UGANDA RWENZORI BUGOYE

Flavor notes: dark chocolate, papaya, plum clove

The Bugoye community resides in Western Uganda, living and farming throughout altitudes ranging from 1,300-1,900masl. The smallholders grow coffee as their main cash crop. Harvesting and selling cherries pays for essentials like sending children to school. The coffee trees that populate these smallholder garden plots are mostly SL28 and SL14 cultivars that were originally developed in Kenya.

The Rwenzori Mountains are known for natural-processed coffee, but new washing station infrastructure makes producing fully washed Uganda green coffee possible. This coffee was collected via the receiving stations, where farmers are paid double what they’re used to getting for “drugars” (dried Ugandan Arabica). Much of Uganda’s unroasted coffee used to be made up of drugar grade beans. The coffee was inconsistent and often of poor quality. As a result, farmers struggled to earn cash. Now, the receiving stations are turning the tide. The stations enable great coffee to be delivered and farmers are being rewarded.

In the “washed” or “wet” process coffee cherries are floated and sorted to ensure consistent ripeness and to remove any defective cherries. The seeds (coffee beans) are then removed from their skins using depulping machines and typically moved to fermentation tanks to remove the mucilage—the remaining fruit remnants. Afterward, the coffee is dried until it reaches the optimal moisture level.

With attentive washed processing at newly established stations around the region, washed Uganda coffee lots like this deliver an excellent, high-scoring cup profile. This cup experience of this lot speaks to the potential of the local terroir: enjoy a heavy body, medium acidity, and tasting notes of dark chocolate, papaya, plum, and clove.

*Generally, orders are roasted the following Monday and shipped out (or available for pickup) the next day. Buy 3 bags and get $3 shipping!