George Howell (entrepreneur) - The Coffee Connection

The Coffee Connection

Seeking to advance the quality of coffee in Boston to what he was accustomed to in California, Howell began to educate himself about the cultivation, processing, roasting and brewing of fine coffees. He founded The Coffee Connection which opened its first retail store in Harvard Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1975 serving coffee drinks and selling whole-bean coffee and coffee-making paraphernalia. Howell approached his coffee slightly differently than Peet and the others in the West. Whereas West Coast coffee was predicated on a rich, strong, dark roast, Howell believed that a light "cinnamon roast" was better suited to bringing out the nuanced flavors of high-quality coffee beans which he compared to the subtle flavor characteristics of fine wine. He also promulgated the notion of "single-origin" or "single-estate" coffees as opposed to beans blended from multiple sources. Howell worked to develop relationships with various coffee plantations the world over, overseeing the entire process from the selection of the beans to roasting and cupping. As coffee loses its potency gradually (from exposure to oxygen) from the time it is roasted, Howell instituted a policy of roast-dating his coffee beans. Coffee that was unsold after seven days was donated to charity. Coffee drinkers in Massachusetts respond enthusiastically to his products. By the 1990s The Coffee Connection had grown into a chain of 24 company-owned stores in the Boston area.