Uganda - Sironko Station, Pure Natural

Dark chocolate, molasses, tropical fruit, caramel

Processed in Mountain Harvest's most centralized wet mill facility, Ibrahim Kiganda and his assistant Ruth Chebet receive cherries at Mountain Harvest’s hub of innovation and research - Sironko Station. Found at the base of Mount Elgon, Mountain Harvest staff members funnel cherry from some of the mountain’s most isolated communities in Yilwanako Mayiyi, Buginyanya, Bushiyi, Makali, Bukalasi, and Sipi. Here, our expert staff have full variable control through infrastructure and tested protocols developed for the unique Ugandan context. Equipped with years of data, Ibrahim fine-tunes his station and staff each season, allowing him to take Mountain Harvest coffees to competitions globally to secure Uganda’s place in the specialty industry. As Uganda’s National Barista Competition winner (AFCA, 2022), you will be sure to see Uganda’s excellence from beehive to barista in these coffees through Ibrahim’s and his team’s work.

There is a certain point on Mount Elgon where the rains subside and Ibrahim Kiganda, Processing Manager of Sironko Station, can dedicate the best of the best red ripe cherries to a "pure natural" processing procedure. As the lot name suggests, this is a natural in its purest form. Red ripe cherries hailing from the Northern communities Yilwanako Mayiyi and Buginyanya of a BRIX score 18 and above go directly to raised beds for drying until about 10% moisture content.

While others within the new specialty space of Uganda may only focus on cherry production for high variable control, Mountain Harvest must meet farmers in their understanding and traditions to make a lasting impact. Farmers of Uganda are familiar with selling home-processed parchment to middlemen who do not care for quality. Because of this, farmers keep this parchment as a physical form of savings, selling it off as they need money - eliminating the opportunity to access higher-paying markets and reinforcing unstable farm businesses. Mountain Harvest's suite of strategic services creates steps towards resiliency for the farm and farmer. Ultimately, Mountain Harvest seeks to position farmers as the experts of the farm, while Mountain Harvest takes on the expertise of coffee production. To reinforce this, we incentivize cherry sales by upping the price by over 30%.

Taste the fruits of early adapter farmers who have been accessing Mountain Harvest services through the Paradigm Shifters menu.

Farmers Services accessed in the production of this coffee include:

Income Diversification
Financial Literacy
Regenerative Agriculture
Microfinance
Professional picking program