Mamuto AB, Kenya
From George Howell Coffee
Kirinyaga is the Kikuyu name for the mountain, and the county on its southern slopes.
One of these lines is the farm's: 5,070 ft, the heavy one in rust.
Mamuto means father, mother, and children.
Grown by the Mathagu family in Kirinyaga, beneath Mt. Kenya.
The family and the farm
- Farm
- Mamuto, the Mathagu family
- Region
- Kirinyaga, Kenya
- Altitude
- 5,070 ft
- Size
- 21 acres
- Process
- Washed, dried on the farm
- Grade
- AB
- Harvest
- December 2025
- Roast
- Light, by George Howell Coffee
- Their notes
- Blackberry, blackcurrant, plum
- The family
- Founded by the late Walter Mathagu. Run today by Patrick Mathagu and family, who also keep dairy cattle and grow bananas, maize, beans and macadamia.
- AB
- One screen grade below AA. George Howell's note: "less uniform, but this means a bigger body in the cup."
Why this one.
We went looking for a coffee worth the search. The more we found out about this one, the better it got.
It grows high and cool on Mt. Kenya, and farms like that tend to grow denser coffee that tastes brighter. The family washes and dries it on the farm, then rests it about six weeks in its parchment before milling, which keeps it good for longer.
George Howell Coffee has bought Mamuto every year since 2006, and now buys the whole crop. Twenty years of the same buyer coming back tells you more about a farm than a score can.
Past that, it's taste, and yours is the one that counts.
How we brew it is at the end of this page.
“We roast with a light touch.”
George Howell Coffee.
George Howell’s café, The Coffee Connection, roasted light when dark roasts dominated. The Frappuccino debuted there in 1992, and in 1994 he sold the chain.
George Howell Coffee began freezing its green coffee in 2004, in freezers “the same kind used for ice cream”, at or just below −10 °F. Kept that way, some coffees stay pristine for up to four years.
- He moved his family from Berkeley to Boston in 1974, brewing his own coffee in diners on the drive east and asking the waitresses for hot water.
- He found Boston “a desert of stale, brown-painted wooden pellets and liquefied ground saw dust.”
- “The Frappuccino,” he said, “wasn’t my life goal.”
- The Specialty Coffee Association of America gave him its Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996.
- From 1997 he worked with the United Nations and the International Coffee Organization on economic sustainability for coffee farmers.
- He helped found Cup of Excellence in 1999.
- He and his daughter Jenny travel to source the coffees.
Their bag, untouched.
George Howell Coffee roasts and packs Mamuto AB in Acton, Massachusetts. We don't reprint their label. We add one thing: the CTO 001 disc, beside their name.
Mt. Kenya from above, a line every 200 m, drawn from the elevation data. The one rust line is 5,070 ft, the farm's altitude.
Made for this drop.
-
The contour hoodie
Heavy cotton fleece, 14 oz
-
The 5,070 cap
Washed cotton twill, unstructured
-
The stickers
Matte vinyl
Ask for a bag.
In the box
- The bag
- The card
- The print
- The sticker
- The comic
The recipe
Espresso.
93 °C·36.7 g out·36.9 s
- 18 g in, about 36 g out.
- Pulling by hand? Let it bloom, hold the peak, then ease off.
- Grind a touch finer than for a darker roast: a light roast takes a little more to build pressure.
- If you’re meticulous, here’s the profile.
The Switch.
18g280g
- Valve closed, 280 g of water just off the boil.
- 18 g of coffee on top. Stir it in.
- Open the valve.
- Done.
0:00
The full recipe comes on a card in the box.