Uganda: Picasso’s Palate — SPECIAL OFFERING
$35.00
Roast: Medium
Region: Mt. Elgon (Eastern Uganda)
Farm: Bukalasi Village, Bududa District
Process: Washed
Elevation: 1800-2000m
Variety: SL-14
Cup: Cherrywood, Malt, Ginger Snap
Cupping Notes
A masterpiece. . . A work of art. . . Picasso's Palate!
This collaborative rye-aged coffee is named in honor of Juste Picasso Nduwayo, the producer and farmer at the forefront of production of this coffee.
Picasso's Palate (or pallete, if you caught my word-play and double meaning there) is a lovely rye-aged coffee from Uganda. A special thanks to Wood's High Mountain Distillery, as we used a freshly-drained barrel of their Alpine Rye to begin the process.
This coffee itself is a first for Peregrine! Since Peregrine has been Peregrine, we've not sourced and roasted a washed coffee from Uganda. But, that's about to change!
Here's what we're tasting:
Cherrywood. Similar to the concept of applewood smoke imparting flavor on a nice cut of bacon, we believe we can taste a lot of fruit and sweetness left-behind in the charred oak barrels our distiller used. We found the flavors to be most reminiscent of cherry and vanilla, which took us the direction of cherrywood smoke.
Malt. Alpine Rye is made of 100% malted grains. We think that sweet, caramely malt is present in a brewed cup of Picasso's Palate.
Ginger Snap. Complexity is a big deal. . . both in the world of spirits and coffee. We found plenty of complex spice notes in this coffee, both with and without the rye-aging process. In Picasso's Palate, we think it presents as a sweet ginger snap-like note. Plenty of bite, but lots of warm sweetness too.
Picasso's Palate is going to be one of your favorites, but don't take our word for it. Give it a try!
Farming Notes
This wonderful coffee was sourced through our direct-trade connection with Jake Smith and Homage Coffee Source. Thanks to his team’s work on the ground, we are able to secure coffees in both Burundi and Uganda that we can feel really proud of.
Due to our import partner Jake’s presence in Uganda, I default to him to give a rundown on the origin and this coffee (Bukalasi) specifically:
“If you are not familiar with the origin and its production history or profile, this coffee is quite unique. Most of Uganda’s supply chain is built around volume and… volume.
Most production in Uganda is by way of home processing and delivering wet parchment to dry mills resulting in less traceability and less quality coffee.
Our partners at Manafwa Specialty Seeds have their own washing station to operate as a central point, buying cherry and drying to an effective and stable moisture.
They have been in the southern part of Mt. Elgon area since 2019 and have made tremendous progress developing farmer relations, quality harvest education and sustainable farming mgmt.
This season is some of the best Fully Washed produce we’ve tasted from the country. It’s clean, sweet, has great structure and is stable.”
Thanks to Jake, Picasso, and their team of connections at-origin, we are able to provide traceable coffee that gives back more than fair wages for real farmers.