TECHNICAL DETAIL
- PRODUCER
- 3 small farmers
- COUNTRY
- Uganda
- TERROIR
- Sipi falls
- ELEVATION
- 1900-2000 mt
- FERMENTATION
- Gardelli natural
- CULTIVAR
- SL14 & Nyanzaland
- PICKED IN
- Nov-Dec 2018
- LANDED IN
- June 2019
- LOT SIZE
- 4200
- ARRIVED IN
- GrainPro bags
- ROAST PROFILE BY
- Rubens Gardelli
- ROASTED ON
- Customised roaster
THE STORY BEHIND
We are incredibly proud to present you this gem for the third year!
Competition leads to innovation and this coffee is the fruit of that labor. After pioneering the World Brewers Cup with a single tree lot in 2015, Rubens Gardelli is proud to present this unique coffee from Uganda.
Forging close links with the farmer Alex and forming an export company with a close friend Dison, has allowed complete traceability and control from tree to cup. Originally a small competition lot, this project has grown to encompass all of the three small farms production!
A (secretly!) naturally processed coffee, intensely sweet, with lots of dark chocolate and cherry — it's a delicious and amazing representative of Ugandan specialty coffee.
The indigenous Nyanzaland varietal and SL14 are grown at 1900 masl and processed using a proprietary natural method which is completely new and unique to Uganda!
This rare coffee lot has astonishing and complex flavours profile you will not easily forget.
This coffee was presented for the first time by Rubens Gardelli during his 2017 Italy Brewers Cup (video here) and it was brewed by Michael Manhart during his 2017 World Brewers Cup performance...after all national champion presentation (open service) Michael and Mzungu were at the first place in the World!!!
THE VARIETY
One of the oldest Arabica coffee varieties introduced to Africa. The variety originates from Typica introduced to Nyasland (now Malawi) in 1878 from Jamaica. By 1891 there was a flourishing coffee industry in Malawi, but eventually declined because of the marginal climate, which is hotter and drier than is usual for Typica, and because of the high incidence of pests including white stem borer. Inexperienced farmers allowed the plants to overbear in the first years, causing a precipitous fall in yields that ultimately led to the abandonment of coffee in Malawi.
Nyassaland was taken from Malawi to Uganda in 1910, where farmers also struggled with the variety. Early failure led to the widespread planting of Robusta in Uganda. But in recent years, there has been a small resurgence of Arabica growing on the slopes of Mount Elgon, where Nyasaland (locally called Bugisu) is an important variety for smallholders.
THE FERMENTATION PROCESS
Pick only the perfectly ripe coffee cherries one by one by hand, bring them back to the processing centre, remove the defected cherries...do some magic (only from nature, nothing chemically added), put the cherries over raised beds, constantly roll for a even drying, then wait.
Does it sound easy?
Well, you have to try yourself to do each single step to understand how many difficulties must be faced and that is why this lot came out so unique.