Uganda Bukalasi

Producer: 

Various Smallholders

Origin:  

Bukalasi village, Bududa, Mount Elgon

Varietal: 

SL28, SL34

Altitude: 1850-2050 metres above sea level

Process: Natural

Flavours: Strawberry, stone fruits, orange

About This Coffee

This lot is sourced from farmers in the communities of Bududa and Bukalasi on Mount Elgon, Eastern Uganda. These farmers supply our long time partners in the region Zukuka Bora Coffee Company. The purchase price of this coffee includes a dedicated premium used to fund social projects in the community. 

The Zukuka Bora Coffee project was set up to support the people of Mt Elgon in many different ways. While coffee farmers are at the heart of the project, the profits from the project are also used to support their partner NGO: JENGA Community Development. JENGA have been working in the Mt Elgon area for almost 20 years, and had laid much of the groundwork for Zukuka Bora to build relationships with farmers and their communities. JENGA operate a range of projects - including education sponsorship, clean water schemes, savings groups, health promotion and training, and wider farming support.

Bukhanakwa is Zukuka Bora’s most remote farmer group. It is well over an hour's walk from our Wanale washing station over the top of the ridge. The community produces extremely good coffee, sometimes growing up to 2100m. The introduction of the project to this area has been welcomed with huge enthusiasm, and Zukuka Bora have been able to buy coffee direct from the farmers - something that has not been done in the area for decades. Farmers are paid a good price with a bonus and as such, production is going up year on year.

The Region

Mt Elgon is an extinct volcano on the border with Kenya and is thought to be the oldest volcano on the African continent. The massive base and gentle slopes support thousands of smallholder farmers, with arabica coffee is cultivated across a broad band around the mountain between 1,200 and 2,200masl. Volcanic soils, plentiful rain, high altitude and abundant sunshine are all contributing factors to the excellent terroir of the Mt Elgon region.

The region is steeped in coffee tradition. In fact, Zukuka Bora’s Tangwen coffee comes from the very micro-region where Arabica coffee was first planted in around 1920, after being brought from farms in neighbouring Kenya. Despite the rich history, the story of specialty coffee is more mixed.

After independence in 1962, Uganda had a fine reputation for coffee, with strong cooperatives working across the mountain - most famously the Bugisu Cooperative Union. Quality cultivation and harvesting practices were employed and the industry boomed. However, over time, quality started to become compromised due to a variety of reasons and buyers started to become (rightly) suspicious of the quality coming out of the country.  As a result, prices plummeted, and for many farmers growing coffee was simply not economically viable. There was very little differential local market for quality and so the quality-driven processes were largely abandoned.

In recent years however, as the specialty industry has grown producers have started to realise that there is demand and economic incentive for high quality coffee.

The Process

Ripe coffee cherries are selectively harvested and then delivered to the wetmill. The cherries are floated in a clean water tank to separate by density (lower quality cherries float and are removed). The selected cherries are then fermented in sealed drums for 12 hours and then dried on shaded, raised beds. The drying takes up to 30 days.

After drying the coffee is rested for around 1 month before moving to a dry mill for secondary processing (hulling, sorting, grading, handpicking and bagging in Grainpro/Ecotact bags for export.

Roast

Light/ Medium


Brew

Filter & Espresso

Map sillohette provided by Vecteezy