Uganda Friends of Mothers Organic

Founded in 2015, the Friends of Mothers Initiative is empowering women farmers in Uganda to bring top shelf coffee to a world market. This amazing coffee is low acid, super rich and almost syrupy. Look for complex notes of cocoa, raisin and molasses. 

Arrival Date: February 14th, 2020

Acidity & Brightness: Low acidity, slightly sweet

Balance & Finish: Complex with a lingering, dry finish 

Body & Texture: Rich Body, buttery texture

Flavors: Cocoa, molasses and raisin 

Grade: A, grown at 1400-1500 meters

Certifications: Organic and fair trade

Processing: Fully Washed, Shade grown, hand picked, sun dried on raised tables

Varietals: Kenya SL14

Roasting: Start with Full City (Medium) or just as second crack starts. We prefer it just a touch darker at Full City plus or just as a handful of oily patches have formed. 

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

Our Review: Friends of Mothers Initiative Ltd is a fair-trade certified and organic coffee producer and exporting organization which is empowering women in coffee. There are about 50 women coffee producers in this organization which focused on coffee production, as well as producing honey. The honey project is part of their social and biodiversity impact plan, with pairs with their clean energy project. They are located on the slopes of Mt. Elgon in eastern Uganda and the organization was founded in 2015. The volcanic soils on Mt. Elgon give the coffee a unique taste and richness in the body. Women make a huge contribution in the production of coffee. Empowering female coffee growers is so important because these inspirational women are helping to pave the way for a brighter future. These women are extremely selective during the harvest, only picking ripe cherries that are pulped within 12hrs to ensure high cup score, thereafter fermented for 24hours, washed and then dried. “We control the quality at the farm, during harvesting and post-harvest handling to ensure that the coffee produced is specialty coffee” said a model farmer in Burukuru, which is located on the slopes of Mt. Elgon.

The care and love these strong women put into their coffee is evident from the first sip. While this coffee variety is the same many Kenyan farmers grown, the soil on the slopes of Mt. Elgon give it a very unique profile! We've found it's best described as a cross between Kenyan coffee and Indonesian coffee. Like Indonesian coffee, it's very low acid meaning the front end of your cup will be mild but it's followed quickly by a huge, nearly syrupy body. The flavors are pretty complex with notes of cocoa powder, raisin and a bit of molasses. Finally, the finish is where you'll notice the most similarity with Kenyan coffee as it's long and dry like a good red wine. If you enjoy unique coffee with a great cause, you've got to give this one a try!