This year, by complete coincidence, we were able to sign up coffees from two farms in the foothills of Mount Elgon, but each from a different state. This mountain is located on the border between Uganda and Kenya. It is from Kenya that the Endebess coffee we offer for espresso comes from. Mount Elgon is an easy coffee for everyday drinking.
The farm / washing station:
The Coffee Yard is a new business partner of The Coffee Gardens this year, supporting Norman Mukuru and his team in the launch of his Falcon Specialty coffees in the UK and EU. The Coffee Gardens have known Norman for a number of years and have built a relationship based on sharing knowledge and learning from each other in processing and creating farmer tracking programmes. It is from this history and trust that they have been able to develop a relationship and now export Norman’s coffee.
At the foothills of Mount Elgon are the districts of Sironko, Mbale, Bulambuli and Kapchorwa. Norman established The Coffee Yard, a huge coffee receiving and drying centre. Norman has extensive experience in the coffee industry, having worked in it for almost 20 years, and has been producing natural coffee since 2018, often tweaking his processes to find the profiles his clients are looking for. Cherries are sourced from all four regions surrounding The Coffee Yard.
Variety:
SL14 was originally selected in Kenya in the late 1930s at the Scott Agricultural Laboratories (see SL28 in any Kenyan menu for more on the Scott Laboratories). Individual tree selections made at the Scott Laboratories in Kenya between 1935 and 1939 were prefixed with “SL”. SL14 was selected in 1936 from a single tree designated Drought Resistant II (D.R. II). It is known for its tolerance to drought. Historical records documenting the origin of D.R. II have been lost, but seedlings were established in Kabete in 1933 and then widely distributed in areas east of the Rift Valley in Kenya. Recent genetic tests have confirmed that SL14 is related to the Typica genetic group. It is economically important in both Kenya and Uganda.
SL34 was originally selected in Kenya in the late 1930s at Scott Agricultural Laboratories. It is very susceptible to major diseases such as coffee rust, hookworm and coffee berry disease. Therefore, proper disease control and prevention strategies are essential for its successful cultivation. Recent genetic tests have shown that SL34 is related to the Typica genetic group. The variety is known for its exceptional cup quality, full body and pleasant acidity.
Nyasaland is one of the oldest Arabica coffee varieties to have been reimported to Africa. The variety comes from the Typica family, which was imported to Nyasland (now Malawi) in 1878 from Jamaica. Until 1891, Malawi had a growing coffee industry, but this eventually declined due to the marginal climate, which is warmer and drier than usual for Typica. Another reason was the high incidence of pests including the white stem borer. Inexperienced farmers allowed the plants to overgrow in the early years, causing a sharp decline in yields that eventually led to the abandonment of coffee cultivation in Malawi. Nyasaland was transferred from Malawi to Uganda in 1910. However, the early failure of Ugandan farmers led to large-scale cultivation of Robusta. In recent years, however, there has been a small revival of Arabica cultivation on the slopes of Mount Elgon, where Nyasaland (locally called Bugisu) is an important variety for smallholders.
Processing:
1) The coffee is transported to the station where it is then rinsed and hand-picked to remove any unwanted cherries.
2) Drying of the cherries by dripping to remove the initial moisture from the coffee, on raised beds.
3) A second sorting of the cherries by moisture and colour to produce uniform batches.
4) Fermentation in either closed barrels or open tank depending on the final profile they want to create. For a more “floral” profile like this, it is done in open tanks.
5) The coffee is then dried on raised beds or tarps for approximately 21 days until it reaches less than 12%.
The coffee is then stored to rest and homogenise, after which Norman and his team will husk it and then prepare the green coffee for export using a hand picker and colour sorter.
Our baristas notes:
Full-bodied sweet coffee with very low acidity. Coffees from Uganda are very popular among our customers for their spicy flavours. Mount Elgon is a nice morning coffee. The coffee has low malic acidity and medium to high sweetness. The body is dominated by notes of candied fruit, apples and throughout all temperatures the coffee has light spicy notes similar to star anise and vanilla. A pleasant, easy to drink coffee to sip all day.
Recommended recipe for V60:
95 °C water
300ml water
20g coffee
460 micron grind (23 clicks per comandante)
0:00 40ml water
0:40 100 ml water
1:10 80ml water
1:55 80 ml water
Total time around 3 minutes.
