Uganda Bududa Bukalasi Supernatural (30kg)

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Bag Weight 30 KG BAG
Harvest Season 2024/25
Status ETA May 2025
Lot Number P8002793-12
  • 6 Bag(s)
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About This Coffee

This lot is sourced from farmers in the communities of Bududa and Bukalasi on Mount Elgon, Eastern Uganda. These farmers supply our long time partners in the region Zukuka Bora Coffee Company. The purchase price of this coffee includes a dedicated premium used to fund social projects in the community. 

The Zukuka Bora Coffee project was set up to support the people of Mt Elgon in many different ways. While coffee farmers are at the heart of the project, the profits from the project are also used to support their partner NGO: JENGA Community Development. JENGA have been working in the Mt Elgon area for almost 20 years, and had laid much of the groundwork for Zukuka Bora to build relationships with farmers and their communities. JENGA operate a range of projects - including education sponsorship, clean water schemes, savings groups, health promotion and training, and wider farming support.

Supernatural processing is an evolving technique which until now we have only sourced from Ethiopia. This season the Zukuka Bora team decided to trial it and our team is very excited with the results!

Origin Uganda
Subregion Bukalasi village, Bududa, Mount Elgon
Harvest Season 2024/25
Producer Type Small Holder Farmers
Wet Mill Muyanda Micro-station
Processing Natural/Dry Processed
Growing Altitude 1850m - 2050m
Plant Species Arabica
Variety SL28, SL34
Coffee Grade UGA CA NAT SPL SD
Screen Size 15 Up
Bag Weight 30 KG BAG
Bag Types Grain Pro / Ecotact

The Region

Mt Elgon is an extinct volcano on the border with Kenya and is thought to be the oldest volcano on the African continent. The massive base and gentle slopes support thousands of smallholder farmers, with arabica coffee is cultivated across a broad band around the mountain between 1,200 and 2,200masl. Volcanic soils, plentiful rain, high altitude and abundant sunshine are all contributing factors to the excellent terroir of the Mt Elgon region.

The region is steeped in coffee tradition. In fact, Zukuka Bora’s Tangwen coffee comes from the very micro-region where Arabica coffee was first planted in around 1920, after being brought from farms in neighbouring Kenya. Despite the rich history, the story of specialty coffee is more mixed.

After independence in 1962, Uganda had a fine reputation for coffee, with strong cooperatives working across the mountain - most famously the Bugisu Cooperative Union. Quality cultivation and harvesting practices were employed and the industry boomed. However, over time, quality started to become compromised due to a variety of reasons and buyers started to become (rightly) suspicious of the quality coming out of the country.  As a result, prices plummeted, and for many farmers growing coffee was simply not economically viable. There was very little differential local market for quality and so the quality-driven processes were largely abandoned.

In recent years however, as the specialty industry has grown producers have started to realise that there is demand and economic incentive for high quality coffee.

The Process

Supernatural processing is an evolving technique which until now we have only sourced from Ethiopia. This season the Zukuka Bora team decided to trial it and our team is very excited with the results!

For this process, ripe coffee cherries are wrapped in plastic sheeting with a little water and then left in the sun on raised racks for 72 hours (3 days) to ferment. After this the cherries are risned clean and then dried on raised beds in the style of a standard natural.

After drying the coffee is rested for around 1 month before moving to a dry mill for secondary processing (hulling, sorting, grading, handpicking and bagging in Grainpro/Ecotact bags for export.

  • Subregion Bukalasi village, Bududa, Mount Elgon
  • Producer Type Small Holder Farmers
  • Wet Mill Muyanda Micro-station
  • Processing Natural/Dry Processed
  • Bag Types Grain Pro / Ecotact
  • Plant Species Arabica
  • Variety SL28, SL34
  • Min Growing Altitude 1850m
  • Max Growing Altitude 2050m
  • Screen Size 15 Up
  • On Sale No
  • Top Lot No
  • Price Per Kg £14.50
  • Status Afloat
  • Coffee Grade UGA CA NAT SPL SD
  • CTRM Contract Number P8002793-12
  • Origin Uganda
  • Warehouse Vollers Group Uk