Interview with Gordon Howell - Part 1

Gordon Howell is a three-time UK barista competition winner. He has represented his country at two World CIGs events, finishing third place in Nice. He also won the UK Brewers Cup with a brew method that included a lot of pioneering processes that have been widely adopted by baristas in his wake.

Gordon is a co-founder of the legendary Tone-Swiss. Most recently, he’s created a new single origin coffee liquor called Norse Code. In this interview, our Dean of Studies Jem Challender interviews Gordon in an intimate long form interview, filmed during World of Coffee in Copenhagen. We think you’ll love this conversation — it’s a wide ranging chat where Gordon takes you through all the key moments in an important and influential coffee career, as a competitor, a judge, a researcher, an entrepreneur, and an absolute diamond of an individual.

We’re publishing the interview in two instalments. In this first part, Gordon and Jem talk about how Gordon became a barista; they discuss barista competitions; judging; and there’s lots of chat about Gordon’s unique approach to brewing by hand. Then the conversation moves to the reasons why Gordon decided to start innovating with flow- and temperature-profiling technology.