What's Happening at the George Howell Coffee Company

New Crop Los Sauces, Colombia is back. For twenty years Maria Santos Montilla Cerón has grown, harvested and processed coffee, as well as other crops, on her small farm in the mountains of Cauca, Colombia. She is an exceptional woman. Widowed for many years, she lives alone, with one permanent employee; a daughter helps her out. Her production is miniscule. No herbicides or pesticides are used. She applies mostly organic fertilizer using chicken manure and compost from her farm. Despite limited resources her processing center, so necessary for quality production, is a model of cleanliness and efficiency. The best Colombian coffees are among the greatest coffees in the world, but in the high mountains and with frequent cloud cover and humidity it is very difficult to produce outstanding pristine-clean coffees. Maria Santos Montilla has done so two years in a row. She continues to impress us with the exceptional quality of her output. We are thrilled to have purchased and proud to once more present all of her top grade coffee.

The coffee has an elegant syrupy body without graininess from which burst flashes of honeyed tangerine, ripe pomegranate and pear notes swirled with mixed nuts and chocolate.

As with all our Colombian coffees the green coffee is shipped in sealed vacuumed bags to assure extraordinary freshness right off the farm. $14.95 per 12 oz. This fine coffee is available on our online store.

For French Press and Espresso fans - La Providencia is roasted especially for you and for those who prefer darker roasts: our recently introduced La Providencia from Huehuetenango, Guatemala is taken to a Vienna Roast. French Press coffeemakers emphasize a chewier body due to sediment being forced through its wire mesh filter; this fine dust coats the drinkers’ mouth and, with lighter roasts, creates a more astringent acidic perception than wine-clear drip brews (I will be reviewing brewing methods in the next few newsletters). Slightly darker roasts can achieve a cocoa-rich experience with a French Press, prized by many coffee aficionados. La Providencia has the deeply sweet characteristics to make it an ideal candidate for this style. It is also an excellent complementary evening Drip or French Press coffee to have with a rich dessert to clear the palate with its slightly bitter bite. The cup is packed with warm, very sweet citrus flavors, nuts and caramel cradled in a creamy body. $11.95 per 12 oz Roasted. This fine coffee is now available on our online store

Cup of Excellence First Place Presidential Award, El Injerto Farm, Huehuetenango region, Guatemala - Beautifully structured, elegant cup, with mineral notes reminiscent of fine white Burgundies, drenched in honeyed citrus and apple with a touch of anise and filigreed subtle berry notes. Effervescent acidity and satin body. The El Injerto special lot is a quintessential expression of the great growing region of Huehuetenango. $49.95 per 12 oz Roasted. This is a special order to be roasted February 5; please call (866) GHH-JAVA to reserve. (Not being able to make reservations on our website is a shortcoming I hope to eliminate in the near future. In the meanwhile I apologize for the inconvenience!)

Preparing the coffee brew, the final quality step Part I

There are many quality decision points on the road to producing great coffee. Preparing the beverage is the last stage, as critical as any other. Unlike wine, one can take a coffee masterpiece home and destroy it in the kitchen in seconds flat, resulting in warped and ugly expressions of that coffee’s overall flavor profile.

The keys to getting excellent results are:

1. Quality water: use clear-tasting water - but not distilled. To get this you may have to buy spring water or filter your water. Tap water often has chlorine and other off-flavors while distilled water has no minerals, important for developing all the coffee’s flavors.

2. Sufficiently hot water to produce all the required chemical reactions: this should be no lower than 195 F and no higher than 205F.

3. The proper grind. You want to extract only approximately 20% of the beans’ soluble solids. Greater extraction leads to harsh flavors and less extraction to underdeveloped ones. Drip machines take minutes to brew, and so the grind should be fairly granular, in order to release its contents more slowly while in contact with the hot water, while espresso is produced in seconds, requiring a very fine grind.

4. The proper proportion of coffee to water. The rule of thumb is two tablespoons per six liquid ounces. Strength can be very personal, however. Some like coffee that would make others’ teeth dissolve. I love my coffee in the morning made in my Technivorm automatic drip: too much water and I get a dilute non-descript drink while too little replaces the amazing marriage of mouth feel and flavor which our coffees can deliver when brewed just right with harshness. I prefer a drip cup using the above proportions which, when hot, is aromatic but may seem a bit weak, naturally enough, since heat dramatically disables our taste buds. As the coffee cools it reveals itself, reaching wine-like intensity as it nears room temperature. I use a somewhat coarse “drip” grind.

In my next newsletter I will review the most popular types of brewers and the types of coffee expressions they produce.