IS COFFEE HEALTHY? THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO A CLEANER CUP

Coffee Health Claims And Big Warning

Dr Pompa 0:00

I think coffee, when done correct, is one of the healthiest things we can drink. And there's benefits to it. I mean, all the way back 500 AD, they were utilizing this for health reasons.

SPEAKER_00 0:10

It's hard to really know what you're drinking. I've seen it even like on a more of a commodity scale. I've seen it happen where people put soybeans in the coffee.

Dr Pompa 0:17

A lot of people are taking expensive probiotics. They're doing all these different diet changes, wondering why they have food intolerances, lectin, histamines, all these issues, gut issues, and it could be their coffee.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

The ranking system is very broken in coffee. It's not like wine.

Dr Pompa 0:33

When you adapt, you actually get stronger. So you have some of the longest-living people at elevation.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

If you're buying a technically a specialty coffee, by default it is tested for mold at origin, and you can be assured that it's not going to have mold at that point. The problem is that that people lean on that too much. What about by the time when it gets on the ship in transit?

Why Coffee Quality Is Hard

Dr Pompa 0:52

Oh, wait till you hear this conversation about coffee. It's going to blow you away. It's not what you think. I'm going to say that right now. There is a coffee, the only one in the world that doesn't have something that all the other coffees have, even the organic ones. You're going to hear about that. But you're going to hear it from a health perspective. Why I believe you need to be drinking this for your health. Yeah, and you're going to get addicted too, like I did. I finally switched coffees to this, but this conversation goes beyond that. Stay tuned. What are the top problems with coffee? Like what, like, I mean, the top problems. Like when people are drinking their coffee, they're thinking that they're getting just a coffee, you know, healthy coffee and it's coffee. But top problems, what are they?

SPEAKER_00 1:36

Ooh, so there's a big difference. So a lot of it is the can the perception that the coffee is a specialty coffee or it's a really uh it goes through a methodical process. That perception is one of the big problems. So where where I'm going with that is a lot of people think they're buying a coffee that's highly scrutinized, but it's oftentimes a sort of a commercial coffee. It's it's it's you know mass produced and there's not a lot of attention to detail. Like, for example, what specialty coffee has a a range of definite different definitions. It's primarily defined by the number of defects, right? There are no primary defects, there are five or less secondary defects.

Dr Pompa 2:11

Oh, wait, but for my viewers or listeners, what do you mean?

SPEAKER_00 2:14

So what I mean by that is mold is a is a primary defect. So if you're buying a technically a specialty coffee, but by default, it is tested for mold at origin, and you can be assured that it's not going to have mold at that point. The problem is, and this goes to part of your question, the problem is that that people lean on that too much. What about by the time when it gets on the ship in transit? Oh, and then everyone gets sort of sloppy and it's like, oh, it's not mold, you know, we tested it at origin. That's just half the battle. So the big thing is, is it getting moldy in transit? Oftentimes not, but shipping containers are shipping containers. They have cracks, they have holes. If you don't have, you know, we'll do um hermetic packaging in the burlap bags, which is becoming more common, yeah. Which helps prevent moisture that gets in the shipping container when it's overseas for four weeks to even eight weeks.

Dr Pompa 3:03

Uh it's kind of the old-fashioned way, right? I mean, like those burlap.

SPEAKER_00 3:07

Yeah, the burlap bags, right? So now there's hermetic bags, they're called grain pro bags, that you line with the burlap bags. So the coffee is in a hermetic bag, protected from any moisture for that purpose exactly. So that so you don't get contamination. Again, what happens when they pierce the bags? They're not supposed to, but you use hooks. It happens all the time. So you see a bag that's hermetic, everything looks great. The boxes are all checked, but there's holes in the back.

Dr Pompa 3:31

When you say hermetic, what does that even mean?

SPEAKER_00 3:33

Hermetics means that it's just it's clean, it's it's completely a contaminant-free food-grade bag. Okay. So that the but we get it all the time where there's holes in them. You know, if you don't have a standard operating procedure to look for mold, so it starts with you want to make sure they're hermetic bags. You want to get the thicker grade hermetic bags. Once they arrive at the facility, you want to have a climate-controlled facility. And really, you just have to stay on the ball. And you know, you have to know what port is it coming into. Is it being left behind? Is it being stored somewhere? You know, Miami is notorious if you're not careful because it's so humid there.

Dr Pompa 4:08

Oh my gosh. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:09

So so we we bring it into the warehouse, and then you know, we, you know, at that point, but we test it, we still test it, even after doing all those steps.

Dr Pompa 4:16

How many companies do that testing? I mean, it if they're saying mold-free, they're typically doing it at the origin, right? Not through the shipping, well, you know, or I should say not before um, you know, at the end of the process. You test at the end of the process. How many companies do that?

SPEAKER_00 4:32

I I can't tell you that there are any. There there may be some. There are many who claim to. So I'm gonna give them the benefit of the doubt, but I can't verify it. Okay. Because I find it's I that's what's frustrating about uh as a coffee drinker. Right. What's frustrating for me, and it goes back to your original question, is it's hard to really know what you're drinking. Yeah. You know, I I've seen it even like on a more of a commodity scale. I've seen it happen where people put soybeans in the coffee. Yeah. Yeah, you know, they get away with it. You can do that. And especially larger commercial processes, you really don't know what you're drinking what you're drinking.

Mold Mycotoxins And Gut Inflammation

Dr Pompa 5:02

So they're just cutting it with some soybean, it gets ground up in the you, you just never know, but you ended up with some soybeans, probably genetically modified. Okay, so mold is a big one. I want to bring some light to that because that's there's probably a lot of viewers right now that are like, yeah, so what do you what do you mean? Why is that even a problem? There's a chemical issue, obviously, pesticides, uh, things of that sort. I bet most of my viewers are saying I get an organic um coffee, but again, that does not mean it doesn't not have mold. And to your point, there's a dang good chance it does, even when they say mold-free, because they're only testing at the source or the origin. Right. And just not knowing. Right.

SPEAKER_00 5:42

You know, not knowing that it's the mycotoxins that you really have to be concerned of. It's the the mold mold poop, so to speak. Right. Yeah. There's there's aflatoxin and then there's okrotoxin. Aflotoxin is less relevant, most of it burns off in roasting. Ocro toxin, 50, 60% burns off, but you still got that 40%. And, you know, there are acceptable thresholds in Europe for okro toxin, for example. You know, I I would just rather not have it in the coffee rather than have to kind of trust the acceptable thresholds.

Dr Pompa 6:09

Well, but by the way, the reason why we're having this conversation is because that is extremely unhealthy for your microbiome, your gut. And a lot of people are taking expensive probiotics, they're doing all these different diet changes, wondering why they have food intolerances, lectin, histamines, all these issues, gut issues. And it could be their coffee that they're sourcing organic. They think it's healthy. But if there are these aflotoxins and different mold toxins, they're really called mycotoxins, just to give a broad name on it. In the coffee, which there most have it, right? You're gonna irritate your gut. You're creating gut inflammation.

SPEAKER_00 6:46

Exactly. And you don't know. And the problem is you don't know if it is or it isn't there. And that's and so that's I I to me it's peace of mind. You know, for example, we test for heavy metals. Is heavy metals an issue with coffee? No, it's not. Uh, do we test? Are we gonna always continue to test for heavy metals? Absolutely. Uh, because people don't really you don't want, don't you don't have to trust us. We want to verify that. And the reason we test for heavy metals is because people are really concerned with cocoa, cacao, chocolate. Which heavy metal, a lot of heavy metals. Big issues there. Yeah. Uh so for that reason.

Dr Pompa 7:17

That's the way they process it, actually, a lot of it. And um, I I think also some things um, even in the uh the way they're harvesting it, uh, there's all these reasons why they have heavy metals, but right.

SPEAKER_00 7:29

And coffee doesn't for that for those reasons. But we test it anyway, and you can see that it's free of metals. Pesticides is a big one. A lot of the farms, the really good, the higher quality farms, they don't use pesticides. Many of them can't afford it, but some do. And there are some really good coffees where they use pesticides, and as you you you visited, you know, you know how it is. Yep. And some of those pesticides are nasty. Yeah. Some of those pesticides, and especially in developing countries. Yeah. So um, you know, that's a big one. I that's one that's really important to me. And I don't necessarily trust organic with that, especially with herbicides. The thing is, in these developing countries, you cannot trust, you cannot unequivocally trust the organic certification. Time and time again, the if you look at the exports of organic costs. It doesn't match with the production. Yeah, and it's because people cheat, it's human nature. Yeah, you know, so uh you just need to test it and test and verify. Yeah. Did you there was a thing in Florida recently where they tested a bunch of breads for glyphosate. And it was uh a big thing. Uh Governor DeSantis was talking about it, and they all of a sudden started testing breads for glyphosate. One of the top contenders was an organic certified bread. Really? Wow. I have to find that.

Dr Pompa 8:39

That's very interesting. Wow. And it and again, because they were sourcing it where they said they weren't, right? It's like so uh maybe they had an organic source, they couldn't get it, now they sourced it over here, non-organic, right? And their labels still say organic and it's not, right? So it could be and I would spray. Yeah. If a if a farm says they're organic, yeah, they are organic, meaning like they're not going to risk it. So I because people get crossed up on that, right? Meaning that you know they think like, oh yeah, farm saying that they're organic. No, no, no. They're getting tested. If they're claiming organic, they pay a lot to get there, they're organic. What we're saying is that companies all of a sudden start bringing a product from somewhere else. Yeah. It's not organic.

SPEAKER_00 9:19

Yes, or it could be overspray from another farm or winter.

Dr Pompa 9:21

That happens. Absolutely. Yes. But again, and then there's a period of time. Now, when they come and test it, they could get lose their label, but in that time they just sold a bunch of product, maybe that had yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:31

Exactly. That can happen. Now, in in in developing countries with organic certification, where the switch can happen is at the mill. And that can happen. And it statistically, it happens. Oh my gosh. Where the, you know, hey, can you label it this? And you know, you get way more money for it, and it's just a switch. It's a thing that happens at the processing mill. So again, not the not the fault of the organic farmer. It's actually not their farm's coffee you're drinking. Exactly. You know, so that's where I think you have to know your source.

Dr Pompa 9:54

I mean, Trevista, you uh you obviously you know you know every source you're getting, obviously, and you're testing it still, you know, not just at the origin, but at the at the end point. So yeah, that's what makes it fun.

SPEAKER_00 10:07

Yeah.

Dr Pompa 10:08

And I want to talk about something else that's unique about your coffee. But before I do it, and by the way, you're the only coffee in the world, at least that I know of, that can make this claim. We'll we'll talk about that in a minute. But so you're the one that goes around and sources these coffees, right? Yes. It's a fun job. Yeah, it it's not Jason. He's not doing that.

SPEAKER_00 10:29

No, he leaves that to me. That's that's my job. He deals with all the other stuff. Yeah. Which is great for me. I enjoy it. I just want to do the coffee. I want to focus on that.

Dr Pompa 10:37

So uh, like tell me a little bit about some of the stories, where you've been, where you've gone, some of your favorite coffees.

SPEAKER_00 10:42

Oh boy, wow. It's that's a that's a loaded question. I could go on and on with that. But I would start with Africa. I would say, one of my favorite countries is Ethiopia. The culture of coffee there is amazing. I've never seen anything quite like the culture of Ethiopia. They have these coffee ceremonies where the whole neighborhood, the whole villages all get together and they have these ceremonies. And it's really a process of you you roast the coffee green over an open fire in a in a basically a fry pan, uh, you know, and it's just very rough roasted coffee. Nice. It's a very primitive process, but often disputes are settled over coffee ceremonies. It's uh it's really using coffee for a conversation. And I really think that part of the reason why it's such a sort of healthy culture in Ethiopia, people are really communicative, really friendly. Uh it's because they communicate a lot, because they do these friendship ceremonies.

Dr Pompa 11:33

So what are the health uh statistics there? Not that you know off the top of your head, but I mean I it it's extremely healthy, very uh little degenerative disease, sounds like. Yeah, you mean in Ethiopia? Yeah, in Ethiopia.

SPEAKER_00 11:47

Yeah, you know, short of the 80s, the horrible things that happen to them then. But I mean it's generally they are very healthy people. They have a long, I mean, they just the mentality is is is different there as well. You know, I do. I I wonder sometimes. I mean, coffee is so integral to their culture. I wonder if the antioxidant value of coffee uh has something to do with their health, you know, because you get a lot more chlorogenic chlorogenic acids in those coffees. Um and they're just a lot of them are we were talking about.

Dr Pompa 12:16

And by the way, that raises glutathione. Okay, I did not know that. That's interesting. Yeah. So that I mean, so a lot of these uh different antioxidants, by the way, that's why coffee enemas actually uh work. Is that why? Yeah, it's because it's uh um that goes through the portal vein and then it stimulates the release of glutathione and bile. So you actually even dump the bile.

SPEAKER_00 12:40

So Ethiopian coffee is great for Yeah, exactly.

Dr Pompa 12:44

That's a great use of that coffee. Yeah, um, yeah, so that's uh it it would be. Yeah, so Ethiopia, you know, I I've been to Africa a few times, and um when I went into the bush, they literally didn't have names for certain diseases because they didn't exist. You know, I I bet you there's parts of Ethiopia that's the same way, especially in the older communities.

Elevation Hormesis And Arabica Basics

SPEAKER_00 13:06

Probably, but you know, the other thing is they're higher elevation, you know, where we grow coffee, it's much higher elevation. Coffee likes average median temperatures of like 68 to 72 degrees. So whenever you're going somewhere, now I'm I'm talking about Arabica coffee, not robusta, which is lower elevation, but when you're going somewhere that's uh got a higher elevation, you know, it's an Arabica coffee, you always know the weather's gonna be great all the time. 72, maybe 58 at the lows. And it likes that swing, that 50, you know, it likes to go down to 58. Once once you go down lower than that, the coffee struggle, you know, and that's why you have problems in Brazil with frostblight and huge crop disturbances. But um, but Ethiopia, it's so it's a little different than say going to you know, um, lower elevation West Africa, you know, it's a it's a different different vibe kind of altogether.

Dr Pompa 13:52

Well, I mean, being at higher when you live at higher elevation, actually, it's a there's a hormitic effect, meaning you have some things that happen. You have a little bit more cosmic radiation, the body adapts to that with raising glutathione. Uh, you have less pressure, so you have less oxygen, your body adapts to that. So the premise of hormesis is the adaptation that the body the stress forces the body to do. When you adapt, you actually get stronger. So you have some of the longest living people at elevation.

SPEAKER_00 14:23

So is that is the adaptation largely due to the radiation and the and the less oxygen? Yeah, exactly. I never considered that.

Dr Pompa 14:30

It's actually not less oxygen. That's a misnomer. That's not it. Yeah, okay. It's less pressure, right? So you know, as you raise up, like I live up in Park City, right? We have the same amount of oxygen as down here, right? But the pressure's lower, so therefore you don't get the oxygen in. It feels like you have less oxygen because technically you do have less oxygen because you're not getting it pressurized. But in the air, it's the same. Does that mean I didn't never do that? If you go up to like Mount Everest, it's the same amount of oxygen, you know, but the pressure's so low, you don't get it. So you have less oxygen. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 15:02

I did never realize that.

Dr Pompa 15:04

But that adaptation that the body goes through to, you know, in that process, because after a few days you adapt, right? But that adaptation actually brings uh other health benefits with it. Wow. Okay. So that's a big part of it. Uh you know, and it's the same in the coffee as the wine, uh, grapes, right? They're going through a similar adaptation. You know, so they like that that elevation and it makes a dang good coffee.

SPEAKER_00 15:26

And you know, that's the other thing about Ethiopia is you know, the the countries like that that go through a dry season during harvest, the plants stress. The plants stress out with lack of water. Right. And it just produces an amazing.

Dr Pompa 15:37

And then you combine that just like a uh a grape. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:40

Yeah, just like a grape. And so, and also when it gets cooler, when it gets down to that high 50s, low sixties, the starches uh it converts the starch to sugar. So you get a much sweeter coffee. That's one of the reasons why Arabica specialty coffees, higher elevation are do you do all Arabica? Uh yeah, we do all arabica. Yeah. I mean, yeah.

Dr Pompa 15:58

I mean there's but that's why you're saying it's it it does better than elevation. Typically, it's a sweeter um coffee, has that, you know, which I I prefer Arabica. Maybe we explain to the uh viewers the difference. Arabica.

SPEAKER_00 16:12

So Robusto is twice as much caffeine. It's a lower elevation coffee, originated in it's native to like Uganda and some of the lower elevation countries. Uh Arabica is native exclusively to Ethiopia. That's the homeland, you know, originally. We actually did an episode of Yeah, but it's grown other places now. But it's from originally, all of it came from Ethiopia, which is interesting. We went to the wild forest. We did an episode in in Chasing Coffee, uh, where we went to our first episode was Ethiopia. And we went to the uh Biosphere Preserve. It's the original wild forest of coffee. And it's it's just it's it's amazing. You go through in the entire forest is wild coffee trees that have been there since the beginning of who knows, 10,000 plus years. Oh, yeah. And all the trees, you know, so coffee, you know, they are they're self-pollinators. So when you see a coffee tree growing randomly, it's because some monkey was eating the seed and spit it out, or something moved it there. You know, there's even uh you know, the the coffee was not brewed by the Ethiopians until really much later on, like it the coffee was when they went to the first time the eat coffee left Ethiopia was right around most people think around 525 AD when the Aroma warriors went to the Arab Peninsula at the behest of I think it was Justinian II. And that was they weren't a conquering people generally, but they did go to the Arab Peninsula. And since they left the Arab Peninsula, that's when coffee entered the Arab world. Oh, and there was so remnants of coffee being there. So that's when it first started leaving, uh that's when it first left Ethiopia. And uh, but they were using it more as like energy balls, you know. They would eat it, they would they would take the coffee cherry, would mix it with fat, and travel and just eat eat these balls. Dude, we should make those. I was thinking, I thought about that. It would be really good. I want a good energy ball.

Dr Pompa 18:00

It would be really good. Out of coffee and fat. I mean, come on. Yeah, I know. It sounds great.

SPEAKER_00 18:04

Uh-huh. We make tea from the flesh. I have dried. I'll send you some if you want some time. It's called cascara. It's uh it's dried coffee flesh. Uh it's just the flesh and it's good. It tastes a little bit like a like a honey kind of when you make tea.

Dr Pompa 18:16

Yeah, people, uh, you know, there's there's debate over coffee. I uh I haven't even said this yet. I I think coffee, when done correct, is one of the healthiest things we can drink. And there's benefits to it. Um to your point, I mean, all the way back 500 AD, they were utilizing this for health reasons, and you know, yeah, and obviously for pleasure. But uh it's when the coffee's done wrong that is the issue. A little caffeine is extremely healthy. I I have done Instagram videos on that, right? Just like a little bit of alcohol is healthy. Again, that hormesis, that that premise of hormesis, that a little bit of a stress actually creates all these adaptations in the body that's amazing. Too much alcohol, too much stress is a bad thing. Too much caffeine is a bad thing. So Arabica coffee has less caffeine. Yes. Um, but yet, hey, it it's enough for me. That's for sure. It gets me going. Oh, yeah, it's hard.

SPEAKER_00 19:12

It's it's my challenge in life is not to have too much caffeine every day. Really, it really is.

Dr Pompa 19:17

Yeah, because it lights your brain up. But yeah, I'm telling you, the benefits, I've done the videos on it, the benefits of caffeine are extraordinary. I mean, even just straight caffeine, let alone coffee, has all these antioxidants that we're talking about when it's done correct. So, what ruins the antioxidants? Because again, when people the average coffee that people are drinking from the store, it is not loaded with all of these benefits and antioxidants that we're talking about.

SPEAKER_00 19:43

So a lot of them are lower elevation coffees for one thing, so they don't have uh as much chlorogenic acid. Robusta has a lot more chlorogenic acid. That's the exception. Uh however, Robusta in general is just a problematic coffee.

Dr Pompa 19:56

And again, the chlorogenic acid, it stimulates glutathione production. I taught him something that was awesome. Yes, you did. You taught me many things. Yeah, and when you use it for a coffee enema, it stimulates the bile dump.

SPEAKER_00 20:06

Yeah, that's that that's a new one. That's that's one I'll hold on to. That's interesting. Um, but yeah, it's it's it really the the lower elevation coffees are problematic because it's hard to maintain uh cleanliness. They can be they you people you need to use pesticides because at lower elevations, it's warmer temperatures. It's hard to have an organic coffee at low elevation. Very hard to find an organic coffee at lower elevation. Yeah. But you can, it's just hard to find. Wow. So it's just there's there's so many elements you're up against.

Dr Pompa 20:33

So I mean, it then it really does push us into the Arabica coffee if you're looking for high antioxidants, no pesticides, you know, a healthier coffee in general. Yes.

Decaf Methods And Chemical Risks

SPEAKER_00 20:43

So something that's clean, you know. So yeah, that's a big I mean the way we've done it, you know, we do also have a decaf now that we've been focusing on. We have two decafs.

Dr Pompa 20:52

Yeah, because some people just cannot do caffeine because their adrenals are shot for whatever reason. Right.

SPEAKER_00 20:57

Or you just can't sleep at night. You want to have I mean, I've never been much of a decaf drinker, uh, you know, but it's uh now I am because I really like where decaf has come. You know, we use uh two different processes. We use a mountain water process and then we use a Swiss water process. And it's just it's basically from the it's it's fresh water and filtration. That's all it is. You you steam the beans, uh, and then you just you use spring water and you use uh carbon filtration to capture the caffeine.

Dr Pompa 21:25

Most often it's done with a very high chemical process, actually, decaf. It's very common. Decaf is not healthy because of that process. So you're saying you're just using a water extraction.

SPEAKER_00 21:36

Ours is totally healthy because it uses water extraction. There's also one called ethyl acetate, which is used as alcohols uh from uh sugarcane, where that's a great process. However, it's very difficult to get certified organic with that process. So we do these two processes, they're super clean, and you just have that peace of mind. And I love having decaf like in the evening now. Like sunset coffee is a thing. Is there is there some caffeine? Like 2%, 1%. Okay. It's pretty negligible. Pretty negligible. You don't feel the shakes, you could sleep well. Yeah. At least I can. The methylene chloride. Uh, have you heard these recent lawsuits that are out against one of these big companies for coffee? There's a big thing now that there's a big lawsuit against one of these big coffee companies. And it's uh had you know the methylene chloride. They're saying, look, there's they're finding large amounts of it in the in the coffee. And what's interesting is I've always stayed away from it because it just it just scares me. And I didn't want to do the research myself to really be assured that there is no methylene chloride residue in the coffee because technically the evaluation. Where's it come from? Uh methylene chloride. It's uh it's it's a chemical they use for like paint strippers, paint that are clean metals with it. Uh it's a very common industrial chemical. Yeah, but how's it ending up in the coffee? So here's what happens. Um what happens is you use it, you it's very similar to with all coffees, when you decaffe, you when you decaffeinate them, you steam the coffee to open up the pores. And that helps rele begin the release of the caffeine, but you need something to pull the caffeine off. So with uh these Swiss water methods, you're using steam and heat, and then you're using um you're using filtration to capture the caffeine. What you're doing with methylene chloride is it binds to the caffeine instead of filters, right? So but it binds, it very it what it does is it binds to the caffeine and not the flavor solubles, like all the all the soluble compounds, all the um the chemical compounds that are good that you want. Sometimes with the charcoal filtration, that's more of a challenge. Now, there's a a a newer technique that has helped alleviate that so that the water process, the coffee tastes just as good as methylene chloride. But for many, many decades, methylene chloride was a superior tasting product because that that um that chemical attaches to the caffeine almost like a magnet. Only the caffeine. Yeah, and that's why it's so popular. However, it's it it's it's got a dissolve rate of like 104 degrees. So you could argue, and I did in my mind, as a younger roaster 20 years ago, used to think there's nothing wrong with it because it burns off. You roast the coffee at 400 degrees, it's got an evaporation rate of 104. So, what could be the problem? But there are air pockets in coffee, you know? I don't know. Is it getting soaked into the bean?

Dr Pompa 24:15

Yeah, maybe unprotected. Um what's the what are they f what's the lawsuit about? What's the problem?

SPEAKER_00 24:21

The lawsuit is that there are uh dangerous levels uh beyond the FDA approved levels, which the FDA says you can have 10 parts per billion or less. This is only in decaf of methylene chloride. This is only in decaf course. And it's only this process, it's called the KVW process. Okay. But like you said, it's the most popular process, it sounds like it's the most popular because it's cheapest and it tastes it taste keeps the taste in the coffee. I would argue the taste thing is no longer relevant, but it's it's cheaper. That's the main thing.

Dr Pompa 24:46

Okay, yeah. Trevor Burrus, Jr.: But what what is this uh chemical cause? If there's a lawsuit, that means they realize it was causing some things. What is that?

SPEAKER_00 24:53

Well, I don't know enough about what it does to you. I know it's a neurotoxic, I believe it's neurotoxic. I don't know, you would know that. You would know better than I would what it does to you. I know it sounds really scary and I don't trust it. I don't want a paint stripper in my coffee. So um I haven't good I haven't gone down that road of what it does to you. I've just stayed away from it because I don't trust it. Yeah. But um, I do know that it's it's uh the levels were so supposedly really high. I can't find what those levels were. I don't think those have been disclosed yet. It'd be very interesting to know.

Dr Pompa 25:20

Your your decaf coffee still, would you say it tastes the same?

SPEAKER_00 25:25

Oh, it's so good. No, it's a little different, it's just different characteristically. Like, for example, it's the body, it's so we have one called Decaf Rich Awakening. Our Rich Awakening profile, I I love it because it's got a very sort of almond structure. It's clearly you can taste the almond-y, almondy. Yeah, there's there are aldehydes in there, right? And so it's it's it tastes that way. And when you add cream, especially in the espresso, it kind of turns into this amaretto play and almost like an almond liqueur. Oh, wow. But it has also a brown spice on the finished, kind of like nutmeg, cinnamony kind of, and you can taste it like after you sip it, you can taste it. And then there's a lot of chocolate, you know. And so I would say our decaf has not quite the almond. I think there's something that happens with some of the the furons and aldehydes when you decaffeinate. So you you don't get quite the, but you do get the brown spice and you get the chocolate. And you so I found that the key to good decaf, in my opinion, is focusing on the strengths of what you can and can't do with decaf instead of trying to make a one-size-fits-all coffee and then force it to be a decaf. Because you're always going to have some fluctuations when you change the processing method. So I that's why I love my decaf, our decaf is my favorite decaf ever by far, because we designed it, I think, the right way. We didn't try and push it to something it can't do very well. Yeah. You know, like a lot of the really fruity floral coffees, I just don't try to make those decaf. It just doesn't come through properly. I think decaf can be a really good comfort coffee. And so that's what we've done with it. Yeah. And then we have a document.

Dr Pompa 26:54

I haven't tried it. I can't wait to try it. I have some here. Oh man. In fact, I have a bag right here. In fact, that's awesome.

QR Codes And Transparent Lab Results

SPEAKER_00 27:00

This is our decaf Rich Awakening. And that's awesome. Uh, like all the other coffees, there's a QR code at the top. The QR code you can scan. We have a roast ID number and uh a batch number. So we have a roast I we have a the date of when it was roasted is is stamped at the top, and then we have a roast ID. With that roast ID number, you can patch that number in on our website and it gives you the labs right away. And you can see that we test for acrylamides, for pesticides. Uh, you can also just scan the barcode and it boom, it it brings the labs right up and you can download those labs or view them or print them. And that's that's what I like because it's so hard to find some of these companies that say they test and you can't find the labs. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. You guys have the labs right now. We make them like easy to find, easy to access.

Dr Pompa 27:45

Okay. Truista is the only company that I know that can make the claim acrylamide free. Most people watching this have no idea what an acrylamide is, but it's highly dangerous, especially for some people that don't get rid of it very very much, or very well, I should say. And it accumulates in the body. And that is very bad because if we're talking about the benefits of antioxidants, this is exactly the opposite. So talk about these acrylamides. Non-detectable acrylamides says right there, says organic, farm direct, mold and mycotoxin-free, lab certified, low acid, everything we want in a perfect coffee. Yes. Yes. Okay. Um, so there, and by the way, I switched over. I you the video that you'll see on uh Instagram, um, right, Hallie, I said I finally switched. Oh, you switched over? Yeah, I took the coffee switch. No, because I kept, I was, you know, when you get used to a certain coffee, you don't switch. You know, it's hard to switch. Yeah, and it was like, well, you're this product made me switch. No, which do you remember which one you switched to? Um I this the one right here, exactly. The Northern Italian. Oh, nice. So you do the espresso. Yeah. Oh, right on. So that yeah, this is the one.

SPEAKER_00 29:02

So you pick up the have you tried it with how do you drink it? Do you drink it as a latte or do you drink it with like a little bit of half and half, straight shots?

Dr Pompa 29:09

No, so yeah. I mean, I I'd probably do a little bit of it all. But I don't I start with one cup in the morning. That's all I do. Okay. Yeah. So um either, you know, I my ex- You saw my espresso machine, right? Yeah. You have a nice machine. It's easy. And it's plastic-free, right? But my plastic-free, yeah, exactly. Um but you know, uh the ease of French roast, I like. You know, just a French uh response. Yeah, the French press. Yeah, because the French press like I like the ease of Now do you do that as a French press as well?

SPEAKER_00 29:36

I do. Oh, I do it both ways. You can. And sometimes you can't with espresso. Sometimes espresso doesn't play as well in a coffee. That one does.

Dr Pompa 29:42

Yeah, no, exactly. Matter of fact, I had asked uh Jason if I could. And he was like, Yeah, yeah, you can. Trust me. Yeah, but that way it's because I can't switch the beans away. Matter of fact, my brain's going, I want this, the decaf, just to have a coffee later in the day. Because I drink one cup of coffee in the morning, that's it. And but I want to have coffee, I love the taste of coffee, especially good coffee. So I want that, but I have to grind it somewhere else, though, because I don't want to dump the beans out of my grinder, you know. So I see, yeah, I hear you.

SPEAKER_00 30:12

Yeah, you'd almost have to have another grinder or something.

Dr Pompa 30:14

Yeah, otherwise um I'd have to dump the beer, which gets which gets messy. My grinder's pretty heavy and big. But anyway, so I'm I'm literally to have that, I'm gonna get a different grinder.

SPEAKER_00 30:24

You should. You should get another grinder for that. You know, that's I'm I'm kind of like right there with you because I was not, I've been really digging into enjoying decaf. It's I I sort of forget that I can, oh I can have decaf now, you know. And I like doing the little mocha pots with the decaf. Yeah, and make it sort of like an espresso in a sense, you know. What do you do with those mocha? They're like the there's a company called Bioletti that makes one. I have another one. You put the pot, you you basically ground the coffee up, you put it in a little chamber. Right, yeah, like those mocha things. Yeah, it's a good, it's a just quick, easy, but you can, you know, it's you make it. I I'll tell you, if you put a little, I always say that these coffees, they're really good, black. And Monday through Friday I drink them black. On the weekends, I put a little cream in there, and it's fun to do it because it changes a little bit, like I said before, almond, it's more almond-y when it's black, but when you put a little cream, it turns amaretto. And the cream allows that brown spice to stay on your palate longer. And you almost get like a almost like a fresh cut cedar mahogany taste uh flavor. You know, sort of like if you ever I remember one time going into a uh uh in Honduras, a cigar manufacturer, they were making cigar boxes and that smell. And it always helps me now with coffee because I I taste that and cedar sometimes. So you get that on the back end in a really pleasant way.

Acrylamide Explained From Plant To Roast

Dr Pompa 31:38

Coffee's like wine, you know. It's like once you get better at you know really finding the tastes and acknowledging them, it's uh you know, you become addicted. Makes it fun, it's nuanced.

SPEAKER_00 31:50

And that's where but the acrylamide thing is an interesting uh topic because you know, I I'll be honest, I mean, I've been in the business now for over 30 years, and I've been roasting for 20 plus years, and I never really took a I never took acrylamide serious seriously. I didn't really understand the mTHFR DNA mutation, which you've spoken about that before. I didn't understand a lot of that stuff as a coffee roaster. And when I met Jason, he sort of drew my attention to it, and I started jumping into this world of people that really want to know more what they're drinking. And you know, I'm thinking to myself, okay, if you really do the math, coffee has a lot less acrylamide than say French fries or bread. Oh, yeah. But you drink it every day all the time. That's right.

Dr Pompa 32:31

And some people it accumulates, exactly. Yeah, you're not eating hopefully you're not eating french fries every day. But okay, so let that kind of brings me into the conversation of what is an acrylamide, right? So acrylamide and coffee is from the roasting process, right? Correct. So same reason why a French fry uh would have acrylamides in it. Right. So explain that.

SPEAKER_00 32:51

Okay, so it's interesting. It's a very interesting question. I love the question because I've had a really great opportunity since we developed this brand of getting in the room with some of the smartest scientists and people who've been studying acrylamide and asperginase, which is the amino acid, right, that creates acrylamide. And like I spoke to someone last week who's probably the foremost authority in testing for acryl acrylamide. They test 8,000 samples a year and learn some interesting things from that conversation. But the the best way to think about it is to jump a little bit into plant science. And it's what happens is the coffee plant uh produces aspergine, asperginase, which is this amino acid, and it does it to produce ammonia, which converts that ammonia to nitrogen. So essentially what the plant does for growth, it produces nitrogen. So and if a if a leaf gets damaged, it's gonna shoot more to that leaf to produce produce more nitrogen to produce uh new leaves, right? So why it's helpful to know that is for example, I asked this gentleman last week on the call, I said, is there a correlation between higher levels of acrylamide and certain terroirs in coffee, certain regions, certain varieties? He said, No, there is a correlation though in how well the coffee is processed for defects. I said, that's very interesting. I said, what expound on that, please? And he said, Well, what I'm saying is that if the beans are are less ripe, uh, they have more acrylamide. If insects have bitten at the beans, they have more acrylamide. So now again, this this takes our coffee, you know, that helps a lot because our coffee is a really, really well processed and screened, and we know who's processing. We know the farm, we know the whole value chain, so we can be assured that that level is taken care of. Uh what's but what's interesting when you think about the plant science side of it, well, why would an unripe bean have more acrylamide? Because it's it's storing more, it's preparing for more nitrogen release. It's not done releasing nitrogen, so it's got more of that amino acid in it. My theory on this is why is the insect damage stuff? I think it's the bean got damaged by the insect, and so it's shooting more asperginase at the that part of the bean to produce more nitrogen to regrow. Yeah. I mean, so so anyway, when you roast that aspergenate, the asperginase turns to the acrylamide.

Dr Pompa 35:00

Correct.

SPEAKER_00 35:01

The asperginase is the precursor, so it turns into acrylamide. So then you uh we're we're jumping heavy into science, and look, we don't have it down perfectly. We're we're getting good at it though, and we're really paying attention. I think we're the only people in the world so far that are paying attention to it to the level we are. Yeah. But you know, we're like a software company. We're we're developing better and better methods, and and our subscribers who stick with us are gonna see the benefits of that. They're gonna see us advance it and make it better. But one of the things we're doing, there's a methodology in the processing that we've we've implemented. We're not just roasting it, you know, a certain way. Anyone can do that. We're we're really developing this methodology in the and in the process, and I've been learning a lot more about the plant science. Most of the people I know in the coffee industry don't know much about asperginase or that side, because that particular amino acid, it's not a precursor to any flavors or anything that'd be relevant to the cup we drink. Right. So, but but but it's been a fascinating dive into that world. We just closed on a lab. We have our first lab in Zimbabwe uh at the University of Zimbabwe.

Dr Pompa 36:02

By the way, I've been to Zimbabwe three times.

SPEAKER_00 36:04

Have you? Oh, fantastic. Well, if you ever go to Zimbabwe. Oh, it's a long story, but the long story to make a long story short, we I I've been in AgSide now for a while. Yes, it's in Harari. It's at the University of Zimbabwe in their property. Okay. Um it's a 10,000 square foot facility. There's a lot of stainless steel in there. It's for uh cannabinoid hemp. We do cannabinoid hemp processing and coffee remediation of acrylamide, is we're going to be using that as our base uh facility. And it's exciting. It's really allowing us to do some things.

Dr Pompa 36:34

Can't you do this a lab here in the US?

Zimbabwe Coffee Revival And Hemp Farming

SPEAKER_00 36:37

We can, but we have that lab anyway. And what's great about it is there's a whole thing going on with coffee in Zimbabwe. So we're we we've got a lab in a coffee-producing country. You know, so we can we can process at scale as well. We can process these methodologies and scale going forward, but we can do a tremendous amount more research in a coffee country. So it's it's it's something that is, you know, the that's a whole nother story in and of itself, the Zimbabwe coffee story. It's a story of scarcity. There's it's very hard to get that coffee. It used to be some of the best in the world. I still think it's characteristically some of the most unique coffee you can get.

Dr Pompa 37:11

Here's a here's a crazy story. So I was there lecturing, um, and one of people watching this probably don't remember who Mingabe was, but he was one of the world's most horrific dictators. Okay. Yes. And he, you know, ruled over Zimbabwe. And when I was there, he always had people watching. So I was there for this leadership conference, and there were other um presidents from other countries there. And uh, anyways, he sent people to watch. But because he was elderly, had health some health issues at that time, he heard me lecture and he wanted me to lecture. Oh, no way, you know, to his people, if you will. What was that? What were you lecturing on specifically? Health stuff. I just gotta remember something. Yeah, I can't tell you, right? Yeah, so that was long ago. So this was a while ago, right? Yeah. Way back, gosh, 2005, maybe. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 38:00

That was right when it was getting weird there. Yeah, yeah.

Dr Pompa 38:02

It was getting weird. Yeah. Anyway, so they said, Oh, no, no, no, you can't go. I'm like, you know, I I I don't know, I want to go, you know. And they're like, no, no, no. So then one of the uh his commanders was at the thing, like, and he was kind of on the better side. He said, I he looked into it, let them go. They're gonna they'll treat them well. Yeah, you'd probably be covered, you know. I went. You went during the hot time. I mean, that's it, that's a story. Yeah. And so I went and they they put out a whole meal. I lectured in front of his army as far as I could see.

SPEAKER_00 38:33

No kidding. Yeah, that's a great memory. That's a good story. That's crazy, right?

Dr Pompa 38:36

So I got out alive. You're here to tell the story. I was like, I wonder how many Americans have been behind those gates, right? I don't know. Not many. But um, so but here's the funny thing. So two, three years later, I get a letter basically saying, you know, you're not welcome back. They thought I was a sympathizer, maybe they thought politically I was tied to him. Who knows? No way. But the other government, the opposing government, right, was like, yeah, this guy's not coming back into the country. So now you're in trouble. You can't do it. Now you're in trouble. I want to go. I know. I want to go.

SPEAKER_00 39:10

I'm not going with you, but what is the what's the politics there right now?

Dr Pompa 39:14

I'm going off. Very interesting politics.

SPEAKER_00 39:15

So, what it really the nutshell is, you know, they did so people who don't know. There was a big racial thing that happened. It was sort of like liberate, you know, it went from Rhodesia to Zimbabwe. And it was a it was a whole it was very racial, and it was very, you know, what they did was they ended up chasing the white farmers out. They chased them out. And the white farmers were the ones who had the infrastructure, who knew how to farm. They had these giant pivots. I don't know if people know what pivots are. They're those big things on wheels, like giant sprinkler-looking systems you see on farms. Massive agricultural, you know, for coffee alone, they were doing like 16,000 tons per year in exports. Now they're doing like 300. They're doing nothing. So it wiped out because they didn't come, no one came back to rebuild because everyone had been chased off. Essentially, now what they're now the position is like, yikes, we're sorry, we made a big mistake. We want you to come back. Like as an American, they love, they love us coming there. They love it. They please, you know, come back. You know, we get so much support there now. And so it's sort of like the way I say it kind of to simplify it, is it's kind of like they want it, they want them mulligan, they want to do over. And so a lot of people are still afraid to come back in. But I feel very confident.

Dr Pompa 40:25

What year was it that they chased them out?

SPEAKER_00 40:27

Started it started getting really ugly in like 2001. Yeah. That's when it started getting really ugly. So you were there right during the hot spot.

Dr Pompa 40:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:33

And I s I'm I'm running into it. It's very interesting. We were, you know, we do agriculture there, so we're growing uh cannabinoid hemp on on a coffee farm. And this is part of our truista thing, is what's great is you know, coffee, as you know, when you start from seedlings, it takes two to three, even four years until you can get fruit, a first harvest. Once you do harvest, you've got about five to seven years from that same plant, but it's only once a year. So, what do you do in the downtime? Well, cannabinoid hemp is a fantastic way to create a cash crop for these farmers because we have these genetics we developed in South Africa for the cannabinoid hemp. I'm talking about CBD hemp, CBG. Uh and with our genetics, they're 90 days. So it most genetics it goes seven, eight months. Ours, you know, three months. They can harvest and our lab can process it, and it's a great cash crop for them. And the the cannabinoid plants are phytoremediators, so they pull everything out of the soil, which is helps clean the soil for the coffee because we want to create some organic farms in Zimbabwe. So we want to you know bring this into Zimbabwe. I'm gonna go with the it's it's fascinating. It it's it's been a like I'll take just one. I could go on and on with these stories, but um, you know, we had again, I I talk about the pivots, you know, and you you know what they are, but they're these huge people see them. Big wheels. Big wheels, right? We were looking at there was a 280 hectare, so a hectare is 2.47 acres. So we're talking, you know, close to 200 acre parcels. Beautiful farmland, you can't really use it. It has all these beautiful pivots on it. And I was like, well, why can't we use that land? Because we needed irrigation to grow some hemp in the next two weeks. Actually, we're planting there now. Well, we can't use that, Joey, because they vandalized the pivots. I'm like, how do you vandalize a pivot? Like just metal. I don't know. But they vandalized these pivots, and so you find yourself in a rust belt. And so, you know, you've kind of kind of work your way around and and try to, you know, patch this piece together with that piece, and the it's the breadbasket of Africa, so you can grow some amazing things there. Wow, but it's you you run into this whole thing, and everyone is just so happy to see anyone come and give trust to that company. Is the economy coming back at all? It is coming back. That's good. It is coming back. I I feel very I think it's one of the best places you could be in Africa. I think it's the least likely place, probably. This is just my gut, probably the least likely place that would go back to a land reform thing like that again. They're they're tired, man. It's like the East, it's like East Europe, Eastern Europe wanting to go back into communism in the 90s. So they're like, no, no, we're burned out.

Dr Pompa 43:08

The government's better now. I mean, it's you know, they have some organization.

Picking Blends By Taste And Brew

SPEAKER_00 43:12

Yeah, it's still, it's still, you know, you you deal with the challenge of like what we're doing is we our partnership, we're partnered with the National Biotech Authority. So they're the people who bring in all the plant anything, they make sure there's nothing GMO coming into the country. They control the agriculture. So we have a good connectivity there. But if you're not careful, you can get beat up really bad by just not be the the the price structures, you know, they want this political party wants you to donate that political. So there's problems. You've got to deal with that kind of stuff. But it's not um you I'm not worried about getting chased out with AK 47s and you know that kind of a thing. Yeah, so it's not a perfect thing, but it's it's a great place to be, I think, for us.

Dr Pompa 43:51

So out of all the coffees, what's what's your favorite, man?

SPEAKER_00 43:54

Oh, that's a hard one. And how many do you have? How many? Um, so we have four different. Different coffees. And the answer is I like them all for different times of the day. And I think what I try to get across to people that drink our coffees, if you can just get to the point where try all four, and you'll find that different ones are good for different times of the day in different situations. Like balanced awakening. Okay. So that one is a very soft citrus. You can pick up lemon in there. You could pick up a little bit of peach on the back end. But it has that heavy malty chocolate, which we get we get these coffees from Uganda. They're so they're so syrupy and heavy bodied. As a roaster, I've never in my life had a better body coffee. It's like our little secret weapon. It's a it's a great, it's a great coffee. So we use that in our balanced awakening with an Ethiopian, with a really heirloom traditional Ethiopian coffee. And we also use some Brazil in there, which gives it kind of a nutty, uh sort of a nut butter sort of body creaminess. So balanced awakening is really nice. Like I do intermittent fasting Monday through Friday, but I do have coffee in the morning with no food. And I know that's probably bad, but I just do it. No, it's only bad for some people.

Dr Pompa 45:02

Okay, okay, fair. Some people it is bad. Yeah. You know how you could test that? You uh do your glucose before it, write it down. Let's just say it's 90, okay. And then you do it after your coffee, uh 30 minutes after your coffee. And if it goes up like dramatically, yeah, it's not good. Okay, 10 or more, you know. I'll try that. I don't know if I want to try that next. Exactly. I don't know if I want to know. You know, it it may stay the same or may drop, right? So it's you know, depending on how it's it's an indicator that your body's uh, you know, you that it's not getting a cortisol rise and you know, glucose rise from it. So okay.

SPEAKER_00 45:37

I'll try that. That's it. But uh but balanced awakening is my favorite in the mornings, black, just because it has a little bit of a.

Dr Pompa 45:42

How would that be in a French press?

SPEAKER_00 45:43

Very good. Yeah, very good. But it's uh that would that's more optimized in a uh Chemex or like a drip drip coffee because it's more of a clean profile. It's more of a just a clean, bright, but but not overly zealous acidity. It's not you know, we have one we haven't released yet called Bright Awakening, which is more of a bright, citrusy, punchy, tart, you know, coffee. It's a little different, it's gonna be a little more, you know, down that fruit acid floral direction. But balanced awakening, it has some of the fruit acid in the florals, but it's more subtle, but it has a heavy body. And it's it's something you could never get in a single origin coffee easily. You couldn't get that unique combination of body. That's why blending is so much fun when you do it. But going out, so that's bounced awakening. Then we've got Rich Awakening. Rich Awakening is just deep, rich, classic, just a nice body coffee. You know, it's got that that almondine, it's got that some of the wood structures we talked about. I'm gonna say uh fresh cut um sort of cedar. I have to be careful about saying wood because I was like, the coffee kind of has a woody taste. Well, I got so much crap on that. I don't like woody. I'm not gonna say woody, I'm gonna say cedar. I'm gonna see. But it has like with wine, how wines are oaky, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, so so but so that's balanced awakening. It's a it's a really rich, deep, it's great black, but you put a little cream in there and it's got this nutmeg, cinnamon, brown spice. They're very unique in the sense that there's a lot of character, there's a lot of flavor and a lot of body. Uh, the third one would be the bold awakening, which balanced, rich, bold. Bold. Now that's a bit of a French roast, but it's not a heavy French. We we're trying to stay away from the um PAHs, which so that uh stands for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. We're trying to stay away from a heavy roast and the smoke because we believe that there's some issues with the PAHs. Yeah.

Dr Pompa 47:31

But we found a way again are very caustic, if you will. Yeah, it seems so. Yeah, so you don't want that. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:38

And you you'd know more about that than I do. I just I know that there's concern about that. So we I developed, and Jason was big on that, you know, pushing me towards hey, can you make something that's lower in the PAHs? So, what's what I like about it is we don't go down that heavy smoky vibe, but it's got a really strong but smooth, very present, almost a pepper spice, you know, very malty chocolate. Again, we use a lot of Uganda there. Uh, we use some Sumatran coffees, which they're organic Sumatrans, and they're just we we really audition. I mean, we spent hundreds of hours. I we really do. Uh, my son, Luke, uh, he's you know, he's 20 years old. He's got a great sensory. He's been learning. It's been so fun as a father doing this with him. But I've been taking him through it, and we've been doing this together. And we really, I mean, it takes a long time to find the right Sumatran coffee. Wow. So we've got that in there, this particular Sumatran coffee. And it just, it's heavy, it's got a nice resonance, it's clean on the back end, again, with cream or black, goes really well either way. And then the then we've got espresso masaba, and that's designed for espresso, but it does really well as a as a coffee, I think. Uh going back a little bit though, with Rich Awakening, I wanted to mention one thing. That's a really good French press coffee. Rich Awakening, yeah. You kind of want there's these things called the coffee colloids, which are kind of like when you think of clouds as water vapor, think of coffee vapor. It's like colloids are like coffee clouds, you know, and when you you use a filter, you you filter out those coffee clouds. Right. So those those create that sense of body on your palate. And so that's a that's a nice coffee. Bold awakening is another nice French press coffee. Okay. Whereas balanced, I would do a drip. It's good as French press, but I'm just saying.

Dr Pompa 49:17

It's bold or rich or the French. I mean, I I just love the flavor of this, you know. Okay, good. Yeah, you I think I think you have great taste. Yeah, and I don't know why I got hooked on that, but I don't I didn't try, I don't remember the other one I tried, right? I just gravitated to this one. But um yeah, I don't know if anyone else does it that way.

SPEAKER_00 49:36

But you know, like the other ones, the thing about espresso is you're you're doing a fine, you've much finer grind than regular coffee, and you're using high pressure extraction. So you're pulling compounds out of the coffee that regular drip brew would never access. Right. So it's a completely different creature. It's the difference between a donkey and a horse, kind of, you know? Exactly. And so that's why I always tell people that's why sometimes an espresso, if it's going to be really smooth and deep, it may be kind of boring as a coffee, you know, because it's not designed for that. But ours, just by by happenstance, it isn't.

Dr Pompa 50:06

It's not.

SPEAKER_00 50:06

So we just sort of got lucky there. It was designed to be an espresso, but as an espresso, especially if you drink it black, it is smooth, smooth, smooth. And you know, the what's interesting is people say to me, Well, Brazil, Brazil, it's such a massive processed coffee, and you know, all this stuff about Brazil. Is Brazil a good quality coffee? I'm like, well, first of all, ours is. It's one of the it's one of like there's like three, there's really only like three relevant organic farms in the entire country. Oh wow. Most of the Brazilian coffees are machine processed. Ours are hand-picked Brazilian coffees. Yeah. Without question, the best quality coffees in Brazil are the ones that we're blending in here. And the thing about Brazilian coffee is if you drink and you have it, what what is it?

Dr Pompa 50:46

You have uh Brazil. What else is there?

SPEAKER_00 50:49

So there's Brazil in there, there's Sumatra in in that coffee. There's let's see, sorry, there's Brazil, Sumatra, there's Nicaragua. Nicaragua is what gives it a lot of that almond.

Dr Pompa 50:58

So you have some Africa, Indonesia. Is that and what did I miss?

SPEAKER_00 51:02

Oh, and there's uh Mexico. Sometimes we do a little bit of Mexico from the Americas. Yeah. And we uh in Uganda, Uganda is a big one. Uganda's in most of our coffees. But the but the Brazilian coffee, it's a harmonizer, it's it's the glue that holds the blend together, you know, and it gives it kind of a nut butter sort of characteristic. But sometimes there's coffees that when you're doing blending that by themselves are very boring. Like Brazil coffee by itself to me is just super boring. Like I would never want it. But but it's just it's like a I I always like to think of blending as like a symphony, you know. If you have uh too much acidity in coffee, to me, that's like a a symphony with too much brass, you know. But if you level it out and you you mix, it's like being a composer, you know, and but you've got to have some of these the base, the bass instruments, the percussion. You've got to have the percussion, you know, the percussion by itself, a tambourine by itself doesn't sound great.

Dr Pompa 51:54

It's so much like the wine, you know, the the wine uh industry. It's it's remarkable to me. I I mean I I had no idea that the blending was so complex. And you know, that was the key to bringing out these incredible coffees, just like wine, man. How long have you been doing this?

SPEAKER_00 52:13

Uh I started in 1992. So I've been doing it for a long time. Yeah. You know, it's I I started, I was working as a uh volunteer worker at a wolf sanctuary way off the grid. We were taking care of mistreated and abused wolves in wolf hybrids. It's a place called Mission Wolf in southern Colorado. Amazing place. And I was a volunteer worker for about five years, and I needed a way to offset my income. So I got a coffee cart and started traveling around the country, you know, doing coffee festivals. And I always had just the best coffee because I had a connection with someone in Colombia that had a farm and another guy in Hawaii that had a farm. And they were growing the original Typica trees, which was an heirloom variety of Arabica that has become very rare. And what's unique about Tipica coffees is it's kind of what made Colombia famous, that deep rich taste. They've replaced most of those trees with um Castillo, a bunch of other different varieties. They're higher yielding, more disease resistant, but they don't have that thrust. They don't have that body, that richness. So I've been really trying to replicate, you know, being in coffee in the 80s and 90s, people don't remember it, or many people weren't born that.

Dr Pompa 53:18

80s and 90s, you know what they remember? Folgers.

SPEAKER_00 53:20

Yes, that's right.

Dr Pompa 53:22

Folgers remember that. Yeah, so the air. I remember that's what my parents drank. Yes. That red can, you know. Yeah, that's true. That's true. That's all they remember.

SPEAKER_00 53:31

It was like brutal, brutal. Stuff would be sitting in that can for like four years.

Dr Pompa 53:34

God, I mean, talking about mold, right? I mean, Mike go talk.

SPEAKER_00 53:37

Oh gosh, yeah, forget it. You know, it's like you're in the mold soup at that point. So we tried to make, I tried to make the coffees more like the typical coffees that were in in the old days. And that's what Kona was famous for was typical. The original Kona's deep, heavy, buttery. Yeah. You know, so that's what that's what we really I really am big on body. I think body is so important in coffees, and it's kind of overlooked, I think, largely in the in the coffee industry. In around 2007, I think it was 2007, there was a guy named Tim Wendelbo Wendelbo who won the barista competition from a northern European perspective. And their coffees are very high acid, very floral, very fruit-driven. And that became sort of the standard, which is still here today. You know, if you go to a local coffee shop, have you noticed they're always like very fruit acid heavy? Yeah. And I think those are great coffees. I like them, especially in the afternoon.

Dr Pompa 54:26

Right. Most people go, oh, I like that coffee, right?

SPEAKER_00 54:29

Yeah, they well, they they they it sounds cool and it's interesting, but I think a lot of people they really want that deep, rich, heavy body. And so that's where we're trying to bring something in that I think people will find is oh, I really like this.

Dr Pompa 54:40

Well, you know, when you go to Italy and you go, oh man, these their espresso taste so much better, right? That's what you're saying.

Why Coffee Scoring Misses Richness

SPEAKER_00 54:46

That's exactly because I think too, it's way too much emphasis on these fruit acids and these florals. And I think it, you know, people say, well, a coffee needs to be 90 plus. The the ranking system is very broken in coffee, it's not like wine. Okay. And the reason it's broken, in my opinion, is because in order to be over 90, you have to have a high amount of fruit acids. That's like saying a cab has to be super bright, like a Pinot Grigio. It's like comparing a cab to a Pinot Grigio and punishing it for not being body, light, you know, yeah, completely different.

Dr Pompa 55:15

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 55:16

So that's right now coffee's in the world where everything has to be a Pinot Grigio. So, so you know, I found it's been really fun to give people coffees that and and hey, you can be sophisticated and like these coffees because these are super complex, and there's a you know, there's a lot going on here. And to be uh complex, you don't have to have fruit acids all the time. And so there's a place for those, and that's where the coffee that you had turned me on to in Mexico was a great fruit acid coffee. And we would we want to start carrying small lot coffees that aren't certified organic, but we certify them ourselves to give more of an opportunity to these farmers.

Dr Pompa 55:50

Yeah, that that family there, they're producing incredible coffee. I I tested it as we had the discussion and how you tested it for antioxidants. Well, so here, yeah. So the the uh the chemist called me and said, Hey, where did you get this? And I said, Why? He's like, I test he tests everything, right? Different, you know, all kinds of different things that go in different products, our products, other products, um, supplement products. And he said, I've never tested anything with antioxidant levels naturally this high ever. No kidding. Yeah, wow, that's impressive that you found that because it's the drying system, right? So, like, you know, I they most people heat dry these things, right? You know, and uh they literally it takes six weeks through this process. They sit it out, they put it out in the sun. That's what's maintaining and not damaging all the antioxidants. And if it rains, they cover it, they open up, they cover it at night. I think they you know cover it all day long, right? It's like it's a process, man. It is six weeks of drying, and then they use burlap that you know, they have this whole process so it doesn't have mold. I mean, that's why I was like, I called Jason. I'm like, Jason, I I'm not a coffee guy. I'm not going to sew coffee, but I have a coffee for you.

SPEAKER_00 57:04

Yeah. And it was it was you know what's interesting? It's funny as we were talking about this before, but it's usually when things like that happen, is often it's not a good coffee, or it's kind of like you know, but the odds are so slim that you would come up with you not being in the coffee industry, would find something really good. You know how hard that is? You know, it's not easy.

Dr Pompa 57:20

This girl, Michelle, who's on the ground there and um who you'll love, uh, she's such a gem. And it's like she she, I guess her family, they know families, right? Families stick together there. Yeah. And so it was like an inside thing. And they just looked, oh, Dr. Pompa, right? Well, you know, bring coffee through him. I don't sell coffee. I don't know anything about coffee like you, right? I mean, except that I love it, right? Yeah. Yeah. And um, but yeah, it was like so turning it over to you all was the right thing to do. So I selfishly, I said, so I can get it. I know it's good. We're gonna but you'll probably um you'll probably blend it with other some other things, right? I mean, you're the master blender.

SPEAKER_00 57:59

I we might be able to, and it would be fun to do that for sure. I'll I'll do that for you and try it. But like it we do want to start doing some single origin offerings. Okay, well, that would be the fun one to do.

Dr Pompa 58:09

That would be a great single origin.

SPEAKER_00 58:10

I mean, I think so. Uh you know, I think if we do, we want to do, we're working on a label that sort of gives people the confidence that like we're really paying attention to this. Yeah, it's not certified organic, but trust us with this, and here's the labs. Yeah, uh, you know, we're gonna still test it for pesticides, molds, heavy metals. We'll do soil tests, you know, all that stuff. Yeah, so we can start to offer because the the USDA certified program is very cumbersome. I mean, it can take it takes three years just to prep a field for organic certification. Yeah, I know, right?

Dr Pompa 58:37

You know, so yeah, and these people have never used a chemical ever. I mean, you know, on the soil. They live like it takes her five hours to get up through these roads. Now, when you see Michelle, she's cute, she's all that, right? Like, and you'd be like, I this girl is the one going five hours up the road. Like, I I kind of fear for her.

SPEAKER_00 58:57

Yeah, she maybe all by donkey, too.

Dr Pompa 58:59

Yeah, all by donkey, this girl, okay? I mean, and she's beautiful. She's up there on the donkey and you know, going up there. But like, you know, she has relationships with these people and they trust her, you know. So I'm like, I got like for these families alone, I felt bad that, like, man, I'm not putting this coffee out there. The world needs this stuff. You guys are taking it over. No, that's that's gonna be exciting.

SPEAKER_00 59:20

I think this year we're gonna we're gonna tackle that. I mean, there's so many coffees that it would be just and that's a great coffee. It's very hard to find those coffees, yes, you know, especially in Mexico.

Dr Pompa 59:28

Yeah, uh absolutely. Well, listen, I y'all got me to switch, man, and I I've been loving the coffee so much. And I I've been drinking it now like for a I don't know how many months now, but uh it's a while, I would say at least three or four months I've been drinking it now. So yeah, and we're gonna keep developing it.

SPEAKER_00 59:46

You know, we're just gonna keep coming out with new things and and just it's like software.

Subscriptions Discount Code And Where To Buy

Dr Pompa 59:50

Well one thing I didn't point out um to my listeners and viewers is you actually, and I love this, you have kind of like the uh club where you're they'll you'll they'll send it to you, right? Yeah. So explain that to people. It's uh a subscription sorts.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:07

Yeah, it's uh we have a really good loyalty program too. So so it's a subscription, but as you keep buying coffee, it brings the price down significantly. And and so there's a whole program we have with that where you know you you you you buy the coffees. The thing I like about subscriptions too is you know, once you sign up for the subscription, you know, you it just keeps it shows up. Yeah, you don't have to do that. Well, that's what I like. Yeah, exactly.

Dr Pompa 1:00:28

And that's a thing that because I I kind of figure out how much I'm drinking and then you know, how much I need, and then it just keeps showing up.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:35

So yeah, and it shows up and we've I mean it's been really we've been really happy. We started September 29th, so just months ago, and we've been it's been amazing. I mean, it's been growing really well. People are really pleased with the taste profiles, and you know, you don't need to be have some sophisticated coffee knowledge to know something tastes the the way you want it to be really nice. So our retention has been phenomenal. Yeah, people so we you know, we get once people get on the subscription, it starts to bring the price down significantly over time. Yeah, and then you know, we just keep going and we'll just keep developing new products. I want to encourage people eventually just to branch out and try the other ones. Yeah. And because I I really do honestly, people ask that a lot, what's your favorite one? I can't answer that because it depends on the time of day. Yeah. Okay. So so I like them all equally.

Dr Pompa 1:01:18

True coffee drinker. So yeah, I I don't know. I don't even know if I did you um if they put in Dr. Pompa, um, I think you already have a thing set up, a discount or something. Yeah, we have one.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:32

Yeah, we can we can do one. We can do a special one. We can make it up now, in fact, and I can have it put in. We could do let's pick a number. Is there a number we could do it? Call it Pompa something. Pompa 25. Pompa 25. So P-O-M-P-A 25. All right, and then you get a discount. All right, Pompa 25. There you go. You heard it. There it is. All right, so we don't have to edit it. Uh exactly.

Dr Pompa 1:01:51

I kind of stepped out on that one. Yeah. Um, but that that's awesome, man. Uh yeah, where do they go?

SPEAKER_00 1:01:57

Um, yeah, so you know, you go online, truesta truestacoffee.com. There you go. And we have affiliate programs too, so some people may find it in other areas. Yeah. Um, but yeah, it's trueistocoffee.com and check it out. And I would encourage you to check out our blogs, look at, you know, look through there, look at the labs. You get familiar with them. You know, you'll see non-detect on acrylamide. You'll see non-detect on pesticides. It gives you peace of mind knowing what you're drinking.

Dr Pompa 1:02:20

The cleanest coffee in the world. They're not just saying that, they actually prove it. So that's why I'm drinking it. I actually, honestly, I'm drinking it too because I I love the taste. I'm I'm picky about my coffee. I like that. I love hearing that. I I love it when people say that. That's true.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:35

Because I do too, and I'm picky too.

Dr Pompa 1:02:36

Yeah, I mean, I'm not gonna drink some toxic coffee, no way. But yeah, it's like, you know, man, to have both, you know. That's right.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:44

It's a doing the certified organic and really knowing it's clean, it's a journey. Because if I were just doing any coffees, my job would be so much easier.

Dr Pompa 1:02:51

Yeah, I but I like the challenge. Yeah, exactly. And I'm coming to Zimbabwe. Yeah, you are, you're coming. I bet thanks for me.