Uganda Mt. Elgon Anaerobic Natural: October 2026 Bean Juice Club
Uganda Mt. Elgon Anaerobic Natural, grown and processed by smallholding farmers of The Coffee Yards processing station.
The man who built the yards
Norman Mukuru trained as an agronomist in Kasese, near Uganda's western border, and went to work for Great Lakes, one of the largest exporters in the region. He set up their collection and processing operations well enough that they sent him east to Mt. Elgon to do it again.
But the second time, he did it for himself. The Coffee Yards is a central processing plant outside Mbale, built so that cherry and parchment coming down from the mountain would have somewhere to be properly dried and processed. It opened as a service (farmers renting space in the yards) before becoming something else when Norman realized he could do more for the coffee and pay people faster by buying the cherry outright.
Then, Great Lakes collapsed. Norman still had the yards and the whole up-mountain network of farmers feeding into them, but not the financing to keep buying. That's the point at which Crop to Cup met him, and it's why a bag of this exists at all.
Where the coffee grows
Mt. Elgon straddles Uganda's eastern border with Kenya and holds the country's primary arabica zone. Most growers on the mountain manage between 20 and 200 trees, and coffee is their only means of access to the cash economy. This lot traces back through four community stations to roughly 300 registered farmers growing SL14, SL28, and Nyasaland between 1,400 and 2,000 meters.
Small harvests from so many households make it difficult to maintain consistency. Those same small harvests give the cup more character than a single uniform estate would.
What does anaerobic natural mean for our Uganda Anaerobic Natural?
Whole cherries go into sealed tanks with the oxygen removed and stay there for about 48 hours. Without oxygen, a different set of microbes takes over the fermentation, working more slowly and producing a sweetness that open-tank fermentation won't.
The cherries are then laid out whole on raised beds and dry for three to five weeks under careful shade control. The fruit never comes off, so each seed sits inside its own cherry the entire time, absorbing the fruit around it.
Uganda Mt. Elgon Tasting Notes
Tasting Notes: Raspberry Jam 🍓, Orange Marmalade 🍊, Fudge 🍫, Sweet Smooth Finish 🍇
Raspberry jam comes through first, sweet rather than sharp, since there's very little acidity to push it. As the cup cools, orange marmalade comes forward, with that slightly bitter peel edge, and the fudge settles in underneath it, giving the body some weight. The finish is long and sweet, with grape lingering after the last sip.
It's an easy coffee to like. There's nothing sharp to work around, and the sweetness carries the whole cup.
Every Bean Juice Club coffee is on as our single-origin espresso option, so you can always get this one pulled. For brewed, we're trying something new: coffees are now dedicated to either batch brew or pour-over, alternating week to week, so whatever's in the hopper is as fresh as we can get it to you.
Come in and ask which way this one's running… however you take it, it's good, and we're happy to make a recommendation.
Get a bag
Uganda Mt. Elgon is on the shelf at the roastery at 412 Peterboro, and you can grab a bag online too.
If you'd rather not wait to hear about next month's, the Bean Juice Club sends a new single origin to your door every month and is a great way to save money on delicious bean juice.
