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CTO 001

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.

Altitude  ft  

The family and the farm

A drawing of a coffee cherry cut in half, showing its two seeds in their parchment.
The family
Founded by the late Walter Mathagu. Run today by Patrick Mathagu and family.
The farm
21 acres at 5,070 ft, in Kirinyaga, beneath Mt. Kenya. The family also keeps dairy cattle and grows bananas, maize, beans and macadamia.
The process
Washed, processed and dried on the farm. Harvested December 2025, then rested about six weeks in parchment before milling.
The buyer
George Howell Coffee has bought Mamuto since 2006. The whole crop, every year.
AB
One screen grade below AA. George Howell's note: "less uniform, but this means a bigger body in the cup."
In the cup
Blackberry, blackcurrant, plum. A light roast.
A drawing of one raw green coffee bean.

Source: George Howell Coffee.

A drawing of the Meticulous espresso machine pulling a shot into a small glass.

The shot Being dialed

Soak at three.
Let the lever go.
Ease off.

Traditional Lever, after Damian Brakel. 95 °C, and it stops itself at 42 g.

The profile's reference pull, 24 September. Not yet a Mamuto shot.

The reference pull for the Traditional Lever profile: water fills the basket, it soaks at 3 bar and the first drops arrive at 11.5 seconds, pressure jumps to 9 bar at 15 seconds and eases off to 7.3 bar while the flow climbs, and the machine stops at 39 grams; the drips carry the cup to 42.4 grams at 43.7 seconds.
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Pressure
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In the cup
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Fill

Water floods the basket at nearly 8 ml a second, until the puck pushes back.

Move across the curve to read any moment.

Every point is from the machine's own log. The beans for that pull weren't recorded, so we don't call it a Mamuto shot; Mamuto gets its own curve when a fresh bag arrives.

The filter Being dialed

The Switch, water first.

18g coffee280g water

About 15.6 g of water for every gram of coffee. Water just off the boil.

A drawing of a hand spooning ground coffee onto the water in a Hario Switch on a speckled mug. A drawing of a fingertip pressing the Hario Switch's lever down to open the valve.

0:00

1:45 2:15
  1. Close the valve. Pour in 280 g of water, just off the boil.
  2. Spoon 18 g of coffee onto the water and press it under gently.
  3. Steep.
  4. Open the valve. It drains in about 30 seconds.
  5. Done.

Our water-first recipe, being dialed for this bag: these are today's numbers, not the final dial. The coffee sits on the water instead of packing into the paper, so the drawdown stays quick.

The roaster

“We roast with a light touch.”

George Howell Coffee, on how it roasts.

Harvard Square
George Howell’s café, The Coffee Connection, roasted light when dark roasts dominated. The Frappuccino debuted there in 1992, and in 1994 Starbucks bought the chain and the name.
Frozen
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 says, “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.

Sources: George Howell Coffee, on freezing; Boston Magazine, 2012; Cup of Excellence.

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.

The George Howell Coffee bag for Mamuto AB: Kenya, Kirinyaga, light roast, washed, with notes of plum, blackcurrant and blackberry.

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.

Drawn from the same mountain. Not for sale yet.

Preorders open when the dial is done.

One email, when preorders open. Nothing else.

In the box

  • The bag, from George Howell Coffee
  • The disc sticker
  • One card with the recipe
  • The comic, as a small booklet