Received 8/02/2011
Roast Profile: Ceres-Certified Organic. Dark Bright Earthy Body. Dark Roast Color. Sweetness: Thin Sharp Sweet African Style Finish.

Exquisitely balanced, I fell completely in love with this coffee from the very first sip. In fact, I intend to drink this Uganda until the last bean has left the shop. It has such an amazing, solid feel to it - more earthy than any other African coffee I've ever roasted - complete with a familiar, citrus & syrupy Central African feel. This Uganda also has a great pumpkin-spice mouth-feel that's both clean and refreshing. Simply put, this is exactly how coffee is supposed to taste - there's a marvelous, fresh zing in each espresso shot. You will look forward to that early morning cup every day with these beans in your coffee maker.

Plagued by some of the gravest human rights issues in recent memory, Uganda's history is marred by political oppression, ethnic persecution, and AIDS. Agriculture is part of the solution, however; it is the backbone of Uganda's economy, with small, family-owned landholdings accounting for over 90% of Uganda's coffee production. Winston Churchill's "pearl of Africa" is slowly resurfacing, in part as a result of the increasing global demand for coffee. This nation of great natural beauty and abundant resources is beginning to produce some of the greatest coffee we've ever had.

Traditionally, coffee cultivation has always been a major preoccupation and one of the few sources of income available to rural families. Landholdings are passed on from one generation to the next, with farms producing both food for consumption and traditional cash crops. Endowed with a varied climate, ample fertile land and regular rainfall, Uganda has one of the best environments for agricultural and coffee production in sub-Saharan Africa.

Practicing traditional farming methods, Uganda's farmers plant their coffee trees in-between food crops (like banana trees) for shade. During harvest time, families get together and selectively hand-pick ripe cherries from the trees, which are then laid out to dry on specially made papyrus mats under the hot equatorial sun. This adherence to tried and tested techniques, on naturally fertile soils, arguably produce some of the best coffees in Africa, if not some of the best coffees in the world.