5 regions, 5 farming communities
Our Regions
Every Nzonzi bag is single-origin. The land, altitude and farming traditions of the community that grows it show up directly in the cup — this is the story behind each region we buy from.
Buganda
Uganda's original coffee heartland.
Farmed by the Baganda community
Grown by Baganda smallholders on the lake-basin lowlands of central Uganda, where coffee has been part of daily life for generations -- ripe cherries were traditionally chewed and exchanged as a mark of friendship long before they became an export crop. Most farms intercrop Robusta with banana and other food crops rather than growing it alone, and that lower-altitude, sun-grown tradition is exactly why the cup comes out full-bodied and low in acidity, built for the deep, everyday cup rather than a delicate one.
- Altitude
- 1,100 - 1,300 masl
- Flavour notes
- Dark chocolate, roasted nuts, molasses
- Farmers supplying us
- 1
- Collection stores
- 0
Growing districts: Masaka, Kayunga, Mukono, Luwero, Kalungu, Ssembabule
Buganda
Bugisu
Washed Arabica from the slopes of Mount Elgon.
Farmed by the Bagisu (Bamasaba) community
Farmed by Bagisu households on the volcanic slopes of Mount Elgon, in the districts around Mbale and Sironko where Arabica has been grown since it was first planted there in 1912. Cherry is pulped, fermented and washed clean before drying on raised beds, a tradition that has made this one of Uganda's most recognised specialty coffee areas -- and the reason the cup carries the bright, wine-like acidity the mountain and the washing process give it.
- Altitude
- 1,450 - 2,200 masl
- Flavour notes
- Citrus, red grape, floral
- Farmers supplying us
- 0
- Collection stores
- 0
Growing districts: Mbale, Sironko, Manafwa, Bududa, Bulambuli, Kapchorwa
Bugisu
Rwenzori
High-altitude Robusta from the Mountains of the Moon.
Farmed by the Bakonzo (Konjo) community
Grown by Bakonzo farming families on the northern slopes of the Rwenzori Mountains around Kasese, where small, organic plots are worked as a family effort and women play a leading role in the farmer groups that manage them. The Bakonzo call these peaks the Mountains of the Moon, and the high altitude and cool, near-permanent mist that gave them the name are what slow the cherry's ripening and deepen the cup into red fruit and chocolate.
- Altitude
- 1,400 - 2,200 masl
- Flavour notes
- Red berry, dark chocolate, balanced acidity
- Farmers supplying us
- 0
- Collection stores
- 0
Growing districts: Kasese, Bundibugyo, Ntoroko, Kabarole
Rwenzori · Mint
West Nile
A delicate, floral Robusta from Uganda's far northwest.
Farmed by the Alur, Lugbara & Kakwa community
Cultivated by Alur, Lugbara and Kakwa farming families across Uganda's far northwest, near the borders with DR Congo and South Sudan, where small washing stations co-owned by farmer groups process each microlot separately. It's one of Uganda's newest specialty coffee areas, and it's the altitude combined with that unhurried, small-lot processing -- not the variety alone -- that gives the cup its delicate, floral character, standing apart from the heavier-bodied coffee grown elsewhere in the country.
- Altitude
- 1,550 - 1,850 masl
- Flavour notes
- Floral, stone fruit, delicate acidity
- Farmers supplying us
- 0
- Collection stores
- 0
Growing districts: Zombo, Nebbi, Arua, Koboko, Maracha, Yumbe
West Nile · Tangawizi
Ankole
Smooth, toffee-sweet Robusta from Uganda's cattle-keeping heartland.
Farmed by the Banyankole community
Grown by Banyankole farming families across the rolling hills of southwestern Uganda, the same highlands famous for the region's long-horned Ankole cattle. Coffee here is grown the way it always has been -- shaded under banana and interplanted alongside the food crops that feed the household -- and it's the rich volcanic soil and warm, even climate of these hills, rather than the sharp mountain acidity found further east, that give the cup its smooth body and toffee sweetness.
- Altitude
- 1,300 - 1,700 masl
- Flavour notes
- Toffee, ripe banana, smooth body
- Farmers supplying us
- 0
- Collection stores
- 0
Growing districts: Mbarara, Bushenyi, Ntungamo, Isingiro, Rukungiri, Kiruhura, Sheema
Ankole · Mudalasi