Uganda Rwenzori Bugoye Washed 2023

Ugandan Coffee | Bugoye Coffee Community

The Bugoye community resides north of Kasese, living and farming throughout altitudes ranging from 1,300-1,900masl in western Uganda. The smallholders grow coffee as their main cash crop. Harvesting and selling cherries pays for essentials like sending children to school. The coffee trees that populate these smallholder garden plots are mostly SL28 and SL14 cultivars that were originally developed in Kenya.

With attentive washed processing at newly established stations around the region, washed Uganda coffee lots like this can deliver an excellent, high-scoring cup profile. This lot offers notes of dark chocolate, papaya, plum, and clove, with a heavy body and medium acidity that speaks to the potential of the local terroir.

Coffee from the Rwenzori Mountains

The Rwenzori mountain range (aka - Mountains of the Moon), in Western Uganda is an up-and-coming region offering consistently high-quality Ugandan green coffee beans. Genuine Origin’s sourcing partner on the ground here established receiving stations throughout the mountain range. The receiving stations are generally closer to farming areas, making it easier for farmers to deliver ripe red cherries. From the receiving stations, cherries are transported to a centralized wet mill, where processing is carried out under careful supervision and quality control.

Uganda is a landlocked country in Africa. That means green coffee must first travel through Kenya to reach the Mombasa port before it can be exported internationally. European countries like Italy and Germany are the top importers of Uganda green coffee, but as more effort is put into Arabica coffee production through government incentives, the market reach of Uganda specialty coffee is also widening.

Washed Process Coffee in Uganda

The Rwenzoris are known for naturals, but the new washing station infrastructure makes producing fully washed Uganda green coffee possible. This coffee was collected via the receiving stations, where farmers are paid double what they’re used to getting for “drugars” (dried Ugandan Arabica).

Much of Uganda’s unroasted coffee used to be made up of drugar grade beans. The coffee was inconsistent and often of poor quality. As a result, farmers struggled to earn cash. Now, the receiving stations are turning the tide. The stations enable great coffee to be delivered and farmers are being rewarded.

In the “washed” or “wet” process coffee cherries are floated and sorted to ensure consistent ripeness and to remove any defective cherries. The seeds (coffee beans) are then removed from their skins using depulping machines and typically moved to fermentation tanks to remove the mucilage—the remaining fruit remnants. Afterward, the coffee is dried until it reaches the optimal moisture level.

Washed processing has become widely popular. The cup profile of washed coffees tends to reflect the terroir of the coffee. The processing method allows the growing conditions, the region, and the true character of the coffee to shine through.

Uganda Green Coffee

While Ethiopia may be Africa’s top coffee producer, Uganda is the continent’s top exporter of the valuable commodity. And yet they’re nowhere near their maximum potential. Improvements in farming and processing are helping the region surge past socio-economic hurdles that have historically held this coffee origin back. Upgrades in quality and new washing stations are also substantially impacting the lives of the smallholder farmers who produce the coffee. Read more in our Uganda Green Coffee Origin Report.