A honey-processed Ugandan coffee in the Balanced profile for the first time ever!

This coffee comes from six communities on the slopes of Mt. Elgon, and represents the work of 456 smallholder farmers. It was processed with Mountain Harvest at their centralized wet mill facility, a hub of innovation and research run by Ibrahim Kiganda (pictured) and his asssitant Ruth Chebet.

Mountain Harvest staff members collect coffee fruit (or cherry) from some of the mountain’s most isolated communities in Yilwanako-Mayiyi, Buginyanya, Bushiyi, Makali, Bukalasi, and Sipi. At Sironko Station, their expert staff have full variable control through infrastructure and tested protocols developed for the unique Ugandan context.

Equipped with years of data, Ibrahim fine-tunes his station and staff each season, allowing him to take Mountain Harvest coffees to competitions globally to secure Uganda’s place in the specialty industry. As Uganda’s National Barista Competition winner (AFCA, 2022), you will be sure to see Uganda’s excellence from beehive to barista in these coffees through Ibrahim’s and his team’s work.

The process
Farmers deliver their coffee to Soronko Station as ripe red cherries, which the staff pulps (removes the fruit from the seeds inside) and dries in three stages on raised beds within the facility. Since this is a "honey" process, there is much of the remaining fruit and sugar coating the seed (check out the photos for what this looks like!). The first drying phase happens inside the Sironko open drying space for 2 to 3 days. Then it is rotated and monitored within a shaded section until moisture gets down to 15%. For final drying, the coffee is placed in the open drying space again until moisture levels reach 11%. Following this, there is a resting phase to cure and homogenize the parchment (dried coffee seeds with one more protective layer left on) in Mountain Harvest's temperature controlled warehouse before it is milled (milling removes that last protective layer, usually right before the coffee is shipped). Click here to learn more about processing!

Cherry vs. Parchment on Mt. Elgon
Many other coffee buyers within the new specialty coffee space of Uganda only want to purchase coffee from farmers in its cherry form, so that they have more control over the variables that affect quality - even though most Ugandan farmers traditionally process the coffee on their own land. However, Mountain Harvest insists that, "we must meet farmers in their understanding and traditions to make a lasting impact. Farmers of Uganda are familiar with selling home-processed parchment to middlemen who do not care for quality. Because of this, farmers keep this parchment as a physical form of savings, selling it off as they need money - eliminating the opportunity to access higher-paying markets and reinforcing unstable farm businesses."

The services that Mountain Harvest offers create steps toward resiliency for the farm and farmer. Ultimately, says Mountain Harvest, "[we] seek to position farmers as the experts of the farm, while Mountain Harvest takes on the expertise of coffee production. To reinforce this, we incentivize cherry sales by upping the price by over 30%."

We are excited to work with Mountain Harvest importers: uniquely, they only work in Uganda, investing in farmers through programs to diversify income (ie. beehives and avocado trees), regenerative agriculture training and financial literacy. These farmers are transforming Uganda into a quality coffee destination, and working to ensure a prosperous and sustainable future in coffee.