Eli Dawson

George Howell Coffee Company

George Howell Coffee was created in early 2004 to forge a new kind of partnership with coffee growers – one which recognizes their fundamental role and identity in the production of high quality coffees. We believe that one should not blend truly fine coffees, just like one does not blend fine wines, because they are already complete statements. There has been very little incentive, in terms of remuneration and acknowledgment, for producers to create really great coffees. Our primary objective is to roast and directly serve coffee lovers with the finest coffees on earth. In that role we have pioneered technologies and relationships to coffee farmers to raise quality to new heights. We currently have three cafes in the greater Boston area (at 505 Washington Street, Downtown Crossing adjoining the Godfrey Hotel, at Boston Public Market, and in Newtonville). We are carefully expanding to further locations. We also wholesale fine coffees in a variety of roasts for restaurants, bakeries and other fine food establishments. See www.GeorgeHowellCoffee.com for more information. Aficionados! You have barely tasted the tip of the potential quality iceberg! Coffee growers remain locked in the commodity matrix because the coffee-roaster tradition has promoted blends as products superior to the sum of their parts – meaning the single origin coffees. So, most farmers produce what the market demands: acceptable, large coffee lots for blending. Growers of anonymous coffees-to-be-blended depend for economic sustenance on the goodwill and/or temporal strategies of the buyers' market, from giant corporations to Fair Trade. Coffee producers, so far, are only beginning to have a market platform for high-craft self-expression.