Uganda Mountain Harvest Organic

Have you ever wanted a coffee with the flavor and depth of an African coffee but the body, texture and complexity of an Indonesian coffee? Do you like medium to dark roasts? This coffee is for you. Mountain Harvest has offered the heights of Mt. Elgon in this lot and you'll taste it in every sip. Rich, syrupy, and slightly complex with mild acidity. Notes of butterscotch, pineapple and candied ginger.

Arrival Date: November 12th, 2021

Acidity & Brightness: Moderately bright, moderately sweet

Balance & Finish: Slightly complex with a gently spicy finish.

Body & Texture: Rich, full body, syrupy texture

Flavors: Butterscotch, pineapple, candied ginger

Grade: AA, grown at 1600-2200 meters

Certifications: Organic

Processing: Fully washed, sun dried on raised beds

Grower: 850 farmers organized around Mountain Harvest

Region: Western slopes of Mt. Elgon

Varietals: SL-14, Nyasaland

Roasting: We like this coffee in the medium to dark range (full city to vienna). For a full city roast, pull just after the first crack trails off but before the second crack begins. This medium roast will offer the most balance. For darker roasts, run up to about 30 seconds into 2nd crack. The darker you go, you lose brightness and sweetness, but you gain warmth and spice.

Reminder! This is raw coffee, you must roast it before brewing.

Our Review: "Mountain Harvest is a very young and big-thinking group, first established in 2017. The company is dedicated to long-term economic and environmental sustainability for smallholders on Mt. Elgon. These farmers are Uganda’s highest and most diversified coffee growers with incredible quality potential thanks to the climate, soil fertility, and a longstanding culture of land stewardship, but who historically struggle to meet specialty standards by processing coffee in tiny amounts on homemade equipment. In an effort to raise the economic standard in remote coffee-growing Elgon communities, Mountain Harvest began as an impact investing project underwritten by Lutheran World Relief (LWR). Mountain Harvest organizes growers by local community, administering farm management and processing training to calibrate coffee production to high standards, and expedites parchment to their centralized location in Mbale, at the foot of Mt. Elgon, where each delivery is cupped against a strict and detailed qualitative and physical grading system and allocated accordingly. Unlike other regional buyers who exclusively process centrally or buy lower grade smallholder parchment, Mountain Harvest invests in farmers’ capacity to produce high-specialty, fully-dried parchment coffee within their own resources, helping them maximize their margin when they sell.  " - Royal Coffee

Ugandan coffee is a rare breed and the more we taste it, the more we love it. It's got all the flavor and character of African coffee with the big body, syrupy texture and complexity of Indonesian coffee. I don't know what it is about the soil on Mt. Elgon, but it's special! This coffee will suit a wide range of roasts and tastes. If you typically like medium to darker roasted coffees, this one will suit you well. If you just wish there was more body and texture to washed coffees, you'll love this one. Across most roast ranges you'll get mild acidity and warm sweetness combined with a rich body and complexity of flavor that'll keep you coming back for more. Expect notes of butterscotch, pineapple and candied ginger. Another group of folks we recommend this coffee to are those who love Guatemala Huehuetenango! Step out of your comfort zone and try this coffee, you won't be disappointed.