Single-origin coffee is extremely popular and for several good reasons. It’s traceable, usually sustainable, and often of a higher quality than mass-produced coffee that has been sourced from multiple farms.
In this article, we explain everything you need to know about single-origin coffee, look at its benefits, and introduce you to Kingha’s current crop of delicious single-estate beans.
What is single-origin coffee?
Single-origin coffee is that which has been produced in one place. In some instances, single origin can refer to a specific farm or compound, while in other situations, single origin might refer to a coffee-growing region in a specific country.
This is because it’s often difficult for roasters to trace their beans precisely to the farm on which they have been grown, particularly when they work with multiple growers in the same area.
You might hear single-origin coffee referred to as single-estate coffee and sometimes direct trade beans. They mean pretty much the same thing and refer to the fact that the coffee has been grown in a specific place.
This is in stark contrast to coffee that has been taken from multiple sources (sometimes different countries) and brought together to form a blend.
We should mention that this isn’t always necessarily a bad thing. Some coffee blends are delicious and talented roasters bring together unique taste profiles from beans grown in different parts of the world for outstanding results.
However, single-origin coffee does have many advantages, as we explain below.
The benefits of single estate coffee
Buying single-origin coffee is a good option, as you know what you’re getting. Specifically, here are some of the benefits of beans that are labelled as single estate or single origin:
Traceable
Perhaps the biggest benefit of single-origin coffee is that it’s traceable. We live in a world where unethical practices occur in supply chains in practically every industry, and coffee is no exception.
The fact that you can trace single-origin coffee all the way back to its source means that you can conduct further investigations (if you wish) into the journey your coffee has taken from bean to cup.
This helps you to feel more connected to the people that grow your coffee beans and provides a sense of awareness for the long and difficult process required to cultivate delicious coffee beans.
Sustainable
Though not always the case, most coffees that are labelled as single origin are sustainable. This is because roasters, brewers, and retailers are more invested in the process and want to reward producers for the quality of their beans.
At Kingha, we pay our growers fairly and then invest significantly in the coffee-growing communities in which we work. This drives the sustainability of the crop for future growers and ensures that the people who grow coffee are properly remunerated for their produce.
Ethical
Ethics and sustainability go hand in hand as far as single-origin coffee is concerned, and beans that can be traced back to a specific growing region are typically more ethical than those consumed by the mass market.
Why? Well, because those involved in the coffee journey (like Kingha) are keen to share the story of growers to increase transparency and to ensure that malpractice within the coffee industry is reduced.
Quality
When a coffee company makes an effort to bring single-origin coffee to the international market, it’s usually because they are confident about the quality of the beans produced in this particular area or region.
At Kingha, we use advanced organic growing practices to ensure that the arabica coffee that we bring to market from Uganda’s south-west is among the very best produced anywhere on the African continent.
As a result, we invite you to try our traceable, sustainable, ethical, and high-grade single-origin coffee, as we introduce below.
Buy our single-origin coffee today
Kingha’s single-origin coffee is grown in Uganda’s Kanungu district, in the extreme south-west of the country. The area is best known for the mountain gorillas that populate the impenetrable Bwindi Forest, and Queen Elizabeth National Park is a close drive away.
The rich volcanic soils and high elevation are superb natural conditions for growing outstanding coffee, and the farmers that we work with understand that the environment in which they work is primed for coffee production.
Our current crop of coffee comes from Kanungu, specifically from the village of Mpungu. This exceptional single-origin coffee comes from our partner farmer Vicent Butamanya’s 20-acre coffee farm. Vicent’s coffee farm lies at the end of a long and winding road way up in the mountains. Reaching his farm and getting his coffee cherries down the mountain presents some significant logistical challenges, but ones we are happy to overcome to bring you this exceptional coffee from an exceptional farmer.
We are currently retailing our Kigezi Mountains Single Origin coffee in three forms – Natural, Washed, or Green, depending on your preferences and how you plan to use it.
Do reach out and get in touch with us if you have any questions about buying our single-origin coffee, and follow our blog for more updates from our Ugandan estate!