2020-21 Harvest
Mt. Elgon, Kapchorwa, Uganda
1,700 - 2,100 masl
SL-14, SL-28 & Nyasaland

Roast Level: Light/Filter

Tasting Notes
Washed - Honey, stone fruit and jasmine.
Natural - Gingerbread, granola and fresh blueberries.

The 2020-21 Harvest

Thankfully we were spared the terrible (historic) rains of the 2019-20 harvest this year! As a result cherry quality was up and the timing of picking could be a lot more flexible for growers. Unfortunately we weren’t able to be on the ground at all (due to COVID-19) however our washing station manager Njoke, Harriet and the rest of our Ugandan team did an absolutely amazing job when it came to managing quality of both picking and drying - and it shows in the cup!

Unrealised Potential

Mt Elgon is a dormant volcano located in Kapchorwa in the east of Uganda. Literally translated from the local dialect as ‘Home of Friends’, Kapchorwa has a long history of arabica coffee production and is linked directly to coffee producers in Kenya - located on a smaller portion of the very same Mt Elgon and producing some of the highest quality coffee on the market. With strong diurnal temperature variation and two rainy seasons the region possesses optimal conditions for slow coffee development and an amazing environment of waterfalls and lush vegetation. Despite this ability to grow incredibly high quality coffee, exports of Ugandan coffee have previously only been to the commodity market - due mostly to a lack of access to specialty markets, knowledge or pre-financing and a decentralised post-harvest supply chain. All of which we are working to overcome.

Our Model

We approached the development of a new specialty coffee program in Uganda with an explicit focus on ensuring that everybody engaged in the value chain would receive substantial improvements in income. Working with researchers at universities in Australia, Uganda and the Netherlands, we’ve trialled and implemented a novel contracting approach that allows coffee pickers and growers to be involved in a transparent and higher-paying harvesting program based around picking quality. From the outset we have explicitly sought to work primarily with youth and women in order to provide more opportunities to disadvantaged groups; furthermore in 2019, working with the local growers’ society we developed the community owned Bugimotwa washing station - giving producers access to the infrastructure and scale required to substantially increase volumes, with an aim to establish more stations in future years along with training in agronomy.

Post Harvest Processing

After passing our quality assessment stage (which occurs within eight hours of cherries being picked) the coffee is floated and then for the washed lots it is pulped (using well maintained and clean equiptment) and then fermented submerged for thirty six hours, after which the coffee is washed twice then laid on raised drying beds. The naturals are placed on the drying beds in thin layers diretly after floating with layers being built-up as the coffee dries. The coffee is dried slowly with meticulous stirring for two to four weeks until it reaches eleven percent moisture, after which it is stored in GrainPro until dry milling.

Why Roasted Coffee?

Whilst we will be predominantly selling coffee ‘green’ (to roasters) we are also offering roasted coffee direct to you - the consumer. Each harvest we have agree upon a minimum purchase quantity from the growers we work with based on our green coffee sale projections, our financial constraints and physical limitations on the ground.

Roasted coffee sales will enable us to build more drying tables (allowing us to dry more coffee per week) and commit to purchasing more coffee from the growers we work with (than we would otherwise be able to) - simply put - by purchasing roasted coffee from us you will be having a direct, positive impact on the value chain and those within it.

For more information on what we do please explore the rest of our site and follow us on social media.

There is so much more to come, we hope you join us all on this journey.