Trip to new origin – Uganda 2025
New Adventures
It’s early December, and the festive period is just beginning, the frosty mornings are here and so, it’s time for an adventure… Ian is taking the two newest members (Jake and Joshua) of the EA team to Uganda to begin the search for new coffee…
Uganda
After what was meant to be a 12-hour journey, we landed in our 48th hour in Entebbe, Uganda. Our driver, Moses, meets us at 4am local-time to take us 300km east to the slopes of Mt. Elgon. Exhausted, we slump into the car and settle down for a day’s travel.
As we exit the busy cities and awaken from some broken sleep, our journey across Uganda lands us out in the countryside. I am struck by how green it is here, a quick glance out the car window provides endless stretches of green vegetation. Uganda boasts being the source of the Nile, and as we drove through Jinja, we looked out at the seemingly never-ending expanse where the Nile begins: Lake Victoria. A beyond beautiful stretch of water, and somehow, it doesn’t even come close to some of the views we were about to be met with.
Sipi Falls & Meeting Farmers
We travelled an hour further into Mt. Elgon to a place called Sipi Falls, which is a collection of three huge waterfalls which dominate the landscape. On arrival we were met by Ken and Kenneth, who are two small-holder farmers who were keen to show us their farms and a local drying station. We travelled far off the beaten path to where Kenneth had recently planted some SL14 & 24 varietals (types of coffee) where we got to speak everything about life and coffee together, whilst laughing and taking in the breathtaking surroundings. That afternoon, I reflected on the surreality of the experience…
“It was a surreal and humbling experience spending the afternoon with Ken and Kenneth. Being brought into the middle of coffee country and seeing how basic everything was, was quite astonishing. I think because coffee is this massive global commodity I had always thought it would be a huge corporate machine that churned out tonnes of coffee to supply the insane demand we require in the West, and although this can be true, here, it is another story. Seeing the poverty that surrounded the coffee farms, and how incredibly meticulous Kenneth was about every aspect of his coffee trees, it gave me a true appreciation of how much time and care is put into growing exceptional coffee. To be standing on Mt. Elgon, surrounded by trees and waterfalls, and being a part of a conversation between Ian and Kenneth, talking about coffee, each inspiring the other with their knowledge and stories was a once in a life-time experience. Ian has built Ethical Addictions around “Farm Direct Coffee” and to see how much effort this actually requires has made me respect what he has built so much more.”
Coffee Roasting - Back to Basics
During our time in Sipi, Ken took us to a local coffee tree nursery to come and share a fresh brew together. After reaching there having traipsed up to 2000m total elevation past multiple gorgeous waterfalls, we were told we needed to roast, grind and brew the coffee!! So, we began. Ken started a fire for us, gave us a well used pot, some wonderfully fresh green beans from the local farmers and a wooden spoon. Joshua, sat by the fire, spoon in hand, awaited his first roast since training on a fancy 100g roaster named Rory back at EA HQ. Talk about prepared…
Slowly but surely, stir after stir, the green beans began to resemble something close to roasted coffee, and when we had ensured they were roasted enough to not kill us, we removed them from the fire, and passed them to Ian who used an ancient grinder, held together by two others whilst he laboured under the hot sun to grind the beans to dust. Then, with the help of some scalding hot water, the coffee was placed in cups, and we sat ready to drink with each other right on the hills where it was grown. Delightful. I was blown away by how good the cup of coffee was considering how poorly it was roasted, ground and generally prepared, so it just goes to show how good this coffee is. We are very excited for the coffee to arrive in the UK now for us to use all our fancy equipment and extensive knowledge to roast the perfect coffee. We’re in for a treat with this one.
A quick note from Jake’s first time anywhere in Africa:
“It was my first time in Uganda, and seeing coffee farms, and it was an amazing experience as well as a real eye-opener. Seeing and drinking fantastic coffee whilst beginning to build long-lasting relationships helps me to understand why we put some much care into what we do”
In Conclusion
As with any new origin, we don’t always know how it will turn out, it’s part of the joys and frustrations of working directly with the farms and building relationships with the communities, but even so, every time we come away feeling refreshed to see the possibilities of how we can work with different groups investing into the families and communities that grow coffee.
