Notes from George

August 24, 2018 Mamuto Returns!Kenya SL28 varietals are one of the great coffees of the world; there are no other varietals or origins, in my opinion, that can claim to be superior. No other coffee in the world swells so amply with deep, clean, velvety dark fruit flavor, filling one’s mouth like a fine full-bodied red wine. There is no better Kenya representative, year after year, than Mamuto, which we are proud to have been offering since 2006. It must be taken black, to be appreciated to its fullest.This year’s Mamuto harvest is a masterpiece. It arrived very late, however,...

Roast dates and the right time to brewNovember 12, 2018Back in the 1980s, and even 1990’s, the answer to “when is the right time to brew?” seemed simple: immediately after roast! Indeed, my Coffee Connection was the first in the US to post roast dates on our barrels (we were scooping back then!) and on our bags. Many of our customers wanted to buy our coffee roasted the previous day and no later. Then the one-way valve bag arrived, becoming common practice in the 1990s. It allowed us to preserve complete freshness longer, although many of our very well-trained customers...

May 3, 2020Greetings from George Howell!I finally have time to write for our newsletter, something I used to do but found ever more difficult as the complexity of running George Howell Coffee grew. Life has simplified for the time being and this has enabled me to change some of my priorities. I am refocusing on writing about the world I represent. It is one of the few but critical silver linings for me during these difficult days. I will use the newsletter to comment on the coffees we offer, on events shaping farmers lives and on many other themes involving...

Did you have another career in mind before coffee? If so what?I did have another career in mind. Murky vision may be a better way to express what was in mind at the time. Back in the sixties, many of us “kids” were not thinking so much about careers as we were about changing the world.The story below is about the art that has been hanging at my cafes since 1975 when I opened The Coffee Connection, and which can be seen at our Downtown Crossing café (showing two works by Jose Benitez Sanchez) as well as Newtonville (4 works...