Coffee Insights: Flavor, Notes, Health, and Justice
Exploring the journey of coffee from farm to cup with expert Jen Stone, delving into flavors, cupping, & the ethics of coffee production. Music & Health, too Full 36-min episode on YouTube Two five-minute clips on YouTube. Click here to view or download the printable newsletter Contents Episode Proem When I take two minutes to bitch about the annoyances of having Multiple Sclerosis, I insist that I can’t be repetitive. I must whine and complain with new words. How many words do we have for describing symptoms of pain? Not enough. Sharp, dull, achy, daily, itchy radiating, nauseating, disabling. Greenland has 46 words for snow and no wonder. Profound knowledge about something leads to more words being needed and created. The better we can describe ourselves to ourselves, the deeper we understand our nuances. More accurate and specific descriptions lead to better communication of our symptoms, moods, and circumstances with our health team. Then, we can make informed decisions, plan, and adjust together. Believe it or not, this rant about words leads us to today’s episode on coffee. Welcome to my new hat – coffee snob. Our guest is Jennifer Stone, my colleague in my Thursday morning mastermind group for solo entrepreneurs. Jen is a Sommelier of Coffee and the host of the Coffee Explorer Podcast, a Quality Lecturer, and a Licensed Q Grader by the Coffee Quality Institute. She is internationally recognized as an Expert Coffee Taster and Judge for the Cup of Excellence . She has expertise in finding, sourcing, and sharing remarkable coffees from quality global producers. Over her career, she’s opened multiple cafes and created several direct-to-consumer and business-to-business specialty coffee brands. She provided expertise to others in these areas and is always excited to share the best ways to brew coffee with the market. Jen Stone has opened my eyes in unexpected ways. Drink up! Podcast intro Welcome to Health Hats, the Podcast. I’m Danny van Leeuwen, a two-legged cisgender old white man of privilege who knows a little bit about a lot of healthcare and a lot about very little. We will listen and learn about what it takes to adjust to life’s realities in the awesome circus of healthcare. Let’s make some sense of all of this. Introducing Jennifer Stone Health Hats: Jen, you’ve opened many senses for me. We met over the business. We are working together on our business; you know how that’s growing and managing. But I’ve learned from you about coffee, not just coffee. It’s about the sense of taste because it’s not just, you know, while I’m learning to appreciate fine coffee. I was concentrating more on what was happening in my mouth. I’m finding it with food, chocolate, and alcohol, and just more awareness. Health is Fragile Health Hats: When did you first realize health was fragile? Jennifer Stone: This is such an interesting question. I love that you asked about the word health as fragile and not life as fragile. When a loved one passes, or you have a near-death experience, that speaks about life, but health, specifically, is a little vaguer. About a year and a half ago, I could say I loved to run. I’m not fast, but I love to jog and exercise. One of my knee joints began to wear down. I have some arthritis in one of my knees, and it felt like this bone-on-bone thing. It was disabling. After a few days of it not going away, no matter how much ibuprofen I took, I realized I needed my knee to strengthen. I don’t want to focus on my knee. I had a dog who needed to run outside quickly occasionally. And I need to be able to take care of my family and go to the grocery. My job requires me to go through airports, make presentations, and stand and walk. It’s a privileged framework, but I have always been ridiculously healthy. Thank God I have had my health, so I’m sensitive to anything glitchy. It was frustrating, and I realized that that little thing could impact my life, much less something larger. Profound Knowledge of Coffee or Caffein