George Howell Coffee

Looking for some of the best roasted coffee on the planet? Your searching will end once you’ve tried George Howell Coffee.
I have Kyle Glanville & Charles Babinski of G&B Coffee (Los Angeles, CA) to thank for introducing me to George Howell’s terroir coffees. Over the last two years, the guys at G&B have used a variety of George Howell’s filter (drip) coffees for both slow brew via Fetco and pulled for spro. Some of the most notables: Deri Kochoha, Mamuto, Borboya, Reko, and Kochere.
Whenever I order whole beans, I typically put in an order for a month’s worth, which translates to roughly 4 – 6 bags, attempting to maximize my order to take advantage of $ 8 flat rate shipping for orders 3 – 7 lbs. Depending on what George Howell offers for special Limited Roasts, I tend to hold off until the ordering window opens (limited edition roasts are roasted Mondays and only available for purchase the Thursday prior through Monday 6am Eastern Time of roasting date).
Prices and bag size vary based on origin, varietal, and scarcity. Beans can be delivered whole or ground for your desired brew method.
If you want to know more about the pioneer of third wave specialty coffee, Coffee Geeks has an insightful interview with George Howell. I wholeheartedly recommend reading or listening to it!
Put in an order for some Ethiopian or Kenya coffees from George Howell today. After one sip, I can guarantee you’ll be hooked and will gain a new appreciation and fondness for coffee.

I am relatively new to this terroir coffee scene. At first I thought it was a marketing gimmick, now I am an addict. There is nothing like a good cup of coffee to start your day but this stuff brings such an elevated experience, it’s tough to drink pedestrian coffee anymore. Here is a quick rundown of what I have tried: alchemy espresso– great balance and well rounded esspresso for lattes and iced coffees. Ethiopia borboya– immediately hits you with lemon and chocolate, it’s pure bliss straight up. Lastly, Costa Rica tarrazu– this is a great cappuccino or mocha coffee drink coffee because of the serious chocolate and nutty flavors. Overall I am very happy with my online shopping experience, I live close by so shipping times have never been an issue. The only thing I wish is that the offered a smaller size option so I could try more variations at a time. Right now a 12oz bag ground is getting me about a week and a half of pure coffee bliss. Stop reading and start ordering!

I recently spent almost $ 20 for 12 oz. of espresso beans, something I NEVER thought I would do. And it was worth it. I discovered George Howell’s Terroir espressos a few years ago and am lucky enough to live one town over from the roastery in Acton so I can pick up my drug on the same day it was roasted without paying for shipping. I have tried many of the Terroir espresso varieties and almost always have found them to be amazingly complex and delicious, even on my fairly basic home espresso setup. I’m especially loving the espressos out of Africa. I loved both the Mamuto AB and Borboya from this fall. I just finished up a bag of Yukro from Ethiopia. I bought it at the crazy price of $ 19.75 because the tasting notes were so intriguing: apricot, anise and lily. Truthfully, I rarely recognize flavors in tasting notes but sure enough the lily came through. Bottom line: George Howell is a god and I am his ardent disciple.
And in case it’s not otherwise clear, please note that this review is for Terroir Coffee beans as a retail purchase. The Terroir Coffee roastery in Acton does not have a retail storefront or café on site.

Back up to snuff from my last review of Taste. Staff, coffee, selection… all top notch.

This is the company that started the trend to single origin coffee’s and now offers the finest of these coffee’s to the public, and restaurants. All coffee lovers know the name of George Howell and appreciate his dedication and hard work to search out and sustain the growing and refinement of these exceptional coffees and storage of the bean before final roasting and delivery.
He is in the circle of perfection that includes all peoples involved in perfecting the product to bring to your table.

In an effort to assist you in selecting a coffee shop based on my reviews (or not), I thought it’d be helpful for you to know my preferences when it comes to coffee. (Also if you come bearing gifts, you could do a lot worse than bringing me a pound of coffee. So, you should know what I like.)
Terroir offers some of the greatest roasted coffee that you’ll find anywhere.
(So, when you come over to my apartment, bring some coffee. I should warn you, however, that I don’t have a coffee maker. It’ll have to be cowboy style coffee. Hope that’s OK with you?)
Favorites include Konga Co-​op, Yirgacheffe, Ethiopia Organic; La Minita, Tarrazu, Costa Rica; and anything from Kenya.

Great coffee, really slow shipping.
I’ve been having a love/​hate affair with Terroir. The coffee is superb — no doubt about it. But they’ve gotta speed up their shipping times. For example, this week I ordered two bags on Tuesday morning. Here we are at Friday and no coffee from Terroir (since I purchased only two bags, I opted for cheaper Postal delivery instead of UPS). I’m about a 45-​minute drive from Terroir, so it’s just weird that it takes 4+ days for delivery. And it’s often this way.
Sure, in the scheme of things, it’s not a major issue. But considering Terroir’s prices, it’s a little disappointing.

My Mom passed at the end of August so I had to return home to Boston and so I was shopping at Whole Food Market (used to be Stop n’ Shop when I was a kid) in Back Bay behind the Boston Symphony Hall and lo and behold! they sold Terrior Coffee so Man oh Man I was like throwing the coffee bags into my basket then it dawned on me I would be like saving bucks on ordering it on line and paying for shipping but because the bags are heavy possibly paying extra for the flippin luggage fees =[
What to do what to do? I ended up only buying 2 *regretting that decision now as Thomas Jefferson went through those in less than 3 weeks!
Christmas is around the corner so I will be stocking up once more to send to friends as gifts :)
Respectfully Reviewed

Dear Mr. Howell,
I blame my friends Jonathan and Ippy for turning me into a Terroir Coffee addict. The first time was free, but now I can’t stop. And not just me; I think by proxy, a few of my friends have Terroir Coffee habits.
As my dealer, you must know how addicted I am to the sweet nectar you sell. You peddle mana with names like «La Minita», «La Concepcion», and «Mandheling». No one’s coffee here in Seattle is as good as Terroir Coffee. I’m pretty sure someone from $BUX will punish me for that, but it’s true.
Please, please, please, Mr. Howell: can you please, please, please, do something about your slow shipping system. Please? When I run out, I usually have to wait days and sometimes weeks. The DTs are killing me.
Also, Mr. Howell, it would be nice if you sold coffee in smaller bags for addicts like me who don’t consume it at a very high rate. Maybe four, six, or eight ounce bags?
If I could give you six stars, I would. OK, I grant you six stars. Minus one for slow shipping equals five stars. Any way you slice you are the best!
Yours truly,
p.e.

Unlike the other folks I never considered myself a coffee snob. I would frequent DD’s, Starf*ckers, Peets, Darwin’s, L’aroma, and Crema. Yeah I could taste the difference but I didn’t judge, it was all good until now. You see the BF’s family has a coffee farm in Kenya. He thinks my coffee is terrible so he buys me a new coffee maker and some Terroir beans from the region where their farm is. «This is what coffee tastes like in Kenya» he says. Now I’m spoiled, I’m ruined. I can’t believe he’s been choking down the swill I was making all those years. Terroir really is like wine, you can taste berry, you can smell caramel, you can drink it BLACK! Who cares about the cost, make it at home, I’m sure it’s less than idling in the drive through line waiting to shell out $ 4 on bitter pee!

Up front, the «shop» in Acton is pretty much a call center, a roasting center and warehouse so if you’re expecting a real coffee house look elsewhere. I live in Metrowest MA and I find the 45min drive to Acton well worth the trip.
The coffee beans are some of the highest quality I think you’ll find in the US. The quality stems all the way from the farm, to picking and packing, to the storage and finally, the roasted product. You can order 12oz fresh roasted beans or unroasted green beans in 2lb batches.
Unlike blends, GHCC specializes in single origin, rather than blends.
As with all coffee, a freshly roasted batch requires 24hours+ to breathe and degas some of the CO2. Having picked up beans that were roasted the same day from the warehouse, I tend to wait 2−3days for coffees and 5 – 7 for espressos as there will be harsh off-​flavors if you grind too soon. If I were getting beans shipped out of state, I’d say UPS or USPS would be a reasonable time to wait. What I don’t like is when I see beans sitting in the grocery store with the Terroir brand and they’ve been sitting for a month.
These beans are bursting with florals and are designed to be used within 5 days of opening, as the package states. Past this time period you miss out on some of the subtle flavors, as they’ve begun to oxidize. And for ultra-​premium coffee, you’ll want to savor all the flavor you can get.
What I love about GH Terroir Coffee:
*great selection of single origins all season long
*lighter roasts bring out the coffee’s true flavors
*packages with easy-​to-​understand flavors
*northern or southern Italian espresso roasts
*knowledgeable email newsletters
*2lb bags of green beans
*excellent handling of the bean from crop to customer’s cup
What I don’t like:
*cost of beans is $$$$
*12oz packages, not a full pound
*beans lose peak flavors after 5days of opening
*arguably some lighter roasts can be too acidic for my stomach
*I can’t roast coffee as well as GHCC
*wish they’d serve more samples at the warehouse like wine tastings
Who will appreciate this coffee?
*Those who normally drink black coffee.
*Foodies who can pick out flavor notes will love the way the roast really make these beans sing!
*Those tired of stale, dark-​roasted coffee.
*The analytical coffee guru, who has to know everything about everything cofee!
*Anyone with a $ 500+ espresso grinder (you know who you are)
The Bottom Line:
If you’re new to coffee, this is coffee nirvana. If you’re a 20-​year coffee junkie in search of the «best of the best», I urge you to try GHCC and they’ll re-​educate you to a new standard of excellence.

As a coffee lover, I feel fortunate to live in the vicinity of George Howell’s wonderful Terroir Coffee Company. Mr. Howell, a founder of the «Cup of Excellence» coffee-​tasting competition, brings his years of experience to his latest venture, selling the best tasting coffee the world has to offer.
Terroir typically seeks out the smaller coffee growers whose methods are complementary to the essence of the bean’s potential flavors.
And, although some persons have referred to Terroir’s coffee as being expensive, Mr. Howell correctly asserts that ounce-​for-​ounce, his coffees compare very favorably with inexpensive wines.
George Howell leaves no variable unconsidered in a coffee bean’s journey from seed to cup. Terroir has encouraged many of its coffee growing sources to use vacuum-​sealed bags in order to preserve essential flavor elements in the bean. Terroir is the only coffee company that freezes the green coffee beans as soon as they arrive. The result is a significant preservation of aromatics and taste as the beans are stored over time (Attend one of Mr. Howell’s free seminars to sample the difference first hand… or should I say first mouth?). Finally, Terroir pays attention to the ideal roast for each specific coffee it sells. All coffee roasting is done at Terroir’s location for the ultimate in quality control.
In summary, George Howell’s Terroir Coffee Company deserves all of the superlatives that I and others have used to describe it.

I had Terroir coffee each morning for the past five days and all other coffee is starting to taste downright nasty, acidic, burned, and toxic by comparison to the light, delicate, flavorful, aromatic, artisanal Terroir. Specifically, I’ve had the Maria Santos’ Los Sauces full flavor roast from Cauca region, Colombia. Its label describes «honeyed burst of tangerine, ripe pomegranate and pear notes embedded in mixed nuts and chocolate.» I have no idea if I could pick out all that, but I do know it’s GOOD, the labels and packaging are aesthetic, I like the photo showing the coffee grower, and I like the craftsmanship involved in this coffee’s story.

I picked up several bags of their Daterra (South Italian Espresso Roast) at a local Whole Foods in Cambridge. As an up and coming coffee aficionado, I read about George Howell online and was curious to try their beans. The beans for this roast were likely personally selected by him and in entirely made of beans from Brazil (Cerrado region, single source). At first when I opened the package, it was curious they weren’t as dark as one would expect (somewhere on the internet he talks about the myth around espresso beans needing to be dark). Anyways, it took me a few espressos before I found the right grind setting, however, most of the shots were quite pleasant, not heavy or too bitter. Moreover, the shots were even a little sweet and quite delicate. Delicious!
One final note: I didn’t know much about their Acton location and decided to stop by since I was already heading out in that direction (during xmas 07). Anyways, it appears that this location is mostly a roasting facility (it was closed on Sunday afternoon) in a small industrial park/​. There isn’t a café here, BUT they may be serving samples when open (during regular business hours).

i would probably slurp liquified fresh tea leaves if they were available, favoring the lighest of fermented/​roasted formosa Oolong. it only makes sense that after giving up on finding something i like from tj or sb, id be walking past an Italian café and someone walks out mumling to themselves ‘the best coffee ever’. so curiously i grabbed a cup, and on a later visit noticed the ‘terroir’ sign.
for some reason, there dont seem to be any roasters in the allston/​brighton/​brookline area unless i just don’t know about them. as the GH beans are available at Clear Flour, theyve found a new customer.

Absolutely the best coffee I’ve had. I also start most mornings with it. They have such interesting coffees and I love the fact that a lot of them are fair trade or organic or utz kapeh or Cup of Excellence. I had the opportunity to attend an open house (it’s not a sit-​down place just distribution). It was amazing to me to learn how much goes into creating a bag of coffee. I have a new-​found appreciation — I’ve even learned to drink my coffee black. By all means, if you get a chance to try Terroir, do. Though I wouldn’t necessarily recommend drinking it in a local café — I find that they don’t brew it right and it tastes gross. What a waste.

What can you say about George Howell, the visionary behind Terroir Coffee/​George Howell Coffee Company that hasn’t already been said in the press?
Wait, you don’t know George Howell? Then you probably haven’t been living in the Boston area for long. Howell founded Coffee Connection, a visionary café/​mini-​chain that Starbucks bought out in the early 90s. With a solid non-​compete in place, Howell went about the world, founded non-​profits, and worked with the UN on people and coffee-​related issues in coffee-​growing regions. He created relationships with estates that are still in place today.
When the non-​compete expired, Howell went back to work. At Terroir, he and his team are micro-​roasting some of the best coffees in the world using antique equipment. All coffees are available from the website, and the selection changes with availability. The roasters at Terroir really know what they are doing — the roasting color/​degree (agtron #) maximizes all the luscious flavor and character of each particular bean. When you order, you are sent beans that have been roasted earlier in the day. They ship out twice a week for retail mail order customers. This guarantees freshness.
Terroir recommends using up your beans within a few weeks of opening the bag, and storing the bag in an airtight container away from the light. Taking a cue from the wine geeks, you could also spray an inert gas into the bag to force out all the oxygen — but that would be pushing it for most people.
Terroir is pricey — 12 ounces of roasted coffee will set you back anywhere from $ 11 to $ 50, depending on the rarity of the bean or the irrational exuberance of the auction.
Do yourself a favor — join the mailing list. That way anytime there is an open house you’ll get an invite. And you’ll also know when some of their ultra-​rare and/​or micro lot beans become available.
There is also a well-​edited selection of coffee appliances & paraphernalia available.
Buy your coffee directly from Terroir rather than in a retail store. That way you will know for sure that it has just been roasted.
I can’t start my mornings without it.