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What's Happening at the George Howell Coffee Company
February 1st, 2008
First, we at Terroir want to thank our customers who answered the call to help La Montaña Farm last week. We had 44 orders at $50 and ours at $1000. We will be wiring to Raúl Ochoa Hernandez the full amount of $3,200 later this week.
We will also be offering the remaining few pounds at the regular $27.95 per 8 ounces this coming Monday, February 4th, all of which will go to Mr. Ochoa as well. Click here to order.
In this photo you see Raul Ochoa with his son Alejandro. |
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Laurie and I visited La Montaña last week. It was as bad as we expected. Photos can be seen by clicking La Montaña Farm. We drove to Mr. Ochoa's farm with Sergio Edmundo Ticas Reyes and his wife Isabela, owners of another 1 st place Cup of Excellence winner (2006) from the same Chalatenango region. On the way Isabela told us that the near hurricane winds lasted for three days and nights “without pity.” Their farm, Los Planes, which we will be featuring this Monday, received quite a bit of damage but far less than La Montaña. We saw this pattern throughout El Salvador ; every patch of land directly facing the Pacific Ocean was hit while those which were in some way protected were usually spared. Thus Matalapa, in an entirely different region but which faces the ocean, was heavily affected as well – we will report on this in the next newsletter. The damage done to La Montana is so severe because not only did it happen before the harvest, eliminating any funding for this year, but also because all the shade trees were shorn of their leaves as well. The dry season started in November in El Salvador and it may not rain until April or May again – not once. So here we have leafless trees which have been desiccated by the driving winds and their parched soil beneath, without any covering against the scorching sun. Buds have already appeared on some of the less damaged coffee trees while others simply need a tug to be plucked lifeless out of the exposed soil. These green messages of hope will not make it without help from the heavens, it seems to us. We can only join the Ochoas in praying for rain. No one expects a crop next year; it is a matter of hoping for survival. The first crop will be the following year (appearing in the marketplace in 2010) and we are told it will be small.
Mr. Ochoa was deeply moved by your contributions, holding back tears when we explained to him what was being done. We explained to him that we could not let someone who was the winner of the Cup of Excellence four years in succession - 31st, 5th, 4th and now 1st - and who had shined an inspirational light for other small farmers in El Salvador by hard work and attention to detail, to go down. Mr. Ochoa had been planning to invest monies from this year's harvest into infrastructure to secure greater quality control. We will be in touch.
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Three Coffee Specials through February, 2008 |
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|
Response to our monthly discounts for terroir select coffees has been well received, so this month we forge ahead to offer three new coffees, each at $2 off for the entire month of February.
 Maria Santos' Los Sauces, Cauca, Colombia
Los Sauces is one of those very rare Colombian coffees and has extraordinary, elegant complexity, refined flavor and sweetness. Intense, sweet coffee aroma and full flavor.
Maria Santos' coffee is a class above - and shows a Colombian, perhaps an Andean, terroir flavor-profile that is just emerging to more discerning palates in the specialty roasting business. Read more and order here: $13.95, regularly $15.95
See Images of the Maria Santos farm here
 Grand Cru Kenya: Mamuto, Kirinyaga
We first introduced Mamuto last year in September. I believe it was the best lot auctioned in Kenya that year (all Kenyan coffee lots were auctioned through 2006; this year the system was "liberalized," permitting direct sales as well as auction coffee). Last November (2006) our Mamuto received Coffee Review's first-ever score over 95. We now have Mamuto's best lot from the most recent harvest. It was purchased directly and without hesitation; the coffee was, again, the most outstanding lot we tried this past buying season (and we have been privileged to always cup the cream of the crop!). Read more and order here: Price $18.95, regularly $20.95 Visit my recent trip to Kenya here.
Please Note:
Terroir will return an additional $1 directly to the farmer, Walter Paul Mathagu, for every bag of Mamuto sold at $18.95
 Matalapa, La Libertad, El Salvador
Matalapa is a fourth generation 190 acre farm at 4,100 feet above sea level. It was founded in the late 1800's by Fidelia Lima, great grandmother of the current owner, Vickie Ann Dalton de Díaz. She maintains 14 acres of virgin tropical forest and keeps her coffee plants shaded with over forty varieties of shades trees.
I have been following this farm for three years now and have been very impressed with each year's improvements since winning in the 2003 El Salvador Cup of Excellence. The 2007 crop is very impressive for its sweetness and buttery body, ideal for espresso and French Press brewing.
100% Bourbon. Layers of refined deep sweet citrus with no edge coated with creamed nutty caramel. Vienna Roast ...
Price: $10.95, regularly $12.95 per 12 ounces, Click here to purchase
On Sale: $10.95, regularly $12.95 |
Last month’s Top Ten selling coffees: |
|
- La Minita Estate (SHB), Tarrazu , Costa Rica
- Kangocho, Nyeri , Kenya
- Konga Cooperative, Yirgacheffe, Ethiopia
- Kigutha, Kiambu, Kenya
- Konga Cooperative, North Italian Style Espresso
- Daterra, North Italian Style Espresso
- Daterra, South Italian Style Espresso
- Golden Mandheling, Sumatra, Indonesia
- Grand Cru Kenya: Mamuto, Kirinyaga
- El Injerto, Huehuetenango, Guatemala SHB
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Terroir Sumatra Mandheling, South Italian Espresso Roast receives 92-Point rating from Coffee Review |
|
 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.
Ken David's Blind Assessment:
"Rich, gently pungent aroma with butter, floral and apricot-toned fruit hints. In the small cup medium body, syrupy mouthfeel, and rather sharply but sweetly cedary with continued apricot and flowers and an explicit moist, leafy earth note. At its best in milk: rich, strong-presenced but sweet with dark chocolate and sustained suggestions of moist earth and flowers.
Who should drink it: An espresso that subtly but powerfully expresses the pungently complex, earth-and-chocolate character of its Sumatra origin." Enjoy! Click here to purchase. |
Limited Edition Special Coffees Schedule Update |
|
This coming Monday, Feb 4th, we will be roasting:
On Monday, Feb 11th, we will be roasting:
- La Esmeralda, Panama, 2007 crop. La Esmeralda's history-making Gesha variety perfectly crafted and yielding powerful notes of sweet peaches and apricot. Full-Flavor Roast
On Monday, Feb 18th, we will be roasting:
- La Esperanza , Colombia 's 2007 Cup of Excellence 1 st prize winner, Full Flavor Roast: a garden of sweet, mellow, sensuous tropical fruit.
 On Monday, Feb 25th , we will be roasting:
- Villa Flor, Colombia , Full-Flavor Roast Wintergreen-tinged tropical fruit aromas with soft persimmons, and delicate notes of passion fruit with Brazil nuts.
On Monday, Mar 3rd, we will be roasting:
- La Esmeralda, Panama, 2007 crop. La Esmeralda's history-making Gesha variety perfectly crafted and yielding powerful notes of sweet peaches and apricot. North Italian Espresso Roast
On Monday, Mar 10th, we will be roasting:
- La Esperanza, Colombia 's 2007 Cup of Excellence 1 st prize winner North Italian Espresso Roast: a garden of sweet, mellow, sensuous tropical fruit.
Reminder: Remaining Limited Edition Coffees are now 8-oz sizes
Click here to read more and/or to order. |
Technivorm Brewers in Stock and on Sale |
|
   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. |
Baratza Virtuoso Conical Burr Grinder |
|
| 
Sale Price: $179.95
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. Produces a very uniform grind from espresso to press-pot, for an even, smooth extraction. Regularly $199.95, on sale in February for $179.95. |
|
What's Happening at the George Howell Coffee Company
February 1st, 2008
First, we at Terroir want to thank our customers who answered the call to help La Montaña Farm last week. We had 44 orders at $50 and ours at $1000. We will be wiring to Raúl Ochoa Hernandez the full amount of $3,200 later this week.
We will also be offering the remaining few pounds at the regular $27.95 per 8 ounces this coming Monday, February 4th, all of which will go to Mr. Ochoa as well. Click here to order.
In this photo you see Raul Ochoa with his son Alejandro. |
|
Laurie and I visited La Montaña last week. It was as bad as we expected. Photos can be seen by clicking La Montaña Farm. We drove to Mr. Ochoa's farm with Sergio Edmundo Ticas Reyes and his wife Isabela, owners of another 1 st place Cup of Excellence winner (2006) from the same Chalatenango region. On the way Isabela told us that the near hurricane winds lasted for three days and nights “without pity.” Their farm, Los Planes, which we will be featuring this Monday, received quite a bit of damage but far less than La Montaña. We saw this pattern throughout El Salvador ; every patch of land directly facing the Pacific Ocean was hit while those which were in some way protected were usually spared. Thus Matalapa, in an entirely different region but which faces the ocean, was heavily affected as well – we will report on this in the next newsletter. The damage done to La Montana is so severe because not only did it happen before the harvest, eliminating any funding for this year, but also because all the shade trees were shorn of their leaves as well. The dry season started in November in El Salvador and it may not rain until April or May again – not once. So here we have leafless trees which have been desiccated by the driving winds and their parched soil beneath, without any covering against the scorching sun. Buds have already appeared on some of the less damaged coffee trees while others simply need a tug to be plucked lifeless out of the exposed soil. These green messages of hope will not make it without help from the heavens, it seems to us. We can only join the Ochoas in praying for rain. No one expects a crop next year; it is a matter of hoping for survival. The first crop will be the following year (appearing in the marketplace in 2010) and we are told it will be small.
Mr. Ochoa was deeply moved by your contributions, holding back tears when we explained to him what was being done. We explained to him that we could not let someone who was the winner of the Cup of Excellence four years in succession - 31st, 5th, 4th and now 1st - and who had shined an inspirational light for other small farmers in El Salvador by hard work and attention to detail, to go down. Mr. Ochoa had been planning to invest monies from this year's harvest into infrastructure to secure greater quality control. We will be in touch.
|
Three Coffee Specials through February, 2008 |
|
|
Response to our monthly discounts for terroir select coffees has been well received, so this month we forge ahead to offer three new coffees, each at $2 off for the entire month of February.
Maria Santos' Los Sauces, Cauca, Colombia
Los Sauces is one of those very rare Colombian coffees and has extraordinary, elegant complexity, refined flavor and sweetness. Intense, sweet coffee aroma and full flavor.
Maria Santos' coffee is a class above - and shows a Colombian, perhaps an Andean, terroir flavor-profile that is just emerging to more discerning palates in the specialty roasting business. Read more and order here: $13.95, regularly $15.95
See Images of the Maria Santos farm here
Grand Cru Kenya: Mamuto, Kirinyaga
We first introduced Mamuto last year in September. I believe it was the best lot auctioned in Kenya that year (all Kenyan coffee lots were auctioned through 2006; this year the system was "liberalized," permitting direct sales as well as auction coffee). Last November (2006) our Mamuto received Coffee Review's first-ever score over 95. We now have Mamuto's best lot from the most recent harvest. It was purchased directly and without hesitation; the coffee was, again, the most outstanding lot we tried this past buying season (and we have been privileged to always cup the cream of the crop!). Read more and order here: Price $18.95, regularly $20.95 Visit my recent trip to Kenya here.
Please Note:
Terroir will return an additional $1 directly to the farmer, Walter Paul Mathagu, for every bag of Mamuto sold at $18.95
Matalapa, La Libertad, El Salvador
Matalapa is a fourth generation 190 acre farm at 4,100 feet above sea level. It was founded in the late 1800's by Fidelia Lima, great grandmother of the current owner, Vickie Ann Dalton de Díaz. She maintains 14 acres of virgin tropical forest and keeps her coffee plants shaded with over forty varieties of shades trees.
I have been following this farm for three years now and have been very impressed with each year's improvements since winning in the 2003 El Salvador Cup of Excellence. The 2007 crop is very impressive for its sweetness and buttery body, ideal for espresso and French Press brewing.
100% Bourbon. Layers of refined deep sweet citrus with no edge coated with creamed nutty caramel. Vienna Roast ...
Price: $10.95, regularly $12.95 per 12 ounces, Click here to purchase
On Sale: $10.95, regularly $12.95 |
Last month’s Top Ten selling coffees: |
|
- La Minita Estate (SHB), Tarrazu , Costa Rica
- Kangocho, Nyeri , Kenya
- Konga Cooperative, Yirgacheffe, Ethiopia
- Kigutha, Kiambu, Kenya
- Konga Cooperative, North Italian Style Espresso
- Daterra, North Italian Style Espresso
- Daterra, South Italian Style Espresso
- Golden Mandheling, Sumatra, Indonesia
- Grand Cru Kenya: Mamuto, Kirinyaga
- El Injerto, Huehuetenango, Guatemala SHB
|
Terroir Sumatra Mandheling, South Italian Espresso Roast receives 92-Point rating from Coffee Review |
|
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.
Ken David's Blind Assessment:
"Rich, gently pungent aroma with butter, floral and apricot-toned fruit hints. In the small cup medium body, syrupy mouthfeel, and rather sharply but sweetly cedary with continued apricot and flowers and an explicit moist, leafy earth note. At its best in milk: rich, strong-presenced but sweet with dark chocolate and sustained suggestions of moist earth and flowers.
Who should drink it: An espresso that subtly but powerfully expresses the pungently complex, earth-and-chocolate character of its Sumatra origin." Enjoy! Click here to purchase. |
Limited Edition Special Coffees Schedule Update |
|
This coming Monday, Feb 4th, we will be roasting:
On Monday, Feb 11th, we will be roasting:
- La Esmeralda, Panama, 2007 crop. La Esmeralda's history-making Gesha variety perfectly crafted and yielding powerful notes of sweet peaches and apricot. Full-Flavor Roast
On Monday, Feb 18th, we will be roasting:
- La Esperanza , Colombia 's 2007 Cup of Excellence 1 st prize winner, Full Flavor Roast: a garden of sweet, mellow, sensuous tropical fruit.
On Monday, Feb 25th , we will be roasting:
- Villa Flor, Colombia , Full-Flavor Roast Wintergreen-tinged tropical fruit aromas with soft persimmons, and delicate notes of passion fruit with Brazil nuts.
On Monday, Mar 3rd, we will be roasting:
- La Esmeralda, Panama, 2007 crop. La Esmeralda's history-making Gesha variety perfectly crafted and yielding powerful notes of sweet peaches and apricot. North Italian Espresso Roast
On Monday, Mar 10th, we will be roasting:
- La Esperanza, Colombia 's 2007 Cup of Excellence 1 st prize winner North Italian Espresso Roast: a garden of sweet, mellow, sensuous tropical fruit.
Reminder: Remaining Limited Edition Coffees are now 8-oz sizes
Click here to read more and/or to order. |
Technivorm Brewers in Stock and on Sale |
|
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. |
Baratza Virtuoso Conical Burr Grinder |
|
|
Sale Price: $179.95
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. Produces a very uniform grind from espresso to press-pot, for an even, smooth extraction. Regularly $199.95, on sale in February for $179.95. |
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© 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, George Howell Coffee Company™ | 312 School Street | Acton | MA | 01720 | Toll Free 866-444-5282