Coffee Description
This out-of-this-world offering comes to us by way of Long Miles Coffee. With the hard-earned knowledge they've gleaned from years of work in Burundi, they ventured into the Rwenzori Mountains to develop a new project in this little explored producing country. This natural is produced with the production team from Long Miles Burundi, in collaboration with the producers of this area. The Lunar Station name draws inspiration from the Rwenzori Mountains, which are colloquially named Mountains of the Moon after the dramatic topography and snow capped mountains found in the heart of Africa.
Roast Level from the Roaster
Refers to the roast level in comparison with other coffees from the roaster
Light
Variety
SL28
Process
Natural
Elevation
1950 masl
Region
Other
About Lunar Station of Uganda
This coffee came about through a partnership with Long Miles Coffee, whom we have partnered with for a few years. We source for not only stunning Burundi Coffees from them, but also for the most energetic coffee antidotes from Ben Carlson. Read Ben's description below for more info on this coffee.
Long Miles Coffee searched for where to grow after 10 years of producing some of East Africa’s best coffee in the small landlocked country of Burundi. Largely unknown for specialty coffee, Uganda seemed, at best, a commercial option for Robusta or poorly-processed Mount Elgon coffee in the east of the country. Starting in 2018 Ben Carlson, co-founder of LMC, set out to explore why coffee was so average in a country of great altitude and deep history of coffee production. A four year journey led Ben and the LMC team to land on the little known and quite possibly finest growing location in the world, Western Uganda’s Rwenzori Mountains. [These] Mountains stretch from the hot Western Uganda town of Kasese up to Fort Portal. This mountain range is called the Mountains of the Moon because of its awe inspiring snow capped peaks in the midst of the heart of Africa. These daunting peeks separate Uganda from DR Congo. Micro-climates created through the Rwenzori forest reserve and the valleys and crevices of the mountains create daily cloud cover that the early morning sun breaks through creating excellent growing conditions for the SL verities on the mountain. The Rwenzori Mountains and its farming community have largely been forgotten or ignored by it's government, NGO’s and coffee exporters. The result of this is poor farming practices, little education on agronomy, and little in the way of speciality coffee being tasted from this mountain range.
Long Miles built its washing station between the cities of Kasese and Fort Portal to help start the change on that. Starting with our Coffee Scout program in 2022 we began building relationships with the farming families and cooperatives along the top of the mountain range. These communities were the most forgotten and vulnerable farmers in Western Uganda. Little in the way of infrastructure is there so the LMC Coffee Scouts are the youth who live high up on the slopes and spend their days in the coffee farms and going between communities bringing much needed help, education, and hope for something better to come.
The start of LMC Uganda has not been easy. There has been multiple attacks from rebels from the DR Congo which has had heartbreaking and devastating consequences to our farmers and LMC Team. We have faced flooding, devious business practices, and in general a steep learning curve as we step foot in this new LMC frontier. Onyx Coffee Lab has the first of these lots that our Burundi production team came to help teach our Uganda team the art of producing.
We hope that this is truly a taste of place, our core value of Terroir and Ubuntu shining through each natural cup.
Uganda
Onyx Coffee Lab
Lest the myth perpetuate that specialty coffee does not come from Arkansas, Onyx Coffee Lab is blowing that particular urban legend out of the water while creating a few of their own. Husband-wife owners Jon and Andrea Allen have rapidly taken the coffee world by storm with their combination of art and science.
The magic starts with sourcing, with countless small sample batches from coffee importers and with direct visits to farms around the world. "I know direct trade means a lot of different things to different people, but for us if we don’t put money in the producers hands we won’t call it direct trade," says Jon. Once found, the coffees are carefully roasted in twenty-pound or smaller batches, then shared with the three Onyx cafés and over 150 wholesale customers in thirty states.
Clearly Onyx Coffee Lab knows what they're doing: this northwest Arkansas matrix of coffee know-how routinely cleans house at the U.S. Coffee Championships; Andrea Allen placed first in the 2020 Barista Championship, while Elika Liftee placed first in the 2020 Brewers Cup Championship, and they both went on to the 2021 World Coffee Championships to place in 2nd place for Barista and 3rd place for Brewers Cup. Onyx has been chosen by Architectural Digest as Arkansas' most beautiful coffee shop, garnered multiple Good Food Awards, and been described as the "Best bags of coffee you can buy online" in GQ.
