La Taza Habla Podcast

Stop settling for a gray, lifeless cup. In this episode of La Taza Habla, Don explores how tasting in color can transform coffee from a caffeine hit into a moment...

What if the secret to understanding your coffee isn’t in your taste buds, but in your ears? In this episode of La Taza Habla, Don introduces the “Listener’s Guide to...

Coffee was once illegal, punishable by imprisonment or death. In this episode of La Taza Habla, we explore how coffeehouses became dangerous spaces of conversation, revolution, and independence—and why that...

The Boston Tea Party helped make coffee America’s drink of independence. Here’s why conviction in your cup still matters.

Making green beans brown became a lesson in rebuilding through community. This episode explores how every cup can reflect equity from cafe to origin.

Don reflects on legacy, faith, and community in the High Country, sharing how a life once shaped by struggle became rooted in service and connection. In this final episode of...

After a devastating fire destroyed a Boone roastery, Don reflects on what it truly means to start over. This episode explores resilience, trust, and the long obedience required to finish...

This episode traces a 20-year journey of specialty coffee roasting in Boone, from the early days of the Bald Guy Buggy to surviving arson, hurricanes, and economic crashes. It’s a...

Don shares how a life-altering TBI redirected his path from academia to the roastery. This episode explores sensory-driven coffee roasting, honoring origin, and what it means to be built for...

Deep dive into Mexico’s top coffee regions—Chiapas, Veracruz, and Oaxaca. Discover flavor profiles, organic farming traditions, and why Mexico leads the world in USDA certified organic coffee.

Exploration of Mexico’s Paradox of Fragility, from the ritual of Café de Olla to the 1989 collapse that forced smallholders into organic farming as a means of survival. It is...

This episode introduces the lumber grading analogy to better understand the Specialty Coffee Scoring System for evaluating coffees.  This distinction reveals that the high score validates the cup's flawlessness, but...

This episode explores the regional diversity (terroir) of Colombian specialty coffee by mapping the distinct flavor profiles of five regions (Huila, Nariño, Antioquia, Tolima, Sierra Nevada) across the country's three...

The episode is about Colombian coffee, its history, the intensive labor required for specialty coffee quality (the "paradox of plenty"), and the current threats to its future supply.

Journey to Costa Rica’s highest coffee-growing region Chirripó, where altitude, microclimates, and ethics converge. Discover how the country’s “liquid geography” create one of the world’s most complex and meaningful cups.

Ever grabbed a bag of Costa Rican coffee at the store and assumed you knew what you were getting? In Part 1 of this two-part journey, we shatter that myth....

Don shares a personal story from seminary days to illustrate why freshly roasted beans need to rest. The key is a process called degassing, where coffee releases CO2 for 24...

Welcome back to La Taza Habla, the podcast where we bring you 20 years of specialty coffee stories! In this insightful episode, we crack open the fascinating world of coffee processing and uncover how...

What if the global journey of coffee began with seven smuggled beans hidden in a pilgrim’s beard? In this episode of La Taza Habla, Don traces coffee’s path from Yemen...

Travel with us through time to the birthplace of coffee in ancient Abysannia.