From source to sip
The story behind your next cup.
Three waterfalls spill off the eastern shoulder of Mount Elgon, an ancient volcano on the Uganda-Kenya border. The slopes below them grow some of Uganda's most distinctive Arabica. This lot pairs that high-grown fruit with a sealed, oxygen-starved ferment.
Mount Elgon is thought to be the oldest volcano on the African continent, and its weathered, mineral-rich soils have long supported coffee in the Sipi Falls microregion. The name comes from a series of three waterfalls on the edge of Mount Elgon National Park, and the surrounding districts of Kapchorwa, Sironko, and Mbale have built a reputation for some of Uganda's cleanest, most expressive Arabica. The cup belongs to the Bugisu family, the country's most renowned Arabica style. The fruit here climbs from roughly 1,450 to 2,200 meters, where cool nights and slow cherry maturation concentrate sugars and sharpen acidity. You can read more about why elevation shapes flavor and why these slopes matter.
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The Coffee Story
The SourceMount Elgon's Eastern Slopes
Mount Elgon is thought to be the oldest volcano on the African continent, and its weathered, mineral-rich soils have long supported coffee in the Sipi Falls microregion. The name comes from a series of three waterfalls on the edge of Mount Elgon National Park, and the surrounding districts of Kapchorwa, Sironko, and Mbale have built a reputation for some of Uganda's cleanest, most expressive Arabica. The cup belongs to the Bugisu family, the country's most renowned Arabica style. The fruit here climbs from roughly 1,450 to 2,200 meters, where cool nights and slow cherry maturation concentrate sugars and sharpen acidity. You can read more about why elevation shapes flavor and why these slopes matter.
Sipi Falls is a smallholder story at its core. More than 8,600 farmers tend the surrounding hillsides, each working an average plot of about 0.2 hectares, hand-picking ripe cherry across a patchwork of tiny gardens. Uganda sits as Africa's second-largest coffee producer behind Ethiopia, and while the country is known abroad for Robusta, lots like this one show what its high-altitude Arabica can do when quality is the goal. The SL14 and SL28 varieties, originally selected in Kenya and carried into the region decades ago, bring structure and a bright, layered fruit character.
The CraftA Sealed Ferment, Then Sun
This is an anaerobic natural, a process that takes patience and control. Whole, unpeeled cherries are sealed in oxygen-deprived tanks, where fermentation proceeds without air for around a day. That closed environment slows and reshapes the fermentation, drawing out deeper, wilder fruit notes than a standard natural would. The cherries are then dried whole in the sun on raised beds, the fruit slowly handing its sweetness to the seed inside. If you want the difference between this and a washed lot spelled out, our guide to natural and washed processing walks through it.
We roast this coffee to City+, a level that holds onto the wild, fermented fruit while letting a cocoa base settle in underneath. Roasting any darker would flatten the very notes the anaerobic ferment worked to build. Each batch is roasted in small lots in Virginia Beach so the fruit stays vivid in the cup.
The CupWild Fruit Over Cocoa
The first sip leads with ripe strawberry and grape, the signature of a well-run anaerobic ferment, lifted by a bright citrus-cream sweetness. Underneath sits a rounded dark chocolate base that gives the cup weight and keeps the fruit from running away on its own. The body is medium-full and a little syrupy, with a finish that turns soft and herbal as the coffee cools, a quiet reminder of its African origin.
