Sipi Falls

Meet SIPI FALLS, a mix of SL14, SL28 varieties processed in an anaerobic washed style, grown at 1500-2000masl from various smallholder producers in Eastern Mbale, Uganda.

Expect to taste: mango, tropical fruit cup, lemonade, milk chocolate, nashi, paw paw & yuzu

TL;DR: Stars, planets, varieties, terroir, and of course extraordinary people all aligned to bring you this stunning basket of tropical fruit… no wait, coffee, it’s definitely coffee. Oh, and it's organic too!

Bordering Kenya, and named after the mountain’s famous waterfall nearby, Sipi Falls is a wet mill in the Kapchorwa District of Uganda, and home to some of the best organic coffee in Africa. Elevation, the enormous expanse of the mountain (Mount Elgon) where the farms are located, and a long history of agricultural experience, all lend to ideal growing and milling conditions for the coffee.

In 2002, the wet mill at Sipi Falls became Africa’s first certified organic producer, and even developed a system to recycle its wastewater through a series of filtered lagoons that then help to maintain a large organic nursery to benefit local farmers. Processing coffee cherries from 8,000 local organic farms across the northern part of the mountain, the mill facilitates retrieval of the cherries, and centralised mechanical de-mucilaging, fermentation, washing, patio pre-drying, mechanical drying and conditioning at their mill property at an elevation of 1800m. The on-site cupping lab allows the export company to taste every batch immediately after the drying is completed, and then again a few weeks later to guarantee the quality for export. The quality of the processing shines through the flavours expressed, and also by centralising and scaling the processing productions, results in a higher cherry price for farmers. The end result is a coffee that shows clean expression of the surrounding terrain, with an incredible richness, floral qualities and overall sweetness.

Our approach to roasting this coffee was to keep it nice and quick to highlight some of that famous fruit and acid from the SL14 and SL28 varieties (looking at you Kenya). After nailing that, we then made sure to keep our finishing temperature low to not spoil any of the natural sweetness that this coffee has so much of.