Here is our only washed coffee, roasted for filter brewing, from the Rwenzori Mountains this year. It is easy to overlook well-produced washed coffees, but selfishly, the ones that I happily take home. This might not be the holy grail of speciality coffee, but buying coffee isn’t all about buying the top 1% and selling it for telephone numbers. Coffees like this are also fantastic in Formula 6, too, now that we have used up many of our Guatemalan coffees.
Over the last five years, we have seen dramatic quality improvements in Ugandan coffee, and it is a highlight in the coffee calendar. You would be excused for mistaking this for a soft, light Kenya-like experience in a filter brew. It’s a bold claim, I know, but this is such a great, light and clean fruity brew.
Farmers: Smallholder farms average size of 1/2 hectare.
Mill; Rwenzori Coffee Company
Area: Rwenzori, western Uganda
Altitude: 1200 to 2300 Meters above sea level
Varietals: SL28, SL14
Process: Fully washed
Roast: (Light) Filter.
This coffee comes to us via the Rwenzori Coffee Company and Omwani. This is the sum of many (500) smallholder farmers, with great processing.
Since the traditional Uganda processing method is natural, producing a washed coffee for the first time was a gamble, made worse when the trucks delivering the cherries to Agri Evolve got delayed, putting the crop at risk of over-fermentation.
It was the middle of the night, and to get the cherries to the washing station on time, the drivers put pedal to the metal. Peeling down a rain-soaked mud road, Agri Evolve’s first washed coffee was literally flying at midnight.
These are exciting times indeed for Ugandan coffee, with risk and (now) great results.
Varietals: SL28 and SL14
The Rwenzori Coffee Company are based in the South of Uganda and is a close partner of Omwani.
JW (Founder of Omwani) went on an adventure with a friend (Johnny Rowland) to Uganda. They were inspired by stories from Johnny’s parents about living and working in rural Uganda, and wanted that experience for themselves.
James and Johnny found work with a local development centre, which sent them out to numerous smallholder farms. This experience showed the guys the hardships of the small-scale producer.
In short, they built a better system, in favour of producers, of which Johnny is still the director.
JW moved back to the UK in 2017 and started Omwani. His knowledge, experience and wit have won him a big part of the heart of the UK speciality coffee market.
Our “Go To” filter recipe has been 60g a litre for a long time now. It is a great place to start.
In a cafetiere, or Aeropress, you can get a bit more depth of fruit here. I haven’t had a bad brew with it and enjoyed them all…
Aromatics: Promise of fruit| Body: Light| Acidity: Currants and soft citrus|
On opening, this is soft and sweet, like brown sugar and currants with a little cocoa on the finish. The liquor deepens and sweetens. On cooling, the citrus element elevates with a cocoa finish.
To achieve this at home, you would have to make a cafetiere and just leave it until it goes cold, otherwise it’s just sweet, soft and easy drinking.
In a batch brew filter, this is just the easiest coffee that empties itself from the flask, like a great Kenya. Truly, the easiest coffee to quaff.
