Anyone know how George Howell's "Espresso" beans differ from regular versions?

#1: Post by **cuppa** » September 22nd, 2020, 11:51 am

I see espresso versions of different coffees -- Alchemy and Alchemy Espresso, Tarrazu and Tarrazu Espresso, etc. What makes something "Espresso" versus not? They are both whole bean.

September 22nd, 2020, 1:35 pm

Alchemy Espresso, yes. To my knowledge, Alchemy (nonespresso) doesn't exist.
I've never used the Tarrazu Espresso but assume it differs in the manner of roasting.

#3: Post by **Jeff** » September 22nd, 2020, 1:56 pm

For my tastes, I always order the lightest roast available. Based on the website descriptions, it appears to be the same greens with a different roasts profile within a given source.

Give them a call to confirm.

#4: Post by **Iowa_Boy** » September 22nd, 2020, 2:47 pm

Yes, I think it is just how dark they are roasted, espresso being a darker roast.
In the café and on some of the bags, it shows a scale from light to dark and you can see the roast level for each version.
Usually it's clear from their description which version is darker, but definitely good to call them to clarify.

#5: Post by **dmw010** » September 22nd, 2020, 4:33 pm

George Howell doesn't roast anything really dark. Their darkest roasts are closer to what others would call medium. They also do multiple espresso roast profiles for the same coffee, such as Daterra and Daterra Calabria espresso roasts (and I think they've had Northern Italian and Southern Italian variants in the past). They call Daterra Calabria their darkest roast, but it is not a dark roast by any means.

And, yes, I've only seen Alchemy as an espresso blend. It's my go-to "crowdpleaser" coffee using any brewing method.

September 22nd, 2020, 5:34 pm

Most espresso profiles are a bit more developed than those for filter coffee. This is just to aid in ease of extraction.

Nick

#7: Post by **Nate42** » September 22nd, 2020, 6:31 pm

I have tried most of George Howell's espresso versions. As said above none of them are "dark" but they do tend to be darker and more developed than their non espresso equivalent. The espresso designation just means the roast profile is designed with espresso extraction in mind.

September 24th, 2020, 11:25 am

For those looking for an answer in the future, here it is from the official source:

The Tarrazu is a lot of coffee we source from Costa Rica, and roast at a few different profiles. So the scale from light to dark would be Tarrazu, Tarrazu Vienna, Tarrazu Espresso, and Tarrazu French. The alchemy is only an espresso blend, there is only one.

September 24th, 2020, 5:06 pm

George Howell's coffees are at the top of my "to try" list. What are some crowd favorites for espresso and pour over?

September 24th, 2020, 8:55 pm

Like most specialty coffee places their selection is always changing but here are a couple they frequently have available that I enjoy
for espresso:
https://store.georgehowellcoffee.com/co ... resso.html
for pourover:
https://store.georgehowellcoffee.com/co ... inita.html
https://store.georgehowellcoffee.com/co ... kenya.html

The mamuto is actually not available right this second but they release lots of it frequently throughout the year. GH keeps coffee greens vacuum sealed in deep freeze so their lot release is not necessarily tied to coffee seasons.