El Salvador was hit by near hurricane strength winds last week causing considerable damage to coffee farms. It appears that the worst hit area was Chalaltenango and that La Montaña, the first prize Cup of Excellence winner that we have been offering these past few months, was in the very eye of what became devastation. More than 90% of Mr. Ochoa's trees were stripped of their crop just as the harvest was beginning. Worse still, they were stripped of their leaves as well. This is a farm which won 5 th place, then 4 th place, then1 st place in succession over the last three years in Cup of Excellence. Preliminary estimates indicate he will not have a crop until 2010! How does a farmer with less than 14 acres survive? The 3 rd place and 4 th place winners of last year's Cup of Excellence are his neighbors, and all three use the same mill to strip their fruit and dry their beans. We have yet to hear about them. We want to help in a meaningful manner.

La Montaña is scheduled to be roasted on Monday, January 28. We will be offering this coffee, which in my opinion is the purest coffee expression we have, bar none, at $50 for eight ounces (versus the usual $27.95). Terroir Coffee will donate the entire price to Mr. Ochoa primarily and to the mill, his critical support, which may also be facing very bad times from these events. Not a penny will be spent on any bureaucracy . We have approximately 70 pounds of his coffee left. $50 dollars per half-pound would result in $7,700, if all is sold. This coffee will still cost less per serving than the equivalent serving of a $20 bottle of wine, by the way,  Please spread the word! You will give new meaning to sweetness in your coffee! Those orders already received for this coffee at the regular price will, of course, be honored. Any remaining La Montaña will be set back to the regular price for the following roast next month. For those interested in paying more please call us at (866) - GHH-JAVA. Laurie and I are buying a half pound for $1,000. Click here to order. We are visiting El Salvador this coming week, with La Montaña the focal point. I will be reporting back with the next newsletter, Jan. 31.

Even better than our Flat-Rate shipping program, we're offering free shipping through the end of January on:

Any 3-7 coffee items;

All Technivorm Brewers; and

All Baratza Grinders.

Continental U.S. only, UPS Ground Service

La Esperanza, Huila, Colombia, full flavor roast, January 21

This great 2007 Cup of Excellence first prize winner is back this Monday. Among the most complex Colombian coffees I have had, with great depth, with layered, jammy ripe dark plum and blueberry saturated coffee streaked with honeyed raw sugar cane. Farmer Isaias Cantillo Osa's rise from coffee picker to farmer, his humility, his independent innovative processing techniques and resistance to the latest high production fads, his collection of heirloom Arabica coffee varieties, his natural commitment to coffee shade trees and natural agricultural practices in the midst of the "high tech" farms all around him and his are a real inspiration. We will be seeing more of him this year! I visited Mr. Cantillo a few months ago and reported on his beautiful farm; click here to see . $31.95 per 8 ounces. Click here to purchase .

Sumatra Vienna Roast is now a regular Terroir Coffee offering, sold as Sumatra Mandheling, South Italian roast style.

This coffee produces massive crema and jumps out with an intense perfume of roasted almonds, followed with a burst of blueberry embedded in dense, unctuous bitter-sweet chocolate, and ends with a smooth, sweet creamy finish.

Heavier roasted Sumatra is a favorite of dark roast drinkers who often brew it in the French press . We used to sell a lot of this coffee at The Coffee Connection and so here it is back for good. Enjoy! Click here to purchase.

A new, sweeter aged Sumatra, vintage 2003

I confess to not knowing how Sumatra is aged but there is nothing like it in the rest of the world. It is still kept a secret, I am told - but I intend to learn more before I am done! The green coffee is a deep golden brown and smells of cigar boxes and old leather. Roasted, this lot of aged Sumatra is deeper and sweeter than our previous batch, which scored 93 at the Coffee Review . It is a must-taste for anyone looking for heavy tropical wood and sweet tobacco flavors elegantly enveloping the butterscotch core and autumn leaves scent still faintly present from long ago. It is an exceptionally clean Sumatra. Click here to purchase.

Swiss Water Decaf La Magnolia, Costa Rica out until May

Demand for this exceptional coffee has steadily been rising and exceeded our supply. We are awaiting the new harvest decaf with impatience and will let you know as soon as it arrives! Apologies!

New Special Edition coffees coming :

Bolivia Cup of Excellence : We have purchased some of the 2007 Bolivia Cup of Excellence Presidential Award winner (received over 90 points from the international jury), San Ignacio. It is worth quoting the text about the owner of San Ignacio: " Juana Mamami Huanca from the San Ignacio cooperative is a first generation coffee producer. She began producing coffee on her farm at the age of 16 and now at only 23 years of age she has earned second place in the Cup of Excellence in Bolivia. Juana participated in the 2005 competition but did not manage to take home a Cup of Excellence award. For the past two years she has worked to improve quality always with eye towards competing again. Her farm covers six hectares of lush hillsides in the Carrasco La Reserva region of the Caranavi province at an altitude of approximately 1500 meters (4,900 feet) above sea-level. 'I always planned to participate [in the competition]"'she said, 'and now I plan to increase my production and my quality of life.' She is now working to establish an additional one half hectare of coffee."

Despite San Ignacio coming in second place, its auction price was identical to the price received for the #1 winner, a first for Cup of Excellence! To our palates, the cup was slightly better than the #1. Both, of course, were great coffees. Expect it around mid February.

More great Colombians coming: Colombia is an amazing producer of coffee. Its coffees are delicate with great sweetness, fine acidity and complexity. The diversity of coffee expression within that range is amazing. We have just purchased the recently harvested crop of La Esperanza , #1 Cup of Excellence winner from last year, which we are currently featuring (see above). As expected, Mr. Cantillo has followed up last year's success with another winner; it beat my expectations! More later. It should arrive in March.

Marco Aurelio Ortega's Villa Flor from the Colombian state of Nariño will also be making its debut next month. On the left is his business card and those are Africanized bees around him and his sons. Here is another amazing Colombian individual who does things uniquely because of his commitments to nature and to quality. His was the best coffee we found outside the Cup of Excellence last year and it would be an easy first place contender in that or any competition. It is sweetest Colombian I have had the great pleasure to drink. His production, however, is too small to be entered into the Cup of Excellence. We are talking micro-lots of a few hundred pounds! The honey he makes is from coffee flowers - and I am looking into bringing some in next year. Stay tuned!

In the mean time , our special roast of La Esperanza, Huila, Colombia, full flavor roast, is scheduled for January 21st (read, above), and our current Colombia coffees from Maria Santos and El Descanso continue to receive rave reviews,  order here .

This book was written well over ten years ago but still remains one of the most informative books written on coffee for the public available. The author, Bill McAlpin, is one the pioneers of the specialty coffee movement. His influence on Specialty coffee has been huge. The photographs, which make understanding how coffee is produced so much more understandable, have yet to be equaled. Click here to purchase. $24.95

Wake up and smell the coffee..! We are offering $2 off each of the following three very popular and outstanding coffees to ring in the New Year. Happy New Year 2008!

Coffee Review Rates Terroir La Minita 94 Points

La Minita Estate (SHB), Tarrazu , Costa Rica

Kenneth David's Blind Assessment: “ Delicately but richly nuanced throughout the profile with cherryish fruit, flowers, honey, milk chocolate. In the cup the acidity is tart but luxuriously sweet and the mouthfeel lightly syrupy. Flavor saturated and flawless finish.“ Read the full review here.

Read more and order here: $12.95, regularly $14.95

Kangocho, Nyeri District, Kenya

What makes this lot of Kangocho so special are its sumptuous mouthfeel and its sweet blueberry notes, melding harmoniously with the classic grand Kenya riot of blackberry and black currant flavors. Kangocho is a high altitude, small farmer cooperative coffee processing center in the Nyeri district. Full Flavor Roast Spectrum

Read more and order here : $13.95 , regularly $15.95

New Ethiopian Yirgacheffe

...from Konga Cooperative has arrived. It is organic, Fair Trade and delicious. This is the first shipment from Ethiopia to ever be vacuum sealed at origin.

What a difference vacuum packaging at origin makes! Yirgacheffe fans will note the clearer sweet notes this Yirgacheffe has over our last lot, the Addis Ketema. It is as if we just had a spring cleaning. Delicate candy lemon and Darjeeling tea notes. This coffee pairs amazingly with dark chocolate, by the way! Each reinforces the other.

As an espresso : Creamy, complex, delicately perfumed candy-lemon and mellow apricot accented with a dash of ginger enfolded within a rich milk-chocolate base. Prolonged sweet aftertaste.

Full Flavor Roast- Price: $10.95, regularly $12.95 per 12 ounces, or

North Italian Espresso Roast- Price: $10.95, regularly $13.95 per 12 ounces

We now have the new Technivorm Glass Carafe brewer, called the CD Moccamaster model (left), as well as the tried and true KB741 Thermo Carafe model (right).

This brewer received top honors in the Nov-Dec issue of The Atlantic when compared to three other home brewers in a similar price range. Among Corby Kummer's conclusions were that the Technivorm brewer matched the quality of commercial brewers in extraction quality, and brought out the best flavor highlights in lighter roasted coffees, especially as they cool and reveal the complexities of a lighter roast flavor profile.

We recently tested the Technivorm against several current home brewers, and plotted the actual performance results here . As you can see, the Technivorm coffee brewer reaches the proper extraction temperature fastest, and holds it there for the entire brew time, and they also finish first. Unlike other brewers, they maintain the proper extraction temperatures regardless of batch size. We include a scoop with all models. Order yours here .

Free Shipping through January 31 st . Continental U.S., UPS Ground Service.

A real burr grinder is the gateway to making full-flavored fresh coffee with maximum sweetness. Getting the right uniform grind is critical to producing great coffee - you want to extract all the sweetness while holding back harsher notes due to over-extracted finer particles. The Virtuoso does the best job on the market in this price class and offers a wide selection of grinds to suit your brewer's needs. It is easy to clean, has a powerful motor and uses slow spinning conical burrs to keep the coffee from heating. It is solidly built. Click here for more information and to purchase. Time to junk the blade grinder for convenience and accuracy!

Baratza Virtuoso Coffee Grinder, for $189.95, shipped Continental U.S., UPS Ground Service.

El Salvador was hit by near hurricane strength winds last week causing considerable damage to coffee farms. It appears that the worst hit area was Chalaltenango and that La Montaña, the first prize Cup of Excellence winner that we have been offering these past few months, was in the very eye of what became devastation. More than 90% of Mr. Ochoa's trees were stripped of their crop just as the harvest was beginning. Worse still, they were stripped of their leaves as well. This is a farm which won 5 th place, then 4 th place, then1 st place in succession over the last three years in Cup of Excellence. Preliminary estimates indicate he will not have a crop until 2010! How does a farmer with less than 14 acres survive? The 3 rd place and 4 th place winners of last year's Cup of Excellence are his neighbors, and all three use the same mill to strip their fruit and dry their beans. We have yet to hear about them. We want to help in a meaningful manner.

La Montaña is scheduled to be roasted on Monday, January 28. We will be offering this coffee, which in my opinion is the purest coffee expression we have, bar none, at $50 for eight ounces (versus the usual $27.95). Terroir Coffee will donate the entire price to Mr. Ochoa primarily and to the mill, his critical support, which may also be facing very bad times from these events. Not a penny will be spent on any bureaucracy . We have approximately 70 pounds of his coffee left. $50 dollars per half-pound would result in $7,700, if all is sold. This coffee will still cost less per serving than the equivalent serving of a $20 bottle of wine, by the way,  Please spread the word! You will give new meaning to sweetness in your coffee! Those orders already received for this coffee at the regular price will, of course, be honored. Any remaining La Montaña will be set back to the regular price for the following roast next month. For those interested in paying more please call us at (866) - GHH-JAVA. Laurie and I are buying a half pound for $1,000. Click here to order. We are visiting El Salvador this coming week, with La Montaña the focal point. I will be reporting back with the next newsletter, Jan. 31.

Even better than our Flat-Rate shipping program, we're offering free shipping through the end of January on:

Any 3-7 coffee items;

All Technivorm Brewers; and

All Baratza Grinders.

Continental U.S. only, UPS Ground Service

La Esperanza, Huila, Colombia, full flavor roast, January 21

This great 2007 Cup of Excellence first prize winner is back this Monday. Among the most complex Colombian coffees I have had, with great depth, with layered, jammy ripe dark plum and blueberry saturated coffee streaked with honeyed raw sugar cane. Farmer Isaias Cantillo Osa's rise from coffee picker to farmer, his humility, his independent innovative processing techniques and resistance to the latest high production fads, his collection of heirloom Arabica coffee varieties, his natural commitment to coffee shade trees and natural agricultural practices in the midst of the "high tech" farms all around him and his are a real inspiration. We will be seeing more of him this year! I visited Mr. Cantillo a few months ago and reported on his beautiful farm; click here to see . $31.95 per 8 ounces. Click here to purchase .

Sumatra Vienna Roast is now a regular Terroir Coffee offering, sold as Sumatra Mandheling, South Italian roast style.

This coffee produces massive crema and jumps out with an intense perfume of roasted almonds, followed with a burst of blueberry embedded in dense, unctuous bitter-sweet chocolate, and ends with a smooth, sweet creamy finish.

Heavier roasted Sumatra is a favorite of dark roast drinkers who often brew it in the French press . We used to sell a lot of this coffee at The Coffee Connection and so here it is back for good. Enjoy! Click here to purchase.

A new, sweeter aged Sumatra, vintage 2003

I confess to not knowing how Sumatra is aged but there is nothing like it in the rest of the world. It is still kept a secret, I am told - but I intend to learn more before I am done! The green coffee is a deep golden brown and smells of cigar boxes and old leather. Roasted, this lot of aged Sumatra is deeper and sweeter than our previous batch, which scored 93 at the Coffee Review . It is a must-taste for anyone looking for heavy tropical wood and sweet tobacco flavors elegantly enveloping the butterscotch core and autumn leaves scent still faintly present from long ago. It is an exceptionally clean Sumatra. Click here to purchase.

Swiss Water Decaf La Magnolia, Costa Rica out until May

Demand for this exceptional coffee has steadily been rising and exceeded our supply. We are awaiting the new harvest decaf with impatience and will let you know as soon as it arrives! Apologies!

New Special Edition coffees coming :

Bolivia Cup of Excellence : We have purchased some of the 2007 Bolivia Cup of Excellence Presidential Award winner (received over 90 points from the international jury), San Ignacio. It is worth quoting the text about the owner of San Ignacio: " Juana Mamami Huanca from the San Ignacio cooperative is a first generation coffee producer. She began producing coffee on her farm at the age of 16 and now at only 23 years of age she has earned second place in the Cup of Excellence in Bolivia. Juana participated in the 2005 competition but did not manage to take home a Cup of Excellence award. For the past two years she has worked to improve quality always with eye towards competing again. Her farm covers six hectares of lush hillsides in the Carrasco La Reserva region of the Caranavi province at an altitude of approximately 1500 meters (4,900 feet) above sea-level. 'I always planned to participate [in the competition]"'she said, 'and now I plan to increase my production and my quality of life.' She is now working to establish an additional one half hectare of coffee."

Despite San Ignacio coming in second place, its auction price was identical to the price received for the #1 winner, a first for Cup of Excellence! To our palates, the cup was slightly better than the #1. Both, of course, were great coffees. Expect it around mid February.

More great Colombians coming: Colombia is an amazing producer of coffee. Its coffees are delicate with great sweetness, fine acidity and complexity. The diversity of coffee expression within that range is amazing. We have just purchased the recently harvested crop of La Esperanza , #1 Cup of Excellence winner from last year, which we are currently featuring (see above). As expected, Mr. Cantillo has followed up last year's success with another winner; it beat my expectations! More later. It should arrive in March.

Marco Aurelio Ortega's Villa Flor from the Colombian state of Nariño will also be making its debut next month. On the left is his business card and those are Africanized bees around him and his sons. Here is another amazing Colombian individual who does things uniquely because of his commitments to nature and to quality. His was the best coffee we found outside the Cup of Excellence last year and it would be an easy first place contender in that or any competition. It is sweetest Colombian I have had the great pleasure to drink. His production, however, is too small to be entered into the Cup of Excellence. We are talking micro-lots of a few hundred pounds! The honey he makes is from coffee flowers - and I am looking into bringing some in next year. Stay tuned!

In the mean time , our special roast of La Esperanza, Huila, Colombia, full flavor roast, is scheduled for January 21st (read, above), and our current Colombia coffees from Maria Santos and El Descanso continue to receive rave reviews,  order here .

This book was written well over ten years ago but still remains one of the most informative books written on coffee for the public available. The author, Bill McAlpin, is one the pioneers of the specialty coffee movement. His influence on Specialty coffee has been huge. The photographs, which make understanding how coffee is produced so much more understandable, have yet to be equaled. Click here to purchase. $24.95

Wake up and smell the coffee..! We are offering $2 off each of the following three very popular and outstanding coffees to ring in the New Year. Happy New Year 2008!

Coffee Review Rates Terroir La Minita 94 Points

La Minita Estate (SHB), Tarrazu , Costa Rica

Kenneth David's Blind Assessment: “ Delicately but richly nuanced throughout the profile with cherryish fruit, flowers, honey, milk chocolate. In the cup the acidity is tart but luxuriously sweet and the mouthfeel lightly syrupy. Flavor saturated and flawless finish.“ Read the full review here.

Read more and order here: $12.95, regularly $14.95

Kangocho, Nyeri District, Kenya

What makes this lot of Kangocho so special are its sumptuous mouthfeel and its sweet blueberry notes, melding harmoniously with the classic grand Kenya riot of blackberry and black currant flavors. Kangocho is a high altitude, small farmer cooperative coffee processing center in the Nyeri district. Full Flavor Roast Spectrum

Read more and order here : $13.95 , regularly $15.95

New Ethiopian Yirgacheffe

...from Konga Cooperative has arrived. It is organic, Fair Trade and delicious. This is the first shipment from Ethiopia to ever be vacuum sealed at origin.

What a difference vacuum packaging at origin makes! Yirgacheffe fans will note the clearer sweet notes this Yirgacheffe has over our last lot, the Addis Ketema. It is as if we just had a spring cleaning. Delicate candy lemon and Darjeeling tea notes. This coffee pairs amazingly with dark chocolate, by the way! Each reinforces the other.

As an espresso : Creamy, complex, delicately perfumed candy-lemon and mellow apricot accented with a dash of ginger enfolded within a rich milk-chocolate base. Prolonged sweet aftertaste.

Full Flavor Roast- Price: $10.95, regularly $12.95 per 12 ounces, or

North Italian Espresso Roast- Price: $10.95, regularly $13.95 per 12 ounces

We now have the new Technivorm Glass Carafe brewer, called the CD Moccamaster model (left), as well as the tried and true KB741 Thermo Carafe model (right).

This brewer received top honors in the Nov-Dec issue of The Atlantic when compared to three other home brewers in a similar price range. Among Corby Kummer's conclusions were that the Technivorm brewer matched the quality of commercial brewers in extraction quality, and brought out the best flavor highlights in lighter roasted coffees, especially as they cool and reveal the complexities of a lighter roast flavor profile.

We recently tested the Technivorm against several current home brewers, and plotted the actual performance results here . As you can see, the Technivorm coffee brewer reaches the proper extraction temperature fastest, and holds it there for the entire brew time, and they also finish first. Unlike other brewers, they maintain the proper extraction temperatures regardless of batch size. We include a scoop with all models. Order yours here .

Free Shipping through January 31 st . Continental U.S., UPS Ground Service.

A real burr grinder is the gateway to making full-flavored fresh coffee with maximum sweetness. Getting the right uniform grind is critical to producing great coffee - you want to extract all the sweetness while holding back harsher notes due to over-extracted finer particles. The Virtuoso does the best job on the market in this price class and offers a wide selection of grinds to suit your brewer's needs. It is easy to clean, has a powerful motor and uses slow spinning conical burrs to keep the coffee from heating. It is solidly built. Click here for more information and to purchase. Time to junk the blade grinder for convenience and accuracy!

Baratza Virtuoso Coffee Grinder, for $189.95, shipped Continental U.S., UPS Ground Service.