Uganda AA Bugisu

Sweet Maria's Coffee

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! This cup is so different from other East African coffees (and it has nothing to do with the donkeys). It has a full body and lower acidity than neighboring coffee origins. In fact, this Bugisu is a reminder that the way we think of coffee flavors, grouping coffees into general flavor categories (the Indonesians, the Central Americans, the Brazils, etc) can be misleading. This Uganda belongs, in flavor terms, more to Indonesia than to East Africa. It has that thickness, that low acidity, and also the husky deep tones of the Indonesian Island coffees, somewhere between a Java and a Sulawesi. There are rustic fruity notes, mild earthiness, qualities that make us think of Indonesia. The difference with this lot of Bugisu (and why it is often hard to find an exemplary Ugandan coffee) is that it is not a dirty cup, not tainted by gamey flavors or fermenty notes. Rustic yes! Foul no! With the wider acceptance of "good" coffee flavors blanketing more exotic flavors, more rustic flavors, these distinctions become more detailed, and somethines more difficult to make. For me, the line is clear, and that is why we could not stock a Uganda for the past 6 months - too much dirt, too much rotten fruit, not enough good clean earthiness! (I jest, sort of...)

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