Discussions of sexual assault, physical violence, discrimination, and workplace abuse.
Read MorePart 1 of 5: In Part 1 of "Being 'Not a Man' in Coffee," Lee Safar and Coffee Lab founder Isabela Raposeiras share personal experiences and accounts of sexual assault, harassment, misogyny, and abuse of power in the coffee industry. They examine why women often feel unable to speak out, how professional and financial vulnerability enables misconduct, and why the industry's culture of silence needs to change. Content warning: Discussions of sexual assault, harassment, and physical violence.
Read MorePart 5 of 5: In the final episode of this series, Oscar Montoya and Lee Safar explore digital twins, traceability, risk modeling, data literacy, and the changing role of technology in coffee businesses. They discuss how better information can help businesses understand uncertainty, simulate different scenarios, and make more informed decisions about risk and sustainability.
Read MorePart 4 of 5: AI has dramatically changed what small teams can build, but faster technology does not eliminate the need for good systems. In part 4, Oscar Montoya and Lee Safar use the development of CoffeeListings.com to explore AI, vibe coding, critical thinking, software architecture, and why sustainable solutions require people, processes, data and technology to work together.
Read MorePart 3 of 5: Data can help reveal what is really happening inside a coffee business, but only if it is interpreted with context and an awareness of bias. In part 3, Oscar Montoya joins Lee Safar to explore conflicting data, correlation versus causation, the limits of simple metrics, and why complex problems often need to be broken down before they can be solved.
Read MorePart 2 of 5: Businesses often start collecting data before they have clearly defined the problem. In part 2 of this series, Oscar Montoya joins Lee Safar to explore how better questions, data integrity, and awareness of bias can help coffee businesses identify the real problem behind the symptoms and make better decisions.
Read MorePart 1 of 5: Data is everywhere in coffee, but collecting it doesn't automatically make it useful. Data scientist, software developer, and coffee producer Oscar Montoya joins Lee Safar to explore how raw data becomes actionable information and why people, processes, and real business problems should come before technology.
Read MorePart 5 of 5: In our annual series with George Howell, we explore why George believes more people should drink black coffee and how cafés can make that experience more accessible. We also discuss single-farm coffee, consumer education, restaurants, brewing, and George’s hopes for farmers and quality coffee over the decades ahead.
Read MorePart 4 of 5: In our annual series with George Howell, we explore scoring, commenting, transparency, and how the coffee industry communicates quality. George explains why scoring remains an important internal tool, why consumers do not necessarily need numerical scores, and why exceptional coffees should be judged according to their own potential rather than against the reputation of a particular origin or variety.
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