Uganda – Buwobodeya

The Coffee Gardens was established in 2017 with the goal of producing incredible specialty coffee in an ethical way, offering a transparent and direct link between coffee farmers and coffee consumers. The following information on our 2021/22 micro and nano-lots has been produced to enable our customers and consumers to better understand the coffee they are buying, the story behind it, and the incredible farmers who grow it. Micro-lots were assembled by combining day-lots (coffee processed on the same day) with similar taste profiles. Therefore, a single farmer may contribute to multiple micro-lots.

The Coffee Gardens have been working with the farmers who produced this micro-lot for the past five years. They know each and every farming family as they live on the mountain about 600 metres above their washing station.

This micro-lot is named after the village Buwobodeya, where many of the farmers live. Last year, with the support of roasters, we trained these farmers on growing coffee amongst shade trees, good agricultural practices, and of course, better harvesting techniques. In July, we distributed over 8,300 shade, fruit and fast growing tree seedlings. This year, training is continuing and we’re building toilet blocks for the three primary schools in the area, including Zebugu-Busi Primary School. You can read more here. Farmers have coffee gardens of different sizes and so supply different amounts of coffee. Mr Nasimo Lawrance from Buwobodeya was a major contributor to this micro-lot with 148 KG of red ripe coffee cherries. Within hours of being picked, coffee cherries are carried down to our station in 50 kg bags by “runners” – a team of over 160 women and men employed from the local community. This coffee is pulped before undergoing our signature fermentation method involving a pre-wash, a long soak in cold mountain spring water, and then a gentle long fermentation lasting forty hours before a final wash. This coffee is meticulously sorted at 12 different stages before export.