Uganda Dry Process Bugoye Muramba

This coffee is a from a washing station in Bugoye town, part of the Rwenzori mountain range in Western Uganda. The station was built a few years back as part of a quality focused effort aimed at building smaller lots that focus on regional distinction. This is more challenging than you might think. Historically, Uganda was a supplier of large commercial blends, where volume, not quality, was the main objective. In contrast, these stations offer a competitive price as well as assistance to attract local farmers to deliver their cherry where it is centrally processed and separated into standardized grades. The Bugoye site sits at around 1200 meters above sea level, and while you see coffee growing in the area, most of it comes from the hills above between 1500 to 1800 meters. It's quite rural, and the higher hillside farms lack roads, leaving farmers to transport their harvest by donkey on foot. Farmers grow a mix of varieties, with SL-28 being quite common, along with SL-14, Costa Rica 95 and Catuaí (many are supplied by the owners of the washing station). This is their dry process coffee, which involves drying the whole cherries on raised beds with the seeds still intact. As you can imagine, it takes longer to dry whole cherries than just the coffee seeds, and the fermentation that occurs during this stage can impart fruit flavors in the final product. This lot has some of that strong fruit character that's a result of processing, but bittersweet roast tones find equal footing in the cup.