Just this week I was messaging Gerald from Gorilla Summit Coffee, our green bean partner, checking in on how Covid-19 was effecting Uganda. He mentioned that they are in full army enforced lockdown.What does this look like? In Geralds words: WILD.No one moves or goes outdoors unless they are walking to buy food or they are going to hospital.There is a curfew from 7pm to 630am where there is absolutely no outside movement.Only factories are open, and the staff have to stay and sleep onsite.No vehicles are allowed on the road unless they are delivering food, cargo or raw material. In the capital Kampala, there is a huge workforce who do odd jobs: loading and off-loading, boda-boda drivers (motorbike taxi’s)...
Life is physical as a coffee grower. We partner with Gerald from Gorilla Summit Coffee. They partner with just over 2000 coffee growers in Kanungu a small province of West Uganda, Africa. Gorilla Summit Coffee is focused on educating the growers how to grow high quality coffee and then promising them a high price, when that quality is achieved. Above and beyond this, Gerald invests in initiatives designed to help his community. Things like: Solar panels for coffee growers houses. Education for children. Mosquito nets for coffee growers families – when people start affording their own mozzie nets, then lives start to change. Maternity clinics in their remote area. Last time we were in Uganda, Gerald took us for...
For anyone keen to school their palates and learn more about appreciation of flavour elements and describing them, and understanding how to categorise the body of a coffee, there are a few things I’d recommend. Try different brewing methods. These days there are a good number of options for making coffee at home: Aeropress, V60, Espresso, Gold Filter or the good old Plunger. Trying different brewing methods allows you to see the differences they each draw out from the bean. Try them side by side, or for a period of time instead of your preferred method, Take notes. Make some coffees, and take time to think through all the things you smell and taste. Make notes, draw pictures, and just generally think...
In 2017 while in Uganda helping build concrete water tanks, I tacked on a trip to the Rwenzori mountain range to visit my friend Gerald Mbabazi who has set up a coffee processing company. The following is the condensed version of one of the greatest stories that I have heard: Around 40 years ago, 10 year old Hamlet Mbabazi was kicked out of school because his parents couldn’t afford the fees for his tuition. He began the week long walk back from Mbarara to his family home in Kanungu. This started him on a journey to lift his district up out of poverty. Kanungu is a remote district in West Uganda. It borders Congo and the Bwindi inpenatrable forest. This...
Why do we still send more than 80% of our waste to landfill in New Zealand? Why has waste to landfill increased by 35% since 2009. How can this be with so much promotion and effort going into waste reduction and recycling? There is a reason… Food contaminates packaging, making it uneconomic to recycle the packaging… Packaging contaminates food, so the food scraps cannot be composted… As a result both end their life in landfill. It makes sense then to use Compostable Packaging, so food & packaging can be composted together, returning to the earth, a cycle… the very definition of sustainability. Old thinking is: TAKES - USES – DUMPS This is where we take from the environment without respect for nature, then use, exploit and then dump without consideration of the consequences, polluting...
