Coffee
From Farm to Cup
Uganda is coffee country. Robusta coffee grows wild in its forests, and coffee is one of the country’s most important exports. Here is a short guide to how coffee gets from the tree to your cup, and how we grow it on our own farm.
- UgandaAfrica’s largest coffee exporter in 2024/25
- Robustanative to Uganda’s forests
- Our farmRobusta, sun-dried
Looking ahead
A model farm
Our plans for training, visits and working with others in coffee.
Header photo: Jameswasswa, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The basics
Arabica & Robusta
Almost all the coffee in the world comes from two species. Uganda grows both: Arabica on the mountain slopes of the east and west, Robusta in the warm central lowlands, where our farm is.
Arabica
Coffea arabica
- Where it grows
- Cooler highlands, usually well above 1,000 metres. In Uganda, on the slopes of Mount Elgon and the Rwenzori mountains.
- Taste
- Softer and more aromatic, often with fruity or floral notes.
- Caffeine
- Lower, around 1 to 1.5 percent.
- The plant
- More delicate and more sensitive to pests, diseases and heat.
Robusta
Coffea canephora
- Where it grows
- Warm, humid lowlands. It grows wild in the forests of central Africa, including Uganda.
- Taste
- Fuller and stronger, with a nutty, chocolatey bitterness and a thick crema in espresso.
- Caffeine
- Higher, around 2 to 2.7 percent, about twice as much as Arabica.
- The plant
- Hardy and productive, as the name suggests. Well-grown, carefully processed Robusta is increasingly sold as “fine Robusta”.
Farm to cup
Seeds & Sips
A coffee bean is the seed of a red fruit, the coffee cherry. This is the journey it makes before it reaches your cup.
- Grow. A young coffee tree takes about three years before its first real harvest, and keeps producing for decades with good care and pruning.
- Flower and fruit. After the rains the trees flower with white, jasmine-scented blossoms. The cherries then take many months to ripen, from green to deep red.
- Pick. The best coffee comes from picking only the ripe red cherries. Unripe green ones spoil the taste.
- Dry or wash. In the natural method, used for most Ugandan Robusta, whole cherries are dried in the sun for two to three weeks. In the washed method the fruit is removed first and only the beans are dried.
- Hull. A mill removes the dry husk. What is left is green coffee, the raw bean that is traded and exported.
- Sort and grade. The beans are cleaned, sorted by size and checked for defects (more on this below).
- Roast, grind and brew. Roasting turns the hard green bean brown and brings out its flavour. Coffee tastes best freshly ground, soon after roasting.
Quality
Grades & Grading
Good coffee is made at every step, not only in the roastery. These are the main ways quality is controlled.
Ripe picking
Only ripe cherries give a sweet, clean cup. Picking green or overripe fruit is the most common cause of poor taste.
Careful drying
Coffee must dry evenly, off the bare ground and protected from rain, until it is dry enough to store, at around 13 percent moisture. Coffee that stays damp can turn mouldy.
Clean storage
Dry coffee is kept in clean bags, off the floor and away from smoke, fuel and other smells, which beans absorb easily.
Sorting by size
Green beans are sorted through screens with holes of different sizes. Ugandan Robusta is commonly sold as Screen 18, 15 or 12, with the larger beans fetching higher prices.
Counting defects
Samples are checked for broken, black, insect-damaged or unripe beans, as well as stones and husks. Fewer defects means a better grade.
Cup tasting
Finally the coffee is roasted and tasted (“cupped”) by trained tasters, who score its aroma, flavour, body and aftertaste.
Our farm
Shade & Sun
On our farm near Buwama we grow Robusta on about 70 acres, roughly 30,000 trees.
- Under banana shade. Bananas grow between the coffee rows, shading the trees and protecting the soil.
- As natural as we can. We are not certified organic, but we use as few chemicals as possible.
- Sun-dried, never washed. Our cherries are dried whole in the sun, the natural method.
- Brewed on the farm. Guests can taste coffee from our own trees.
We are still learning and improving, from pruning and picking to drying and storage.
Looking ahead
Learning & Linking
Our dream is to turn Birds and Butterflies into a model coffee farm: a place where good practices can be seen, tried and shared. These are plans, and we are taking them step by step.
Training for farmers
Practical days for local coffee farmers on pruning, picking, drying and storage, the steps that decide quality and price.
Visits for coffee professionals
Buyers, roasters and coffee experts from abroad who want to see how Ugandan Robusta is grown, with a place to stay on the farm.
Working with others
Partnerships with farmer groups, exporters and coffee organisations, in Uganda and abroad.
Work in coffee and want to be part of this? We would like to hear from you.
Come and taste
Cherries & Cups
Walk through the coffee with a local guide, see how the cherries are dried, and finish with a cup from our own trees.