When I first heard we were going to be cupping coffees from Uganda to possibly purchase, I was pretty taken aback. Ugandan coffee? Really? Turns out, thanks to the help of Zukuka Bora, the farmers of Mt Elgon have been creating some seriously tasty and impressive quality coffees. One stood out for its candy like sweetness, jelly-like mouthfeel and loads of red fruit qualities. Next thing we knew, we had our first Ugandan.
We sourced this coffee from Commonfolk down in Victoria, who imported it from Zukuka Bora. Zukuka Bora is an enterprise that was established to help bring more money in for farmers in Uganda. Farmers around the Mt Elgon region were growing good quality Arabica, but didn’t have the connections or means of sorting to get a better price and score for their cherry.
Today, farmers are seeing prices that are up to 4 times higher than what they were receiving on the general market. It’s an endeavor worth pursuing for us, who are always looking for strong relationships in the coffee buying world, and who are also always looking for ways to improve the industry where we can.
To celebrate, we thought we’d share a pretty easy way to brew this coffee. It’s roasted for espresso, but we find it works great in an Aeropress too.
To compliment this coffee, we’re using a 1:15 ratio to create more body. To add more acidity to the flavour profile, we’re brewing using slightly cooler water, at 92 degrees. There’s also an unconventional ‘bloom’ phase in this method. In our opinion it helps enhance the body of this coffee even more.
We hope you enjoy this wonderfully unique coffee, and if you try the recipe, please let us know how it goes for you.