…single estate, often organically grown, light roasted fresh coffee from Terrior. I can still remember the first time I had a cup of La Minita (Tarrazu, Costa Rica) coffee at George Howell’s old Coffee Connection store in Harvard Square in the early 90s. Mind opening. He’s still selling La Minita, although they’re done for the season. Here’s what I’ve got lined up next instead:

• Sing Addis Ketema Cooperative, Yirgacheffe, Ethiopia
• Daterra Farm Special Reserve, Cerrado, Brazil
• Elkhill Estate, Coorg, India
• El Injerto, Huehuetenango, Guatemala SHB
• Maria Santos’ Los Sauces, Cauca, Colombia (great great coffee from a tiny 13 ha farm)

And he’s on a mission to wake America (at least) up to lighter roasts, alternatives to the dark roasted style popularized by Starbucks. I suppose Starbucks roasts that way so that their coffee retains some flavor in their milk drinks.

The emphasis on single estates, of course, is an echo of vineyards and he uses the language of wine tasting to describe these coffees.

George Howell is the Emmet Eiland of coffee. More on this later.