The Coffees of Uganda

Green Coffee Offerings : Africa : Uganda

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We had a special project cooking in Uganda - same project I visited in November. But the coffee production was very small and not very good quality. So we are still hopeful for new opportunities, but we shall see. No new arrivals on the horizon at this point.

About Ugandan Coffee

Map of the Uganda

Coffee farmers in Uganda, Sipi Falls sub-region.

While Arabica was introduced at the beginning of the 1900's, Robusta coffee is indigenous to the country, and has been a part of Ugandan life for centuries. The variety of wild Robusta coffee still growing today in Uganda's rain forests are thought to be some of the rarest examples of naturally occurring coffee trees anywhere in the world. The coffee trees are intercropped with traditional food crops and grown in the shade of banana trees and other shade trees. In these self-sustaining conditions, coffee is left to grow naturally, flowering on average twice a year.

Uganda has the unfortunate circumstance of being landlocked, and needing good relations with its neighbors to move its coffee crop to a port city. Transportation bottlenecks can result in containers of full of steaming coffee beans stuck on the back of a truck or a dock somewhere ...not good for quality! But in recent years the problems of unstable East African politics and weak infrastructure seem to be improving, judging from the excellent quality coffee coming from the Northern Bugisu region along the Kenya border. Good marks are the Mbale Bugisu Coffee Factory and the Budadiri Coffee Factory -names of the mills where the coffee are prepared. Good Ugandan coffees are both unique among East African coffees and of intense character. Germany has been a strong buyer of Ugandas arabica crop but two years ago the outrageous Java prices resulted in numerous containers appearing in the US as a Java substitute.

Coffees from politically unstable regions, especially East Africa and the 10-year civil war in Uganda, bring up ethical issues. But the plain fact is this: coffee is a cash crop. It is grown by 300,000 small-holder farmers in Uganda. It is 95% of the Ugandan exports and 2,800,000 people rely on it for a living! Most production is Robusta, and the prices they get are low. Arabica farming is more work, but the rewards are greater! Quality in coffee is a way to break pay farmers better. Here you have the opportunity to buy the best of Ugandan coffee...

I took my first trip to Uganda in late 2009. It is an amazing place - check out the travelogue section of our Coffee Library for the photos.

Coffee Farms:	500,000: 93% small native farms	Harvest Times:	September - December
Coffee Workers:	2,800,000	Grading, Processing :	Highest = AA
Shade Grown:	Mixed: interplanted with subsistence crops	Certified Organic:	Certified Organic: all coffee grown in mixed agricultural environment
Major Coffee Growing Regions:	Bugisu/Mount Elgon region at Kenya border, Wugars	Rank in Production::	2nd in Africa (due to large Robusta crop) 7th in World
Botanical Cultivars:	Kents, Typica	Introduced:	1900, Introduced from Malawi

Our Unroasted Ugandan Coffee Offerings:

Please refer to our Reference Page for definitions of terms and cupping numbers used below.Check out the Sweet Maria's Coffee Home Roasting Forum for more conversation about home roasting this and other coffees.

We are currently out of stock. The review below is provided for your reference.

Uganda Organic Bugisu

Mount Elgon lies in the Eastern reaches of the country, straddling the Uganda/Kenya border. Judging by its enormous base it is thought that Mt Elgon was once the tallest mountain in Africa. The coffee shambas extend up and down the cliff faces, making use of natural water gullies and forest cover to extract moisture from the soil. The Sipi Falls is one of the great natural features of the Elgon region where this coffee originates, with small holder farms between 1,600 and 1,900 meters. It is a steep and difficult terrain to traverse in the rainy seasons; often there are no roads, only dirt tracks which are washed away by the rains. But the Bagisu tribesmen who live on the mountain have become expert coffee farmers and have developed their own transportation methods: Donkeys! It is also woth noting that this is the only certified organic coffee from Uganda at this time, and is also Utz Kapeh certified (this is what we call "fair trade lite." For more information visit www.utzkapeh.org). This cup is so different from other East African coffees, with a full body lower acidity than neighboring coffee origins; low acidty, heavy body, rustic aspects. It is more reminicent of Indonesian cup character than citric acidic coffees from Kenya and others. It took time for us to find a lot we really liked, something with some positive secondary characteristics. Here we have the deep tone range (lack of bright acidity), heavy body that reminds me almost of the oily Java mouthfeel, and mild rustic notes. But there is a unique raw Papaya flavor here too, giving added dimension to the cup.

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